Notify Your Wordpress Blog Readers of New Posts.....

.....with the Watershed Send Email Notification Plug-In

I found this handy plug-in for your wordpress blog that will notify email subscribers when a new post is made to my blog but some steps were missing in the installation instructions. The highlighted areas below are the missing pieces or the very important steps that you don't want to miss to making this a smooth installation and setup.

First get the plug in at

http://watershedstudio.com/portfolio/software/wp-email-notification.html (opens in a new window)

Then come back here to read these amended instructions.

#----------------------------------------------------------#
# WordPress Email Notification Plugin v2.3.1 #
#----------------------------------------------------------#
#----------------------------------------------------------#
# Fresh Install
#----------------------------------------------------------#

STEP 1. Backup your files and database to reduce the risk of any damage or loss of data.

STEP 2. Upload files...
BE sure to upload the entire folder called, maillist and not just the individual files

yoursite.com/maillist/index.php
yoursite.com/maillist/install.php
yoursite.com/maillist/wpemn_config.php

or

yoursite.com/blog/maillist/index.php
yoursite.com/blog/maillist/install.php
yoursite.com/blog/maillist/wpemn_config.php

Be sure to upload the entire folder called wp-email-notification to the plugin folder that contains the following files:

/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/email_notification_2.3.1.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_export.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_import_form.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_import_insert.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_remove.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_send_email.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/block_update_settings.php
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/email_template.html
/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-notification/index.php
 

Note: If you are not seeing the folder names and are only seeing the files, then you did not extract the files and folders correctly. Please see this tutorial: How to extract your folders and files using WinZip (opens to a new window).

STEP 3. chmod 666 yoursite.com/maillist/wpemn_config.php

STEP 4. Run the install script...

yoursite.com/maillist/install.php

Note: When WP is installed using Fatastico, then must first find the db password that was auto-assigned in wp-config.php before being able to install this script. Find the file either using an FTP program and dragging it to your computer (open in notepad to read the password) or go to your cpanel>File Manger and find the file. Click to edit to read the password. 

Config Settings for yoursite.com/maillist/install.php

From E-mail Address: Set this to the email address you want to use for notifications.

Admin Email Address: Set this to the email address you want subscription activity sent to.

Nice URL's: Do you want this to send nice_urls?

NICE: http://yoursite.com/archives/2004/07/new-post/
NORMAL: http://yoursite.com/index.php?p=1

Show Full Post In Email: Do you want to send the entire text of the post in the notification?

Send HTML Email: Do you want to send the notification email as HTML instead of plain text?

Default Notification Value: By default, do you want to send the notifications of posts? (I recommend that you set this to Yes, so that you don't have to do this manually every time that you make a post to your blog. )


STEP 5. Delete the install script...

yoursite.com/maillist/install.php

STEP 6. Activate the plugin.

STEP 7. Put form code in template...

<form method="post" action="maillist/index.php">
Enter your e-mail address to receive notifications when there are new posts<br /><br />
<input type="text" name="email" size="12" maxlength="36" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="sign up" />
</form>

STEP 8. In your template header file, add this line between the head tags (i.e. place it just before the code </head>...

<?php email_notification_future_send(); ?>

STEP 9. The admin options can be found under Manage > Email Notification

STEP 10. Post...

You'll see a notify drop down in the Write area just under the Html editor for writing your post. (If you don't see this, then you missed Step.6- Activate your plugin.)

This must be set to Yes for the notice to be sent out. If you didn't set this to a default "Yes" when you were installing, you can change this by going to Manage > Email Notification > Update Settings in your Wordpress control panel.

MANAGE YOUR LIST

1 : To see your list of subscribers, go to Manage and you will see a new tab called, Email Notification. You will need to click on "Export Addresses" (or Remove Addresses) to see the list.

Note: Be sure to test by signing up an email address that is not on your website and then go confirm your subscription. The subscription must be confirmed by the email owner before it will show up on your list of addresses.

2 : To mail a special mailing to your list other than a new blog post notification, go to Manage > Email Notification > Email List Subscribers.

You can send text messages only. HTML tags do not work so if you want to insert a URL, be sure to use http://www.domain.com or www.domain.com so that the url will be an active link in the email!

3. You can import a list of email addresses but I would be very careful with this. The subscribers are not asked to opt-in once you add their email addresses and this could result in spam complaints that very well may get your website shut down!  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

When all of the above steps are done correctly and none are forgotten, then this plug-in works super! 

#----------------------------------------------------------#
# Help With Installation
#----------------------------------------------------------#

If you need help with installation, check the blog comments at http://blog.watershedstudio.com/2005/12/wordpress-email-notification-plugin-v231/

If you'd like Watershed Studio to install it for you,
we can do so for a small fee. Find out more at
http://watershedstudio.com/portfolio/software/wp-email-notification.html

-- Back To Tutorial Index --