6 Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins (Easy to Use + Powerful)

Do you want to create an email newsletter for your WordPress site? Creating an email list is one of the best things you can do to grow your business.

An email newsletter allows your website visitors to subscribe, so they can receive email updates from you about your blog, new sale promotions, etc.

In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress newsletter plugins that you can use to easily build and grow your email list.

Why Your Site Needs an Email Newsletter

An email newsletter lets you keep in touch with your site’s visitors. Email marketing is a crucial and effective way to make money from your website.

Some website owners think that they need to get to a certain stage with their site before starting a newsletter. But we believe it’s important to start building your email list right away.

Although we’re using the term newsletter, you don’t necessarily need to send out regular news. You might create a short email course for new subscribers to help them get to know you better. You could also use your newsletter list to offer special discounts on your products and services.

If you want more ideas of what you could include in your newsletter, check out our step by step guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

When it comes to WordPress newsletter plugins, there are three different types. First type of newsletter plugins are associated with email marketing services which offer the most comprehensive set of features.

Second type are simple newsletter plugins that let you draft emails inside WordPress, but they rely on third-party SMTP services to help you reliably send emails to your subscribers.

Lastly, the third type of WordPress newsletter plugins are designed to help you get more email subscribers and grow your email list. These plugins integrate with all popular email marketing services and other newsletter plugins.

With that said, let’s take a look at the top WordPress newsletter plugins that you can use to build and grow your email list.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a service that you can use to build an email list and send out emails. We believe it’s the best email marketing service for small businesses.

Due to the popularity of Constant Contact, leading WordPress form plugins like WPForms, offer built-in integration for Constant Contact, so you can quickly build newsletter subscriber forms.

Constant Contact integration is also available in WPForms free version.

This lets you easily build your email list from your WordPress site while relying on a powerful email deliverability platform of Constant Contact to send emails.

Pros

• Constant Contact itself is a fully-featured email marketing service. It lets you easily create emails using templates. You can segment your list, set up automated emails, and much more.
• If you don’t already have a Constant Contact account, they offer a generous free trial for you to get started.
• There are a lot of third-party plugins like WPForms that offer native integration for Constant Contact.
• Constant Contact comes with excellent support (email, chat, and live phone support).
• You can also integrate Constant Contact with WooCommerce and other eCommerce platforms.

Cons

• Constant Contact email marketing service lacks advanced targeting features that are available in marketing automation platforms like Drip or ConvertKit.

Pricing

The plugin to integrate Constant Contact with WordPress (WPForms Lite) is 100% free.

But you’ll need to use their email marketing service. Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial (no credit-card required). After that their pricing starts as low as $20/month.

WPBeginner users can use our Constant Contact coupon code to get an additional 20% off.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a popular marketing and popup plugin for WordPress. It lets you create personalized newsletter opt-in forms, so you can grow your email list and convert more abandoning visitors into subscribers.

OptinMonster works with all major email marketing services and popular WordPress newsletter plugins.

Pros

• OptinMonster integrates with lots of different email marketing services, including popular ones like Constant Contact. It also integrates with plugins like Sendinblue and MailPoet.
• You can use OptinMonster’s signature Exit-Intent® technology to create popups that appear as a visitor’s about to leave your site. That way, you won’t interrupt their experience on your site.
• It’s easy to A/B test your sign up forms to see what headlines, offers, and layouts lead to the best conversion rate.
• You can create segmentation rules to target specific pages on your site. OptinMonster also lets you personalize your newsletter forms based on user’s geolocation, past behavior on site, etc.
• All plans include full access to OptinMonster university training. This is a whole library of plans, checklists, ebooks, guides, webinars, and more to help you grow your email list faster.
• There’s a full money-back guarantee. If you don’t like the software for any reason, cancel within 14 days of purchasing and you can get a full refund.

Cons

• OptinMonster doesn’t provide the actual mailing list software. You’ll need to join a separate service (such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, etc) for this.
• There’s no free version of OptinMonster, and you can’t take a free trial. However, there is a full money-back guarantee.

