Make it Easy to Connect

The fashion handbags are not for women only. Designer bags for the stylish men are available too. Almost all the fashion houses have come up with their own brand of men’s designer bags. These look towards keeping the style along with adding to the male factor. The bags generally come in the black and brown colors with the tough look on it. The fashion handbag industry has even exploited the region of laptop bags. There are laptop bags which are uniquely designed for ladies, some which have an extra newspaper folder in it. Designers have even come up with designer travel handbags to ensure
you stay in style always. site:handbagscute.com

If the county were to "lock up" resource zoning and take away ag protection, "you are saying residential development is the preferred land use." Carpenter said options two and three have no protection for oak forest or madrones, a concern raised by several speakers, some of whom were concerned about the impact of Sudden Oak Death.site:diyfootwear.com
Kelly Brown cited a letter to the CAC from Supervisor Mike Reilly refuting Carpenter's proposals. She said Director of Forestry Andrea Tuttle tells Reilly that without local land use protections, CDF has a hard time regulating conversions.site:diyfootwear.com
René DeMonchy of Guerneville spoke for option three. "Water is the issue that shines through," he said, adding that throughout the county water tables are dropping in direct proportion to the amount of vineyards created. The issue is the public good versus the benefit of a few owners. If it is a property right to cut down a forest and plant vineyards - or broccoli - DeMonchy said he's against it,
because forests maintain ground water.site:diyfootwear.com

He said he loves wine himself, and he believes that most people who don't like vineyard conversions are not against timber harvesting. "But if it destroys watersheds, it is a problem," said DeMonchy. Our prosperous times now are based on water, he went on, and it is not in our best interests to convert a lush damp forest to what Chris Poehlmann calls a biological desert.site:diyfootwear.com

A vineyard owner said he did the math and it will take hundreds of years to convert the forest at the current rate. He said development, not vineyards, causes wells to go dry. His vineyard has bugs, animals, and all kinds of diversity. He asked for the data on the biological desert idea. He was one of several speakers on both sides of the debate who cited land use in Europe. site:diyfootwear.com

Timberland’s proven steady returns, low volatility and non-correlation with global stock prices make it an extremely attractive asset class - and one that should be leveraged as an inflation hedge during this time of uncertainty. For this year’s 6th Timberland Investment World Summit, IQPC has convened some of the most outstanding experts in the timberland space to lead discussions that accelerate understanding of this challenging, yet potentially lucrative investment. site:bootsness.com
Senior executives from the entire timberlands value chain will be meeting to discuss critical themes including the changing global market, institutional timberland investment strategies and cashflow generation opportunities. Exciting innovations this year include the Pension & Endowment Fund Think Tank and an Interactive roundtable discussion on key international timberland markets. Offering a strictly off-line and off the record discussion, the exclusive hour-long Pension & Endowment Fund Think Tank is limited to participants from pension and endowment funds. Attendees are invited to bring a specific and current topic of interest or challenge to discuss with their peers, and can be related to portfolio optimization strategies, market timing, access strategies or risk management for timberland investments. site:bootsness.com
The Global Investment Picture for Timberland interactive roundtable discussion serves as a forum for delegates to receive detailed information on the markets in which they are most interested. Key international timberland markets will include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, South Africa and Uruguay. site:bootsness.com

More celebrities are becoming more aware of the environment while turning their newfound passion into fashion. Wyclef Jean is no exception. The Grammy Award-winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti announced his partnership
with footwear brand Timberland.site:timberlandsbuy.com

Jean introduced a 16-boot footwear collection and with every purchase of these boots, $2 will benefit the Yele Haiti Foundation, a grassroots movement he founded to support reforestation in his homeland, Haiti. In 2005, Jean founded Yele Haiti to build global awareness for Haiti and helping the country through education, sports, arts and environment programs.site:timberlandsbuy.com
Due to his background, Wyclef Jean is now one of six Earthkeeper Heroes within Timberland’s 2009 Earthkeepers program, which aims to catalyze a movement of environmental and social activists. This partnership will combine music, product, digital and social media, service events and concerts to motivate and inspire fans and consumers to take action in protecting the environment. Jean commented:
“It is not common to find an agreement between an individual and a corporation with so many altruistic synergies. I am truly humbled and excited to begin our journey together. Timberland is not only a brand I have worn as long as I can remember, but now I feel I have gained a friend in Jeff [Swartz, Timberland's President and CEO] and the respect of what is beyond a brand. I have the utmost respect for what he and his company stand for not only in its legacies but in its future. I am looking forward to making change together.”site:timberlandsbuy.com

