We’re taking a break from our normal routine to announce that we’ve switched tools used for sending blog subscriptions via email. The new format from Mail Chimp (we hope) is prettier and more functional for those loyal readers who prefer to keep up with our stories via email.
I may have already botched things …
Last Friday’s blog post went out Saturday morning by accident … before I knew what kind of penalties Mail Chimp could impose if too many people did not recognize our new email format and either:
- Unsubscribed
- Reported us as SPAM
That led to my hurried and panicked email Sunday morning that went out to current email subscribers asking everyone to re-subscribe. Except … I botched that too by not opening a new list and creating a matching subscribe form. That meant many people got alerts they were already subscribed. Some told me that. Others went ahead and updated their profiles with new email addresses and such.
I thought perhaps I would have to start OVER again today, but I think I’m just going to let this ride. If Mail Chimp locks my account as SPAM, maybe some of you guys can email them on my behalf or something.
Holler if you see glitches in the new format, please.
Even with pre-made templates and other what-you-see-is-what-you-get technologies, the new format will likely need some tweaking.
Please let us know by posting a comment here or sending us an email, if you see any glitches. Those might include:
- Graphics not showing up right or getting cut off
- Links not working properly
- The text looking weird or unreadable
- Email arriving at odd times
We typically publish new posts around 7 am (mountain time) on the days we post. I’m still trying to work out the timezone options for the email tool, so I’m curious what time it’ll land in your in boxes.
Here is what it should look like:
I suppose it would be prettier if we had a blog “logo” and better placement of our “headline” above the familiar photo banner of Lilly, but we’ll go with this look for now.
I’ve suspended our old email tool, so please let me know if you get both the old and the new version of our emails.
Wouldn’t you like to be a subscriber too?
If you’d like to get alerts and summaries of our blog posts via email, click through to this Champion of My Heart Email Subscription Form. It’s totally free, of course. And, we just need your email address and your preferred email format (html, plain text, mobile).
Still going with a partial feed …
We went from a full RSS feed (which populates both feed readers and our email subscriptions … along with automated blog posts to Facebook) to a partial feed in the spring in hopes of boosting our blog site traffic.
It is not my favorite decision because I personally prefer a full feed (and I hate how it looks on Facebook by pulling only a generic screen shot instead of whatever photo I’ve chosen), but actual SITE TRAFFIC is what book publishers look at most to assess our oomph in the dog-loving marketplace.
The new email tool will continue to bring you an except only. To see photos and any video, or to comment, you’ll need to click through.
We haven’t heard much rumbling about the partial feed, so if you are really, really, really hating it … let us know.
Mobile Upgrade
Last week, we also added some new programming in the form of a licensed plugin tool that SHOULD allow Champion of My Heart to render BETTER (and faster) on mobile devices, like iPhones, iPads, Androids, etc.
So far, we’ve gotten good feedback on the look and functionality of the site via mobile. Let us know what you think … oh, mobile user friends.
And, Google + Users
As you’ll see, right below this … we’ve also added a +1 tool, if you are a Google+ user and want to give us some love.
You’ve really taken on alot with these tech changes. I hope they work out for you. I subscribe by RSS feed and the partial is fine with me. I click through to leave comments anyway.