How to set up an Email Newsletter using MailChimp & WordPress

To me, an email list has kind of always been like that unicorn in the sky – unattainable. And for no reason, really – it just seemed like so much work. So much to set up and so much to  keep track of – and really, who wants to do that? Over the course of this year though, I’ve been hearing how great newsletters are and so I decided it was time I bite the bullet – time to conquer my unicorn in the sky and figure out just how to create an email list!

My first step was to choose a newsletter program and after much research, I felt like MailChimp was the one for me! I set up my account with MailChimp and started to dig in. So below I am going to show you the few easy steps to getting your email list started by using Mail Chimp on your Word Press Blog!

Create your MailChimp Account. This one sounds easy, but you have to sign up! Go to MailChimp.com and create your account.

Once you have created your account, on the left sidebar, click on Lists – here you will create your first list. Name it whatever you would like – this will be your main list for collecting new emails!

Once you have created your list and click Save, on the next screen you’ll want to select “Signup forms”.

Then once given the options, select “Embedded forms”

Here, you will fill out your form and select how you want it to look and what options to include!

On this same page you will find the code that you’ll need to copy and paste onto your wordpress site to make your email list sign up show up on your blog, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves just yet, so onto the next step!

Ok, you’re doing great and we’re in the home stretch! So for me, this next part was the trickiest, because me & wordpress are still learning each other – we haven’t gotten to the “love stage”quite yet!

Go ahead and open a new tab and start by logging into your existing wordpress.org account. On the left side bar, choose Appearances & then Widgets. Here you will see what looks to me, like the most confusing thing out there. Fear not! It really isn’t that scary once you get the hang of it.

Scroll on down and you’ll see a box called Text.

Now it’s time to make some decisions. You’ll need to decide where you want the sign up box to go on your website. For me, I wanted it to be on my blog page, so I had to find that area. In mine it is called “Fixed Sidebar”. On yours, it may be called something else entirely. But have no fear, if you put it on the wrong page, you can always delete it or move it later!

So once you’ve found where you want it to go, you’ll take the Text box that we found earlier and DRAG it up into the area you’ve decided you wanted it. So for me, I dragged it up to my Fixed Sidebar area and dropped it there!

Head on back to your MailChimp site and copy the HTML code in the area that says “Copy/Paste for your site”.

Go back to your wordpress site and insert what you just copied from Mail Chimp and click SAVE.

And voila! Just like that you’ve made an email sign up for your website and you’ve conquered your unicorn in the sky! Now all you have left to do is create a newsletter – and that, my friends, is for an entirely different post!