Setting up Mail Chimp – Mailing List Series
“The Money is All in the List” – you may have heard this before, and it’s as true for your blog or website as any other. You MUST collect email addresses from your visitors so you can contact them later, remind them to visit your site, showcase your latest content or promote your latest offers. Possibly the biggest mistake you can make as a serious blogger, is to not concentrate on building your list and offering a newsletter. So I’m going to help you with Setting Up Mail Chimp.
With so many websites and distractions these days – stay in front of your readers with a newsletter. You can even set up with Mail Chimp to have all of your blog posts emailed to your readers daily, as you post, or a weekly round up – more to come on this later in the series.
When starting out and for small bloggers, I recommend using Mail Chimp for your newsletter. It’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers and you can send up to 12,000 mailings a month. That is more than enough for the most of us. It’s not difficult to set up, but there are a few things to be aware of. And to make it easy, and help you set up the right things in the right order, I’ve made some tutorial videos showing you exactly how to do it. Each is short – under 5 mins, and if you already have an account and know the basics, you don’t have to watch them all.
Perhaps you are wondering, why do I really need a newsletter when I already have the option for readers to subscribe to my site and get my posts as they are published ? There are lots of reasons why a newsletter under your control is a better choice.
Take a look at the full answer here – Readers Question – “ Why Mail Chimp instead of WordPress ?
Note – you can make these videos larger using the full screen option bottom right, so you can follow through the on screen instructions more clearly. You can also increase the video resolution to give greater clarity and definition using the little gear icon that appears on the bottom menu once it starts playing.
1 – How to sign up for a Mail Chimp Account
2 – Entering your personal information and setting up a list
3 – Setting up your newsletter sign up form
4 – Adding your newsletter sign up box to Blogger
5 – Adding your newsletter sign up box to WordPress, in a post, in your sidebar and more
I hope you find the videos easy to follow and useful. Remember that the newsletter is an additional place where you can promote offers and products to your readers, place adverts etc. and perhaps gain some more clicks on your affiliate links.
Coming next – more about setting up Mail Chimp:
- Integrating with Facebook and setting up a sign up box/page on your Facebook Page
- Customising the sign up process to use your own words and encourage people to ‘double opt in’
- Offering a coupon code, discount, download or printable to new subscribers and getting it sent automatically
- Setting up Mail Chimp to automagically send your subscribers an email with your latest post, or a weekly round up of your recent content
- Creating a custom subscribe box
June 22, 2013 @ 7:27 am
thank you very much for sharing this information, I bookmarked it to understand all the details. It’s been a while that I’ve been curious about setting up a mail chimp account
visiting from Its Overflowing party!
Ingrid
June 22, 2013 @ 7:53 am
This is so helpful! I haven’t done this yet, and it sounds like I need to ASAP! Thanks so much for yet another wonderful blogging tip. Have a great weekend!
June 22, 2013 @ 8:35 am
Thanks Deby! You always have such great information to share! I have wanted to step away from Feedburner, but wasn’t sure how, now I know! 🙂
June 22, 2013 @ 4:49 pm
Its much better to have all this under your own control so you can publish just what and when you want instead of rely on a RSS feed. Of course I also read a lot of blogs in my reader (I use Netvibes), but you can’t beat having your own list of subscribers.
June 22, 2013 @ 9:56 am
Such good info. Thanks for sharing this. When I set up my email subscription with Mail Chimp I struggled thru a few steps, so this is so helpful.
June 22, 2013 @ 4:47 pm
Glad it was useful Patti.
June 22, 2013 @ 3:37 pm
Deby, thank you again!!
June 22, 2013 @ 4:46 pm
Always welcome Andi
June 22, 2013 @ 7:35 pm
Thanks for sharing! Pinned 😉
June 22, 2013 @ 11:13 pm
Thanks so much for sharing! Great information for a new food blogger like me.
June 23, 2013 @ 9:02 am
This looks quite interesting. I hadn’t thought about a newsletter but you are inspiring me.
Thanks for sharing,
Bev
June 24, 2013 @ 8:38 am
Glad to hear it Bev.
