On this the 13th day of the 2017 A to Z Blog Challenge, the featured letter is “M.” (13 letters down, 13 to go!) I had planned to write about my experience in setting up a way for people to subscribe to my e-newsletter. From what I’ve read by other bloggers, MailChimp seems to be the vehicle of choice. My plan was to write about how I had, without assistance, been able to accomplish this.
Best laid plans
Alas! I have failed. Since my blog is about my journey as a writer, I share my successes and my failures. As you can see in the sidebar to the left, my “Subscribe to Janet’s e-Newsletter” widget is not working. This is due to operator error.
I will not be deterred!
I will continue to work on this. As I write this blog post at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the widget is not clickable. If I get the problem figured out in the next hour or so, I will correct it and perhaps it will be operable by the time this post is published at 6:50 a.m. EDT. (But I doubt it.)
Janet Morrison Books Newsletter
There is no newsletter yet, but I wanted to start developing a mailing list for the day I get my act together enough to write one. So, never fear! You are not going to miss my first newsletter. It has not been written. It might be months or years before I have anything newsworthy to put in a newsletter. It is another one of those things that writers are encouraged to have.
If anyone out there can help me
I will joyfully accept any assistance you are able and willing to offer me. Like I have stated many times before on my blog, I am technologically challenged. I am out of my comfort zone when it comes to all things electronic.
I read about a hack
I read about a hack for getting MailChimp to work on WordPress.com, but it was beyond my capabilities. It involved designing a sign up form on MailChimp, taking a picture of it, cropping the photo, and uploading it into WordPress.com. If I could do all that, I wouldn’t be asking for help in setting it up in the first place!
WordPress.com bloggers
I know you’re out there. Any idea what I’m doing wrong? Any idea what I need to do to get this to work? Feel free to leave advice in the comments section below. (Remember, I need directions in layman’s terms – no technical terms, please.)
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I hope you have quality writing time.
Janet
Disclaimer: This is in no way an endorsement of MailChimp. Nor is it my intent to present MailChimp in a bad light. I have used MailChimp to subscribe to other writers’ newsletter and the process was seamless. Eventually, I’m sure you will be able to subscribe to my newsletter just as easily.
Hi Janet
I wish I could help you; but, I am clueless too when it comes to how WordPress works. I haven’t even customized my page yet. Good luck with those pesky widgets….and the Chimpmail🍀🍀🍀
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The sumo me plugin integrates with mailchimp. Give it a go.
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Thanks, Chris, I’ll give that a try. Thank you so much! BTW, I haven’t gotten Clicky to work yet either. I got a message back saying there was an error, and I haven’t gone back to try it again. I’ll let you know if I get MailChimp figured out and Clicky.
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There should be a code you can put into Jetpack or your theme from memory. Been a while
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Thanks, Katrina, Grimlins are loose in my computer this afternoon. I replied to you and then it disappeared. I am so pitiful with this computer stuff, it’s embarrassing. Chris Andrews in Australia is trying to help me with MailChimp, so we’ll see what happens.
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Okay. I’ll see what I can do tonight and let you know. It’s coming up on dinner time here, so I’m going to take a computer break before I launch back into MailChimp. Thanks for all your help!
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Good luck. Fiddling with WordPress is always time consuming.
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Thanks, Chris. I thought it was just me! Now that dinner is over, I have no more excuses.
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It turns out the sumo me plugin only works on wordpress.org. I have wordpress.com. Of course! I’ll keep working on it. I really don’t want to have to switch to wordpress.org because I’ve read online that you can’t move your old blog posts. My posts aren’t that great, but I’d hate to lose them. I’ll send you a progress report about MailChimp, but it probably won’t be very soon. LOL!
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Looks like I can use JotForm or Wufoo. Not familiar with either one, so this will take a while. Fortunately, there is no rush for me to set up MailChimp. Thanks again for all your help. Enjoy your Sunday.
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