Hi Writerly Rockstars!
I’m here to teach you how to Never Change Your Newsletter Links. Why? Recently (approximately 1-2 months prior to this post), there were some spam-related issues with Mailerlite. Their servers were blacklisted via Spam Haus which resulted in many emails sent via their service hitting spam folders instead of inboxes. Eventually, they resolved their issues and all was once more well in the world of newsletters. But what happened during that blackhole of Spam-land? Many writers sought other newsletter services. Some went the way of self-hosted awesomeness (via Sendy or Mailwizz) while others peeked at Constant Contact, Get Response, and Mailchimp. Regardless of their pick, they jumped off the Mailerlite ship and landed on the newsletter platform of their choice.
I can tell you from experience that switching providers is a pain in the arse, but this post isn’t about all the tears I shed. (A lot.) It’s about the tears OTHER writers shed when they realized they’d have to update their backmatter “register for my newseltter” links. Yeah, you’re picking up the box of tissues I’m putting down, now, aren’t you? Most writers typically take the link to the signup form that their newsletter provider gives them and puts that into their backmatter.
But what happens when you switch providers? If you have a huge catalog, you cry when you think about how many books that need to be updated.
Or, if you’re super awesome, you read this post before you began handing out your signup link and only have to make one tiny change behind the interweb scenes. Me? I rock the behind the scenes magic. Now I’ll teach you how to wield that magic, too.
Before we begin, you must have:
- Domain Name
- Link to a signup form hosted by your newsletter service.
What we’re going to do is create a link that you can freely hand out to readers, put in your backmatter and splatter across your social media, KNOWING that if you ever change newsletter providers, you won’t be sobbing. We’re going to create http://list.nanowrimoprep.com and tell that domain to “forward” to a newsletter signup page. Once I do this, I can change where http://list.nanowrimoprep.com is directed AT ANY TIME. Today it forwards to readwritehustle.com and tomorrow it can forward to google.com. It is my choice and is easily updated day or night.
These directions and screenshots are from Namecheap and my own Namcheap dashboard. If you did not purchase your domain via Namcheap, you can still do this process. The directions may simply be slightly different.
1. After logging into Namecheap, go to Domain List, find the Domain Name you’re going to use and click Manage.
2. Click the Advanced DNS tab.
3. Now, scroll until you see the Add Record button. Click the Add Record button.
4. Here is where we’ll begin adding the important information. In the Type dropdown box, you will select URL Redirect Record.
5. For Host, you will enter a single word of your choice. It can be something like list or news. This single word is going to be part of your newsletter signup link. The Value box should be where you want your new link to forward. Whether that’s the form that Mailerlite hosts for you or Mailchimp’s form. Wherever you want your reader to GO. Once you have entered your Value, please click the green checkmark to save your changes.
And that is IT! Now, to signup for a newsletter using my NEW link I created for us today, I would tell you to go to http://list.nanowrimoprep.com Interwebs magic would sprinkle its pixie dust and you would end up at the link I entered in the Value box above. (Which happens to be this post.)
*tosses glitter* Magic!
Keep in mind that the interwebs are powered by computers and like any computer, sometimes takes a while to update. Your new link should go live within 30 minutes (per Namecheap) and then you can scatter your link to the four corners of the Earth.
I hope you found this post helpful and share it with other rockstar authors.
Have a rockstar day of writing!
Celia
