Hi, Jackie!

I know that what I'm relaying to you below answer does not answer your question about help on setting up MailChimp with your site. The truth is that I don't know how, but, I am able to offer alternatives for you to investigate.

JSakanee is right - just a couple of months ago, MailChimp updated their terms and conditions again. They have decided that affiliate marketing is a big no-no.

Having said this, I'm confident there are WA folks who still use MC but as far as whether or not they've run into any difficulties ... perhaps they will chime in for us and relate their experiences.

In the meantime, MadMimi allows 100 free emails a month. That's not much, but it is enough to get you started and should be enough so you can learn the ropes.

There's a free autoresponder at ListWire. And yes - it is 100% absolutely free. But does it come with all the bells and whistles you'll need and want? You'll need to take a look for yourself at this dot com. I've never used LW but found out about it when I was researching autoresponders.

There's also something called SendGrid which allows 12,000 free emails a month, but I've not had the time to really research SG yet (though this is on my schedule to address).

Again, none of these answer your question but in the event you find yourself looking for alternatives, perhaps you'll find this info useful.

God Bless!
~Cathy

mailchimp is just an autoresponder of sorts for email... Its really easy to use and plugs in to most of your "contact form" style plugins. Using mailchimp will help build you a list of email subscribers that you can market to later

Hi Jackie,

You paid with Paypal so you will need to log into your Paypal account to change your credit card details on file.

Here are the steps to do this:

1 - Log in to your PayPal account.
2 - Click the settings icon next to "Log out."
3 - Click Preapproved Payments under "Payment settings."
4 - Click the name of the merchant for the agreement you want to change.
5 - Click Change in the Payment Method section.
6 - Select the payment method you’d like to use.

In this area you can change your credit card or update your existing one.

Hope this helps :)

Carson

That depends on the sociable plugin you picked. Try a plugin after you install it. You can always delete it an try another one.

Browjack5 don't feel bad I must have missed it as well. The super socializer looks great! Try that one.

Depends on which plug-in you are using. Somewhere in the set-up, there should be a choice of horizontal or vertical. I use Super Socializer and I have them vertical on one site and horizontal on the other.

Ok so I look for a placement option on settings? Thanks for your reply.

I think it depends on which plugin for share buttons you have. I don't have that option in my settings to put them vertical with the plugin I am using.

Using pinterest pictures directly on your website is the same as using one from a search engine - they are almost always under copyright and should be regarded as such. There is some controversy over pinterest and copyright but for the most part they just link to the source - they don't change the copyright despite what their confusing TOS states. If you have a pinterest account with a board of collected images that link back to the original sources and want to show this board on your website they do have a widget feature that shows them in a smaller window with the option to view the collection on pinterest. As far as I know there isn't anything wrong with this indirect means.

Thanks guys, basically you buy packages through them to publish your book, my book was a children's book. I had published another book with a friend doing everything ourselves, a teacher type manual.

So I bought a publishing package pertinent to my genre. I found it a much easier process to have the book published through a company like Xlibris .... As they found an illustrator and many of the things that you had to organise your self when working on your own...that were time consuming to do... Were on tap,graphic design, finding an illustrator, type setting, choosing paper, there were size boundaries, etc... etc....All sorts of things that add up cost wise, when you are publishing on your own, were a part of the package. So basically the process was well done...

I think having already been through it once, helped a great deal as I have read Xlibris complaint posts and I can see that you can have quite unrealistic expectations going through this process for the first time.

I then bought marketing packages, iPad app package and a Hollywood script package..... All this costs money... It is not a cheap exercise. I chose areas that I thought most useful and appealing to kids... ie the iPad App....

The book publishing world it would seem has gone through a complete metamorphosis in the past five years, as I was publishing...Book shops have closed all over the world as the impact of the digital age hit. Thus publishing companies have to reinvent themselves and I think that process is still happening.

The biggest problem in this competitive market is advertising..getting visible, I have learnt more about marketing here I have to say and I realise that Xlibris were a bit behind the ball in that quarter. You need to get reviews, and develop a profile... All this I am still struggling with.

It was also interesting to go to an Educational Book Fair and hear stories of authors that publish through a publishing house and only get 10% of the royalties... (which put me off) they say that the biggest thing for them is that the Publisher is taking the financial risk and to them it was worth only getting 10% royalties. It is within the publishers interest to market the book and those pathways are set for them. Something the author then does not have to worry about.


I get that now, I am inclined to agree as I still have a debt to pay and three hundred books back home in Australia to sell!! But I am not as bad as the guy that I met that had to mortgaged his house to publish the most magnificent picture books of the Kimberley region of Western Australia then completed a sequel and had to buy an industrial warehouse to house the tons of books he had to order to make it all worthwhile and.... to save his marriage ....as his house was full of pellets of books! Such is the creative spirit!

So my problem is to promote my iPad Ap and start making some money from it as one of the deals was that Xlibris set the price of the book, which I guess is fair enough but I am not sure it is helping sales, I want to promote the App first.

So would love hear from anyone else that may have gone through this process, that have any tips..or wisdom in this field. I am thinking that ebooks are the way to go now. So working towards that sphere.

Looking forward to a chat on this topic.

Best wishes,
Jackie

I want to stay in the loop on this topic, but have not used them. :)
Thanks for asking the question, I will be lurking

I have not but am interested in yours. Please let me know your experience.