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How to Create a Camp Registration Form in WordPress

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Do you want to create a camp registration form in WordPress? With a camp registration form, you’ll register more campers, collect payments immediately, and eliminate waiting on registrations to arrive by mail.

So in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create an online camp registration form for your WordPress website.

Make Your Camp Registration Form in WordPress Now

Why Use a Camp Registration Form in WordPress?

Campers see camp as a time to slow down, eliminate stress, and clear their minds. But if you’re a camp administrator, this is the most hectic and stressful time of the year.

Also, campers don’t want to fill out lengthy paper forms and then send a check by mail. And camp administrators don’t enjoy dealing with all that paperwork either. It’s frustrating to waste hours sorting through mail, trying to decipher people’s handwriting, and dealing with paper checks.

What Makes a Good Design for a Camp Form?

A well-designed camp registration form should serve 2 purposes: produce a great user experience and give camp administrators better information.

So, your camp registration form should take campers less than a couple of minutes to fill out while still providing you with what you need to get them signed up.

And we all know that people aren’t always using a desktop computer. So, you’ll want to make sure that they can register using their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. This means you’ll need a “mobile-friendly” registration form that looks great on all these devices.

So why not try an online camp registration form? Taking registrations online is better for many reasons.

For example:

  • More Registrations: Since they can register from anywhere, people are more likely to complete the registration process.
  • Better Information: No more trying to interpret poor handwriting, and you’ll get correct and readable details.
  • Immediate Payment: As soon as they register for your camp, you’ll have their registration fees.
  • Easier Organization: Keep all your campers’ information in one place for easy access.

So now that you know why to have a camp registration form on your WordPress website, let’s jump into how you can easily create your own.

How to Create a Camp Registration Form

Here’s our easy step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to build your own camp registration form online.

Step 1: Create an Online Camp Registration Form in WordPress

WPForms is the easiest way to create an online camp registration form. WPForms Pro has a massive collection of pre-made templates for every niche and organization, including many online registration form templates.

Getting started is super easy. Just install and activate the WPForms plugin. If you need some help, that’s okay, just check out this step-by-step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Alright, now that you’ve activated the plugin, you can begin creating your new form.

Next, head over to WPForms » Add New and type in a name for your camp registration form. Don’t get hung up here. We’ll show you how to rename it in just a minute.

Once you’re done, scroll down to the area labeled Select a Template and type “camp registration” in the search bar. There are a few different templates you can choose from depending on the type of camp you’re running.

The WPForms camp registration form templates

Here’s a quick comparison of the fields each template includes:

Adult Camping Registration Form Summer Camp Registration Form Camp Registration Form
Name Child Name Camper Name
Email Date of Birth Camper Age Group (Dropdown)
Phone Date / Time Desired Cabin (Multiple Choice)
Birthdate Name of School Does the camper have any known allergies?
Gender Parent/Guardian Name Has the camper been camping before?
Requested Cabin Roommate Email Emergency Contact Relationship (Multiple Choice)
Which camp are you attending? (Dropdown) Phone Emergency Contact Name
Any special requests? (Paragraph Text) Address Emergency Contact Email
Emergency Contact Name Emergency Contact Name Emergency Contact Address
Emergency Contact Phone Emergency Contact Phone Questions or Comments (Paragraph Text)
Medical Concerns (Paragraph Text)

Keep in mind that you can completely customize any of the templates to include whatever fields you need. For our example, we’ll use the Summer Camp Registration Form template.

One of WPForms’ most significant features is that you can add additional fields to your form using the drag-and-drop functionality.

Adding a Phone field to a summer camp registration form

Next, click on the field to make any changes. You can also click on a field and drag it to reposition the order on your camp registration form.

In these times, people prefer to pay with a debit or credit card. Sadly, many camps only take checks. So, why not speed up your registration process by placing an online payment option right on your form?

You’ll have more people register since it’s so convenient. Plus, you’ll get instant cash to get your camp ready before they roll in. And if you want to boost sign-ups, offer an early bird special with a coupon code field, and watch your registration numbers climb.

WPForms makes it easy to accept payments right on your online camp registration form too. You can take payments using either Stripe, Square, Authorize.Net, or PayPal. If you need some help with this, we have some excellent documentation on how to allow users to choose a payment method.

So once you’re finished, and your form looks the way you want it to, click Save.

Step 2: Configure Your Form Settings

Now, let’s configure some settings. To start, go to Settings » General.

