September 17, 2009 One of the plugins we offer Edublogs Campus users is the excellent Subscribe2.
However, we thought we could improve somewhat on their user documentation – so, courtesy of the rather brilliant Sue Waters here’s a complete guide to setting up and using SubScribe2… enjoy!
Setting up and configuring Subscribe2
Subscribe2 is used on Edublogs Campus blogs to provide the ability for readers to subscribe to email notifications of latest posts or a daily/weekly digest of posts. Edublogs supporter blogs use the Email Subscription widget.
Email subscribers are automatically notified of new posts or information on the blog and don’t need to subscribe by RSS or regular visit the blog to check for new updates.
It can also be used by the blog administrator to:
- Send out emails to all confirmed subscribers.
- Subscribe or unsubscribe readers
All you need to do is:
- Activate the Subscribe2 plugin
- Activate the Subscribe2 widget and configure your settings on the Subscribe2 page — make sure you enable the Enable Subscribe2 Widget?
- Add the Subscribe2 widget to your blog sidebar
1. Activating your Subscribe2 Plugin
- Go to Plugins > Installed in your Dashboard
- Click on Activate below the Subscribe2 plugin
2. Configuring your Subscribe2 Settings
Once Subscribe2 has been activated in your Plugins area you need to go to Settings > Subscribe2 to configure your settings and activate your Subscribe2 widget.
Subscribe2 has quite a few configuration options, so lets explain them one at a time:
Notification Settings
Restrict the number of recipients per email to
Used if a hosting provider imposes limits on out going emails (as a measure to limit spammers). By default, this is set to unlimited; no limit on the number of emails sent to recipients.
There is no need on an Edublogs Campus blog to edit this setting.
Send Admins notifications for new
This allows you to decide if you want to receive a notification when a person subscribes and/or unsubscribes. Change this to Neither if you don’t want to receive email notifications of subscription changes.
Include theme CSS stylesheet in HTML notifications
By default, include theme CSS stylesheet in HTML notifications is set to yes. There is no need to change this setting.
Send Emails for Pages
Change this to Yes if you want your email subscribers to be notified of new pages added to your site
Send Emails for Password Protected Posts
You normally use password protected posts on public blogs to restrict the access to viewing particular posts. In most situations you would leave this as No.
Send Emails for Private Posts
Private posts are only visible on the blog’s post page to logged in Editors and Administrators. In most situations you would leave this as No.
Send Email From
When the email is sent to your subscribers it adds an email address and username to the bottom of the email. The ‘Send Email from’ option provides you the ability to have it sent from the person who wrote the post (Post Author) or a specific user attached to the blog.
Send Emails
- In most situations you would leave this as For Each Post. This means your subscribers will be sent an email each time a new post is added to your blog.
Once Daily or Weekly are more likely to be used on blogs with high posting frequency i.e. several posts per day. With either of these options your subscribers will be sent Daily or Weekly Digest of your posts. - ‘Send Emails’ — used to control how frequently the email is sent to your subscribers.
Email Templates
There are four different automatic email sent from Subscribe2 to subscribers:
- Subscribe confirmation email
- Unsubscribe confirmation email
- Reminder email for unconfirmed subscribers
- Post or Digest email
The Subscribe confirmation, Unsubscribe confirmation and Reminder emails are only sent to public subscribers. These are readers who subscribe by adding their email address to the Subscribe2 widget in your blog sidebar. To complete their request they need to click on the link in the email.
The email templates control what information is sent in each of these emails. In most situations you wouldn’t make changes to any of these email templates.
Excluded Categories
Excluded categories are used if you don’t want emails sent for specific post categories. For example, the category All about Plugins in the screenshot below has been selected; this means readers won’t be notified of any post assigned to that category.
However you can choose to allow registered users to subscribe to excluded categories.
Registered Subscribers users that are logged into their campus account and who have subscribe to email updates by clicking on your profile link in ‘manage your subscription options from your profile’.
They have an additional option area under Users > Subscription in the dashboard of the blog they have subscribe to. This area allows them to choose which categories they would like to receive notifications about and also allows them to choose the email format.
Appearance
Set default Subscribe2 page as ID:
By default, Set default Subscribe2 page as ID is set to 0. There is no need to change this setting.
Set the number of Subscribers displayed per page:
You manage your Subscribe2 subscribers using Manage Subscribers page accessed using Tools > Subscribers.
On the Manage subscribers page you can:
- Subscribe and unsubscribe readers
- Check subscriber numbers
- Search subscriber details
- Alter which categories readers are subscribed to
The Set the number of Subscribers displayed per page is used to control how many subscribers are shown per page on your Manage Subscriber page. By default, this is set to 25. You can increase or decrease the number by clicking Edit and then Update.
Show a link to your subscription page in “meta”?
By default, Show a link to your subscription page in “meta”? is not selected. There is no need to change this setting.
Show the Subscribe2 button on the Write toolbar?
This adds a Subscribe2 button to the formatting toolbar in your write Post/Page area. This provides the ability to add a Subscribe2 form to any post or page; then your readers just need to enter their email address or click on manage profile to subscribe by email.
By default, the Show the Subscribe2 button on the Write toolbar? is selected. If you want the S2 button to display in your formatting toolbar you keep it selected.
Enable Subscribe2 Widget?
This adds a Subscribe2 Widget to Appearance > Widgets.
You use the Subscribe2 Widget to add a form to your sidebar for readers simply enter their email addres and then click on “Subscribe” or click manage profile. The readers then receive an email notifying when new posts are published on the blog.
