This plugin allows users to subscribe and receive a newsletter containing the blog latest posts. The newsletter subscription system features a double opt-in system, with email confirmation. Administrators can also activate subscribers.

The newsletter can be sent regularly (weekly, monthly) or manually (anytime) and may contain any amount of articles.

By customizing the newsletter template, one can send announcements, special offers and holiday messages.

After installation, find your plugin in Settings | Newsletter.

Start setting up the plugin as desired by looking at the 3 main sections, Overview, Campaign Settings and Subscribers List.

The Overview section, shown above, will display your current configuration, information and advice. It will also show your last send date.

The Settings section is the heart of your plugin. Set up sending frequency (we recommend either manual for special offers and featured posts, or every X posts if your post regularly. For one of my sites, I use every 5 posts, so that I keep my readers informed and not bother them with too many emails.

Add your From email address (make a separate one, as you will either receive bounced emails or replies from users. Keep yourself organized. It should be newsletter@yourdomain.com or noreply@yourdomain.com.

The header of the plugin should contain a small welcome text, a link to your site and any other one-line text you might like. Keep it short though, the attention should be focused on the main template.

The template is self-explanatory by default, and it’s the best choice so far in articles layout.

The following tags can be used in the template for the newsletter:

• {TITLE} – Your WordPress post title
• {URL} – Your WordPress post URL (check the permalink options)
• {DATE} – The date the post was published (WordPress format – see Settings page)
• {TIME} – The time the post was published (WordPress format – see Settings page)
• {AUTHOR} – Post author
• {EXCERPT} – Post excerpt (recommended).
• {CONTENT} – Post content.

If you need to send a special offer newsletter, you may use any (X)HTML code you want, even one created in other editing programs. If you are using images, make sure you correctly add the paths.

The footer, should contain legal info, disclaimers, privacy policy links and business details. Keep it legal.

Use the preview button to see how your template looks like and update the settings.

All the way down (as shown above) is the subscribers list and several useful details. The username if the subscriber is also a member of your WordPress site, the subscription date, the subscription status and user options.

The plugin uses a double opt-in system, so any subscriber is required to click a link inside his/her mailbox to activate the subscription.

Unsubscribing is also there, automatically added in the footer of each newsletter.

Widget Options

The widget allows one to place the subscription box in the sidebar, and add a custom, descriptive text, an incentive or an “elevator pitch”.

Your WordPress sidebar will show a simple, elegant subscription form, according to your theme style and your widget settings: