MailChimp to Send Out Blog Posts

I have now used MailChimp to send out the blog for the past week….this blog post will be the 5th blog post it will send out.  Now that I have it configured correctly, it is working like a charm.  Personally, I think it looks better than the email version that FeedBurner sent out.

If you need to know why, I referenced the article at Feedblitz (click on image above to read it) on a previous blog post in early May.  This post is just to let those fellow bloggers how MailChimp is working for our blog, and provide a few links to help them set it up if they choose to go this route.

The above image shows what the beginning of our blog post titled “Where oh Where is Our Little Awning Now” looked like in the email.  Below is the bottom of the email of the post.

Each post includes a link to the last five postings before the one mailed out, a picture of Marcia and I, links to unsubscribe or update subscription preferences, and a “MailChimp” logo link.  One can add more stuff if they wish, but this was sufficient for our needs, at least for now.

If you have under 2,000 subscribers, MailChimp is free….no contract, no credit card required, free forever.  That seemed to be the best subscription deal I could find, but that does not mean there isn’t a better one.

  

Click on either of both of the icons above to go to a MailChimp webpage which can help you see more about MailChimp for Bloggers.  I found the setup to be fairly simple, and I did not read the instructions (like usual for me).  My first email had a “MailChimp suggestion” inserted which I should have deleted in the setup.  I also had to test a few ways to set up the subject line, and settled for this one:

*|RSSFEED:TITLE|* -- *|RSSITEM:TITLE|* for *|RSSFEED:DATE|*

With this, the email subject line for my last post looked like this:

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

1.  You will be setting up a “Campaign”, more specifically a RSS Driven Campaign.  You need to import your email addresses from FeedBurner, I did it by exporting in “csv” format, and then importing the “csv” list into MailChimp.

2.  Be sure you “start RSS” after you set it up.  If you need to edit your campaign, you have “pause” your campaign first….which means you have to “start RSS” again before it sends out again.  I thought I was done, and it did not send out the first time.  I edited by pausing to get my subject line looking better, and did not restart the RSS so it delayed sending out one blog post for a full day until I restarted the RSS.  Here is a “snippet” of the browser page you will see if you set one up.

Don’t get fooled as I did….”You’re all set to send!” does not mean you are done…you HAVE to click the small blue button to the bottom right which starts the RSS.  (When I posted the “new tires” blog two days ago, I had edited the subject line, and did not restart the RSS.  I did not notice this until Saturday night, and I restarted the RSS, and the Friday Blog Post went out Sunday at noon Eastern Time.)

After clicking the blue start RSS button, this above message appears, and you have to click “Start Campaign”.

Then you will see the “DONE” page.  Now you are active…just sit back and post your blogs, and they will go out to all of your subscribers.  MailChimp offers you some nice reports, including how many people opened their email, how many clicked on a link, and stuff like that.  You set the time you want the emails delivered….however, the person subscribing can ask for a weekly email of all blot postings instead of one each day if a new post took place.  If someone signs up, you can have MailChimp send you an email…if they unsubscribe, it can send you an email on that too.  There is lots for you to choose from.

Garmin-Kenwood Sound System Update

Today was time to tackle the Kenwood eXcelon DNX6980 2-DIN Multimedia DVD Receiver With Navigation & Bluetooth.  Frankly, I did not know much about it, had no idea if it was factory or added later.  Well, it was first available in 2011, and we have a 2005 motorhome, so that question is answered.  Next, I needed to know if it needed updating, and if so, how.  It is not an easy process…you connect a flash drive via USB, or in the bottom left there is a place to put in a very small sim card, much smaller than my computer can handle.  So it was the USB method…except the person who installed it hit the usb access under the dash.  So I had to remove the outer console, then the inside engine cover that most vans have, and fish out the wires. 

While do this, I decided to tackle the non-working auxiliary power outlet above the cigarette lighter.  Well, all I could find out about this without taking more of the dash apart is that there is nothing connected to the auxiliary power outlet.  Hmmm, wonder if the installer of this fancy GPS/Radio/DVD/CD/etc player unhooked something and did not reconnect it?

As you can see from this rear view, this thing is a monster.  There is so much under this dash I am not sure we can figure out the auxiliary power outlet without taking the dash apart…perhaps Arny might be able to do his magic.  Bottom line, I was able to get our I-Pod to connect, found out that we have life-long traffic, but we will need to purchase a Garmin update for the maps if we choose to do that…along with a 10 gig flash drive for the updates unless I want to use the one I carry with me that has lots of backup stuff on it.

