Themes functionality difference, email capture for newsletter, main vs blog page

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  ifyoumustspeculate · Member · Oct 8, 2014 at 7:26 pm

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  Hi,
  I am just starting out and have the following questions:

  1) What is the differentiation between themes that goes beyond “look and feel/appearance”? Are there features/functionality that are also different amongst themes? I do not want to sink my time into one theme only to discover that there are key functionality differences between themes.

  2) Is there a way to capture users emails (a sign up page for a newsletter)? This is different than “follow my blog” or “contact form”. I am looking for a way to collect users emails for dual purposes of a) sending them newsletters, b) growing a customer database.
  Better yet, is there a way to have the users sign up both for the blog and the newsletter together? This would be ideal.

  If it is not possible to use wordpress to collect customer emails via a sign up form, do you have any restrictions to integrating a mailchimp form as a link from a wordpress page?

  3) How can I make the main page a “website” and then a separate page a “blog”?

  Thank you,
  Alev

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Oct 9, 2014 at 8:51 pm

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  Howdy Alev!

  Please see below:

  What is the differentiation between themes that goes beyond “look and feel/appearance”? Are there features/functionality that are also different amongst themes?

  The basic functionalities are going to be similar. All of the themes are going to meet the highest criteria for quality. Here are some features that might differ between themes:

  • Whether or not it supports Post Formats
  • Whether or not it has featured post sliders
  • Whether or not it supports a site logo

  However, you can search for all of those features here:

  http://theme.wordpress.com/

  Just use the “Find a theme” drop-down menu and then select “Features”. You can see all of the features that might differ between our themes.

  If you have any particular questions about a theme, please don’t hesitate to ask.

  Is there a way to capture users emails (a sign up page for a newsletter)? This is different than “follow my blog” or “contact form”. I am looking for a way to collect users emails for dual purposes of a) sending them newsletters, b) growing a customer database.
  Better yet, is there a way to have the users sign up both for the blog and the newsletter together? This would be ideal.

  As you’ve probably seen, you can use the Follow Blog widget to allow users to follow your site via email:

  http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/follow-blog-widget/

  Those email subscribers are exportable from WordPress.com in a CSV format.

  However, if you’re referring to using something like Mailchimp to build your email subscribers list, it won’t be possible to embed a capture form directly on your site as we block the required HTML code for security reasons:

  Add Code to Your Site

  The best thing to do would be to place a link in your sidebar that said “Sign-up for my newsletter!”. Users could click that and be directed to a third-party form to sign-up.

  How can I make the main page a “website” and then a separate page a “blog”?

  We have a great resource for that here:

  http://createyour.wordpress.com/

  Let me know if you have any additional questions!