Creating Your First Yahoo Egroup!
How to Set Up an Email list through Yahoo Groups
Getting tired responding to e-mails asking you to add someone to your email mailing list? Or removing them? Or changing their email address to a new one? Tired of getting in trouble sending large amounts of email from AOL? Let Yahoo’s automated Groups program do this for you. How does it work? People can add or remove themselves from your organization’s email list by themselves through a link/form on your website. You can log in online to the Administrator feature and send out messages to the entire list very easily, whenever you want, for free! Plus, any problems with AOL telling you that you are spamming are over.
The do not send spam to your list members (and only a little to the list coordinator). They make their money through ads on the bottom of each email. This will save you lots of time and you will build up a very valuable thing – your organization’s email list.
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Go online to http://groups.yahoo.com/
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At the very top where it says “New User Sign Up” click this.
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Fill in everything to create a Yahoo ID. There are a LOT of different Ids, so you can’t pick common ones, keep trying new ones until you get one you like. And, yes, create a Yahoo email, whether you use it or not (it’d be crummy if someone else did from another group). Click the “Accept” button when done.
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After you click “Accept” it gives you a summary page of what you just typed. PRINT THIS PAGE for your records. Click “Continue to Yahoo Groups” at the bottom of page.
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In the top left corner click “Create a group.”
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Fill out the categories (don’t worry, this is pretty subjective and nonsensical, do the best you can; don’t get too deep into the categories, stay near the top, then click “Place My Group Here”).
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Fill out the page for “Describe Your Group.” Make sure the email address is not too long and the group name is short yet descriptive.
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For step 3 don’t bother filling anything out but the word verification, just go to next screen.
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Hurrah, you did it! Print this screen for your records of the address and email of your Yahoo Group.
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Click “Customize Your Group” then “Get Started.” We want to set the security pretty high for safety purposes. You can relax security later if you want.
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Set the first two questions how you want (I would suggest “List Group” and “Anyone can join immediately” but you know your community best. For the third question “Who Can Post Messages to Your Group?” Be sure to choose “Only Group Owner (Newsletter).” If you don’t, talkative people in your group will be able to email a lot to the entire list and drive a lot of people to remove themselves from your list. Click Next.
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For Step 2 it asks “Do You Want to Approve Messages Before Being Delivered?” You are the only one sending them so that would be repetitive so say “No.” It asks “Message Replies Should Go”, choose “Only to Group Owner”, that is, you. Lastly, it asks, “Do you want to use this groups web features?” Later we will play with this, but for safety for now say “No” (unless you are already experienced with Yahoo Groups).
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For Step 3 it asks, “Would you like to store group messages for you and other group moderators to reference later? (message archive) This is pretty cool, I choose “Yes,” but choose “No” if it would make members of your group uptight. Then it shows a list of all the features you have turned off, you wanted this. Click “Finish.”
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Click Invite and Invite People and enter an Introductory Message (actually do this later at home, don’t have time now).
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Now, click “Go to Group” and see your group’s info. Print this for your records.
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Later you can click Management and then “Description and Appearance” and make it a little prettier. You can also click “Membership” and customize these settings a bit; you might want to set the feature where you can hide members email addresses from appearing to one another (even though you already set it when you turned off all the features, but it’s a safety thing if and when you open it again.
Have fun! Invite away!