Mailchimp integration, membership database

Hi, I have a client who is looking for a membership program that integrates with a mailing list, and it sounds like S2Member (free or Pro) integrates with Mailchimp. Under the client’s current system, people have figured out ways to add their names to the mailing lists without first becoming a member on the website. Is it possible to prevent this from happening with Mailchimp — can the list somehow be “closed” and include only specified members from the website?

Also, I believe we can add fields to the membership database in S2Member/WordPress, does the Pro version allow me to export ONLY those fields I want and leave out all of the extraneous stuff?

Thank you! Using S2Member free version on two sites already and loving it.

Thank you for your inquiry.

can the list somehow be “closed” and include only specified members from the website?

I think you’re looking for MailChimp’s Publicity Settings:

http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/what-are-publicity-settings-and-how-do-i-change-them

s2Member uses an API Key from MailChimp, so it can register Users when your list is in Private mode still. Will that work for you?

Also, I believe we can add fields to the membership database in S2Member/WordPress, does the Pro version allow me to export ONLY those fields I want and leave out all of the extraneous stuff?

No, sorry. s2Member exports all WordPress information along with the Custom Fields. This actually is probably what you need, anyway, because you need the email address / WordPress username to link User account to their information, right?

If you open up the file in something like Excel, you should be able to delete any columns that you don’t want after you export the data, as well.