G-Lock Double Opt-In Manager Plugin

This WordPress email list management plugin allows the visitors of your blog subscribe to your mailing list using a double opt-in method. The signup form (Email, Name and other fields) is placed on the WordPress blog sidebar. After a user fills in the form and clicks “Subscribe”, WP double opt-in plugin sends an email with the subscription confirmation link to the user. 

If the user confirms his subscription, the plugin sends a welcome email to the new subscriber. You can choose yourself whether to send a welcome email to the user or not. The plugin includes a default pre-compiled welcome message text. You can modify it to fit your marketing needs so you can generate profits from your signup process. 

The details of new subscribers are saved to the internal WordPress database. You can manage the mailing list inside WordPress and export the list for the further use in G-Lock EasyMail.  You can connect directly to your WordPress subscribers from G-Lock EasyMail address book and send an email to them without the need to export-import the list.

If the user unsubscribes from your list, the plugin marks the user as “Unsubscribed” in your WordPress database. You can also choose the option to send the user a notification that his email address was successfully unsubscribed.

You can also use the plugin to convert your blog RSS feed into an email newsletter and send it out to your subscribers. You can design the style and content of your email newsletter yourself and you can schedule your email broadcast weekly, monthly or as soon as you add a certain number of new posts to your blog.
 

WP Newsletter Plugin Features

• users can subscribe to your mailing list from your blog;
• users can update their subscription details and unsubscribe;
• sends a subscription confirmation email to the user;
• sends a welcome email to each new subscriber (optional);
• sends an unsubscribe notification to the user (optional);
• sends a subscribe/unsubscribe event notification to the blog admin (optional);
• saves the subscriber’s details to your internal WordPress database;
• can show the subscription report on your blog dashboard either in the activity box (Right Now) or in the separate widget (optional);
• provides you with the unsubscribe link that you can copy and paste into your newsletter (WP-Admin -> Manage -> Subscribers);
• can automatically delete users who did not confirm their subscription within 7 days since the subscription date (optional);
• can work with either your default mail settings (sendmail) or using a custom SMTP server;
• you can customize the signup form as you like (add fields, remove fields, re-order fields);
• you can merge custom fields such as blog name, blog URL, subscriber’s name, subscription time and others into your confirmation and welcome messages as well as into your broadcast email newsletter. Plus, you can merge these fields into your mass emails if you connect to your WP subscribers from our G-Lock EasyMail.
• you can build own in-house permission based email list using a double opt-in subscription method;
• you can manage your opt-in mailing list inside WordPress (unsubscribe or delete users);
• you can export your mailing list from WordPress;
• you can connect to your subscribers stored in WordPress directly from G-Lock EasyMail address book and send an email to them without export-import;
• you can convert your blog RSS feed into an email newsletter and send it to your subscribers;
• you can schedule your email broadcast weekly, monthly or as you add new posts;
• you have a full control under your email newsletter design and content.
   

WP Double Opt-In Newsletter Plugin Download

Version: 2.6.4 What’s New
File size: 282 kbytes (.zip file)
Format: sidebar, widget, plugin for WordPress v3.0+
IMPORTANT: PHP 5 required! 

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Installation

• Extract the files from the g-lock-double-opt-in-manager.zip archive
• Upload the complete plugin folder /g-lock-double-opt-in-manager/, contained in the zip file, to your WP plugin directory via FTP . If there is no /g-lock-double-opt-in-manager/ root folder in the zip file, create one in your WordPress plugins/ folder.
• Go to your WordPress Admin panel -> Plugins and activate the double opt-in plugin
• Go to Design -> Widgets and add the new G-Lock Double Opt-In Manager plugin to the sidebar
• Click Save Changes

To put the signup form at any place on your post or page, use this shortcode (without spaces):

[gsom - optin]

If your theme doesn’t use widgets, do this:

• Go to your WP Admin panel
• Go to Design – > Theme Editor
• Put the code into your template where you want the signup form to show up:

<?php if (function_exists('gsom_put_form')) gsom_put_form(); ?>

WP Double Opt-In Plugin Configuration

WP Opt-In plugin is pre-configured by default to collect the subscribers’ email addresses and names and send confirmation and welcome emails. You can modify the default settings as you like.

