Make A Contact Page In Your Blog
When it comes to encouraging visits to your blog, by people who need help, a properly presented "Contact" form is a very useful feature.
Some time ago, I used a comment form, and a specially written post, "Contact Me" (titled "Leave Comments Here"), to provide private contact. For this blog, with comment moderation before publishing, I simply read the unpublished comments published against my post "Contact Me", without publishing them.
Time moved on, however - and various changes made by Blogger made my unpublished comments based contact form less useful.
Recently, Blogger released a new blog accessory - their "Contact" gadget.
Just over a month ago, I added a Contact gadget to this blog, and made it display in the same way as my Topics index displays. Look in the Link Bar at the top of this page. To the right of "Topics", you'll see "Guestbook" and "Contact".
Like my labels gadget ("Topics"), I made my "Contact" gadget display as part of a static page, and positioned the gadget in the main part of the blog.
My Contact gadget, like my Labels gadget, displays as part of a static page, and is seen in the same location as the posts would be seen. This gives the Contact gadget the appearance of having its own page.
Note: You may find it easier get this working with the blog using a non dynamic template, with the Contact gadget initially located in the sidebar.
This is a surprisingly simple task, and makes a good demonstration of a separately documented technique, conditionally displaying a template object.
Having done that, I invite you to examine the results.
Some time ago, I used a comment form, and a specially written post, "Contact Me" (titled "Leave Comments Here"), to provide private contact. For this blog, with comment moderation before publishing, I simply read the unpublished comments published against my post "Contact Me", without publishing them.
Time moved on, however - and various changes made by Blogger made my unpublished comments based contact form less useful.
Recently, Blogger released a new blog accessory - their "Contact" gadget.
Just over a month ago, I added a Contact gadget to this blog, and made it display in the same way as my Topics index displays. Look in the Link Bar at the top of this page. To the right of "Topics", you'll see "Guestbook" and "Contact".
Like my labels gadget ("Topics"), I made my "Contact" gadget display as part of a static page, and positioned the gadget in the main part of the blog.
My Contact gadget, like my Labels gadget, displays as part of a static page, and is seen in the same location as the posts would be seen. This gives the Contact gadget the appearance of having its own page.
Note: You may find it easier get this working with the blog using a non dynamic template, with the Contact gadget initially located in the sidebar.
This is a surprisingly simple task, and makes a good demonstration of a separately documented technique, conditionally displaying a template object.
- Publish a static page, "Contact Me".
- Add a Contact gadget using the "Layout" wizard "Add a Gadget" - and position the new gadget above "Blog Posts".
- Add a CSS rule, using "Add CSS" in the Template Designer, displaying the Contact gadget with the static page just created.
Having done that, I invite you to examine the results.
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