Let’s be bold and honest. Setting up a post notification solution in your WordPress site is a bit of a drag.
Below, we share the wireframes of our own upcoming post notifications. It’s due in our next release later in April. We’re quite excited because it’s fully integrated to our visual editor.
I reviewed four popular free email subscription services recently. All have their strengths, but none display exactly like you would want it. Not easily in a few clicks.
What if a plugin made post notifications fun on top of it? That’s exactly what the four Wysija boys are trying to do right now.
I use the word fun because a user described our newsletter plugin as fun. We since decided that Wysija shouldn’t just be easy (our favorite word), but fun too.
Create post notifications like a regular newsletter
If you’re unfamiliar with Wysija, check out the demo video on the homepage.
We didn’t want to add new buttons. Or a new sub menu. Or more options in the settings.
When you create a new newsletter, you just get an additional choice on step 1:
In the above screenshot, you might notice the option “a new user is added to your site…” and another for WooCommerce in the drop down.
These are called “autoresponders”, which will also be available in the upcoming version. We’ll discuss them further in an another article. Email marketers will be happy to see this feature.
Here are the full possibilities for the frequency of your notifications in a build-your-own-phrase style:
Latest posts in the visual editor
The visual editor gets a new widget: Group of posts, which replaces the regular WordPress Post widget:
Drop the Group of Posts in your newsletter and this popup of options appears:
Wysija will then display exactly what your next send out will look like. This is where the magic lays.
Below, it’s shown as greyed out because the group of posts won’t be editable like the regular text or post widgets:
It’s not too late to give your own feedback. If you think we can make it more fun or easy, we’d be happy to hear from you.
Maybe it’s just me, but I rather design the Newsletter first, preview it then chose the delivery options… that means to swap the steps 1 and 2.
With the arrival of post notifications we can’t, because we have to select what type of newsletter first.
They have different widgets!
I am anxiously awaiting the version of Wysija that contains the new post notifications. I am currently using Mailpress, but it is bulky and requires a large amount of hacking my server to make it work. Even then, it doesn’t work properly. I just discovered Wysija today and would be happy to test the new post notification for you.
LD, would you like to beta test it when it’s ready in a few weeks?
I most certainly would be interested. I am looking to move away from Mailpress because it is such a headache to get and keep it working properly.
I’ll be glad when it’s ready to test. Mailpress has suddenly decided to refuse to send my posts out. This is getting tiresome.
same here – in case you need a beta tester in Germany please let me know – thx a lot!
Perfect! You’re on our list too.
So if you set it to one a new post, then set the category to lets say “newsletter” and someone post newsletter it will send it out. But if someone posts without, and there is nothing new in the category will it not send out the email (or will it end up sending out the last post in that category)?
It won’t send ant newsletter is there are no new posts.
If you have 2 group of articles for 2 different categories and 1 of them has no new posts, it will still send it out.
This is why you see the option “If there are no new posts, show” in the 4th screenshot.
Hello! Did you have an ETA of this new feature? I need to implement wysija in a client site but need this “AutoMail” functionality. Thanks!
This is coming in May, most prob in the middle of the month.
Would you like to be a beta tester? If so, we’ll be rolling it out earlier for you and others.
Thanks Kim!
This will be for the free or the premium version?
Yes! Will be great to be a Beta tester…
Beta tester might get the Premium. We’re considering it now. I added you in our list in any case.
Thanks!!! ;-)
I’m currently using AloEasymail, but I hate it that I constantly have to type a newsletter, even when I just want to send a notification of a new post. Once the automail function/post notification becomes available, I would love to use WySija! I’ve already installed it on a work-in-progress website and am now playing around with it. It’s one of the easiest plugins I’ve ever used – and as mentioned, it’s so much fun!
If you need more beta testers, I would gladly participate. I also like the autoresponder function in the upcoming version.
Majanka, we’ve added you to our list! You’ll hear from us when we’re ready!
Hi Wysija team,
Just sent a Google Groups response to this http://www.wysija.com/5-questions-questionnaire-for-our-users/
requesting this very feature of inserting Groups of posts and then read this post. Happy day for me! :)
If you need additional beta testers, please count me in — I’m currently in the process of replacing our school’s current email solution with Wysija and the Group of Posts functionality will greatly simplify pulling together the weekly newsletter.
Thanks for the fantastic plugin!!
Would it be possible to save a specific instance of a Group of Posts created email so that you could then edit it as an individual newsletter?
The auto-generate capability of Group of Posts is awesome, but so is the control of the individual email editor.
So …
1. I select Group of Posts
2. I hit Save As for N date — necessary in order to know which posts to pull
3. Wysija looks up the posts, pulls the headlines, excerpts, etc. but saves as a) custom text blurbs or b) saves as individual WordPress posts in however this is currently done in 1.1
4. This newsletter gets saved to the list of Newsletters
5. I can edit this newsletter and then send manually, adding some images or re-arranging order of posts etc.
Djambo Alan!
We plan on including the possibility to insert more than one article at once. I’m not sure exactly when we plan on getting this out, but it’ll be there before long.
You can add any other features you’d like to see here:
http://wysija.uservoice.com/forums/150107-feature-request
Otherwise, I added you to our group of beta users.
Asante sana! Kim
HI, that’s great!
Is it possible to choose Custom Post Types???
Raoni, not yet, unfortunately. We’re planning it for the future.
Make sure you vote for it here, so we can see what our users priorities are.
http://wysija.uservoice.com/forums/150107-feature-request/suggestions/2729196-support-for-custom-post-types
This looks awesome! Can’t wait. I was just turned on to the plugin and am learning about all the cool stuff it can do.
Hi,
just wanted to know what the status is since I am anxiously waiting to replace Subscribe2 for the autopost feature.
Any free space on the beta tester list? :-)
Cheers
Alex
Beta is available right here!
http://www.wysija.com/beta-ready-download-start-testing/
I’m still confused what you meen with “new” posts. I create a new post, with a post date in the past. Then wysija isn’t triggering any mail. But it’s still a new post, isn’t it?
Marc, our plugin detects by date indeed.
If you need additional help, make sure you create a ticket on support.wysija.com and we’ll help you from there.
Hi to all,
I am looking for the follow up function as in when someone subscribes I can send prepared emails at intervals I set beforehand.
Has this feature been included?
Thanks ins advance
It has. Look for it on step 1 when you create a new newsletter.
Hi Kim,
Many Thanks for your reply.
Maybe I was not clear in explaining what I am looking for. I use aweber and they allow me to create follow up emails (email sequence) when someone subscribes so that they can receive emails automatically just like in an email ecouse.
They also allow emails to be sent to subscribers when posts are published to my blog.
Does wysija do these functions. If so is there a tutorial or something where I can learn to do these?
Thanks again
j
Jo, yes, we have these 2 functions. See this video which shows both, and post notification in more detail:
http://support.wysija.com/knowledgebase/guide-to-post-notifications-video/