June 23, 2013 @ 3:14 pm
Oh boy, I really need to do this! Thank you so much!
June 23, 2013 @ 3:56 pm
I definitely needed to read this! I’ve been thinking about a newsletter for a while, but wasn’t quite sure how to go about getting started. Stopping by from the DIY Sunday Showcase.
June 23, 2013 @ 10:05 pm
Very cool. Methinks that Sverve will be taking your advice. 😉
June 23, 2013 @ 10:12 pm
OK…had to come back and comment again…I opened my email and there, right in front of me, was an invite to a talk put on by one of the MailChimp execs here in Silicon Valley. Dude. I’m there.
June 24, 2013 @ 8:39 am
Ooh, cool. Sounds exciting.
June 24, 2013 @ 8:47 am
Thank you so much for this! I just noticed your subscribe to newsletter at the bottom of the page! Great way to get people to sign up (if they are interested.)
June 24, 2013 @ 10:35 am
Thanks for the great tuttorial. Bookmarking this page. Found you through Inspire Me Monday http://georgielee.blogspot.com
June 24, 2013 @ 2:47 pm
Your posts are always so helpful! Thanks so much for the info! Pinned! I popped over from Give Me the Goods–thanks for sharing!
~Abby =)
June 24, 2013 @ 6:56 pm
Pinned the link so I can read it later. Visiting via I Gotta Try That!
Helen
June 25, 2013 @ 9:36 am
Thanks so much for sharing this, and for emailing me over the weekend!! I really appreciate you reaching out. 🙂 I am going to have to get all over this so I can make some fabulous emails! Thank you again for linking this up to the DIY Sunday Showcase!! Jen @ PinkWhen
June 25, 2013 @ 10:30 am
This is great info…thanks for the detailed instructions! I found you through the link party at Pursuit of Functional Home and pinned your post to my personal blogging board! 🙂
June 25, 2013 @ 11:54 am
Thanks for all of the information. I was planning on setting up a newsletter but wasn’t sure where to start! I pinned it for later and am now subscribed to your emails! Found you at the Brag About it Tuesday link party. Hope you will stop by the Friday Follow Along and link up http://www.leahinspired.com
June 25, 2013 @ 5:48 pm
Thank you, thank you for this awesome tutorial! I know I need to get this set up ASAP, I just didn’t have someone holding my hand to accomplish it… Well, now I do! Pinned this, it’s a keeper!
I’m visiting you from the Give Me the Goods linky party.
Take Care,
Andrea @ Cloud Nine Chic
June 25, 2013 @ 8:04 pm
This is sooo getting pinned! Thanks for the help as always!
June 25, 2013 @ 9:26 pm
I already have one set up on my blog but I need to use it more. Will watch the videos when I have more time. Off to pin!
Following from Wow Me Wednesday on Ginger Snap Crafts
June 26, 2013 @ 10:01 am
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing on Project Inspire{d}! Pinned!!
Nancy
June 26, 2013 @ 7:41 pm
Thanks so much for the great tutorial:)
June 26, 2013 @ 9:00 pm
Great tutorial! This is something that I really need to set up! Thanks for coming by and partying with us. I hope that we’ll see you again next week.
Robin @ Fluster Buster
June 27, 2013 @ 8:55 pm
Great tips, Deby! Thanks for sharing! Pinning! Thanks for linking up to Give Me the Goods Monday! Love having you party with us! Jenna @ Rain on a Tin Roof
June 27, 2013 @ 9:08 pm
Thank you! I had already settled on MailChimp and need to do this for my business and will do it for my own blog as well. I will be watching the videos and following your directions.
October 5, 2013 @ 10:59 am
Just switched to mailchimp so thanks for the tips, especially the integration with facebook.
October 5, 2013 @ 3:15 pm
You are very welcome – I’m glad it has been useful.
October 5, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
I’ve been wanting to use this. Thank you for sharing! Visiting from SITS.
December 17, 2013 @ 8:58 pm
Thank you so much for sharing this, I’ve been looking for something which set out all these steps. 🙂