Earlier in the week our Winegard RV-WING Wingman White UHF Booster TV Antenna came, so I got on the roof and installed this to our Winegard Antenna.  This was the third booster I have purchased, and it does help bring in the UHF channels better.  Had one on my 5th wheel, bought but never had the chance to install on the Jayco before it burned up, and now this one.  It took about 5 minutes to install, and I did a quick check of the sealing done at PPL a few weeks ago.  Looks like we should be leak proof on the roof for a good long time.  One downfall with this motorhome is not having a ladder attached….makes it a bit scary for one who does not appreciate heights, that’s for sure…but I made it ok.

````Well, I let down MailChimp by missing a step in programing it to send out the blog.  Rookie mistake for someone who has not been a computer rookie for 30 so years now.  This blog should send out Saturday around noon eastern time….I have my monkey fingers and Skruffy’s tail crossed for good luck.  (Bubba doesn’t have much of a tail, or I would tie his too!)  I know other fellow users of “blogger” are struggling with the emailing of their blogs.  If this works, I will try and write a blog about MailChimp in case they wish to do what I have done.

Butterflies….

Last year we met Mary-Pat up at Crater Lake, Oregon.  Mary-Pat was just starting out on her journey for the year from of all places, the Roseville area near where my sister lives, and near where we currently are located.  I started following her blog, and noticed she was having problems with her header at the top of the blog that she was seeking help with.  I offered a few suggestions, eventually I made the header picture above which she just loved so much….and I was more than happy to be of assistance.  One thing nice about this header picture is that it has a transparent background, so if she changes the colors of her blog, it (the background behind the butterflies heart and wording) will change with it…..and with all those colors with these butterflies, there are endless colors for her to choose from which will match her header.

Today after her physical therapy for a recent knee surgery, we met her at Brookfields Restaurant in Roseville, not far from her PT.  Mom and Dad live going to Brookfields, and I can remember when it first opened not far from one of the restaurants I use to manager back in 1981…it sure took a dent out of our business at that location for a few months, that’s for sure.  (Thank goodness I got out of that vocation, restaurant work is hard, something I did for over 14 years, starting at 16 years old.)

This time I remembered to get a picture of Mary-Pat, and I included our lunch with it.  It took the waitress about 45 minutes to get to our order taken, not because of her lack of trying, but because we were engrossed in talking through much of our visit.  That is Marcia to the right, and Mary-Pat across the table from me.  You will have to visit her blog later to see a picture of us….unless I broke another camera. 

At the beginning of the month I talked about FeedBurner problems in that Yahoo, Hotmail, and others, are not sending FeedBurner emails through.  I tried a few fixes, but to no avail.  Read something from a blogger who felt that Google could fix this fairly easy, but they want everyone to use their Google Circles thing, which makes me NOT want to use Google Circles even that much more.  So I have now set up an email list with MailChimp.  By noon Pacific time tomorrow I will know if I set it up right or not to mail out the blog to our followers who have requested it.

This is going to be the first blog that MailChimp hopefully sends out…if I do it right.  MailChimp is free for email lists of up to 2,500 addresses, which means for me, it should be free for like, forever.  “IF” I ever got that high, then I think we would be having Amazon links, advertising, etc. in order to pay for it all.  Not even my intentions, that is for sure.

Here is Bubba and Skruffy earlier today on another “hunt”.  Honestly, we really don’t think either will ever get a squirrel, and as we said last year, it would break our hearts if they ever did harm one.  But it is a real hoot watching them try day in and day out.  Yes, that is a squirrel inside the little feeder house.

They have both brown and grey squirrels here in the backyard, and sometimes they can be a bit loud as they “bark” back at Skruffy.

    

There are two of these Blue Birds (left) which try to keep the other birds (like the one on the right) away from the bird feeders.  This year, they have even gone after the Doves, but since there are more Doves than Blue Birds, the Dove are less intimidated.

   

And this little hummingbird is the same little guy which keeps all but his girlfriends away from the hummingbird feeder, just like last year.

I have had some very nice places to post blogs from…mostly from inside the motorhome looking out at ocean, a river, a mountain….but here is one of the few places that I can do it sitting outside in the nice cool shade, free from bugs, and enjoy nature from just outside of the bustling metropolis of Sacramento.  Life sure is wonderful at times….