To modify the plugin settings, go to your WP-Admin -> G-Lock Opt-In -> Settings

General Settings

Delete subscribers who didn’t confirm their subscription within 7 days – if you check this option, the plugin will automatically delete the users who didn’t confirm their subscription within 7 days since the subscription date

Plugin statistics on the dashboard:

• Do not show – check this box if you don’t want to display the plugin subscription report on your blog dashboard
   
• Show in the activity box (Right now) – check this box if you want to display the subscription report in the activity box on your blog dashboard
   
• Show in the separate widget - check this box if you want to display the subscription report in the separate widget on your blog dashboard
   

Email Settings:

From Name: – enter the name you want to send notification emails to new subscribers from. It may be either your contact name, or company name.

From Email: - enter the email address you want to send notification emails to new subscribers from

Mail Delivery Settings:

• Use PHP Mail - if you check this option, the plugin will work using your default mail settings (sendmail). If you get any errors using this option, you can select any of the following sending modes:
   
• Use Sendmail Directly (*nix only) – you can use this sending option if your blog is on Linux or Unix platform.
   
• Use Custom SMTP Server – you can use this option to send emails using your custom SMTP server.

Send Welcome Message – check this box if you want to send a welcome message to each new subscriber

Send Unsubscribe Notification – check this box if you want to send a notification that the user has successfully unsubscribed from your list

Send Subscribe/Unsubscribe Event Notifications to Admin – check this box if you want to send a notification about the subscribe/unsubscribe event to the blog admin
 

Debug Settings:

Write Debug Log – enter the name you want to send notification emails to new subscribers from. It may be either your contact name, or company name.
 

Submission Form

 Click on the Submission Form tab in the plugin settings to edit your signup form.

Form Title: – type a title for your signup form

Form Header: – type a text that will appear above the signup form (for example, ask the user to fill in the form to subscribe)

Form Footer: – type a text that will appear below the signup form (for example, an email privacy statement)

Form Fields: – fields the user must fill in. By default there are “First Name” and “Email”. You can add more fields by clicking on “Add Field” button. You can re-order fields as you like. To move a field, drag it up or down and drop it.

“Subscribe” button – button the user must click to subscribe. You can change the button label if you like.

Email Templates

In the Email Templates you can view and modify email messages that will be sent to your subscribers.

Confirmation Email: (will contain a subscription confirmation link and will be sent to the user after he clicks “Subscribe”)

Subject: – confirmation email subject (usually it clearly asks the user to confirm his subscription)

Message: - confirmation email text including the subscription confirmation link

Available variables – the variables you can use in your confirmation email, welcome message and on action pages. They will be replaced with the real data in the emails. The available variables are:

$blog_name – your blog name

$blog_url – your blog URL

$from_email – email address you will send confirmation and welcome emails to new subscribers

$from_name – name you will send confirmation and welcome emails to new subscribers from

$manage_subscription_link – update profile link (allows the subscriber update his details or unsubscribe)

$confirmation_link – link to confirm the user’s subscription

$resend_confirmation_link – link to re-send the confirmation email to the user (if the email address is subscribed but not confirmed)

$encoded_email – subscriber’s email address encoded into Base64 for compatibility with G-Lock EasyMail v6 software

$decoded_email – decoded subscriber’s email address

$subscription_time – date and time of the user’s subscription

$subscriber_ip – subscriber’s IP address

$gsom-fname-field – subscriber’s first name (form field)

$Last_Name1 – subscriber’s last name (form field)

$gsom-email-field – subscriber’s email address (form field)

If you add custom fields to the signup form, they will become available as variables for the use in your email notifications. If you rename the default form field First Name, be sure to replace the default variable $gsom-fname-field used in the confirmation email, welcome message and on action pages with the new variable associated with the renamed field. The new variable will be listed under Available Variables.

Welcome Email: (will be sent to the user after he confirms his subscription)

Subject: – welcome email subject (usually it thanks the user for his subscription)

Message: - welcome email text. It’s highly recommended that you welcome each new subscriber with a well written email message. The way you welcome people lays the foundation of your future relationships. A skilful message creates a good reputation and defines you as a serious email marketer. In this article you’ll find 9 Tips for Writing Your Welcome Message
 

Unsubscribe Email: (will be sent to the user after he/she unsubscribes)

Subject: – email subject (for example, Removal Request Confirmation)

Message: – email text
 

Action Pages

In the Action Pages you can modify the text that will be displayed on your blog after the user fills in the form.

