Webupon

A poll is a separate area on your page that displays a question to which visitors choose an answer. Usually, on choosing, the results so far are displayed as an inducement for the visitor to participate. Most blog and website hosts include a pre-built poll module so, before you scour the internet for a script, try your host and see what they recommend.

If not, search for ‘poll scripts’ or similar in a search engine and choose a module. You will need to know what sort of script you want – is it ‘asp’ or ‘php’ or ‘perl’ or something else? If unsure, ask your host to see what sort of scripts are permitted or recommended. If you host your own blog you can choose any that take your fancy or build your own in Flash or html with css.

Like many hosts, Blogger provides an easy route into poll building by providing a standard module. Go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Layout’ and finally choose ‘Add a Page Element’. From the dialog that appears, select Poll and type in the question and then the answers, set the closing date, click ‘Save’ and the poll will immediately appear on your page. Simple as that!

This makes producing a poll easy, the hard part, of course, is thinking what to ask and how to use it.

The best way is to dive in and get your module prepared, which is often all that is necessary for the ideas to flow. Later, when you have a few under your belt, you can think about a theme for the polls. However, steer clear of unpleasant or deeply controversial subjects and don’t do polls that could be hurtful to others – whilst this may seem like fun at the time, it can backfire later.

The best advice is to try to make your poll both interesting and entertaining as well as having some relevance to your audience. Polls on music, games and sport are popular for most pages and you can usually fit them in with the content of the site. For a less specific blog or site you can try polls that test general or some form of specialised knowledge.

If you’re completely stuck, search for ‘trivia’ on the web. This will enable you to easily put together a poll that sees just how much your visitors really know! If you want to go the whole way, you can feature the winner and, particularly if your readers are a local group of friends or similar, give away something as a prize.

But a more serious blog demands a more serious poll so pick something you are writing about and do some research to make the poll both interesting and informative. For example, if your blog is about modern art, you can ask if your readers like the work of a certain artist. The benefit of this is that you can make a feature of the result in a new post on that subject in a few weeks time.

Polls can provide both entertainment and light relief for the surfer and are generally well supported and well regarded. They also look good on a page and provide some contrast against a solid block of text as well as helping to lead the eye in a particular direction so they are usually well worth the effort needed to produce them.

But whatever you do, have fun with your poll and remember that it is fun and should not be taken too seriously!