Newsletter Plugins for WordPress Nice But…
Newsletter plugins and requests for them have been around for a while. I hang out at the WordPress plugin repository quite often and as time goes by, see more and more really good plugins. The newsletter ones has improved too. For example, here’s one that came up – MeeNews.
It really looks very nice. So much that I actually thought of using it full time but had to pull myself back and be reminded. Why I use Aweber.
Image by Mzelle Biscotte
Is it because Aweber is cool, great, fantabulous and all that? Well, they could be. But no. It is for this simple reason.
A newsletter plugin uses my own server resources.
Why should that even be a problem? Oh! I am so glad you asked. You see, way back when blogs didn’t even exist, I kinda pooh poohed services like Aweber. “Why pay monthly when you can only pay once?” So I purchased some scripts that let me set up and send my own newsletter on my own web site. Less than 24 hours after I got it up and running, my web site sent me multiple warning emails that ended up with the account being closed and my whole web site deleted.
Isn’t that just great? What happened?
Let’s just put it this way. The script wasn’t very well written at all and it started sending out thousands and thousands of email within an hour that it crippled the whole web server. You bet the host wasn’t very happy with me. Thankfully I had been with them for a while and I used all of my brownie points to get back in.
How does this related to a newsletter plugin?
Because a newsletter plugin uses your web host’s resources just like any other email newsletter script/software. It also sends email from your server so if your server happens to get black listed your web host could boot you out. A minute ago, I mentioned resources. Did you know that emails use a lot of server resources? You wouldn’t think of it after all the email is only plain text that’s what… 5kb in size? How could it gobble up 50% or more of your server processing power?
It could, it does and I know because I once managed the technical aspects of Wahmcart – great cart by the way – so I know what it does to a regular web server. With enough volume it can slow the server down to a crawl or bring it to it’s knees. I’ll let you in on a secret. It doesn’t take that many emails either. If you have a low end server, a few thousand emails will do the job.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m NOT knocking any plugins or any email newsletter script that is well written and has a proven track record. Just saying, for the average web master or blogger, managing email traffic is just not worth it. You have better, more important and productive things to do.
That’s why I wash my hands off putting any sort of email list sending stuff for my business on my server. It’s just too much drama. Stress is too high a price to pay $20/month is cheaper.
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This is true for large corporations as well. It reminds me of a story we witnessed last year. Someone in this company accidentally cc’ed ever person on the payroll. Over ten thousand people.
And he sent attachments.
It took two days to get everything back online. Their entire business ground to a halt because their pricey top of the line equipment just could not keep up.
Uhuh. It really doesn’t take a lot of emails to crash servers. Kinda amazing isn’t?
Like a beautiful disaster. 🙂
This is true for large corporations as well. It reminds me of a story we witnessed last year. Someone in this company accidentally cc’ed ever person on the payroll. Over ten thousand people.
And he sent attachments.
It took two days to get everything back online. Their entire business ground to a halt because their pricey top of the line equipment just could not keep up.
Uhuh. It really doesn’t take a lot of emails to crash servers. Kinda amazing isn’t?
Like a beautiful disaster. 🙂
Yep, I learned this one the hard way too. Luckily my site didn’t get shut down, but it might as well have been because it slowed to a snail’s paste for a very long day.
The other good thing about using a service like WahmCart, Aweber, and others is that they have relationships with the major ISPs like AOL and Comcast. If your subscribers forget that they joined and report you for spam, you have support to help you out.
I haven’t looked at any of the plugins so like you, I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m just saying that the whole thing seems too complicated for me to take on myself. I’ll stick with the professional services for mailing lists.
Great point Linda, these services are better equipped to handle your email issues than we are. Not that we can’t do it, we are all capable people here but just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Yep, I learned this one the hard way too. Luckily my site didn’t get shut down, but it might as well have been because it slowed to a snail’s paste for a very long day.
The other good thing about using a service like WahmCart, Aweber, and others is that they have relationships with the major ISPs like AOL and Comcast. If your subscribers forget that they joined and report you for spam, you have support to help you out.
I haven’t looked at any of the plugins so like you, I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m just saying that the whole thing seems too complicated for me to take on myself. I’ll stick with the professional services for mailing lists.
Great point Linda, these services are better equipped to handle your email issues than we are. Not that we can’t do it, we are all capable people here but just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
WordPress plug ins are a great way to really add usability to your blog and get people interacting on it.
WordPress plug ins are a great way to really add usability to your blog and get people interacting on it.