Wrong email address format: – asks the user to enter a valid email address;

Confirmation required: – asks the user to check his mailbox and confirm the subscription;

Confirmation successful: – thanks the user for confirming his subscription;

Email address is already subscribed and confirmed: - tells the user that his email address is already subscribed and confirmed;

Email address is already subscribed but not confirmed: – tells the user that his email address is already subscribed but not confirmed;

Unsubscription successful: – tells the user that he was successfully unsubscribed from the mailing list.
 

Sending Email Broadcast from RSS Feed

You can set the plugin to send email broadcast from your blog RSS feed.

To setup email broadcast, go to your WP-Admin -> G-Lock Opt-In -> Blog Broadcast

Sending Options (choose an option when your email broadcast will be sent):

I’ll send broadcast manually – if you choose this option, the plugin will not send broadcast emails automatically. You will be able to send it at any time by clicking on “Send Broadcast Now” button.

Send broadcast email when the number of new posts is at least xx – broadcast email will be sent after the specified number of new posts are added to the blog. The plugin checks your blog for new posts every hour after the last email broadcast and when it finds the xx number of new posts, it sends a broadcast email to the subscribers.

Note: if you specify just 1 post, you may not receive an email newsletter immediately after a new post is added. The email newsletter will be sent after the plugin checks the blog for new posts.

Send broadcast email each [day of week/month]  – broadcast email will be sent every specified day of week/month.
 

Feed Options:

Include full posts into broadcast email – if you choose this option, your broadcast emails will contain the full article(s) from your blog.

Don’t show images in broadcast emails – if you choose this option, the images from the articles on your blog will not be included into broadcast emails.

Length of post excerpt xx characters – here you can specify the length in characters of the RSS item description included into your broadcast email. The plugin will not cut your posts after the specified number of characters. Instead, it will keep adding complete sentences until the defined number of characters or more are returned.

Limit feed output to xx items – here you can specify the number of RSS items to include into broadcast emails.

Next broadcast will send posts from [date] – here you can specify the date of the posts for the next email broadcast. The next broadcast will include the posts added to the blog since the specified date.

In the Categories field you can choose the articles from which categories you want to include into your broadcast email. And in the Authors field you can select the articles’ authors.

In the preview screen you will see a preview of your broadcast email based on the specified criteria (Date, Categories, Authors). If the plugin finds no articles that satisfy your criteria, you will see the “Sorry, no posts matched your criteria” message.
 

To save the changes in the Blog Broadcast settings, click Update Options button.
 

Mailing List Management in WordPress

WP double opt-in plugin saves the subscribers to the internal WordPress database.

To view your subscribers list, go to your WP-Admin -> G-Lock Opt-In -> Subscribers

The plugin collects and saves the following data about the subscriber: email address, subscription date, IP address, first name and other fields you may have added when customizing the signup form. You can also see a status of each subscription: confirmed, unconfirmed or unsubscribed.

For you convenience you can choose to display only confirmed subscriptions, or unconfirmed subscriptions, or unsubscribed users. Or click on “All Subscribers” to show all the users on your list.

You can manage your subscribers list yourself. You can search for users, unsubscribe users, delete users and export users from your WordPress database to use the mailing list in G-Lock EasyMail.
 

To search users:

• type an email address (or a part of the email address) into the search field
• click Search Subscribers

The search (filter) engine will display the subscribers that satisfy the search criteria. If the list is filtered, all the features are applied to the filtered subscribers only. To remove the filter and show all the subscribers on the list, click Remove Search Filter.
 

To unsubscribe users:

• check the boxes near the email addresses you want to unsubscribe
• click Unsubscribe

   

To delete users:

• check the boxes near the email addresses you want to delete
• click Delete

   

To export users:

• display the users you want to export (all, confirmed, unconfirmed, or unsubscribed). Or, apply a search to display particular subscribers. If the list is filtered, Export will work for the filtered users only.
• click Export

You can export the subscribers to a .csv or .xls file for further import into your newsletter sending software.
 

Unsubscribe Link for Your Newsletter

The plugin provides you with a ready unsubscribe link that you can include into your email messages. You can simply copy the URL and paste it somewhere at the bottom of your email newsletter. The subscribers who would like to opt-out from your list will click on that URL.