Pricing

OptinMonster premium plugin costs $9/month (billed annually). You can upgrade to unlock the powerful features like geolocation, gamified opt-in forms, and more.

3. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is another email marketing service that we highly recommend. It’s easy to use and has a free plan, as well as a simple plugin that you can add to WordPress.

Along with email marketing, you can also use Sendinblue to send emails through your website. In fact, it’s our top recommendation for the best SMTP email service provider with high email deliverability.

Pros

• The Sendinblue WordPress plugin can be easily installed through your WordPress dashboard. Once you’ve created it, you simply activate it using the API key from your Sendinblue account.
• There’s a completely free plan, where you can send up to 300 emails per day to your newsletter list. You don’t have to enter any credit card details for this.
• The Sendinblue customer service team is helpful and responsive. You can contact them through email or live chat.
• If you’re using WooCommerce, you can use WP Mail SMTP plugin to connect Sendinblue’s SMTP and send your confirmation emails to buyers.
• Within Sendinblue, there’s a range of templates to choose from. All of them are responsive, which means they’ll look good on mobile devices.

Cons

• Sendinblue doesn’t have the range of templates that some other email service providers offer. It also doesn’t have such powerful segmentation and automation options.
• It can be a little fiddly to import your contacts if you’ve already created a mailing list somewhere else.

Pricing

Sendinblue has a completely free plan that you can use for up to 300 emails/day. If you want more, their paid plans start at $25/month. That gives you 40,000 emails each month and no daily sending limits.

4. MailPoet

MailPoet is a newsletter plugin for WordPress that also works with your WooCommerce online store.

With the standard version of MailPoet, you’ll also need an account with a third-party email service provider such as Constant Contact.

However, you can choose to sign up for MailPoet’s “Premium + Sending” service, which takes care of sending your emails too. This is free for up to 1,000 subscribers.

Pros

• It’s quick and easy to get started with MailPoet. You can simply install the plugin in WordPress and get started straight away.
• With MailPoet, you manage your subscriber list and newsletter emails through WordPress itself. This means you don’t need to login to anything else.
• There’s a free “Premium + Sending” plan available for up to 1,000 subscribers, making this a great option if you’re on a very tight budget.
• When it comes to sending your emails, there’s a range of built in templates available.
• You can easily add a signup form to your WooCommerce checkout page to collect emails and encourage repeat purchases.
• The paid plans come with a 30 day money back guarantee. If you don’t like MailPoet, you can simply ask for your money back.
• You can choose to use MailPoet’s own “Sending” service or you can sign up for a third-party service such as Amazon SES or Sendgrid.
• It’s easy to connect MailPoet to OptinMonster if you want to use both plugins.

Cons

• There isn’t a huge range of templates, and you may find yourself doing quite a bit of customization to get something that works for you.
• The analytic tools provided by MailPoet are more limited than those you’ll get with some other email marketing services.

Pricing

MailPoet is completely free. If you want to use their “Premium + Sending” service, it’s free for up to 1,000 subscribers. After that, it costs from $13/month (billed annually).

5. Bloom

Bloom is a plugin from Elegant Themes, the Divi theme creators. Like OptinMonster, it lets you create sign up forms to encourage people to join your email list. These can appear after a certain interval or you can simply add them in specific locations.

Pros

• If you’ve already got an account with Elegant Themes then you don’t have to pay anything extra for Bloom. This can help you keep down the costs of building a WordPress site.
• Bloom lets you create a range of different options. These include optins that pop up, ones that fly in, ones that appear beneath your content, and more.
• You can design your optins to appear after certain “triggers” take place, like after a certain length of time, or after someone comments.
• Bloom easily integrates with lots of different email service providers. These include Constant Contact, MailPoet, and Sendinblue.

Cons

• The range of templates for Bloom is quite limited, though there are several color variations of each layout.
• Bloom doesn’t have anything similar to OptinMonster’s advanced Exit-Intent® technology. It also doesn’t offer floating bar or fullscreen optins like OptinMonster does.

Pricing

Bloom is part of the full Elegant Themes package, which also includes their popular drag and drop WordPress theme, Divi.

