Why website forms are better than showing your email address

Question

I heard that you shouldn’t post your email address on your website. Why not? And if I don’t, how can people contact me through email on my website?

Answer

Posting your email address on your website is going to get you a lot of spam. It’s like giving all the suppliers of junk mail your home address. Worse, it will get sold to other spammers who will send you even MORE spam.

You’ll want to have a form on your website for people to contact you. You can also encode your email address with javascript and other techniques – but displaying a form is best in my opinion.

Having a form on your website:

• Hides your email address.
• Allows you the opportunity to get better information from your visitors.
• Allows people at computers that aren’t set up for email (such as a public computer) to send you a message.