To begin the program, we'll go to the web address of the Max List system on your website. This will almost always be in the form of:

You will also find this statement:

"Important Note: It is essential that you do NOT use the BACK button on your browser in the following pages. If you do, you will probably see a message that says "Warning: Page has Expired." This will not happen as long as you use the buttons provided. Thus, there's really no need to use the BACK button. "

Hopefully, that is self-explanatory. All the buttons you need are included on the webpages. Please do NOT use the BACK (or FORWARD) buttons on your browser. This caveat is necessary because the system can lose data unless you use the navigation buttons provided on the Max List pages.

(Technical note: Actually, it won’t lose data, but it can appear that way because of warning messages that may appear if you use the BACK button on your browser.)

After entering your userid and password, you come to the "Lists Control Panel" of the Max List system. This is the main operating page. The first time you come here, you’ll want to use the Add a New List button. So let’s not look at the other elements of this page just yet. Just hit the Add a New List button.

Defining a New List

When you do, you’ll see a page that asks for:

• List Name
• List Managers Email
• Reply Email Address
• How Many Subscribers Per Page on Subscribers Page Display?
• Does the List Manager Get Copies of Confirmation Emails? (Y/N)
• Page URL After Thanks
• Subscription, Unsubscribe and Confirmation email messages

Let’s go over these.  What you are doing is defining the properties of a subscription list that you are setting up.

First, you give the list a Name.  Then you enter two email addresses (which may be the same.)  The first email is your email address as the List Manager. If you check the box that says "Does the List Manager Get Copies of Confirmation Emails? (Y/N)"  then the copies will be sent to this email address.

Next is Reply Email Address. This is the reply email address that is put on any messages that you send to subscribers on this list.

How Many Subscribers Per Page on Subscribers Page Display? This number is used in the Subscribers Control Panel. When subscribers are listed, this number control how many will appear per page.

Page URL After Thanks.  When a subscription page is setup, and after the new subscriber enters their name and email address, (and gets thanked by MaxList) then this URL is the next place to go.  Quite often, it is the home page.

Subscription, Unsubscribe and Confirmation email messages.  When subscribers signs up, they will automatically receive an email asking them to click on a link to confirm their subscription. The first email they receive is called the Subscription email. Here is where you setup the Subscription email. By clicking the Help link (Click Here for Sample) you can view a sample email message. Note the two fields: [LIST] and [CONFIRMATIONURL] -- the [LIST] field gets replaced with the Name of the list, and the [CONFIRMATIONURL] gets replaced with the URL that they need to click to confirm their subscription.

The Confirmation email message is what they will automatically receive after they have clicked the above link to confirm.

The Unsubscribe email message is what they will automatically receive whenever they use the Unsubscribe link that gets added at the bottom of any email message (newsletter) that you send. Note that it can also use the [LIST] field.

And that’s it. Now just hit the Add List button, and the list gets defined (setup). You next see a screen which shows you what you entered.

Lists You've Added

At this point, you go back to the Lists Control Panel. And what do you see? You see your new list displayed. Only one is there, if this is the first list you’ve entered, but there will be more, if you add more lists.

Let’s look at this:

It shows you the List Name and List ID. When you click on the word View on the same line as the List Name, it shows you all the information about that list, including the confirmation email messages. When you click on the word Modify on the same line as the List Name, it takes you to a screen that looks just like the Add Lists screen. Here’s where you can make changes to the list properties, if you need to. You can also choose to Remove the list completely, if you wish. You would put a check mark in the Remove column, and then click the Delete Checked Lists button at the bottom of the list. (It’s unlikely that you’ll want to do this, very often.)

Note that word List Name at the very top of the list in the colored row can be clicked on. If you do so, it will show you the list sorted by List Name.

Also note that the List Name will have a number in parenthesis following the name. This is the number of subscribers in that list. If you click on the List Name, it will take you to the Subscribers Control Panel for that particular list. That's where you can view/edit the subscribers to that list.

What about the other buttons on the Lists Control Panel page? You can find out more here:

Now, let’s look at the Subscribers Control Panel….