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Your Website Should Be Easy to Edit


Email Newsletters

Email Newsletters
Invisible Gold Newsletter and higher include a system for sending out email newsletters either as HTML or plain text. Just add your message text to your site, then click the Send Email button at the top of the page (when you're logged in), and then choose each of your Mailing Lists and/or User Groups to send it to.

If you send to more than one List and some contacts are in both Lists, IG will only send it to them once so they don't get duplicates) and users don't see any of the other recipients. HTML emails automatically include an unsubscribe link to allow users to take themselves off of your email lists (it doesn't however take them out of your User Groups).

Note: The email system is available in most Invisible Gold licenses (Newsletter, Commerce, Multi-user, and Advanced Commerce). It is NOT available in the Basic and Starter licenses.


Sending a Page
The process of sending a page is quite simple. Log in as an Administrator and click Send Email at the top of the page. This will bring up the Send Email page with several options:

From: This is the email address that will send the message to the list of recipients. It is automatically filled in with the website Administrator Address or Newsletter Address from your system settings. Feel free to change this.

To: Here you will find a list of all of the User Groups and Mailing Lists in your site. Simply check off all that should receive the email. Keep in mind that each email address will only receive one copy (even if they are in one list multiple times or in several different lists.)

Subject: The subject line is regular text.

Message: The message is actually a page from your site. Take a moment to verify that you are sending the correct page. You can click the name of it with the right mouse button to open it in another window to double check.

Send Page As I See It, etc. This is a VERY important setting. This works the same way as the Guest View, Normal, and Edit Mode links at the top of the page. Sending the page as "I see it" will show all of the links that you have the rights to see. (be careful if you have links you don't want to email out.) Sending the page as a "guest sees it" will be the page that anyone not logged in would see. Be careful if the page you are sending is password protected. Recipients might receive an email with just a login box.

Alternate Text Message: It's not common anymore, but some recipients will not be able to open HTML email. This text message will be displayed instead.

Sending a Test Message: Just above the Send Email button is a box you can check to send a test message. It is a VERY good idea to send the email only to yourself first to see how it will look. Checking this box will override the Mailing Lists and User Groups you check and will not include an unsubscribe link.

When you click Send Email, with the test box unchecked, the message will go out to all of the recipients.

Unsubscribe
When people receive the email, there will be a link a the bottom to unsubscribe. It may seem long, but it follows guidelines set by AOL.

Be careful that you don't accidentally resubscribe addresses. Once people indicate they don't want to receive your emails, it's a good idea to respect their wishes.

When a person clicks the unsubscribe link, it will automatically take them to a page on your site to remove their email address from all lists you sent the email to. (except for User Groups).

Note: It won't actually delete their email address, it will simply change the Send Email field to FALSE. Future sends to the same list will not send an email to them.

Sending Just a Text Message
There is also a feature that allows you to send a text message to a Mailing List or User Group. To get to it, open up a User Group or Mailing List. There will be a link at the top right Send Email.

Click this and you can send an email, however it will only have a text Subject and Message.

Note: There is no unsubscribe link for the text email message.

System Settings
There are several system settings that affect the way email is sent. The mail server and login/password are simple. You need to have a POP3 or SMTP server to send emails from. The login and password need to match it.

Next, there are three addresses that control who the emails are coming from. The Administrator is most important. Without one, the site won't function properly. Next there are the Newsletters and Orders addresses. Newsletters are automatically sent from the Newsletters address. Order confirmation emails are sent from the Orders address.

Note: There was a bug in 2.8 that reversed the values for Newsletter Name and Address. Swap the fields if they come up reversed on the Send Email page.

The Outgoing Email Queue changes the way that outgoing emails are handled.


See Also:
Online Documentation Home, Invisible Gold Quick Tour, Template Library, Users and Groups, Shopping Cart, Mailing Lists, Uploading Images, Traffic, Approvals, Banner Ads, Login/Logout, Email Newsletters, Advanced Button, Moving Pages, System View, Security, System Settings, Hosting Invisible Gold Powered Websites, Generate a PayPal Client ID, Terms, Useful HTML Guide, Private Client Areas

Keywords:
Newsletters, Mailing Lists, Login, Settings, Unsubscribe