Can I use my own form?
AWeber strongly recommends the use of our "Sign Up Form Generator" to create the form you publish to your website because:
- It is the easiest way to integrate AWeber with your website
- It is most likely to work without error
- 24/7 AWeber support can better diagnose errors
For these reasons, you should use the "Sign Up Form Generator" to create a form and render the HTML or Javascript to copy and paste into your website.
If there are design adjustments you'd like to make to the form after creation in the Sign Up Form generator, Use the "Raw HTML Version" of the form so you can make changes in your web design application as you would when changing any aspect of the design of your page.
Note: You can also uncheck the Include beautiful form styles box when you are using the HTML version of the form to work with an unformatted version of the form. 
Using your own form
If you still wish to create your own form without the "Sign Up Form Generator", please use the following criteria when designing it:
The form's action must be set to "https://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl". For example:
<form method="post" action="https://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl">
The name field visible to your subscribers should have "name" set as the "name" attribute. For example:
<input type="text" name="name" value="" />
The email field visible to your subscribers should have "email" set as the "name" attribute. For example:
<input type="text" name="email" value="" />
If you'd like to add any custom fields to your custom form, they must first be added to the AWeber list associated with your signup form. You will then add them as fields with the name set to custom [Your Custom Field Name]. For example, a custom field of "Color" would use the following input:
<input type="text" name="custom Color" value="" />
Below is a guide to some of the hidden fields your form might contain. Fields marked "optional" may be omitted, while all others are required.
| Name | Value |
| listname (unique list ID) | The unique list ID to which the form will add subscribers. |
| redirect | The valid URL of the page you'd like subscribers to be sent to once their information is successfully submitted to our servers. |
| meta_redirect_onlist | The valid URL of the page existing subscribers will be sent to once their information is successfully submitted to our servers. |
| meta_adtracking | The ad tracking value you'd like assigned to subscribers who use this form (Optional) |
| meta_required | The name of any fields, separated by commas, you wish to be required and validated before a form submissions is accepted. The default value is email. |
| meta_forward_vars | If set to 1, all of the fields submitted to add a subscriber to your list will also be forwarded to the redirect/thank you page using the GET method (Optional) |
Here is an example form with default values set. It would work out of the box if it were assigned a real list name and redirect URL.
<form method="post" action="https://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl">
<input type="hidden" name="listname" value="[your unique list ID here]" />
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="https://www.example.com/thankyou.htm" />
<input type="hidden" name="meta_redirect_onlist" value="https://www.example.com/thankyou.htm" />
<input type="hidden" name="meta_adtracking" value="custom form" />
<input type="hidden" name="meta_message" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="meta_required" value="name,email" />
<input type="hidden" name="meta_forward_vars" value="1" />
<input type="text" name="name" value="" /> Name
<input type="text" name="email" value="" /> Email
<input type="text" name="custom Color" value="" /> Custom Field
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Subscribe" />
</form>
Using Tags With Custom Forms
If you would like to customize your form and submit a subscriber to the list with Tag(s), that will involve additional custom coding. The tag field is not visible to your subscribers and should have "meta_tags" set as the "name" attribute. For example:
<input type="hidden" name="meta_tags" value="[enter name of tag here]" />
When you are applying a Tag based on a custom field, you will then add them as fields with the name set to "tagif_custom [Your Custom Field Name]". For example:
<input type="hidden" name="tagif_custom Color: [name of your field]" value="[tag applied]" />
If you would like to apply multiple tags, separate each value with a comma.
<input type="hidden" name="meta_tags" value="TAG1,TAG2,TAGn" />