Setup Guide
If this is your first account with MailChimp it is recommended you read over the MailChimp API Key Docs. There is also an included video walkthrough of the following process.
Setting up YIKES Inc Easy MailChimp Extender is as simple as generating and retrieving a MailChimp API key from your MailChimp account dashboard.
In the following steps we'll outline how to generate a MailChimp API key for use in connecting your self hosted WordPress.org site with your MailChimp account. Linking up the two accounts allows for some really awesome functionality you won't find in other plugins.
Once you have your site linked to your MailChimp account, you'll be able to import forms you've previously setup, view account info and start capturing user emails!
So let's begin by generating an API key for use with Easy MailChimp by YIKES Inc.
Lets start by first logging into your MailChimp account. Once logged in and on your account dashboard, in the left hand menu you'll want to click your profile image , and when the sliding menu appears, click on 'My Profile'.
Once on your profile settings page, in the menu towards the top of the page you'll want to click on 'Extras' and then select 'API Keys'.
Once on the API screen, you'll want to start by clicking on 'Create a Key' towards the bottom left hand corner of the page. A unique API key will then be generated for you.
Please Note : This API key should be protected in the same way you protect your passwords. The API key we just generated is, essentially, another password into your MailChimp account. If your API key ends up in the wrong hands, that person would then have unrestricted access to your account via API calls. Which means they could do nearly anything you could from the MailChimp site.
Now that you've generated the API key, you'll just need to enter it into the settings page. First copy the API key from the input field on your API settings page. Then you'll want to Navigate over to the Easy MailChimp Settings Page and paste in your newly created API key into the appropriate field.
After pasting your key, you can save your settings. Once saved the small 'Not Connected' indicator should turn green and change to 'Connected' to indicate you made a successful connection to your MailChimp account.
If you run into an issue when connecting your site to your MailChimp account, you'll see an error message displayed below the API key field explaining what the issue is. This is the response returned from the MailChimp API, so this will give you a much better idea of what may be going wrong.
This bug first appeared when the Shell Shock bug swept the web. In an attempt to prevent attacks to your site many web hosts invalidated your servers CA (or certificate authority). With an invalid CA, MailChimp is unable to validate your site.
If you are on a localhost install, please see the following article: http://redwebturtle.blogspot.com/2013/09/mailchimp-api-v20-ssl-error-solution.html