members sign-up/mailchimp missmatch

[Harty]

Hi,
Having launched a new site with zero members I can see today that the number of members is far greater than the number shown in the corresponding mailchimp account.
Have I done something wrong?

[Cristián Lávaque]

What do you mean? You have more members in your website than the MailChimp account?

[Harty]

Yes, that's correct. more members than mail chimp email addresses.

[Cristián Lávaque]

And they are all members that, according to your MailChimp integration should have been added to the MailChimp lists? Could some be at a level that isn't covered by the integration?

[Harty]

Hi.
I only have one level - Zero. Free for all.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Got it.

How many do you have in each (WP and MailChimp)? Can you find something in common between the guys not in MailChimp?

[Harty]

Hi.
Just had a quick scan to compare my wp member list with the mailchimp list. It appears that Hotmail and company email addresses are treated inconsistently by mailchimp.
I found hotmail addresses in the wp list that didn't appear in mailchimp, but then found some that did. The same with company addresses.

I also had one person email yesterday saying their password was not sent, but I think that was user error.

[Cristián Lávaque]

I see. OK...

Could you try the fix Jason posted here? viewtopic.php?f=4&p=14805#p14805

Your problem may or may not be related to it, but trying it won't hurt. After applying it, monitor your new registrations and the MailChimp list and let me know how it goes.

[Harty]

Hi, not sure the issues are related. Mine is that 'some' subscribers are not appearing on the mailchimp list. The issue covered by Jason appears to be with removing emails from a list.
However, i'll upload the file...

[Cristián Lávaque]

Yeah, I know that particular thing mentioned in the thread is not your problem, but there was more than one thing fixed for MailChimp in that fix, if I understand correctly. That's why I said I don't know if it's related to your problem.

[rossagrant]

Guys, could this not just be a simple case that not all people signing up to your site are confirming they want to be added to your list, through the opt in email they will receive? You'll never get 100% opting in.

As long as the opt ins are being sent, you have no problem.

[Harty]

Oh! I thought if they agreed to become a member they by default agreed to be sent occasional emails. Isn't that how these things normally work?
What you appear to be saying is that people double opt in to become a member and then double otpin again to join the mail chimp list.

[rossagrant]

Yep, due to Mail list Terms and Conditions the user HAS to manually opt in. They are sent an email automatically on sign up to your site from Mailchimp but they MUST click a link in the mail to be subscribed.

Therefore I think your issue is just a simple case of not everyone subscribing to your list.

[Cristián Lávaque]

You could light a candle to the Goddess of Convertion Rates.

Ross, thanks for that idea, I had not thought of it. There is a way to make the integration single opt-in, though, right? Just asking.

[Harty]

I contacted mail chimp. They can't help with s2member advice of course, but checked my list. They said 45 addresses have not been added because they are role based email addresses. Which is a bit of a difficulty here in new Zealand as there are so many small businesses who will use sales@ or info@ etc as an email address. Seems a bit harsh to prevent these addresses being added even when a person with such as email address double opts in.

[rossagrant]

Hey Christian,

the way I mentioned is classed as 'Single optin'.

The member only has to click the link in order to opt in, thus do just ONE thing.

If you set up 'Double Opt-in' in S2Member then that puts a tick box on the registration form that a member has to tick at sign up just in order to be sent the email opt in link. The user ticks the box at sign up and STILL HAS TO CLICK THE LINK in order to be signed up, thus a double opt-in.

I don't know of any way except for manually inputting members emails within Mailchimp to sign them up without their express permission.

Ross

[Cristián Lávaque]

Ah, the Double Optin Checkbox setting for the List Servers API. Sorry for asking a silly question.

Harty, thanks for the update. It really seems silly to impose that limitation. Did they mention how it could be lifted?

[Harty]

Re mailchimp... I haven't checked my account yet, but if I understand mail chimp correctly, the delisted email addresses are in the system but have to be manually 'turned on' one by one. Or I can add each one manually.
This issue has got me rethinking using mailchimp. For example, one of the email addresses I use is editor@ and that would be refused by mailchimp. It puts a bar on email addresses that look like job titles.
I think it is a silly restriction and am quite annoyed by it.

[Cristián Lávaque]

I can perfectly understand you. I wasn't aware of that restriction.

Here are a couple of references I found on this:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/role-addresse ... ot-people/
http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/what-ro ... importing/

I'll point Jason to this thread in case he has any ideas to deal with this.

The other solution would be to go with another list server... The other pre-integrated one in s2Member would be AWeber, don't know if you like them or if they'll have a similar restriction, though.

[Harty]

Hi. Have to say I went with mailchimp because Jason had said in a tuition video (or I read it somewhere) that you guys were working to integrate with them (or words to that effect). So figured I'd be on a good bet. This is my first time doing anything like this... I'll check out aweber's terms and conditions and review the refs you have listed.
Thanks.

[Cristián Lávaque]

We are planning to use MailChimp. I don't know if Jason is aware of that limitation you found, but we'll know when he comes back and comments.

[Harty]

Looks like I need to educate my subscribers not to sign up with role based email addresses with a line saying: "Please do not sign up using a role based email address as it may be rejected as spam"
I'd like to add this to the sign up form, but can't see where/how to do this. I have so many pages now...
Can you help?

[Harty]

this is what aweber says:
They [role based emails] can be added to the list as long as they have directly
requested your information...

[Harty]

Just signed up to my site using a sales@ address. I got a confirmation email from MailChimp, but my address did not appear in my mailchimp list.
I have now created a check box on my sign up page asking people not to use role based email addresses.
See it at http://www.viewfinder.co.nz/wp-login.ph ... n=register - think this is the best I can do at the moment.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks everyone for bringing this to my attention.
~ and thanks Cristián for the heads up.

I'm taking a look at this issue now to see if there is anything we can do to improve the experience, both for users and for site owners. At the very least, we'll try to make people aware of this problem ( via documentation ) so it's not a surprise.

Ideas? What about a friendly note during registration letting Customers know? Something written in JavaScript that would detect the most common issues? http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/what-ro ... importing/