Georgijevic

My Newsletter is a lightweight WordPress newsletter plugin focused on a practical use case many site owners need immediately:
<ul>
<li>Send a campaign to WordPress users.</li>
<li>Send a campaign to commenters (optionally only commenters from a specific post).</li>
<li>Import and manage your own mailing list (CSV/TXT upload, simple XLSX upload, or paste emails).</li>
<li>Queue the campaign and process it in the background (batch sending).</li>
<li>Include unsubscribe links in every message.</li>
<li>Track basic campaign progress in the admin area.</li>
<li>Optional file logging for troubleshooting large sends.</li>
<li>Optional built-in SMTP settings (with SMTP test) (no external SMTP plugin required).</li>
<li>Save and load reusable email templates (v2.5.0).</li>
<li>Manage templates (edit/rename/duplicate/delete) from My Newsletter → Templates (v2.6.0).</li>
<li>Import/export templates as JSON for backup and migration (My Newsletter → Templates) (v2.6.1).</li>
</ul>
This plugin is intentionally simple and WordPress-native:
<ul>
<li>Email sending uses <code>wp_mail()</code> (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_mail/).</li>
<li>Background processing uses WP-Cron (https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/).</li>
<li>File uploads in the admin import flow use <code>wp_handle_upload()</code> (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_handle_upload/).</li>
</ul>
<h4>Mailing list import & management (v2.3.0)</h4>
My Newsletter lets you import and manage your own subscriber list:
<ul>
<li>Import subscribers via CSV/TXT upload, simple XLSX upload, or copy/paste.</li>
<li>Preview the first rows before writing to the database.</li>
<li>Choose merge behavior: Update existing or Skip existing.</li>
<li>Built-in list tools: search, export CSV, delete selected, delete all matching search, and delete by domain.</li>
<li>Suppression list (unsubscribed): view/export and remove suppression (admin-only).</li>
</ul>
Important: You are responsible for ensuring you have a lawful basis/consent to email imported contacts, and every campaign must include a working unsubscribe option.
Then, when composing a campaign, choose Mailing list (imported) as the recipient source.
<h4>Core functionality</h4>
<ul>
<li>
Campaign composer (admin screen)
<ul>
<li>Create a newsletter subject and HTML content.</li>
<li>Use the WordPress editor for message body content.</li>
<li>Choose recipient source:</li>
<li>Users + Commenters</li>
<li>Users only</li>
<li>Commenters only</li>
<li>Commenters on a specific post</li>
<li>Mailing list (imported)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Background queue processing
<ul>
<li>Recipients are queued in custom plugin tables.</li>
<li>Sending runs in batches through WP-Cron (instead of trying to send everything in one browser request).</li>
<li>Reduces the risk of timeouts and broken sends on slower hosting.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Test email before full campaign
<ul>
<li>Send a test message to any email address from the composer screen.</li>
<li>Uses the same rendering path and unsubscribe footer logic as real sends.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Secure unsubscribe links
<ul>
<li>Every email includes an unsubscribe URL.</li>
<li>Unsubscribe tokens use an HMAC-based signature (derived from WordPress salts; see <code>wp_salt()</code> https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_salt/).</li>
<li>Unsubscribed addresses are stored and skipped in future campaigns.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Email templates (save/load) (v2.5.0)
<ul>
<li>Save the current subject + content as a template.</li>
<li>Load a saved template into the composer to reuse it for a new campaign.</li>
<li>Templates are stored locally on your site (not sent anywhere).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Template variables (placeholders)
<ul>
<li><code>{{site_name}}</code></li>
<li><code>{{site_url}}</code></li>
<li><code>{{recipient_name}}</code></li>
<li><code>{{recipient_email}}</code></li>
<li><code>{{unsubscribe_url}}</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Settings screen
<ul>
<li>From name</li>
<li>From email</li>
<li>Reply-To (optional)</li>
<li>Max emails per cron run (batch size)</li>
<li>Footer HTML (appended to outgoing emails)</li>
<li>Logging (optional)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Optional log file (v2.3.3)
<ul>
<li>Enable logging in Settings → Logging.</li>
<li>View, download, and clear logs in My Newsletter → Logs.</li>
<li>Logs are stored in <code>wp-content/uploads/my-newsletter/wpnl.log</code>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Basic campaign tracking
<ul>
<li>Shows recent campaigns in admin.</li>
<li>Displays queue progress (total / sent / failed / queued).</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>User Guide (v2.3.3)</h3>
<h4>1) Quick start (5–10 minutes)</h4>
<ol>
<li>Install and activate the plugin.</li>
<li>Go to My Newsletter → Settings and set:
<ul>
<li>From name</li>
<li>From email (prefer an address on your domain)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Go to My Newsletter (campaign composer) and send a Test email to your own address first.</li>
<li>Create a campaign:
<ul>
<li>Enter Subject</li>
<li>Enter Message (HTML supported via the editor)</li>
<li>Choose recipients (Users / Commenters / Mailing list)</li>
<li>Click Queue & Start Sending (wording may vary by screen)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
If you don’t see progress, read the “WP‑Cron” section below.