Accessing a form's general settings

Here you can configure the following:

  • Form Name — Change the name of your form here if you’d like.
  • Form Description — Give your form a description.
  • Tags — Organize your WordPress forms with form tags.
  • Submit Button Text — Customize the copy on the submit button.
  • Submit Button Processing Text — Change the text that shows while your registration form is submitting.

Lower down on the page, there are also advanced settings, including:

  • CSS Classes — Add custom CSS to your form or submit button.
  • Enable Prefill by URL — Fill out some fields automatically based on a custom URL.
  • Enable AJAX form submissions — Enable AJAX settings with no page reload.
  • Disable storing of entry information in WordPress — You can disable the storing of entry information and user details, such as IP addresses and user agents, in an effort to comply with GDPR requirements. In addition, check out our step-by-step instructions on how to add a GDPR agreement field to your simple contact form.

Next, move down to the Spam Protection and Security settings.

Opening the form spam and security settings

Here you can:

  • Enable anti-spam protection — Stop contact form spam with the WPForms anti-spam token. The anti-spam feature is automatically enabled on all new forms that you create.
  • Enable Akismet anti-spam protection — Connect your form to the Akismet plugin to prevent suspicious entries.
  • Enable country filter — Block submissions from certain countries.
  • Enable keyword filter — Prevent entries that include certain words or phrases.

When you’re done, click Save.

You’re making great progress!

Step 3: Configure Your Form Notifications

Notifications let you know when someone has submitted a camp registration form on your website.

Accessing a form's notifications settings

And you don’t even need to enable this because it’s turned on by default.

If you use the Smart Tags feature, you can also email notifications to the rest of your team when you receive a new signup.

However, if you need some guidance with this step, then you can check out our handy documentation on how to set up form notifications in WordPress.

And you can also notify more than just one person when a camp registration is submitted.

So, for example, you can send a notification to:

  • Yourself
  • The person who registered
  • Your camp coordinator
  • And others

For help, just see our easy step-by-step tutorial on how to send multiple form notifications in WordPress.

And if branding is essential to your camp, you can include your logo, so all your email correspondence looks consistent. For help with this, check out this guide on adding a custom header to your email template.

An email notification with a custom header image

Step 4: Configure Your Form Confirmations

A confirmation message is what those who register for your camp will see once they’ve completed the signup. Confirmations let people know that you have received the submission and allow you to tell them what step they need to take next.

There are 3 confirmation types in WPForms:

  1. Message: This is the default type of confirmation used in WPForms. It’s just a simple customized message letting visitors know their registration is being processed. You can reword this however you want to. If you’re unsure where to begin, look at some of these great success messages that show appreciation for signups.
  2. Show Page: This option will take your registered campers to a specific page on your site that you’ve created to thank them for registering for your camp. Check out our tutorial on redirecting your visitor to a Thank You page if you need some help. Also, you’ll also want to head over to our article on creating effective Thank You pages.
  3. Go to URL (Redirect): This confirmation option sends those who have registered to a page on an entirely different website.

Okay, now we’ll set up a customized message that your guests will see when they register for your camp.

To begin, click on Settings » Confirmations in the form builder. Then, customize your confirmation message. Once you’re done, be sure to click Save.

A summer camp registration form confirmation message

For help with other confirmation types, see our documentation on setting up form confirmations.

Now here’s the last step.

Step 5: Add Your Camp Registration Form to Your WordPress Site

Now that you’ve finished creating your camp registration form, you just need to add it to your WordPress website. Don’t worry. This is the easiest part.

WPForms lets you place your forms on blog posts, pages, and sidebar widgets.

To get started, create a new page or post in WordPress, or you can just update an existing one if you like.

Next, click on the plus (+) button to add a new block to your post or page and select the WPForms block.

Adding a WPForms block to a page

The little WPForms widget will appear inside of your block. Now, click on the WPForms dropdown menu and select the form you just created.

Selecting the summer camp registration form from the WPForms block

Next, click Preview, and you can view your camp registration form just like it will appear on your website. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, hit that Publish button, and your camp registration form will go live on the Internet.

Publishing your summer camp registration form

And you can easily view your registration form entries too. Just check out our complete guide to form entries. WPForms makes it easy to see, search for, filter, print, and delete registration forms, and makes planning so much easier.

Make Your Camp Registration Form in WordPress Now

Next, Create a Popup for Your Camp Website

You did it! Now you know exactly how to create a camp registration form in WordPress. You’ll also want to read our post on the best WordPress popup plugins.

Keeping things as simple as possible on your form is a powerful way to get more people to register for your camp this year.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today. WPForms Pro includes a free online camp registration form for WordPress and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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