Well this is partly a recommendation and partly a rant:
I was trying to post a survey/poll on my last post: what cell phone do you buy and why (http://kqntwj.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/what-phone-do-you-like-and-why.html). The reason for that is simple, I'm quite pleased with my droid, and wonder what other folks get.
So I went out there to find cool surveys that can "really work" in my blog. First and foremost, I tried the most reputable surveymonkey. Well, apparently they do not have embed survey functionality. I cannot imagine the no. 1 survey provider does not even let you embed a survey. Sending out surveys through emails is just too web 1.0, no one will take survey by clicking a link!
Then I checked out "polldaddy". Interestingly they are part of wordpress, hmmm... I'll have to say that is a pretty smart move of wordpress out there. Sadly polldaddy only let you create one single question for the poll. While I have more than 3 questions to ask and want to cross the question answers, they are basically useless.
After about 1 hour search I finally found a free survey site called impressity.com. They let you create surveys and embed the whole survey in the blog. I just copy and paste the embed string:
into the blog, and sure enough, the survey shows up perfectly. You can even have a 2 page survey embedded in your blog. Users can take the survey through the pages in the embedded area, and this would not leave the current blog page they are viewing. It is also pretty cool to let users view the survey results directly in the embedded area. For me the cross question functionality is unbelievably easy too.
I do like the option that they provide templates for the surveys, and you can customize it, or even use your own background image.
I feel this is gonna be a handy tool and would want to say good job to those working at impressity.com. At least these guys get it: survey is supposed to be more than just a link if you want people to take it. And an one question poll? The information you collect is completely out of context. You don't know who the *Q$# answered your questions. Maybe all the people that owned an iphone are avid apple fans. I cannot tell by a single question survey.
Cheers.