<h4>1B) Email templates (Save / Load) (v2.5.0)</h4>
On the My Newsletter campaign screen you can reuse content without retyping:
<ol>
<li>Write your Subject and Content (or load an existing template).</li>
<li>To save: enter a template name and click Save Email Template.</li>
<li>To load: choose a template from the dropdown and click Load Email Template.</li>
</ol>
Tip: keep templates generic (e.g. “Welcome email”, “Promo template”), then adjust the final message before queuing.
<h4>1C) Manage Templates (v2.6.0)</h4>
Use My Newsletter → Templates to manage your saved templates:
<ul>
<li>Add New to create a template from scratch.</li>
<li>Edit to update the template name (rename), subject, or body.</li>
<li>Duplicate to quickly create a variation.</li>
<li>Delete to remove a template you no longer need.</li>
</ul>
Templates are local to your site and can be loaded into the campaign composer using Load Email Template.
<h4>2) Settings explained (My Newsletter → Settings)</h4>
<ul>
<li>
From name / From email 
Used as the sender identity in outgoing messages. WordPress email is sent via <code>wp_mail()</code> and your mail transport decides the final headers (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_mail/).
</li>
<li>
Reply‑To (optional) 
If you want replies to go to a different inbox than “From”.
</li>
<li>
Max emails per cron run (batch size) 
Limits how many emails each WP‑Cron run tries to send. Smaller batches reduce timeouts on shared hosting. 
WP‑Cron is traffic-driven by default (https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/).
</li>
<li>
Footer HTML 
Appended to every message. Best practice is to include:
<ul>
<li>your site name,</li>
<li>a short reason why the recipient is receiving the email,</li>
<li>and an unsubscribe link (the plugin can insert <code>{{unsubscribe_url}}</code>).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Logging (optional, v2.3.3) 
Enable logging when troubleshooting unexpected queue behavior or mail failures.
<ol>
<li>Go to My Newsletter → Settings → Logging and enable the log file.</li>
<li>Re-run sending (WP-Cron or “Run queue now”).</li>
<li>Open My Newsletter → Logs to view, download, or clear the log.</li>
</ol>
Logs are stored in <code>wp-content/uploads/my-newsletter/wpnl.log</code>.
</li>
</ul>
<h4>3) Creating a campaign (My Newsletter → Campaigns)</h4>
<ol>
<li>Subject: what recipients will see.</li>
<li>Message body: use the editor; HTML is allowed.</li>
<li>Placeholders: you can personalize using:
<ul>
<li><code>{{recipient_name}}</code>, <code>{{recipient_email}}</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Recipients: choose one:
<ul>
<li>Users (WP users)</li>
<li>Commenters (emails from approved comments)</li>
<li>Commenters for a specific post</li>
<li>Mailing list (imported)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
Then click the action button to queue recipients and start sending.
<h4>4) Recipient sources: what exactly is included</h4>
<ul>
<li>
Users 
Uses WordPress user emails (typically <code>wp_users.user_email</code>). WordPress user data is stored in core tables (https://developer.wordpress.org/apis/wpdb/).
</li>
<li>
Commenters 
Uses emails from comment records (typically <code>wp_comments.comment_author_email</code>) and only approved comments are considered in typical implementations (WordPress comment basics: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_comments/).
</li>
<li>
Commenters on a specific post 
Same as Commenters, but filtered by post ID.
</li>
<li>
Mailing list (imported) 
Uses subscribers stored by this plugin in its own table. This list is independent from WP users/comments.
</li>
</ul>
<h4>5) Mailing list import (My Newsletter → Mailing List)</h4>
You have two import methods: Upload file or Paste.
<h3>5A) Upload (CSV/TXT)</h3>
Best and most reliable method.
