"You have no active subscriptions" message after new sign up. All new members "pending"

Hello and thank you in advance for your help.

Sorry this is so long and please answer me in layman’s terms!

I have literally cried tears over this issue and am at the end of my tether.

It took me a long time, watching instruction videos etc. to set up the signup process to my free membership site, but I did get it set up and members began to join. I had it set up so that once they signed up they received a Free Welcome Pack and they were added to the aweber list. They confirmed and then could download their free gift and became members. It was working fine.

Then suddenly all the new members were all pending and weren't being added to aweber. I have spent hours yesterday and today trying to figure out what has happened. I did a number of test signups and every time, once I had filled in the signup form, instead of going to the aweber confirmation and the thank you page for downloading the gift I would be taken to the dashboard where it said "You have no active subscriptions".

[On my side as admin, I was finding it strange that I wasn’t receiving new emails from aweber saying that new members had joined when people had told me that they had joined. Then one of them was online with me on a skype call and checked to see if they received a confirmation email and they didn’t. ]

Last night, I accidentally clicked on the shopping cart tab at the top of the dashboard page (there are special offers free members can buy in the shopping cart). The Welcome Gift Pack was there at the top of the SC. It said my shopping basket is empty. I put the free gift pack in the shopping basket and then checked out. Then everything happened as it should with the aweber confirmation and thank you page etc.

No wonder all the new members were only pending. They wouldn't know that they had got to go through that long-winded process. I didn't know it and I have set up the membership site! People will not spend the time trying to work out how to get the free gift and they won't therefore become members who have access to certain things and they won't receive the newsletter etc. via aweber.

I don't understand why the signup process has changed like this and I can't see how to remedy it. Why has this happened? How can I change it so the signup process goes back to how it was? Why is the free subscription now in the shopping cart (which is totally confusing and off-putting for the pending members)?

I had someone complain to me that they couldn't get to the member only videos and special offers and they just kept being taken to a dashboard. I couldn't understand why that would be happening. I didn’t realize about the sign up issue. I just thought that they must have not confirmed their membership. That was, of course, the case but it wasn’t intentional because they hadn’t received the confirmation email. I didn't deliberately change anything in the sign up process in aMember, to my knowledge. Maybe I have ticked something accidentally or unticked something???

So, please tell me what I can do. With it as it is, I am not going to get new members or guest speakers. (They won't want to send their list to a membership site that isn't functioning simply, clearly and automatically How do I simplify the process again as it was with the direct signup process, not involving the shopping cart and clearly stating their active subscription?

I am grateful for your help.

Many blessings,

Sarah