Free Contact Form Creator

One of the best ways to Get Members In and Keep Members In longer is to provide them with exactly what they want.

The key to this, of course, is knowing what they want (vs. what you think they need). How do find out? The best way is to simply ask.

There are various free services out there for creating hosted surveys like SurveyMonkey.com and Zoomerang.com but it’s even better if you can host that survey form right on your own site.

MyContactForm.com is a free service that offers  a form creation “wizard” that walks you step-by-step (my favorite method of teaching) through how to create a cool, customized survey or contact form that you can then add directly to your site. You can even pay them the nominal fee of $29.99/year to upgrade your account and eliminate any advertising.

(NOTE: They only require that you include a very small link on your form. To see an example of one of their forms in action, visit the Survey link on this site. It’s the tiny link in the lower right-hand corner of the form that says “Create Your Own Email Form.”)

Remember, the fastest way to get member in and keep them longer is to get them engaged, and having them start the conversation by asking or answering questions is a great start.

Free Stock Photo Resource

Although I have long advocated fee-based stock photo websites such as iStockPhoto.com and Fotolia.com, I just head about Stock.XCHNG (their web address is actually www.sxc.hu), which purports to be the “leading free stock photo site.”

This company has been around since 2001 but was recently purchased by Getty Images. (Actually, Getty purchased JupiterImages, which was the parent company of Stock.XHNG and had been Getty’s biggest competitor.)

This makes me a little nervous, because in the past few years, Getty Images has been sending out thousands of letters to unsuspecting website owners who knowingly and/or unwittingly used images licensed by Getty without authorization. In many cases, website owners and designers probably did a search on the internet for images, found appropriate ones, downloaded them, and added them to their site without knowing they were licensed photos.

Not only did Getty claim that the business owners in violation needed to pay the licensing fees, but they also claimed damages for copyright infringement which included fees that were hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

And did I mention that Getty now also owns iStockPhoto.com?

Still, I checked out Stock.XCHNG and found that, although they don’t seem to have the depth of other stock photo sites, there is a lot to choose from. Some of these images can make great additions to your blog posts or backgrounds. Check them out at: http://www.sxc.hu/

Free Blog Widget That Shows Related Posts

I just heard about this free widget that works with different blogging platforms (including Wordpress, Typepad, and Blogger) called LinkWithin.

I especially like the fact that they don’t force you to display their advertising on your site in exchange for using their tools.

It’s easy to download, install, and activate. You can see it in action here. Click here to visit their site.

Free Audio Player for WordPress

SOCIETY NEWS UPDATE: Here is an updated way to post an audio player to your Wordpress blog for free. Watch this short video for all the details… (more…)