What is Z-Library? What happened to Z-Library? Why is everyone so upset about it, and does Colleen Hoover really have anything to do with it? I try to get to the bottom of the story.
[Read more…]Best Free Services for Email Blog Subscriptions
Are you a blogger looking to start offering email subscriptions to your blog? Trying to find the best service without paying a lot? Here’s some information about what I think are the Best Free Services for Email Subscriptions in 2022!
How to set up Blog Update Emails on Mailchimp
If you are a Blogspot blogger using Feedburner, you may or may not realize that RSS emails have been sent to your subscribers. Starting in July 2021, you will need to set up these emails yourself. You can do this! Here’s How to Set Up Automatic Blog Update Emails on Mailchimp just like the ones Feedburner sent for you!
Note: while these instructions may work for other email subscription services, like MailerLite, ConvertKit, etc. there might be slight differences. If you are a WordPress blogger, you can use a Mailchimp plug-in to collect email addresses, but the rest will apply to you!
First step to setting up Blog update emails: Sign up for a MailChimp Account
You can probably handle this part! Do the FREE account for now. BUT to send emails through MailChimp you will need 1) a mailing address you’re willing to share with subscribers. They also highly recommend (but don’t seem to require) using a domain email address.
If do NOT have a mailing address you are comfortable sharing you might want to consider other email services. See my recommendations here.
Why does MailChimp require a mailing address?
They require a mailing address to comply with the FTC’s CAN SPAM act, which is the same law that requires us to be able to easily unsubscribe from unwanted emails (yay!) You DON’T have to use your home address. You can use a PO box or a business address.
They highly recommend a domain and a domain email to ensure that your emails don’t end up in spam (and probably to prevent spammers from using their service.
Just telling you this now in case you’re like “NO WAY” and want to back out before we even get started. Or find a different email subscription service.
Next: Set up Blog Update Emails on Mailchimp:
Create a “Campaign”
- On your homepage, click on that megaphone icon, or navigate to Campaigns
2. That should get you to a Campaigns page. Click the black box in the upper right corner that says Create Campaign. Then select Email, the first item on the list on the left hand.
Choose Automated from the three choices on the top bar. Then you’re going to pick Share Blog Updates. That should take you to the right hand image below. Click Begin. Don’t worry, it sounds alarming but it doesn’t begin anything except the design process.
3. On the next page, type the URL of your blog feed in the box (this is usually www.yourURL/feed OR if you use Blogger it is www.yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/post/default). Usually Mailchimp will help you find and validate the feed you want to use.
Then choose what day and time you want your email to go out. Should you check “resize images?” I’m not actually sure, but make a choice and then you will be able to troubleshoot it. Since I have a WordPress plug-in that sizes my blog images, I’m not going to check it. If you’re on Blogger, maybe check it and see what happens. Then click NEXT down in the bottom right.
4. Next, Mailchimp will ask you who you want to send the email to. If you’ve imported your Feedburner subscribers, you can choose Entire Audience. If you haven’t, you can still check Entire Audience. Later on you will subscribe to your own email to test the subscription box and see what the emails look like. Fun! Click NEXT again.
5. Now, here is the part where you can personalize your email a little bit. You will get to a window that says Campaign Info (see image below).
That first box (Campaign name) you can change. That’s just for your own use.
The second box (Email Subject Line) you can personalize a little if you want. You could add emoji, or say “Latest Posts.” But you can also leave it alone for now. If you connected Twitter and Facebook when you set up your account, you can scroll down and auto-Tweet when your newsletter goes out. However, I’d wait on that and see if you like how it looks first. When you’re ready, click NEXT again.
Time to building an email template – don’t be scared!
6. Okay here comes the part that might seem daunting. You can do it! You need to pick a template. For a beginner doing an RSS feed post I’d scroll down to the “Basic” section and just pick the one column format. Simple! Then you should hit NEXT again.
You’ll get to a little builder window where you can edit the template.
7. Hover your cursor over Logo and if you want, you can upload an image with your blog header or logo. Don’t want to do that? Hover the logo block, hit the trash can icon and that item will be removed.