6. Newsletter

Newsletter is a free WordPress plugin that you can use to send as many newsletters as you want. The premium version integrates with other plugins like WooCommerce and WPForms and offers extra features.

Pros

• Newsletter is free, though you may want to pay for the Premium version to get all the extensions.
• You can add an external SMTP provider to Newsletter. This is definitely recommended as it should improve your email deliverability.
• You can control how fast emails go out, which is very useful if you’re sending them through your web host and they place limits on you.
• There are a number of free addons available for Newsletter. You could use these to create an archive of your newsletter and lock content so that people can only access it after subscribing.

Cons

• The spam prevention isn’t as good as with some other options. You might find you get some spam subscribers through your signup form.
• You’ll ideally need to connect Newsletter to an external SMTP provider. They don’t provide a “Sending” option or similar like MailPoet does.

Pricing

The basic version of Newsletter is free, regardless of how many emails you send. If you want the pro extensions and priority support, it costs $65/year.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to WordPress newsletter plugins, you almost always want to use a proper email marketing platform that offers full email delivery services like Constant Contact, Sendinblue, Drip, etc.

The challenge is that most of these platforms lack powerful signup form features, and that’s where WordPress newsletter plugins like OptinMonster and too some extent form builder plugins like WPForms can help.

These plugins let you connect your WordPress site with powerful email marketing services, so you get the best of both worlds.

Most professionals and power users DO NOT use a newsletter plugin inside WordPress to manage their email list because they don’t want the hassle of using an SMTP plugin and connecting it with an email delivery service.

Your email list is too important and valuable, and its best practice to let the expert email marketing companies handle that part for your business. Even at WPBeginner and our software businesses, we use third-party email marketing companies even though we have all the technical know-how.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best WordPress newsletter plugins for creating and building your email list. You might also enjoy our tried and tested ways to grow your email list faster, and our list of the must have WordPress plugins for all business sites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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May 01, 2020 at 06:38PM

How to Duplicate a WordPress Page or Post with a Single Click

Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to duplicate a WordPress page with a single click?

Creating a duplicate post or page allows you to work on it without affecting the existing version.

In this article, we will show you how to quickly duplicate a WordPress page or post with all the settings.

Why Clone or Duplicate a Page / Post in WordPress?

When you are running a blog for a while, you may sometimes need to quickly copy a post or page.

For instance, a sales page that already has a lot of content that you can reuse, or an older article that can be extended as a new article.

Now, you could manually copy and paste the contents of the post or page to a new draft. However, this does not copy your featured image, post settings, SEO settings, and other metadata.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easier way to automatically duplicate a post or page with all its settings and content?

With this approach, you can just edit a post and start working on it right away.

Let’s see how to easily and properly clone a WordPress post or page with just a click.

Video Tutorial

If you prefer written instructions, then continue reading.

Duplicate a WordPress Post or Page

First, you need to install and activate the Duplicate Post plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Posts » All Posts page. You will notice two new links to clone or to create a new draft below each post title.

Clicking on ‘Clone’ will simply create a duplicate post and will not open the duplicate post in the post editor.

The ‘New Draft’ option will duplicate the post and open the duplicate version in the post editor, so you can start working on it right away.

You will also find the same options for pages as well.

The duplicate post plugin works really well. However, if you want to use it mainly for updating old published posts, then there is a better way to do that.

See our guide on how to properly update live published posts in WordPress for more details.

If you want to use it for other scenarios such as website redesign, copying landing pages, etc, then this is where the plugin really shines.

Customizing Duplicate Post Plugin Settings

The duplicate post plugin works out of the box and supports posts and pages by default.

You can also customize the plugin to enable support for custom post types, restrict to user roles, and choose what to copy when creating a duplicate.

Let’s take a look at all these settings.

Head over to Settings » Duplicate Post page to configure plugin settings.

The settings page is divided into three tabs. First tab allows you to choose what to copy when creating a duplicate.

The default options should work for most websites. However, you can check things you want to copy and uncheck items that you don’t want to be copied.

Next, you need to move on to the permissions tab.

By default, the plugin allows administrator and editor user roles to create duplicate posts.

It also enables duplicate post feature for posts and pages post types.

