MailChimp As My Email Provider? NOPE. Here's Why.

WHO'S YOUR EMAIL PROVIDER?

Who do you use for your email campaigns, subscriber opt-ins, and to maintain mailing lists?

There are a lot of companies to choose from, both free and paid. You may turn to Aweber, Mailerlite, MailChimp, and many others.

In my quest to start growing my email list - something I've neglected until now - I have been studying up on MailChimp. I can say, wow...it's not the easiest thing I've ever used. In fact, it's quite confusing.

Today, though, I powered through it. I watched every tutorial I could find. I even turned to Fiverr to have a web developer help me implement some coding into my website for a nice, pretty, subscriber opt-in pop up. I was loving it!!

I could actually say that after about 25 hours of studying, I was starting to pretty much get the hang of it. Well, the basics, anyway.

AND THEN......

My first auto-email was sent to the first person on my list and I went back into my MailChimp dashboard and saw a dreaded warning in bright red, stating that I have violated terms of service....EXCUSE ME????

I checked my email and had a disappointing email stating basically that I was banned from MailChimp....WHAT!? It went on to explain that my website contained "sensitive content" and violated their terms of service!!! O.M.G!!!!

As a very G-rated lady, a mom of 3, a K-12 TEACHER, for goodness sake (!!!) I could not believe my eyes!

The email directed me to their "Acceptable Use Policy", where I read the following:

"Prohibited Content:

--Work from home, make money online, and lead generation opportunities

--Multi-level marketing

--Affiliate marketing

--Credit repair and get out of debt opportunities"

Well, my website is indeed a work from home advice blog, where I provide inspiration and advice to stay at home moms who want to earn a living while being home with their kids. You know, kind of the whole Proverbs 31 vibe from the Bible, actually really good stuff!

I know, pretty racy, HUH!??

Well, MailChimp...all I can say is, You just lost a very good customer in me.

I am frustrated and sad. I spent so much time, and even a little money, getting all my MailChimp stuff set up, and even hiring someone to help me.

I cannot believe I'd be grouped in with the adult x-rated websites, the spam sites that are just junk, and others that are sketchy. Mine is NOT like that, but what can I do?

My question for my fellow WA'ers is:

--If you own an affiliate site or anything involving working from home or promoting WA, do you use MailChimp?

--Is this some sort of new rule?

--What do you suggest I do now?

Thanks for any insight you can give me!