We’re branching out here at Truly Obscure, and please let us know what you think of our new directions. Regular readers might remember our look at the Mion sandals, a logical first step for our budding fashionista reviewers.site:shoedhardy.com
We continue the sandal spree with a look at the Timberland Humbolt- an attractive cross between a full shoe and a sandal, similar to the Mion or the Keen. Initially, we were impressed by the light weight and decent arch support of the Humbolt- not as light as the Mion, but not noticeably heavier. Further, they were pretty comfortable and easy to put on.site:shoedhardy.com
But with a little wear, the limitations of the Humbolt became clear- the “adjustable closure”, basically a strap that you pull to tighten the shoe’s width, continually became loose. Frustrating, but not fatal- until someone stepped on the heel
of our loose shoe accidentally, and the strap broke.site:shoedhardy.com
Usually, this is no big deal- simply re-thread the strap, or in the worst case you might need to get a new strap. On the Humbolt sandal, however, the strap is sewed onto the body of the shoe and is impossible to re-attach without some major effort and a sewing machine. Hand sewing won’t last long, as the strap is constantly being tugged on. Our call: the Humbolt sandal is attractive, comfortable, and reasonably priced at $80- but is suitable only for light use, and isn’t as durable as we’d like.site:shoedhardy.com

Great idea!

In addition [I can be helpful on this one b/c it's on my field of expertise]:

1) If you have email marketing system (EMS) or customer relationship management (CRM) platform, you can put people into automated follow-up sequences based on their reason for contacting you. Lead scoring through open rates and click-through's can then be done to qualify interest prior to investing people time.

2) And/or, you can also, when some says they want to -give you a bag of money-, use you EMS or CRM [you can even gerry-rig Gmail through filters and canned responses] to send them a link TimeDriver (an automate appointment scheduling service).

I hope this helps everyone capitalize on this great idea of Chris's.

it is so useful for me to get someting interesting.so thanks
http://www.ecougg.com

This has proven to be true on one of my companies websites, www.arlingtonstudios.com where I get requests every day from musicians looking for practice rooms. Especially since it does not try to Q up Outlook through a mailto link (people hate these) typing and pressing send is almost as easy as commenting on this blog!

Somebody else commented about forms not being direct or fast enough. It depends on how you look at it. I have received MANY voice mails with no contact information stated, people forget, or think you'll see the call ID. My form sends me a nice organized email and 99% of the time I can contact that person back.

Well, by making Facebook messaging a webmail service, they’re actually doing the opposite; unlike today’s messaging system, email is completely open. And since it supports POP and IMAP, you don’t even need to touch the website beyond signing up. (Assuming, of course, that part is true.)Now of course it’s harder to switch services once you’ve started, but that’s a problem with any webmail service because your email address is tied to the service.

I am online a lot and I don't like filling out long and tedious contact forms. I think that a simple form gets the job done and makes the process easy on the user. I run into a lot of people in my business that haven't really jumped on the online bandwagon. They actually prefer to use the traditional contact methods, such as phoning or making a direct visit. While a visit can't always be managed, I believe that a phone call should always be an option for interested customers. While I agree that a simple contact form is a necessity, we can't forget to post a phone number and answer our phones.

I have added links to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in my sidebar, and I also have a contact form. But I don't understand why you need the reason why they are contacting you as an option in the contact form?

I thought about adding various reasons, but ended up with just a plain one. I think that people can add their own subject (reason for why they're contacting me). It would be interesting to know why you're using this type of contact form.

I like this option > "I want to give Chris a bag of money!"

In all seriousness, I've decided that my registration form for design and/or coaching is too long. Most people contact me via email mostly and the site's contact form. Less from the actual purchase/registration form. My guess is that it has something to do with simplicity. My contact form is much more simple (fewer questions).

Which takes me back to newsletter registrations and the observation that the fewer pieces of information you request, the greater the chances are of someone signing up.

I’ve been in two minds about contact forms, probably due to my hesitation to fill them in myself when I’ve come across them in the past. There have been many times I’ve clicked a ‘Contact Us’ button, been met with a contact form and swiftly clicked the ‘Close’ button.

Looking at your examples however I’m beginning to think that it was possibly the lack luster look of the contact form that put me off. To navigate through a beautifully designed website and end up at a plain, white page containing a basic HTML contact form is irritating and off-putting. They often look so outdated compared to the rest of the website that I question whether they will even function properly and get my message to the recipient.

SmashingMag recently ran a Twitter poll on Contact Forms vs Email so it seems to be something of a current focus point and lately, I’ve seen some inspiring examples, yours included. The simple fact that the design has been thought about gives me more confidence in the form’s functionality. I especially like the idea of using radio buttons to give the sender a choice of subjects. What a great way of making potential clients aware of the full range of services you can offer, right up until their last moments on your website.