8. If you select that text box, an editing window will open to the right where you can edit the text. Whatever text you write will be on every email that goes out. Don’t worry; you can go back and change it later. Remember the main content of your email will be your blog posts which MailChimp will magically pull out of your feed and put in the email. In my example I’m going to edit it. Here I clicked on the text box and opened the editing window:
And here is the text after I edited it down a little bit.
Add your RSS Feed!
Okay now this is important and NOT super-intuitive – to get your RSS feed in there, find the block on the right that says RSS Items and drag that over to the left and drop it into your email template. This is what the RSS items block looks like. Just drag it sideways and plop it down where you want it.
I did all that above (plus added my logo) and it looks like this:
Above is what your email will look like. First the logo, then text, then all that asterisk stuff is where your blog posts will go. If you prefer, you can drop the RSS feed above the text if you prefer. Click NEXT to get to the confirmation screen and here’s where you can see if it worked:
Enter Preview Mode … it’s the moment of truth!
Find Preview and Test in the top black bar and select Enter Preview Mode.
You should see a blog post there! From that same “Preview and Test” drop down menu, you can send yourself a test email. Mine preview looks like this (below). Look, my latest blog post has magically appeared.
Is there is a problem? If so, click the X on the top right. That will exit you out of Preview mode. Then troubleshoot your editing to get things the way you want.
NOTE: your RSS feed is set up as either Full or Partial in your blog settings. Partial means that the reader will have to click through to your blog to read the full post.
If the email looks good, then you can schedule it to go out and see how it works on the day you set it to send. Click the big X on the top right to exit preview mode, and then hit NEXT again and you’ll get this screen:
This screen above recaps everything you did. Do you like the way things look? Next, click Start RSS in the bottom right. If you’re still not ready to start sending emails), then click Exit and Save in the top left. That way you can come back later to start the campaign. If this email is just going to you, don’t sweat it.
Okay, hope that tutorial on how to set up blog update emails on Mailchimp was helpful.
Let’s make a subscription box!
There’s a drawback to everything. The Mailchimp form you can use on Blogger is either REALLY wordy or rather ugly. But, I will tell you how to do it:
- Go to the Audience tab from the Mailchimp home page
2. Choose Sign-up Forms
3. Choose whether you want an embedded form or a pop-up. I think embedded is easier, but up to you.
4. Copy the HTML code and paste it in a widget on your site.
Here’s how the Mailchimp “Horizontal” form (top left) and MailerLite form (just below) look on my old Blogger site. Yes, the Mailerlite one is less ugly. If you hate the Mailchimp one, you can use Hello Bar, which integrates with Mailchimp.
Here’s a sample of two different forms:
That SUBSCRIBE with the little box on the left is Mailchimp form . Below that (and on the right) is the MailerLite form.
Questions? Comments? Want me to do a post on setting up a MailerLite Campaign? Talk to me in comments!
What Are the Best Image Sizes for Social Media?
When you’re a blogger with limited time and resources, keeping up with ALL the different aspects of blogging is hard. Every social media platform handles photos differently and they are always changing their minds! Here’s my Guide to the Best Image Sizes for Social Media in 2021
This post was updated on May 6, 2021 to reflect NEW image size preferences on Twitter!
Why You Should Always Check Your Own Posts
In my post on Things Bloggers Should Worry Less (and More) About, I reminded you to check your blog’s readability on both desktop and mobile.
But as time went by, I forgot to check how my blog preview images looked on social media!
A few years ago, I researched what size and shape was best for blog images. It seemed like most bloggers were using square photos, so I did too.
Recently, I realized that my preview images on Twitter and Facebook were weirdly cropped.
Do you check out your own social media feed? I guess I haven’t recently, because I was surprised to see recently that my Twitter images now looked like this:
[Read more…]Five Controversial Book Review Words
I’ve been thinking recently about five words used in book reviews and the (sometimes unintended) controversy they can provoke. Words that to some people might seem complimentary or neutral, but to someone else…
… they’re fighting words.
We can probably all agree that words like “boring” or “fantastic” or “amazing” or “pretentious” are pretty clear-cut, but I’ve also been noticing a few words book reviewers use that seem to stir up a lot of controversy. Or at least make you wonder: was that intentional shade?
