Email Subscribers from Wordpress

Looking to connect with your subscribers? There’s no perfect solution for every blog, but here are some good options ranging from simple, free choices to powerful paid services.

If you merely want to send an email when you update your blog, FeedBurner is the way to go. They give you a nice signup form code that gives your visitors options for signing up.

Email Users is probably the simplest email plugin, and seems to do the job. It picked up my existing subscribers from the database and sent an email.

Very nice. But its lacking some power. It doesn’t keep a log of what was sent, to whom and when.

Some plus features:  Choose by users or groups. Choose one subscriber at a time, or all of your subscribers.  Email according to WordPress’ built in ‘roles’ (subscriber, contributor, author, etc), theyre called user groups here. And yes, it also updates your subscribers with new blog posts in their email. Being able to organize your subscriber into roles has interesting possibilities.

The Email Users plugin could do the trick if you need something quick and lightweight that actually works.

I didnt see any screen shots out there, so i took these:

But what about MORE POWER?  Logging emails, or even an autoresponder?

Sequential auto-responders are da bomb! Write out a series of emails that go out as people sign up. When someone subscribes, they start at email number 1. Set the number of days to wait to send Email #2 , and so on. Also blast out emails whenever you choose, even while your autoresponder is running. These are great for teaching email courses, definitive marketing plans or splitting up lots of information. But are there any good plugins for WordPress? I’ve been keeping track.

GWA Autoresponder does pretty darn good for a free plugin.

Some plus features: Double Opt-in to keep yourself safe from spam accusations. Pre-write your sequential emails and add the signup form widget in the sidebar. It keeps a list of subscribers in its own database. Its Free!

There’s a pro version that offers more features, like multiple lists and such, but I think it’s been discontinued. Theres no way to upgrade, even from inside wordpress. Word of advice, while using the free version… keep your subscriber list backed up!

GWA screenshots:

Another option is a paid service, the industry standard AWeber.  The power comes from the AWeber database, so you’ll be doing most of your newsletter work in your account on their site. There’s tons of support, email marketing advice and killer tools including SWEET looking signup forms.

Some plus features: Schedule emails by date, or in a sequence. Unlimited emails and email campaigns. HTML Templates ready to go. STABILITY! A ‘blog broadcaster’ that turns your RSS feed into emails. Email Stats. Shopping Cart Integration. and a WordPress Plugin.

AWeber Screenshots:

If you have a big marketing campaign to go out by email and need the power of a paid service, AWeber is your best choice.

Right now they’re having a $1 trial for the first month. SWEET!

Happy Emailing!