Really? I *hate* contact forms & generally will not contact a company if I cannot find an email address. It drives me nuts. I guess it's because my experience has been that I do *not* get an answer. Forms, in my experience, equal black hole of communication. It can't hurt to have both though, and since you've experienced success with it, I think I'll add one to our site now.

It drives me crazy when the contact form/information is difficult to use. It is not my job to make it work. If it is not easy to use I go to another vendor.

The lives of everyone revolve around the axel called 'connection'. You, Chris, do a wonderful job of allowing others to fulfill on their craving to feel part of a community. That's a big gift you offer those who follow you.

Chris,

We have found the same thing to be true and when we design and write content for clients' websites, we recommend that they give their prospects choices on the contact page and make it easy to respond. Sometimes just suggesting services a dew of the most common requests you get can get the thinking started. Our check-off box system is working very well.

Wrote a marketing e-tip on this just a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, as always, for the great advice.

I wish everyone would follow your advice on this one Chris! If I am trying to contact someone the last thing I want to do is a.) hunt for the information (surprising how many people bury the contact info on a site) or b.) navigate away/use another program etc. I've based several purchase decisions based on ease of contact and offering an on-site form is by far the easiest route to go in my opinion.

Chris, our customers are enjoying our Sitofono (www.sitofono.com) to generate more leads. Basically it's used to "call you" immediately through a call back, but before the call you can ask for basic info. That info will be linked to the call log and you can easily download it as a Vcard from your admin area. So I agree what you said is fundamental to get more opportunities.

I'm a big fan of contact forms: they get users to give me the info I want and it's a great way to avoid putting up my email link, keepng spam to a minimum.

From a user standpoint I'm not as big of a fan. Many companies use forms as their only means of communication. They either don't show any other contact info or it's in a less than obvious place. If I fill out a contact form, how do I know it's not just going into a cue to be answered in days or weeks? When I fill out a contact form any option for including that content in a future communication thread is lost, including the email address of the person I'm contacting.

Since so many rely on contact forms to the exclusion of other contact info, when I'm driving to meet them but running late, I can't click on their contact page to get their phone number, nor can I copy and paste their address into Google.

Part of making it easy to connect, when applying a web2.0 mind set to the problem, is to not force users down your engagement path but to offer them the ability to connect with you where and how THEY want. So, don't just rely on a form, include an email address, mailing address, map, phone number, and SoNet locations like Twitter and Facebook.

Forms like this also allow you to see streamlined and standardized data. Nothing is worse than trying to sift through open-ended comment fields looking for the good stuff when it could have been entered into specific fields in the first place. It also greatly helps that, in your case Chris, you offer tips for each field as to its importance and desired format: "Please enter your first and last name."

Glad I followed this link on your tweet. I just updated my site contact us form. But I added the CAPTCHA feature at the end of the form. I noticed that you don't use it with your form.
What do you think about this CAPTCHA feature at forms in general?

You posted about this a few months ago. I built the capability on my blog but never made the page live. Thanks for reminding me with this post.

Chris - I use a tool call Email Center Pro to manage contacts we get. I still use a simple form but ECP allows us to sort and sift and redirect contacts to the right person or team of persons so that many people can respond but we all know who and if it was done. We can also build a library of common responses that anyone on the team can draw from. I'm all about mass personalization :)

That is a very interesting article Chris. Personally, I've always hated forms on sites. I'd much rather have an actual email address to reply to. As a result, I haven't included a form on my site. After reading this post, guess I have to rethink this.

Thanks Chris.

Andrea

Interesting this, because I've been discussing the subject with clients recently. I think in *our online world* contact forms are fine, and we can all work with them. We also know that people like you and businesses like NML will respond quickly to a contact form, but many won't.

In conventional business I always advise clients to give people the full range of contact options.

There's a local business that hires out internet dongles here on the island. I needed to get one for a friend, so I searched for them and found their website, to be confronted with a form. In frustration I spent five minutes searching around the web for a phone number, and failed. Returning to the website, I reluctantly filled in the form. That was two days ago.....

Chris... Great advice. I've found that by simply listing my phone number on the header of my blog has brought me the most conversions for coaching clients. And, Yes, I do answer my phone if I'm not doing something else and I return all my phone calls if someone leaves a voice mail.

I've never understood the people that create a site and then make it hard to connect. ...Howard

Even after I started to get a lot of traffic, very less users contacted me, then one of my users told me that my contact form was tough to use and had constant errors, that is when I changes it, a contact form is a must for any type of site.

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