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Alex
Alex

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How to set up Kit in 30 minutes (Kit tutorial for developers)

#python #tutorial #automation #newsletter

I've been using Kit (formerly ConvertKit) for two weeks on saas.pet. It's a solid tool, and the free tier is way more generous than Mailchimp or Beehiiv. Here's the actual setup I use, with the Python API snippets I run myself.

The 5 steps

  1. Make a Kit account. Go to kit.com and click "Start free trial." You get 14 days of paid features. No credit card. After 14 days, you drop to the free plan automatically. The free plan is 10,000 subscribers forever, so don't worry about it.

  2. Verify your domain. Go to Settings, then Sending domains. Kit will give you three DNS records. Add them to wherever your domain is hosted (Cloudflare, Route53, Namecheap, it doesn't matter). DKIM is a TXT record. SPF is a TXT record. Return-Path is a CNAME. Verification takes 5-30 minutes. I used Cloudflare and it took 6 minutes.

  3. Build a welcome sequence. The fastest way is the API. Here's the Python I use for saas.pet:

import requests

API_KEY = "your_kit_api_key_here"
BASE = "https://api.convertkit.com/v3"

def create_sequence():
seq = requests.post(f"{BASE}/sequences", params={"api_key": API_KEY}, json={
"name": "saas.pet Welcome Sequence"
}).json()
seq_id = seq["id"]

steps = [
    {"subject": "Welcome to saas.pet", "delay_hours": 0,   "body": "..."},
    {"subject": "How I test 245 AI tools",  "delay_hours": 24,  "body": "..."},
    {"subject": "The 6 I actually pay for", "delay_hours": 72,  "body": "..."},
    {"subject": "My honest reviews framework", "delay_hours": 168, "body": "..."},
    {"subject": "Get the free Pack",          "delay_hours": 336, "body": "..."},
]
for s in steps:
    requests.post(f"{BASE}/sequences/{seq_id}/emails", params={"api_key": API_KEY}, json=s)

return seq_id
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print(create_sequence())

  1. Set up a paid subscription. Commerce, then Products, then New product, then Subscription. Kit takes 0.6% of each sale. Stripe handles the rest. I use this for Pack B on saas.pet.
  2. Put a form on your site. Landing pages, then Forms, then make one. Drop the shortcode wherever you want, or use Kit's hosted landing page if you don't have a website. What I got wrong the first time I tried to set up everything in one go and it took 3 hours. Don't do that. The DNS is the slowest part. Do that first, then walk away. Come back in 30 minutes and the rest is 20 minutes. The honest take If you write Python and want email automation, Kit is the default in 2026. The API is clean. The free tier covers most solo creators. The only thing I don't love is the templates. They look like they're from 2015. But that's the point. Simple is the product. If you want a longer review with pros and cons, I wrote one at saas.pet. The full thing is there. The link uses my affiliate code. If you sign up, I get 50% of your first year. Doesn't change the review.

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