This is Day 25 in the 31 Days to Become a More Efficient Virtual Assistant Series
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There are a number of reasons online forms are useful, but having the ability to incorporate payments into them has to be one of the most useful. There are a number of services out there you can use, such as Wufoo, Survey Monkey or JotForm, but of the three, JotForm is the one I recommend and use most often. I use it because it provides the most value with the free account option.
Here is a quick overview of the nearly endless possibilities of what can be done with JotForm:
- Easily create forms: you can create forms from scratch or you can choose from over 2,500 templates.
- Easy to set up and customize: it’s easy to get your form completed by using their “Quick Tools” section. It’s easy to use their drag and drop options for common data fields (e.g. full name, email, etc.) and they also allow a lot of customization to forms, such as changing the “name” of the “submit” button and color, alignment, thank you pages, etc.
- Integrate payments and coupon codes: JotForm works with a number of popular payment services such as Paypal, Stipe, Authorize.net, and others which makes adding a payment section into your form quite easy. (In the video example I create a magazine subscription option.) You also have the ability to create a coupon code for products. **
- Endless number of customization widgets: You can add a YouTube video to a form, require a Facebook “Like” before the form is submitted, add in a checklist, and do a ton of other creative things. You can blame me if you lose hours playing around with all of the features here!
- Create email notifications and auto-responders: Want to get notified every time someone fills out a form? Or maybe you also want an auto-generated form to be sent to the person who completed the form? It’s incredibly simple to do with JotForm’s notifications and autoresponder tools.
**NOTE: I don’t believe JotForm is intended to be a shopping cart/ecommerce solution so I don’t think they have the ability to send digital items. You could, however, work around this by redirecting people to a hidden page on your website with a file download link on the webpage.
This video will give you a quick overview of setting up a new form with payment integration.
Here are some ideas on how to use JotForm within your own virtual assistant business or for your clients’ businesses.
- Team Member Capacity Form
- Gift Certificate Order Form
- Magazine Subscription (physical product)
- Website Contact Form
- Surveys/Questionnaires
- Job Applications/Resume Submission
- Online Event Registration (and payment)
Due to an almost limitless combination of options and form templates I think you’ll be delighted with all you get from JotForm’s free plan. If you’re expecting a large number of monthly payments through forms you will need to upgrade right away. You can check out their pricing.
If you currently use JotForm, what do you love most about it?