If you want to be able to correspond with visitors to your website and receive that all-important feedback, there are a variety of email-related features you can include on your site to open the channels of communication. Email links, guest books, forms and forums are just a few of the many options available.

Displaying an email address on your website for visitors to contact you through is one of the simplest methods of communication. Creating an email hyperlink will allow any visitors with an email account to click and instantly open a new email message addressed to you. Later on in this feature we have provided a step-by-step guide on how to do this.

If you have obtained your own domain name, you can set up various email addresses that correspond to separate areas of your site - registration, feedback and reporting broken links, for example - all with the same @your-name.com address.

But there are other ways that you can communicate with your visitors apart from direct email. You could set up a guest book in the shape of a simple form, for example. This is a more controlled method of communication where you can direct the content of the message using tick boxes and comment boxes. Some web design programs such as Front Page and Dreamweaver can create forms for inclusion in a web page, or you can use a dedicated program, such as FormArtist.

Alternatively, you could set up a user forum, also known as a discussion group, noticeboard or club, so that your visitors can post and share their comments.

The benefits of user feedback are obvious, but with email links and the like come the headaches of junk mail, unwanted visitors, potential sabotage and viruses. With this in mind, this feature will cover not only the different kinds of email features you can implement on your site, but some ways to protect yourself (and your site) from any ensuing problems that could occur.

Spam, spoofs and sabotage
One of the biggest complaints from website owners is the problem of unsolicited junk mail being sent to any email addresses displayed on the site. Junk mailers use programs called spam robots to 'harvest' or scan websites for email addresses. Any that are spotted are recorded and duly bombarded with messages ranging from loan offers to body-part enhancements.

Worse still, once spam bots know your email address, then the spammers and scammers can 'spoof' it - that's to say they can use the address to mass mail junk, viruses and the like to all and sundry, and make it look as if it's coming from your site.

Inserting a clickable 'mail to:' hyperlink for visitors to send you a message is, sadly, the cause of much junk mail. There are, however, some solutions available to you. If you're familiar with HTML, you can include some code that still displays an email hyperlink but avoids detection from the spam bots.

If you're not familiar with HTML, the safest solution is to display your email address in a graphic that's contained on your homepage. Unfortunately, unless you make the graphic a clickable link (and therefore, once again, reveal the email address in your source code to any passing spam bots), visitors to your website will have to make a note of your address and type it into a new message themselves, which is a bit inconvenient.

'Hiding' your email address from spam bots in a graphic is, however, one of the easiest and safest ways to avoid spam, spoofing and other security risks associated with displaying your email address on your site.

It's also worth using a filtering service for your email client to catch any junk before it hits your inbox. By viewing your messages before they are downloaded to your computer, you can limit the risk of viruses, and set rules to block or bounce specific content.

Mail management
If your website becomes popular and is regularly visited, the volume of emails and other messages from visitors will probably increase. Managing this can become difficult. Replying to an email often generates further questions, and thus further emails.

The volume of emails will inevitably continue to grow, particularly if your website becomes more and more popular. Making sure you have enough storage space for these messages is important. And it goes without saying that an up-to-date virus checker is essential.

Managing a guest book or forum can be equally time-consuming. Setting a limit on a discussion topic may be required in some cases (either an expiry date or a limited number of replies), where a topic becomes irrelevant or the thread leads to something unrelated to the original subject.

Don't let all these concerns put you off, though. Incorporating email in your website is a fantastic method of obtaining immediate feedback on your site and communicating with visitors, customers or fellow enthusiasts. Read on for some step-by-step guides to setting up email on your site and keeping it safe.

CREATING AN EMAIL HYPERLINK
Setting up an email link is quite straightforward. Most web design programs provide the facility to do this on the Insert menu. Below, we have included instructions on how to do it in the popular web design programs Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage, as well as how to create one by just using HTML code.

DREAMWEAVER
Step 1
When editing a web page in Dreamweaver, click on the Insert menu and choose Email Link. A small dialogue box will appear wherein you can enter the text to be displayed and the email address to send a message to. Click on OK to enter these details on your web page.

Check that the email hyperlink works by pressing F12 to preview the page using your web browser. By positioning the mouse cursor over the text used for the hyperlink, it should change to a hand symbol. Click on the link and a new email message should appear with the email address you specified automatically inserted into the 'To' field.

FRONTPAGE
Step 1
With a web page open for editing (click on the Normal tab), enter some text to represent your email hyperlink: 'click here to email me', for example. Select the text, then click on the Insert menu and choose Hyperlink. From the large dialogue box that appears, click on the yellow-coloured envelope-shaped button on the right. A second, smaller box will appear. Enter the email address you wish to use, then click on OK in both boxes.

Returning to the main screen in FrontPage, click on the Preview tab to test your email hyperlink. Position the mouse pointer over the hyperlink and it should change to a hand symbol. Left-click and a new email message will appear, automatically addressed to the email account you entered.

HTML
Step 1
If you prefer to write HTML instead of using a web design program, the code shown here can be used to create an email hyperlink. This line of code: <a href="mailto:rob@mymail.co.uk">Send me a message</a> must be placed in the body of the web page (between the <body> tags).

