Introduction

This post is a non-biased post,  created as a part of my research in an attempt to answer my own questions about should I go self-hosted or not.  I am NOT an ExPERT and you must do your own research if you want to make money or run a business.  This blog post is basic research.  I will most likely stay a worpress.com user for some time because at present I have no business ambitions.

Terminology

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a way of creating mailing list.   Mailchimp allows a free service upto 2,000 subscribers see pricing here.

Things you must be mindful of:-

• You can not add someone to your list without their consent.
• Your mailing list supplier must be GDPR compliant and allow you to be compliant.
• Because mailing lists are a form of advertising  you have to give your address details so people can contact you.  I believe this is a Legal requirement.   Obviously, you do not want to use your home address, or work address, so you may have to think about a PO Box.   PO Boxes cost money.
• Most people use mailchimp because it is free to start, but there are other options for mailing list, like Active Campaign, Convert Kit, and others.

Creating a Campaign.

Remember – YOU CAN NOT ADD people to your contact list without their permissions.

As always I share YouTube video to give you a flavour of how to create a campaign.  I, unfortunately, can not find a video that actually show you how to set up a mailchimp account first of all.   I have set one up and it really easy to do.   But, you have to give your address!

What is GDPR?

The reason I am including GDPR in this post is that it is very important to understand that GDPR  when you plan to do anything on the internet.   GDPR – was released on 25th May 2018.  Here are a few links on GDPR.  With a mailing list you are collecting data on a person, so you are responsible for that data, you really don’t want to collect more than you truly need.

Why I Won’t be Using a Mailing List Service

As I have already stated,  I have no idea of what I want to sell,  and currently, I am blogging for fun.  As much as I want to create a mailing which is separate to the email list I have on wordpress.com  is

1. I can’t see the value add of having two mailing lists,  effectively one from the blog, and another one using mailchimp; that my blogging friends might sign up too.
   • However, the advantage of mailchimp is you use your landing page,  on facebook and get a mailing list to grow that way, where people may not visit your blog.  Your can run other campaigns that are not blog related.  But, because I am not a business, or offering anything extra I guess this where I get stuck, to see what is the value add of me creating and running a mailchimp list.
2. Additionally,  the cost to run a PO.BOX  as my address for only 6 months was something like £200 plus pounds.

Conclusion

Do your own research on this, this a basic post to help me figure it out.  I am no expert and I don’t claim to be any clearer in what I should do.

Thanks for reading.  This post was created  7th Oct 2018, it is not meant to be an expert advise post, it is a basic research post of someone who is still a bit clueless.  But, the videos shared are helpful I know for sure.

If you have more experience than I please share it in the comments for other wordpress.com users to learn from.  There are a lot of us that are confused.

This is the last post in this series.

I created all these posts for my personal basic learning and understanding.  I wanted, to share with you all because I know we are interested in these topics.  Thought I am not going to be following up with these -YET,  it has been a great learning curve for myself and I hope you enjoyed it too.

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