Easy Automatic Newsletter Lite

The easy-to-use WordPress plug-in that recycles your blog posts into a newsletter and sends it out automatically!

Since version 2.7 setting up a Cronjob is not required and you have the option of using WordPress’s scheduler. Cronjob is not compatible with a Windows based Hosting environment but the WP Cron is.

The Easy Automatic Newsletter Lite plug-in does exactly what it is called. Instead of sweating bullets every time you need to make a newsletter, all you need to focus on with our plug-in is to keep blogging and tweeting great content.

If you can write a blog post every hour, day or week you will have enough content for your newsletter whether you send it out daily, weekly or monthly (you can also send it out 2x per month, quarterly and yearly)

If you write more than that, you’ll have a robust newsletter begging the question from recipients “How do you have time to do that?” ? we think that’s a good thing.

Let’s face it, not everyone you already know reads your blog. And in an age where recycling is good, don’t let great content be used for a single audience.

Wouldn’t it be nice to take a month’s worth of blog posts and format it into a clean e-mail newsletter and send it out to your subscribers? That’s exactly what our plug-in will do. It will also include your Tweets as well. Once configured (takes about 10 minutes), it works automatically every month. All you need to do is keep blogging and tweeting. Tweeting, by the way, is optional for the plug-in.

If you find it useful please don’t forget to rate this plugin. In addition, if you really find it beneficial and have some money to spare, your donation is surely appreciated.

** Follow us on Twitter @chiefatlarge for all updates on the Easy Automatic Newsletter Lite plugin (EAN)

How to use

NOTE: EAN employs the Core Control plugin by Dion Hulse. It is loaded from our installation package and will appear inside of Tools. Please do not remove or disable the function or else your newsletter will not be able to be scheduled

Newsletter Post Settings

1. Click on Settings (under the Easy Automatic Newsletter Lite tab in your Dashboard menu)
2. Configure the Email Frequency, Time to Send (in 24 hour time) and day you prefer to send your newsletter
3. Choose the category(ies) to send from.
4. Enter the number of characters (value must be numeric) to include for each blog post within your newsletter. Leave empty for all characters to be used.
5. Click the Save Changes button when done.
6. Proceed to Other Settings
7. Enter the URL for your logo image (this appears in the top of the Newsletter email)
8. Enter the From Name (person or organization name)
9. Enter the From Address (email address of person or organization)
10. Enter the Subject (the name of your newsletter is appropriate here)
11. Enter your Privacy Policy
12. Select “Link Tweets with newsletter” (optional)
13. Enter your Twitter account name (without the @)
14. Enter the number of Tweets to include (leave empty for the last 20)

NOTE: Unlike blog posts, the amount of Tweets included in your newsletter is irrespective of the date you Tweeted them. In other words, it is possible to send the same Tweets in a newsletter as were sent with a prior newsletter. To avoid that, keep Tweeting.

Placing the Subscribe Widget

From the list of Available Widgets, locate the widget called Easy Automatic Newsletter. Drag that to one of your sidebars to place the widget.

Import Subscribers

1. Click Import Subscribers to add a comma separated list of email addresses.
2. If you’ve added addresses click the check box to affirm that the recipients have authorized their subscription.

Newsletter Status

1. This is chock full of important information.
2. You can use this section to send test emails to the admin or a defined email address.

NOTE: If the message “No post to send” appears at the top it also means that you cannot send a test email either. If you see that, make a dummy blog post and publish it. You will now see at least 1 post to send.

MESSAGES:

Subscription Messages

Subscription Messages is where you can customize messages produced when someone subscribes and unsubscribes from your list.
At the top of this page are short codes you can use in the message body to insert information.
The default settings can be used as is or you can customize them to be in your ‘voice’. Be sure to keep the gist of the message or else it will be confusing to subscribers.

Opt-in Email Configuration

This is the email received to the email address entered using the widget.
You can modify the subject and body but be sure to keep the gist of the message intact or else you can confuse your subscriber. Remember that it should be painless to subscribe to your newsletter.
Click Save when done.

Confirmation Message

After a subscriber receives the opt-in email and clicks on the confirmation link they are taken to a page on your website with the message you customize here.
Click Save if you edit the default message.
NOTE: Behind the scenes, once a subscriber clicks the link their status in the Subscribers section turns to Verified

Unsubscribed Message

When someone unsubscribes from your newsletter using the link at the bottom of the email newsletter they will be sent to a page on your site where the message you customize will appear.
As always, if you make an edit click the Save button.
NOTE: Behind the scenes, the subscriber’s status will change. You are expected to abide by anti-spamming laws.

Unsubscribed Email

In addition to an onscreen confirmation of being unsubscribed, the user will receive one more email indicating that they’ve been unsubscribed. You can customize this message to be whatever you’d like.
Something short and polite will always work.
Be sure to click the Save button if you make an edits.

Newsletter Titles

You can edit the titles that appear inside the newsletter itself.
Click the Save button when done.

—– PRIOR EAN USERS —–

Since version 2.7 we have put the ‘cron’ system inside of WordPress so you do not need to configure anything outside of your Admin Panel. This is labeled WP Cron. Should you go with WP Cron then you must remove your cronjob (Refer to FAQ for removing cronjob) if configured.