I’m evaluating a new linkbuilding tool called One Way Text Link. It’s designed to make directory submission less painful by showing you which directories you have already submitted to, and semi-automating the process.

Here’s the link:
web directories list

I’ll post a more thorough review once I’ve used it a little more.

As far as WordPress plugins go, there aren’t many that I’d be willing to pay for. Gravity Forms is a different beast altogether. It actually makes creating forms fun.

Fun. Like when you finally take off those painful shoes at the end of the day, or when you start using a hammer instead of your forehead to drive nails into the wall.

Today, I needed to send a questionnaire to a prospect (based off of this excellent article), and was about to fire up Word and create a form. Instead, I created a new form with Gravity Forms, and about 15 minutes later, here’s what I got: http://www.studio625.net/new-client-questionnaire/

It’s got drag and drop field creation, validation, conditional logic, form submission emailing & routing, and conversion tracking right out of the box. Plus lots of other stuff that I’m sure I’ll use in the future.

So yeah, if you’re on WordPress, go buy a copy of Gravity Forms. You won’t regret it.

Update:

Since I wrote this article eight months ago, I’ve used Gravity Forms on every single website I’ve deployed (hooray Developer’s License!). Nearly every website will need some kind of response form, since that’s the primary way of getting value out of a non-ecommerce website. It makes sense to use the best plugin available for the job, and there’s so much flexibility here that you shouldn’t need anything else.

Also, I’ve started using Gravity Forms to get signatures from clients. I simply put the contract into a password-protected WordPress page, embed the form at the bottom and restrict it to one submission. The  client gets a link, reviews the contract, and signs the form. Everyone gets a copy of the signature and the contract remains online for future reference. So much easier than the email > print > sign > scan > email routine that often happens when dealing with customers outside of your area.

Conclusion:

I realize this is starting to sound like an advertisement, but the level of quality in Gravity Forms in a world of poorly-supported WordPress plugins is simply amazing, which is why I can wholeheartedly say that it’s the best form plugin available.