26 replies to this topic

[SearchRank]

I most definitely considered that and began to look back at how many serious inquiries came through forms, how many through telephone and how many through email links and while the first two (forms and phone) brought many good inquiries over the years, I cannot think of 1 email link inquiry that wasn't either spam or someone who wasn't clear at all in what they wanted. Most were spam though.

We have different forms on the site - RFP, Partner Inquiry, Contact, etc., and the Contact is pretty simple, only requiring two pieces of information, a name and a email address. If they want to add phone and comments, they can.

But anyway, haven't seen a negative effect yet.

[BrianR]

I'm amazed that you get so few serious email enquiries! Surely I can't be the only person who prefers the email option to both forms and phone? Or maybe I am...!

BrianR

[SearchRank]

I would rather click on an email link myself than fill out a form or call. I don't know... maybe when I start missing the sorting through the 500+ spam emails I used to get everyday, I'll put a live link back up. We will see.

On the receiving end though I would much rather have someone answer a few questions on a form so you can give them an intelligent response such as with RFPs. I don't know how many times I have received an inquiry from an email link that I had to reply asking them what they wanted or what they meant and many a time with no response.

Spammers ruin it for all of us.

[Debra]

Whenever anyone asks me for a link, and they provide an URL, I look at the site. Granted, I'm a curious george by nature, but I'm also a business person that keeps up/in the know with the competition; so when sites ask me for links within my business area, I look.

Now, if someone asked me to respond to an email without giving me the site to look at, then I would also dump the email. In addition to what everyone else has said, it's just plain rude to conduct business that way.

If I really, really want to talk with someone on a site, I'll fill in the form. Otherwise, I look for the email address.

When I do link campaigns for clients, I always disclose who I am and why I'm writing in addition to providing all the yada yada info on the site I'm working for. You'd be surprised at the number of people who write back and say " hey, will you contact me about doing a link campaign for my site"? Talk about viral marketing......

I have to laugh at all the link companies who go to great lengths to hide who they are and why they are writing. Some people just can't think past their noses.

[Jill]

I have to laugh at all the link companies who go to great lengths to hide who they are and why they are writing. Some people just can't think past their noses.

Yep...that is so, so true! Why can't people get it into their heads that honesty is always the best policy? :halo:

J

[csjavi]

The email addresses that are actually shown are graphics, not text. Otherwise, they have to fill out the reply forms in which the email address is hidden in the Perl script.

I used images to display email addresses. We have about 50 email addresses on our site. Keeping them up to date was a pain. After some research on hiding email addressess I concluded that the following solution is the best at the moment. I made a script that scrambles the email addresses. Email harvesters and search engines can't handle javascript. I also have an email form for users without javascript.

Here is a bit simplified version of the code.

function DecodeEmail(Name1,Name2,Name3,Name4) {
document.write("<a href=\"mailto:")
document.write(Name2+Name4)
document.write("@")
document.write(Name1+Name3+"\">")
document.write(Name2+Name4)
document.write("@")
document.write(Name1+Name3+"</a>")
}

To display the address foo.bar@domain.invalid and its email form

<script type="text/javascript">DecodeEmail('domain', 'foo.', '.invalid', 'bar');</script>(<a href="mail.php?target=1">Form</a>)

The solution seems to work. According to my logs I get several harvesters on my site every month. I've had that email address for 4 years. I only get a couple of spam mails per month. Naturally I'm careful with that address. I use a different email address for registering to web sites etc.

Edited by csjavi, 17 September 2003 - 12:42 PM.

[Debra]

Welcome to the link building thread csjavi!

A little late but heartfelt all the same!

[SearchRank]

That's a pretty cool script csjavi! I'll have to play around with that a try that as an alternative to a graphic. I like that you can click on email link and it opens new message and yet email harvesters cannot decipher it. Neato!

[air-dog]

Order your anti-spam code for only £5.00 now

Website address:

www.anti-spam-code (co.uk)

I can't help but get the feeling I'd be paying 5 quid to add my email address to a list.

[csjavi]

That's a pretty cool script csjavi! I'll have to play around with that a try that as an alternative to a graphic. I like that you can click on email link and it opens new message and yet email harvesters cannot decipher it. Neato!

There was a mistake in the code. That's what happens when you simplify code without testing. Check the new and improved version. Remember to add the mail form for users without javascript support.

[mopacfan]

The email addresses that are actually shown are graphics, not text. Otherwise, they have to fill out the reply forms in which the email address is hidden in the Perl script.

I found that by using encoding, you can display a clickable mailto: tag but it is not harvestable because it looks like:

joe@mail.com

(view the source to see it live - search for the string "&#106")

Check out Email Encoder to encode your email address. It's pretty cool.

[csjavi]

I found that by using encoding, you can display a clickable mailto: tag but it is not harvestable

I've read that some harvesters can handle encoded addresses without problems. They just search for the encoded @. That's why I use the javascript and form method.