Newsletter Booster Documentation

Documentation for Newsletter Booster

Installation

  • Unpack and upload plugin to your WordPress blog, in the wp-content/plugins/ folder.
  • Activate the plugin.
The plugin is now active, and the settings can be accessed via "Settings"->"Newsletter Booster".

Setup

When you first open up the settings page, you will be greeted with 6 tabs:
  • Configuration - Basic functionality and settings
  • Comment Form - Specific settings for the Comment Form
  • Registration Form - Specific settings for the Registration Form
  • Signups - List of the last 25 signups via the plugin.
  • Export - Export a .csv file containing all details for the signups
  • Log - A log so you can view the progress and details of the functionality of the plugin.
Lets start with setting up the plugin. First go to the "Configuration" tab. Under "Activate Functionality", there are two checkboxes. By checking these on and off, you can control which functionality you wish to use. To add the functionality to the Comment Form, make sure the "Enable Comment Form Signup?" checkbox is checked, and if you wish to enable this functionality during registration on your blog as well, you can use the "Enable Registration Form Signup?" checkbox.

Extra functionality

It is possible to have the checkbox next to the comment form prechecked when people enter a comment, but please be aware, that this is not CAN-SPAM compliant, so use this functionality at your own risk!

Signup Filter Settings

Spam and spam comments are always a problem, and it is possible to filter out most of these, by turning on the "Ignore Suspected Spam?" option. This lets Newsletter Booster use WordPress's spam detection functions, and if WordPress suspects the comment in question is spam, the user who left the comment will not be registered as a newsletter signup. Only Approved Comments is the next step, where you can also set up Newsletter Booster to only sign up users who leave a comment that is approved directly. If the comment needs to be approved first (due to your blog settings or WordPress suspects the comment is spam) the user will not be signed up to your newsletter.

Email Notice Settings

Notify Admin? By turning on this option, you will automatically get an e-mail every time a new user signs up to your newsletter via the plugin. Hide for your users? A nice little feature, that allows you to hide the checkbox for your registered users.

External API Integration

Newsletter Booster can submit your newsletter signups directly to external newsletter managers such as Mailchimp or AWeber. This feature requires a bit more technical insight, but two examples are provided in the plugin. For more details and explanation, go to the section named "External API Integration Documentation" in the documentation.

Designing the comment form signup

Newsletter Booster gives you the option of styling the design. Please note: Not all WordPress Themes looks fantastic without any tweaking of the design, but if you have a little bit of experience with HTML and CSS, it is not that difficult to tweak. Go to the tab "Comment Form" to tweak the design.
Newsletter Booster signup box Newsletterbooster signup box above

Per default, the checkbox to sign up to the newsletter is put below the comment field, where it is not very visible. The option "Above Comment Field" can move the checkbox up above the comment field, but please note this functionality does not work that well with all WordPress Themes, and might require a bit of tweaking if it does not work when turned on. 

Pitchline:Is where you can enter the text next to the checkbox, example: "Please sign me up to your newsletter also." Disclaimer text is an optional text field where you can enter text which is then displayed below the checkbox and pitch line. HTML is accepted.

 To make the option of signing up to your newsletter stand out, you can use the "Highlight Setup" option. By turning on this option, you will be able to fill in HTML in the "Before NLB code:" and "After NLB code:" text fields, to make visually appealing signup notices.

An example

Newsletter Booster signup box above commentary with pitchline

Registration Form Signup

Newsletter Booster signup box on the user registration formIf you turn on the "Enable Registration Form Signup?" option, you can allow new users who register on your blog to sign up to your newsletter at the same time.

The same styling options apply as for the Comment Form, and you should refer to the previous chapter for detailed instructions, but you cannot change the position of the checkbox itself. 

Signup

The tab "Signup" will show you a list of the 25 latest signups, and is meant as a quick visual check, but if you wish to see all details, you should use the export tab. Newsletter Booster last 25 signup list

Export

From the "Export"-tab you can export the full list of signups from your blog. It is only possible to make an export once you have had one or more signups via Newsletter Booster.

Log

The log is an internallog, and can be used for pinpointing errors. Newsletter Booster internal log

External API Integration Documentation

One of the most powerful features in Newsletter Booster is the integration with any external mailinglist manager system that allows for adding newsletter subscribers via URL strings. For example, if you wish to add a new e-mail and name to a mailing list hosted with Mailchimp, you can turn on the option to send this information in the settings page of Newsletter Booster in the tab named "Configuration" in the section named "External API Integration". If you turn on the option "Submit to API", every time a new newsletter signup is processed and approved based on your other settings, Newsletter Booster can open an URL with the correct parameters added automatically.

To use with Mailchimp:

http://api.mailchimp.com/1.2/?method=listSubscribe&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY&id=YOUR_LIST_ID&
email_address=%email%&merge_vars[FNAME]=%name%&output=xml Please note the BOLDly marked parameters needs to be filled out with YOUR specific values. Both values can be found in Mailchimps system after you have logged in.

Links to Mailchimps own documentation:

What is my API key?

To find your API key, follow these steps:
Account button (from Dashboard) ==> API Keys & Info (here you'll see valid keys, expired keys, daily usage stats, etc). (Link)

How can I find my List ID?

To get your List ID go to your Lists Tab ==> click on "settings" for the list you're working with ==> your List ID will be at the bottom of that page. (Link)

Breaking down the URL and the logic:

Available XMLRPC methods for Mailchimp. (Link) The called URL: http://api.mailchimp.com/1.2/

Parameters:

  • ?method=listSubscribe Tells the Mailchimp API which kind of operation you are trying to do.
  • &apikey=YOUR_API_KEY : Your own API key, to ensure that only you, the owner of the list, is trying to communicate with the API.
  • &id=YOUR_LIST_ID : The unique ID of the list you are adding a new subscriber and is required by Mailchimp. 
  • &email_address=%email% : Is the e-mail address you are adding to the list. The text "%email%" will be replaced by the email of the commenter or from the user registering. 
  • &merge_vars[FNAME]=%name% : Is the name of the user you are adding to the newsletter. If you have other parameters you wish to add, or you have another field name in Mailchimp for the name, you can replace "FNAME" with the correct name. 
  • &output=xml : Tells the Mailchimp API which type of output we want for the response.