Recommended columns 
* <code>email</code> (required) 
* <code>name</code> (optional)
CSV example 
email,name 
ana@example.com,Ana 
marko@example.com,Marko
The plugin will: 
* accept comma/semicolon/tab-delimited CSV (delimiter auto-detected), 
* accept a header row if it contains <code>email</code>, 
* validate emails with WordPress helpers like <code>sanitize_email()</code> and <code>is_email()</code> (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/sanitize_email/ and https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_email/), 
* deduplicate by email during the import batch, 
* skip emails that are already unsubscribed.
Export from Excel / Google Sheets 
* Export to CSV. XLSX support exists, but CSV is safer for complex sheets.
<h3>5B) Upload (XLSX)</h3>
XLSX support is intentionally minimal to keep the plugin lightweight.
Requirements: 
* First worksheet (sheet1) 
* Column A = email 
* Column B = name (optional) 
* If cell A1 contains “email”, that row is treated as header and skipped
If your XLSX is more complex, export to CSV first.
<h3>5C) Paste emails (copy/paste)</h3>
Paste supports: 
* one email per line, 
* comma/semicolon separated emails, 
* <code>Name <email@example.com></code>, 
* 2-column lines: <code>email,name</code> or <code>name,email</code> (comma/tab/semicolon).
Examples: 
ana@example.com 
marko@example.com,Marko 
Ana Example <a href="mailto:ana@example.com" rel="nofollow ugc">ana@example.com</a> 
Marko Example <a href="mailto:marko@example.com" rel="nofollow ugc">marko@example.com</a>
After import, the screen shows: 
* imported count, 
* invalid count, 
* duplicate count, 
* skipped unsubscribed count.
<h3>5D) Import workflow (Preview + merge rules)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Go to My Newsletter → Mailing List.</li>
<li>Upload a file (CSV/TXT/XLSX) or paste emails.</li>
<li>Click Preview import.</li>
<li>Confirm you have lawful basis/consent (required).</li>
<li>Choose merge behavior:
<ul>
<li>Update existing (recommended): update name/source/updated_at for existing emails.</li>
<li>Skip existing: only add new emails.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Click Import now.</li>
</ol>
After import, you can export and clean the list using: 
* Export subscribers CSV, 
* Delete selected (bulk), 
* Delete all matching search, 
* Delete by domain (e.g. <code>example.com</code>).
<h4>6) Viewing and managing the list</h4>
In My Newsletter → Mailing List, you can: 
* see the total subscriber count, 
* search by email or name, 
* browse paginated results, 
* export subscribers as CSV, 
* delete selected subscribers (bulk), 
* delete all subscribers matching the current search (with confirmation), 
* delete by domain (e.g. <code>example.com</code>) for quick cleanup.
In Mailing List → Suppression list, you can: 
* view unsubscribed emails (suppressed), 
* export suppression list as CSV, 
* remove suppression (admin-only) if you need to re-subscribe someone manually.
<h4>7) WP‑Cron and reliable background sending</h4>
This plugin uses WP‑Cron to send queued emails in batches. WP‑Cron runs on site visits (traffic). 
On low‑traffic sites, campaigns may send slowly (https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/).
For reliable sending on production: 
* Configure a real server cron to hit <code>wp-cron.php</code> at a fixed interval. 
 WordPress explains this approach here: https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/#what-is-wp-cron.
Admin tools: 
* In My Newsletter → Settings, use Run queue now (admin-only) to process one batch immediately for testing/troubleshooting. 
* The Settings screen includes ready-to-copy cron examples (curl/wget) for common hosting setups.
<h4>8) Deliverability (what matters most)</h4>
This plugin hands off email to WordPress via <code>wp_mail()</code> (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_mail/). 
Deliverability depends on your mail transport and DNS.
If you care about inbox placement: 
* Use an SMTP provider (or transactional email service). 
* Use a sender on your own domain. 
* Configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC (vendor-specific docs).
<h4>9) Compliance and consent (your responsibility)</h4>
The plugin provides unsubscribe links, but it does not enforce consent or double opt‑in. 
You must only email people you have a lawful basis to contact and you must honor opt‑outs.
<ul>
<li>FTC CAN‑SPAM overview: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business</li>
<li>EU GDPR overview (lawful basis, consent, etc.): https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/what-does-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr-govern_en</li>
</ul>

My Newsletter

Send newsletters to users, commenters, or an imported mailing list (CSV/XLSX/paste) with SMTP, templates, queue sending, logs, and unsubscribe.

My Newsletter vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit) – Email Newsletter, Email Marketing, Membership, Subscribers and Landing Pages