Verbs – ‘To Find’ or ‘Finding’ After ‘Help’

I think either form would be acceptable, but something else is bothering me about the sentence. I would move the word “directly” to the end of the sentence:

The only way to communicate with me is to send me an email directly.

The only way to communicate with me is sending me an email directly.

Of these cases, I would prefer to hear the first option. It sounds more natural to me.

You can make the second sound more natural by adding “by”:

The only way to communicate with me is by sending me an email directly

Adding “by” has a lot of impact on how I read the sentence, and it suddenly feels very natural. Not sure why, though. I would say that when using this form, always use “by”.

It depends on the context; its position in the sentence. 1) If the word with ing comes as a subject or an object, it's a noun. eg. Smiling is an act of kindness. 2) If it comes after the auxiliary "be" it's a verb. eg. The girl is smiling. 3) If it comes before a noun, describing that noun, then it's an adjective. eg. Smiling faces are lovely.
Some words with ing are always adjectives like 'interesting' and 'exciting'.