Five Controversial Book Review Words:
Trope: I love discussing tropes in books. I use the term “trope” to refer to a type of narrative that’s familiar to most people. Like a hate-to-love relationship or a rags-to-riches storyline. There are tropes I like and tropes I personally dislike or even find offensive. But some people seem to perceive the word “trope” itself as derogatory no matter what the context. (Merriam Webster calls a trope a “common or overused theme or device” so that just adds to the confusion.) Is “overused” a bad thing? Are there even any original ideas left out there? And, most importantly, can there ever be too many hate to love plots? Me: no way!
Here’s a book that I found tropes in and still loved!
Predictable: This is another word that’s tricky. Is calling a story “predictable” a negative? I guess it all depends on the genre you’re reading and what you’re looking for in a book. I will admit to describing stories as predictable while still liking them. To me, predictable means that I, personally, was successfully able to predict what was going to happen. But that doesn’t mean someone else won’t find the same story completely surprising. Or that a predictable story (like a HEA romance) can’t be utterly enjoyable at the same time.
Here’s an example of a book I found predictable and enjoyed a lot!
Unlikeable: Calling a character “unlikeable” could mean that character was appropriately unlikeable in the context of the story. It could mean that while you enjoyed the story and found the character compelling and well-written, you wouldn’t want to be friends with them in real life. It could mean that you couldn’t stand the character AT ALL. I think some of the most interesting and compelling characters are unlikeable, so I don’t necessarily see this as an insult. But opinions vary!
Here’s a book with a main character a lot of people found unlikeable, but I absolutely loved!
Unrealistic: Another very subjective word, and one which I don’t use often in reviews. Still, I will argue that saying something is unrealistic is NOT necessarily saying it is inaccurate. Calling something “unrealistic” in a story usually just means that one individual person didn’t find something plausible as described in the story and when compared to their own life experience. It doesn’t mean that another person might see the exact same thing as believable and authentic.
Here’s a trope (ha!) that’s pretty unrealistic … but I love it!
Young: This is another word that some YA readers and authors can feel touchy about. From time to time I do highlight a book as “young YA” not as criticism, but as a way to a) tell adult readers of YA that the narrative voice or themes or plot felt a little on the young side for me and b) let parents know that the book might be a great option for advanced middle grade readers ready to delve into YA. I just read a great article about this called Where Are the Books For Tweens? If you’re looking for books for readers like this, you’re in luck, as I am preparing a list for later this week!
Hope you enjoyed my line-up of some controversial words in book reviews. As a reader or reviewer or reader of reviews (or all three!) how do you feel about these reviewing words? Do you use them? Avoid them? Are there other words that get you in a fighting mood?
Tell me in comments!
Taking a break from an author
Is there an author whose books you absolutely loved … until you didn’t? Let’s talk about taking a break from an author!
I was recently writing this review for two books by an author whose books I stopped reading for years after the very unexpected death of a major character. (Interestingly, the situation was VERY similar to what happened in Veronica Mars S4. But the story of that author break-up was probably more complicated than that, including the fact that my reading taste had changed.)
This made me think about taking a break from an author. The reasons could be two-fold: maybe their books changed, or maybe you did. In the first scenario, maybe they killed off a beloved character or sank your favorite ship. In the second, maybe their books stayed exactly the same (even too much the same?) and you decided you wanted to go in a different direction?
I’ve had this happen a few times. I can be kind of an obsessive reader (and person) and sometimes I just burn out on a particular kind of book. Or there was another thriller writer I read religiously and then the quality of his books suddenly seemed to go way downhill, like he was just cranking them out on auto-pilot, so I took a break. (Thankfully, he got back on track.) And while I like authors who make risky, gutsy choices, I don’t like it when it seems like an author kills off a character who’s inconvenient or has lost their usefulness.
In the case of the first author I took a break from, I recently went back to re-assess and decided that I would read her standalone books, but that her series books just weren’t for me anymore as a reader.
Have you taken a break from an author? Did you go back? Tell me about it in comments!