Replace rob@mymail.co.uk with your own email address. The words 'Send me a message' will be displayed on screen, but you can replace this with other text by editing the section of the above code accordingly.

CREATE AN EMAIL ACCOUNT WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAME
We already covered domain names and how to use one for your website. Not only can you set up your domain name to open your website, you can use it as an email address. So, if your domain name is www.johnxsmith.co.uk, you can set up an email account such as emailme@johnxsmith.co.uk, as well as a webmaster@johnxsmith.co.uk and any other useful addresses for your site.

Most domain name hosts allow you to retrieve messages sent to these addresses as POP3 mail in Outlook Express (or any other email program) or view them over a web-based client. Alternatively, there should be provision for you to set up mail forwarding with your domain host, so that any messages sent to your domain's email addresses are bounced directly to a normal email address. Here's how to set up an email address with a domain host.

Step 1
We're using NetBenefit in this workshop. Other domain hosts may differ slightly, but the principle remains the same and these instructions can be used as a general guide as to how to proceed. Go to your domain host's website, then click on Control Panel (possibly listed as 'options', 'tools', 'account' or 'login' by other domain hosts) and log into your account using the username and password you set up when you registered your domain.

Step 2
After logging in, look for a menu option or button for email settings. A summary concerning any email accounts that are already in use may appear. We're looking to set up an email address relating to our domain name and then set it up so that it diverts messages to another account. Look for a box or option to enter an email address containing your domain name. You will be able to choose the first part of the address (the bit before the '@' symbol).

Step 3
Now an email account has been created that contains your domain name. As previously mentioned, you will usually be given several options as to how to receive any messages that are sent to your new address. In this instance, we're going to divert any received messages to another email account to make things nice and easy. If you are using NetBenefit, scroll down the screen and click on the Add button. For other hosts, look for a 'mail forwarding' option in the email or account settings.

Step 4
Enter the details of the email address to forward messages to, for example, your home or Hotmail account. You may have to specify the domain name-related email address to use for this, or it may have been inserted from the previous step. Click on OK to complete entering your details (or a similar button for other providers), and you should be presented with a summary of your actions on the proceeding screen.

Step 5
Log out of the screen for setting up your domain name and its email accounts, open your email program (e.g. Outlook Express) and send a message to your domain name-related email address from Steps 3 and 4. The message should be diverted to the email address specified in Step 4. Check the messages from this account to see if your test mail has arrived.

AVOID SPAM WITH AN EMAIL IMAGE
Many websites 'hide' their contact email address from those malicious spam bots by incorporating it into an image rather than by including the actual address directly within the code of a web page. The following instructions show how to use Microsoft Paint to create an image that contains your email address and then insert it into a web page.

Step 1
Open Microsoft Paint (click on the Start menu, choose Programs, Accessories and select Paint). A standard-sized blank image will appear on screen. We'll need to resize this, so click on the Image menu and choose Attributes. Change the size of the image to 0.5in high and 2-3in wide (depending on the length of your email address). Click on OK to return to the main screen. The white area of the image will have changed in size.

Step 2
To enter some text into the image, click on the A-shaped toolbar button on the left (click on the View menu and choose Toolbox if you cannot see it). Draw a text box inside the white area to the full height and width of it. A Fonts toolbar will appear. Choose a font and size, then click inside the text box and type your email address.

Step 3
When you have entered your email address, save the image by clicking on the File menu and choosing Save As. A dialogue box will appear. If you have a specific folder for website images, save it in here. Change the file type to JPEG or GIF, then click on the Save button. The image will be saved. A warning box may appear when saving as GIF, explaining some colours may be lost - save it as a JPEG if necessary.

Step 4
Close Paint and open your web design program. To add your email image to a web page, you will need to be editing the page, with the cursor positioned at the point where you want the image displayed. Click on the Insert menu and choose Image (some programs use a toolbar button for inserting images). A dialogue box should appear whereby you can browse for and select the image.

Step 5
Test your web page containing the email image by previewing it. The email image cannot be clicked on to open an email message, so you may want to display a message next to it explaining how visitors can email you using the address displayed. Some web designers also add text explaining why the email is not a hyperlink (ie to avoid spam).

Beat the bots
The Javascript code here displays an email address that can be clicked on to send an email, but it doesn't appear as an email address that can be identified by spam robots. To enter your own details, replace the code for 'myaddress', 'hotmail' and 'com' with your own email account.

Useful links:

Fight Spam: Anti-spam website with advice and news
http://spam.abuse.net

Outsmarting spammers: A counter-exploitation website with guides to avoiding spam on your website
http://www.cexx.org/spamguide.htm

Firetrust: MailWasher Pro software that can delete spam, viruses and other unwanted emails. Works with Hotmail accounts. Free 30-day trial downloaded available. Full price is $29.95.
www.firetrust.com

Nameroute: Buy a domain name and get an emial filter included in the cost. Prices for .co.uk domain names start at £14 for two years
www.nameroute.co.uk

Message Cleaner: UK-based mail filtering service
www.messagecleaner.co.uk

MailWasher: A free program that allows you to delete and 'bounce back' email messages before receiving them. Works for POP3 email accounts
www.mailwasher.net