Once enable you need to go to Appearance > Widgets and add the Subscribe2 Widget to the desired sidebar.
By default, the Enable Subscribe2 Widget? isn’t selected. If you want access to the Subscribe2 widget you need to change this setting by selecting it and clicking Submit.
Auto Subscribe
Subscribe new users registering with your blog
This option provides the ability to automatically subscribe all new users added to your blog to email notification by Subscribe.
When configured to automatically Subscribe new users registering with your blog any new users added to your blog using Users > Add New or Users > Add Users will also automatically also be added as Subscribe2 subscribers and will be listed on Tools > Subscribers.
By default, the Subscribe new users registering with your blog is No. To automatically add all new subscribers change this setting to Automatically and clicking Submit.
Auto-subscribe includes any excluded categories
By default, Auto-subscribe includes any excluded categories is not selected. There is no need to change this setting.
Registration Form option is checked by default
By default, Registration Form option is checked by default is not selected. There is no need to change this setting.
Auto-subscribe users to receive email as
There are two types of Subscribe2 subscribers:
- Public subscribers – who subscribe by entering their email address
- Registered subscribers – that are logged into their campus account and who have subscribe to email updates by clicking on your profile link in ‘manage your subscription options from your profile’.
Public subscribers receive an excerpt for each post made to the blog provided you have not published it to a category that you have defined as excluded in Settings > Subscribe2.
Registered subscribers can choose their preferred email type as either:
- Plain Text – Excerpt
- Plain Text – Full Post
- HTML – Full Post
The ‘Auto-subscribe users to receive email as’ option allows you to set what email format all automatically added subscribers receive. By default, auto-subscribers receive Plain Text – Except. All you need to do is change this to your preferred option and then click Submit.
Here are examples of the look of the different formats.
Registered Users have the option to auto-subscribe to new categories
By default, Registered Users have the option to auto-subscribe to new categories is Yes. There is no need to change this setting.
Option for Registered Users to auto-subscribe to new categories is checked by default
By default, Option for Registered Users to auto-subscribe to new categories is checked by default is Yes. There is no need to change this setting.
Barred Domains
This option is used if you want to prevent specific email domains from signing up as a public subscriber.
3. Adding the Subscribe2 widget to your blog sidebar
- Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard
- Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) NOTE: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets
- To add the Subscribe2 widget, drag it from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right
Using Subscribe2
Subscribe2 is used on Edublogs Campus blogs so readers can subscribe to email notifications of latest posts .
It has lots of subscription management options for both readers and the blog owner. The purpose of this page is to explain all the management options available.
To set up on your blog start by first reading the Setting up Subscribe2 email notification instructions then read the information below.
How to Subscribe using Subscribe2
The appearance of the Subscribe2 widget depends on whether the person visiting your blog is or isn’t logged into their Edublogs Campus account. This influences how your subscribers sign up for email notifications.
Subscribing as a Logged in Visitor
Visitors who are logged into their campus account see the option to ‘manage your subscription options from your profile’.
They subscribe by clicking on the profile link.
Provided they are registered users of your blog this takes them to the Notifications Setting page in:
- Profile > Subscriptions
- or Users > Subscriptions –dependent on their user role on the blog
On the Notifications Setting page they can choose:
- Their preferred email format – HTML or plain text
- Whether the email contains excerpt only or the full post
- Which categories they subscribe to
To subscribe to the blog they need to click on the Subcribe link next to the blog name.
Please Note:
- Registered users are people who have been added as users to your blog; they are listed on your Authors & Users page (Users > Authors & Users).
- Loggged in users, who aren’t registered users, will be taken to their dashboard and will need to click on Profile > Subscriptions to subscribe
Subscribing as a Public Visitor
Public visitors (those who aren’t logged in) see the option to enter their email address.
All they need to do is add their email address and click Subscribe. These types of subscribers are known as public subscribers.
Public subscribers don’t have additional email options; they can only receive plain text excerpts of your latest posts.
How to Unsubscribe from Subscribe2
You can unsubscribe from Subscribe2 as follows:
1. Registered Subscribers
There are three options for registered subscribers to unsubscribe from a blog:
- If Subscribe2 plugin is activated on their own blog (Plugins > Installed)
- Go to Users > Subscriptions
- Click Unsubscribe next to the correct blog name
- In the blog dashboard they want to unsubscribe from
- Go to Profile > Subscriptions (or Users > Subscriptions — dependent on your user role on the blog)
- Click Unsubscribe next to the correct blog name
- Blog owner can unsubcribe a registered subscriber
- Go to Tools > Subscriptions
- Enter their email address
- Click Unsubscribe
2. Public Subscribers
There are two options for public subscribers to unsubscribe from a blog:
- Using the Subscribe2 Widget on the blog
- Go to the blog
- Enter their email address
- Click unsubscribe
- Blog owners can unsubcribe a registered subscriber
- Go to Tools > Subscriptions
- Enter their email address
- Click Unsubscribe
Sending Emails to your subscribers
Subscribe 2 also provides the ability to send out your own emails to all confirmed subscribers.
It’s is as simple as:
- Go to Posts > Mail Subscribers
- Write your message
- Choose your recipients
- Click Send
James Farmer on Google+
THANKS!! That was some good info. I appreciate it!
Very good information! The best guide about Subscribe2. Very clear. Thanks.
Two questions more? Were is the database of subscribers? What tipe of archive they use?
Thank you!