If you are using custom post types on your website, then those post types will appear here. You can choose whether you want to enable duplicate post feature for those post types as well.

Finally, click on the Display tab to choose where you want to display the clone post links. By default, the plugin shows them on post list, edit screen, and admin bar.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

That’s all, we hope this article helped you learn how to easily duplicate a WordPress page or post. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners and our tips on how to speed up your WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Duplicate a WordPress Page or Post with a Single Click appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 30, 2020 at 04:38PM

How to Easily Add an Affiliate Program in WooCommerce

Do you want to add an affiliate program in WooCommerce?

Adding an affiliate program to your eCommerce store is a great way to encourage customers and other marketers to promote your products.

The challenge is that WooCommerce does not come with a built-in affiliate management system. Luckily, there are several affiliate plugins you can use. In this article, we’re going to show you how to easily add an affiliate program in WooCommerce.

Why You Should Add an Affiliate Program to WooCommerce

Adding an affiliate program provides an incentive to your customers, fans, and other marketers to promote your products in return of a small commission per sale.

When a user signs up to be your affiliate, they get a special link to your store. This link has their affiliate tracking code within it.

When someone buys through that link, the affiliate earns a percentage of the sale price. For digital products, this is often 30%. For physical products, around 5% to 10% is normal.

This commission encourages your affiliates (brand ambassadors) to promote your products, and it helps you make more money online without any extra work.

The challenge for new online store owners is that WooCommerce doesn’t have a built-in affiliate or referral tracking feature, so they often get confused on how to add it.

Luckily, there are several WooCommerce affiliate plugins that you can use to create your affiliate program. We’re going to take you through three different methods in this article.

1. Affiliate Royale

Affiliate Royale is a premium WordPress plugin. It can be easily integrated with your WooCommerce store.

Once you’ve installed and activated the WordPress plugin, you’ll see a new Affiliate Royale tab in your WordPress dashboard.

If you click on that tab, you’ll see a screen like this:

With Affiliate Royale, you can can set your commission levels, customize your welcome and sales notification messages, and more.

Under Affiliate Royale » Options you can set up key pages for your affiliates.

If you want to handle the affiliate payments through WooCommerce, then that’s really straightforward. Just go to Affiliate Royale » Options then select the ‘Integrations’ tab.

Check the box next to ‘WooCommerce’ and Affiliate Royale will be automatically linked to WooCommerce.

Next, you’ll want to set up your affiliate commissions. Affiliate Royale lets you set different commission tiers, if you want to.

You can do this under the ‘Commissions’ tab. Simply type in the percentage that you want to offer for each level.

You’ll need to assign different commission levels to your affiliates under the ‘Affiliate’ tab:

Pros:

• Affiliate Royale is quick and straightforward to get started with. You simply install the plugin and it’s ready to go.
• Your affiliates will have access to a dashboard where they can see what they’ve earned, view their past payouts, and edit their account details.
• As well as creating links for your affiliates, you can create advertising banners for them to use.
• The plugin updates automatically once you’ve installed it. You don’t have to log in and download it again.
• There are a number of built-in reports so that you can view how many sales your affiliates are making, a list of your top affiliates, and more.
• You can set up to 99 different levels of commission. This means you can reward some affiliates with a higher commission rate if you want to.
• Affiliate Royale doesn’t charge any fees on your sales. You just pay the annual fee for the plugin itself.

Cons:

• Your affiliates can only link to pages you’ve specifically set up affiliate links for. This can end up being a lot of work for you or frustrating for them.
• The 14-day money-back guarantee is quite restrictive. You can only get your money back if the plugin genuinely doesn’t work for what you want to do with it.
• There’s no free trial or lite version available.

Pricing:

Affiliate Royale charges $85/year for their plugin. This covers you for one website, or you can pay $165/year to use it on multiple websites.

You can keep using it even if you don’t renew, but you won’t have access to updates or support.

2. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is another premium WordPress plugin. Once you’ve paid for the plugin, you simply download and install it.

