Share your subscribe link
Your publication’s subscribe page is at /subscribe on your Kestrel’s address, such as https://newsletter.example.com/subscribe. Copy it from the dashboard’s checklist or Settings → Ways to subscribe, and share it wherever your readers are. A reader joins only once they confirm by email.
Signups open only once an email provider is connected. Until then, the page says the newsletter isn’t taking subscribers yet, and the dashboard says so too. You can share the link anyway, and it opens once email is connected (Connect Amazon SES).
How a reader joins
A reader enters their address, gets a confirmation email, and presses Confirm subscription on the page its link opens. Only then do they receive your posts. Opening the link alone records nothing, since mail scanners open links before a person does. This double opt-in is your record that each reader asked for your newsletter.
Every address gets the same answer, so the form never reveals who subscribes. Behind it, Kestrel sends a confirmation only when one is due:
- Already subscribed, bounced, complained, or blocked: no email goes out.
- Waiting to confirm: at most one confirmation every 15 minutes, however often the form is submitted. A link works for 7 days, and an expired one offers a fresh link.
- Unsubscribed earlier, or erased at their request: they get a confirmation, and confirming puts them back on your list.
The confirmation email
Change its subject, message, button label, and reassurance line under Settings → Confirmation email. Kestrel adds your name, your logo, and the confirm link itself, so no edit can leave them out. The confirmation isn’t a post, so it doesn’t use your email template.
Put the form on your own site
Settings → Ways to subscribe → Embed a form gives you HTML to paste into any page you control. Styled looks like your subscribe page, and Plain takes your site’s own styles. A reader who submits it confirms by email, as on the subscribe page.
Settings → Reader pages shows every page a reader can land on, at desktop and phone widths, without walking through the steps. You can also limit how often anyone submits the form, which slows down abuse (Rate-limit the subscribe form).