Mailpoet and recaptcha

Hi Folks,

I am a low-level owner of a private family blog. I am not a coder or programmer.

My goal is to have a simple form where my limited visitors can subscribe to an occasional site update email.

I understand the risks of having a sub form open to whoever happens to land on my site and the worry of malicious players. Thus I opted for the Recaptcha option to help screen bots out. However, the process of applying for an API key through Google is without a doubt the most utterly complex and difficult task I’ve encountered in many years. I finally gave up in disgust, and came over here to ask if there’s any other way to add a sub form that reduces hacking risk?

I’m imagining a text block that asks for a password – perhaps some obscure bit of info that only relatives and friends might know, such as my birthday. When submitted, that info is accepted or denied. On acceptance, they enter an email address, or perhaps my email address is displayed, which they can use to send a private email request.

Is there something that I can use or am I going way off base here?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Tod