You can then go to the ‘Affiliates’ tab in your dashboard to see an overview of your affiliate sales. This example is from an affiliate program that’s been running for a while already:

To integrate AffiliateWP with WooCommerce, go to Affiliates » Settings. Next, click the ‘Integrations’ tab at the top of the screen.

Simply check the box next to ‘WooCommerce’ and then click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom. Now, AffiliateWP will automatically record affiliate referrals when anyone comes to your WooCommerce store through an affiliate link.

You can set a different commission rate for each affiliate, if you want, using AffiliateWP. Go to Affiliates » Affiliates in your WordPress dashboard, then search for a registered affiliate to set their commission rate.

Affiliates without a specific commission rate will have the default commission rate. You can set this up or change it by going to Affiliates » Settings (set the ‘Referral Rate’ under the ‘General’ tab).

Pros

• You can create specific coupon codes for different affiliates. For instance, you might want to partner up with an affiliate and offer a special deal just for their audience.
• Affiliates can generate their own referral links. You don’t have to set up all the link options manually.
• There are lots of free and premium addons available, allowing you to extend the core AffiliateWP functionality.
• The AffiliateWP interface is easy to use. It’s simple while also offering powerful options.
• The refund period is a full 30 days.
• AffiliateWP doesn’t charge you a fee on each sale. You just pay the annual fee for the plugin.

Cons

• As with Affiliate Royale, you can’t get a refund if you simply changed your mind. There needs to be an actual issue with the plugin not working for you.
• Some of the features you might want, like tiered affiliate commission rates, are pro addons. You have to pay for these as part of one of the higher-tier packages.

Pricing

There are several different pricing tiers for AffiliateWP. The lowest you can pay is $99/year, which covers you for a single site.

If you pay $249/year, you get all the “pro” add-ons included. You can also get these with a lifetime membership for $499.

3. ShareASale

ShareaSale is a bit different from the other two options because it’s an affiliate network, not a WordPress plugin.

When you join ShareASale as a merchant, the automatic “wizard” will walk you through the process of setting up your account.

ShareASale can be used with WooCommerce if you install a plugin like ShareASale WooCommerce Tracker.

After installing and activating the plugin, go to the ‘ShareASale WC Tracker’ tab in your WordPress dashboard. This will show your ‘Tracking Settings’ where you’ll need to enter your ShareASale Merchant ID.

This is all you need to do to link ShareASale’s affiliate program with your WooCommerce store. However, you may also want to make sure that refunds are automatically deducted from affiliates’ earnings.

You can do this under the ‘Automatic Reconciliation’ tab of the plugin. Check the ‘Automate’ box:

You’ll also need to get the ‘API Token’ and ‘API Secret’ by logging into ShareASale and going to Tools » Merchant API. There’s a link in the plugin that will take you straight to the right place.

Make sure you click ‘Save Settings’ after making these changes.

Pros

• ShareASale is a huge affiliate network, with loads of affiliates looking for new products to promote.
• All the software is hosted by ShareASale. You don’t need to install anything on your site, except the plugin to connect ShareASale with WooCommerce.
• There’s no monthly or annual fee for the software, just the upfront fee.
• ShareASale will automatically send out all the payments to your affiliates for you.
• Affiliates are screened by ShareASale, meaning that you don’t need to worry about approving them.

Cons

• ShareASale isn’t cheap to get started with. It costs $550 to get lifetime access plus a $100 refundable deposit.
• You need to pay a 20% fee on all affiliate commissions. For every $1 you payout, you’ll be paying an additional $0.20 to ShareASale.
• It takes a little more effort to set up ShareASale with WooCommerce than it does with Affiliate Royale or AffiliateWP.

Pricing

ShareASale has a lifetime cost of $550. They also charge a fee of 20% on all your affiliate payouts. When you join, you need to give them a $100 deposit too.

If the 20% fee on your payouts doesn’t reach $25 in a given month, you have to pay the difference. There is an initial grace period, though.

We hope this article helped you find out how to easily add an affiliate program in WooCommerce. You may also want to see our list of the best WooCommerce plugins and our comparison of the best WooCommerce hosting providers.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Add an Affiliate Program in WooCommerce appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 29, 2020 at 05:24PM