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Lists, Opt-In Forms, Aspirin,

Coffee and Email Marketing

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Hello Again. Wow. So much worth discussing I’m not sure where and how to put it all out there.

What put a dent in my Email Marketing Posts were Mailing Lists and Autoresponders.  I haven’t posted them yet.  Simply because I am not trying to put out brief paragraphs. I wanted to explain the Landing Page and Opt-in Form in Detail. Most Importantly I wanted to explain how You could set up One right away while reading this Post.

Building a List is ridiculously important. It can be ridiculously Good . It should also be Ridiculously easy. It is. Depending on what You decide to Use.

I’ve been wrestling Code and Settings everyday last month. To Setup the Mailing List for Free.  I loved the Big Complicated looking stuff . Explaining it to You would have been no small task though. Not to mention the amount of errors turned up.Made me wonder if an error free installation was even possible. Right Moving On.

You’ve heard about Lists and how important they are. You’re probably on several already. Make no mistake, email is the internet’s number one tool.

Today we’re going to Set up an Opt – In Form for a WordPress Blog. A Really Nice Opt -In form too. Using free autoresponder/mailing list service and a free wordpress plugin.  Can’t beat that.

Step 1 – Subscribe to Get Response

Now I’m not talking about signing up for their trial period offer. That wouldn’t exactly make it Free. They have a Completely Free service in addition to their Paid Service.

http://www.getresponse.com/orderfree.html

1. The above link should take you to the free Sign-up Page.
2. Fill in the name, email , country , your chosen get response username and how you plan on using it.
3. Ignore the Preload messages box
4. Click on Submit when you are done.
5. They will then take you to a Page where they ask you once again to choose between the Pro version and the Free Version.
6. At the bottom of that page you should see a button saying “Click for GetResponse FREE !”
7. Then comes the page where you are asked to check your inbox. Thats a good Idea. Check your inbox . You will need your password.

Take a Break
We have survived the Subscription Process

Step 2 – Configuring Get Response

1. You need to login into Getresponse. Click on link below to go to Login Page. http://www.getresponse.com/login.html
2. Sign in and You will be asked for contact information. Fill it all Up. Click on Next Step.
3. You should then see a link saying “You can now start using your account”
4. Yes , we are going to click on it. Click on it. You should be taken to the Control Panel .
5. There You will see a block called “Capture Subscribers”. Click on it . The reason we aren’t going to use this form as is is because we can do better.
6. The HTML Form option is the only option available in the Free Version .
7. Click on the “Start Capturing” Button.
8. You will be taken to the “Create HTML Form Wizard”. Look in the  Pass Subscriber Details block. You can’t use the other options in the Free version except tracking code and custom fields. We won’t bother ourselves with it now. Make sure the “Use Standard Settings for my customized landing pages” is selected . Also check “No Thanks. I won’t use custom fields in my form.” is selected.
9. Click on Next Step.
10. You will be presented with HTML Code . All You have to do is Copy that code. Click Select all. Right Click and copy it . Save it in notepad. We will need it later.

Woo. That’s all we need to do at Get Response for the Form. Congratulations on making it this Far.

Step 3 – Getting and Installing the Opt-in Form Adder

Now we can put the form on the Blog as is. Just so you know. But this way is Better.We need to download the wordpress plug-in MaxBlogPress Optin Form Adder. Relax . It is Free.

1. Open the Link Below in a new Window or just link on it.The choice is upto you. The Link
2. Once you click on the link, you will be taken to the plugin download page. Scroll Down . You should see a Big “Download Now” Button.
3. Download the Plugin.
4. Install the Plugin on your blog.
5. Once installed you should see “optin form adder” under Tools. Click on it.
6. You will be asked to Register. All You have to do is click the Register Button. That was the fastest and easiest registration I’ve ever gone through. Probably yours too.

Congrats! You survived the Installation. The hardest part would have been reading the instructions.

Step 4 – Configuring It.

This is last part of the entire process. Its now Man Vs. Plug-in.

1. Under Tools select Optin Form Adder.
2. Choose the Optin Form Settings tab.
3. Remember the Code we copied and saved into a txt file ? Copy that code into the empty box.
4. After you have pasted the Code. Click on the Detect Button. The Next Step button should appear.
5. Everything on that Page should be self explanatory. You need a Headline. In the body text type in the benefits and whatever else you want.
6. Click Next Step button if you are happy with the way the box looks. Most People should find this part easy to deal with.  I had to make the hard decision to not describe literally everything. Otherwise this will come to be known as the “Never ending Blog Post”.
7. Once again the Next Page should be self explanatory. Click the Finish Button when you’re done.
8. Now we are done with tools Part. Look under the Blog’s Appearance tab. Click on Widgets.
9. Under Current Widgets Choose Sidebar. Depending on your theme you might have two sidebars on maybe just one. Choose where you wish it to appear.
10. Add the “MBP optin form adder” option to the sidebar. Just click on add.
11. Then click on the Save Changes Button.

And You are Done !

You have now successfully set up an opt in form on your blog. Either this was a lesson in how to set up an opt-in form for free. Or why using a Paid service that offers support is a Good Idea.

There are a few things I’ve left out because it had nothing to do with setting up a form. But they are important. In Get response, it will be a ridiculously good idea to personalize the campaign. We only looked through the capture subscribers block. Go through the others. Set it up. We’ll discuss that another day.

Much Love.

Have a Great Day.