Unless I’m missing something there’s no dedicated “Import” feature on WhatsApp Community. You can share a link that allows people to join but that means precious little control over who actually hops on board.

This leaves you with the unenviable task of adding contacts by going to Invite members > Add members and then tapping on them one-by-one. I find Web Whatsapp makes this job a little easier. You still need to add them one-by-one but instead of tapping, you can tick boxes next to contact’s names. I find it a faster and clearer process.

Go to web.whatsapp.com and if you haven’t used it before, synchronize your phone using their QR code. Once you’re all setup, click on…

communities icon (top left) > your community > three dot menu > view members > add members

Now you can tick multiple contacts at once, followed by the green tick at the bottom to add them all at once.

If you need to import contacts first…

Import to Google Contacts using a .csv file. Unfortunately it’s extremely fussy and you need to make sure (seemingly) all possible headers are there, even though you probably won’t need most of them. You can use Google’s own template (tap “Can’t import my contacts”) but bizarrely it doesn’t include a Phone Number field.

If that is a problem, Anne Hennegar at Productivity Portfolio has thankfully provided a guide to importing to Google Contacts including a template that includes Phone Number fields. I tested this one myself and it works a treat, thank you Anne!

For my purpose, I only needed name and phone number. As long as all the headers were left in place I could leave everything else blank and it worked fine.

As long as your phone’s Contacts app is set to use your Google account, you’re good to go. Those same contacts will be available to add to your Whatsapp Community.

Hope this helps, let me know how it goes…

Best wishes,
James

This is really just a handy little thing I discovered and thought I’d pass it on, in case it’s useful to you.

I was in need of a way to show someone how to do something online and it was kinda hard to explain on a phone call or text.

So I thought… what I need is some sort of screen recording software so I can just show them in a little video. So I had a quick google, fully expecting all options to be expensive.

But I quickly found something called OBS Studio. It’s brilliant not just because it’s easy to use but also because it’s free (it’s open source).

I find I’m using it more and more just to quickly show people how to do things. It would be perfect for anyone who needs to do the same, or for making little tutorial videos, if that’s your thing.

Just recently I even used it to make a permanent recording of a TV show, because I knew it would soon disappear from the channel’s player/website. Very handy!

So yeah… if you’re in need of such a thing, I definitely recommend OBS Studio.

Best wishes,
James

A friend of mine logged in to his Yahoo mail yesterday on his laptop, and found his emails only went back 3 months. After that you couldn’t scroll any further and it only gave you the option to search for older emails… Not good.

This problem was only on laptop/desktop — his phone app let him browse back years. I had no idea why this would be the case but noticed he was using Microsoft Edge as his browser.

I installed Google Chrome for him and it was absolutely perfect — a much cleaner display and he could scroll back in his emails as far as he liked. Strange but true…

I also recommended he switch form Yahoo to Gmail as soon as possible… :-)

Best wishes,
James

The Action Bar is that little strip that appears at the bottom of your WordPress website (see image). The visitor can tap Follow to enter their email and receive new posts.

If your site is new, you may have encountered the frustration of the Follow button not appearing. The reason is simple. You have to have published at least 2 blog posts!

I think the logic is that if you’re using WordPress as a regular type website, not a blog, there’s no point allowing people to Follow.

I disagree. That little function effectively allows you to build an email subscriber list. Very useful for keeping people in touch with your business with news, special offers, whatever you like.

It means you can email subscribers simply by publishing a new blog post. The blog itself doesn’t even need to be visible on your site, if you wish.

Finally, while we’re talking “all things action bar” you can hide it altogether if you wish, using the following CSS…

#actionbar {
display: none;
}

If you’re self hosted, you can add CSS to your header or style sheet no problem. If you’re with WordPress.com like me, you can only add custom CSS on the Premium plan or above. At time of writing anyway… no doubt it will change again in future. :-)

Hope this helps, let me know below…

Best wishes,
James