Acymailing comes with a Sign Up Module which needs only a few simple steps to activate and customize for your website. First, click on SAVE to save your template changes.

 

Next, you should create a specific list for new subscribers who sign up on the web for your community newsletter. Go to COMPONENTS > ACYMAILING > LISTS > NEW and add a list called Newsletter Website New Signups. Note the ID number for this new list. 

 

Then click on EXTENSIONS > MODULE MANAGER to reach the Acymailing Subscription Module.

 

 

Click on the Acymailing Module to open it.

 

 

In the Details section, for SHOW TITLE click NO and for ENABLED click YES.

 

In the PARAMETERS section, click HELP if you want to read some basic tips and examples.

Otherwise, for EFFECT leave at Normal, for VISIBLE LISTS, leave as NONE.  For AUTO SUBSCRIBE TO, click on SELECT and select the WEBSITE NEW SIGNUPS list you just created and click APPLY,

 

 

DISPLAY MODE, leave as VERTICAL.

 

LISTS CHECKED BY DEFAULT, click on SELECT and select the WEBSITE NEW SIGNUPS list.

 

For CHECK LIST MODE, select DEFAULT CHECKED LISTS

 

Then click on SAVE to save your changes.

 

CREATE A SPECIFIC POSITION IN YOUR TEMPLATE FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION MODULE

The best way to customize your subscription page is to create a JOOMLA subscription article and place the module inside of this article. You can then create a menu item link to this article on your main menu. However, in order to create a special position for your newsletter subscription module, you will first need to add a position called newsletterpos to the XML file of your Joomla Template. Hopefully, you have already added a file manager EXTENSION called Extplorer to your website. If not, you should do that now. To open your file manager, go to COMPONENTS, Extplorer and click on it to bring up a screen with all of your website files displayed:

 

First, find the folder with the name of the website you want to modify. Click on it to open it. Then click on TEMPLATES to open the templates folder. Then find the exact name of the template you are using on your website and click on this folder to open it. Then look for a file called templateDetails.XML. Click on this to open it.

 

In this file you will see a series of positions.

 

 

Scroll down to some lines which begin with <position>. After the last <position> but before the </positions> , create a new line and add the following:

 <position>newsletterpos</position>

Add the code newsletterpos at the end of the list of positions

 

 

 

Then go up to the top of the screen and click on SAVE. Then in the upper left corner, click on “Go Back to Joomla”.

 

Next go to Module Manager, select the Acymailing Module and open it. In the Details section, under Position, use the drop down arrow to select the newsletterpos position.

 

 

Then click on SAVE.

 

Now we are ready to create our subscription article. Go to CONTENT > ARTICLE MANAGER. Then click on NEW to start a new article.

 

For title, type in Sign up for our Community Newsletter

 

For Content, after your text editor displays,  type in

 

Please type in your name and email address to sign up for our Community Newsletter!

 Below this, insert the Acymailing Module using the following code:

 

 

 

Then click on SAVE.

 

Last, we need to add a Menu Item link to this article. Go to MENUS > MAIN MENU and click on NEW to add a new menu item. Then Click on Articles, Article Layout. Keep the title short like Newsletter Signup. Under Select Article, click on SELECT to find the article you want to link to.

 

Now to verify that the Newsletter Signup is working properly, click on PREVIEW and then click on the Newsletter Signup Menu item.

 

 

While you are on this page, copy the URL for the top of this page as you will need it to create a link from your Newsletter template to this page. Here is the link to my newsletter sign up page:

 

http://springforwardwebdesign.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=103

 

Now go back to COMPONENTS > ACYMAILING > TEMPLATES  and select your template and click on EDIT to bring it back up.

 

On the bottom row of your template, you should have three sections:

 

“Forward to a Friend”     “Subscribe to our Newsletter”   and “Unsubscribe”

 

 

 

Select the words Subscribe to our Newsletter and then click on the LINK ICON in the text editor:

 

Then place the full URL for your subscription page in the link box:

 

 

Then click on OK. After your send your newsletter to your test list, you should check and make sure this and all your other links work properly.

 

Making a Forward to Friends Page

There are several ways to handle the Forward to a Friend section. What Constant Contact and many Newsletter services do is link to a page on their website which has a form which the reader can fill out inserting as many as 7 names and email addresses. The form then automatically sends each new person listed on this form a copy of your latest newsletter. You can certainly do the same thing by creating a Forward to Friend article/page on your website and then linking this page to the Forward to Friend text at the bottom of your newsletter.

 

The problem with this method is that some may view this as spamming and click the SPAM button on their email processor. If enough people do this, your newsletter will be blacklisted and then you will have a major chore trying to get your newsletter un-blacklisted. Constant Contact has a staff to handle this task. You probably do not.

 

So a better option is to recognize that the main point of having this link on your newsletter is to encourage folks to forward information about your website to their friends. It is best if you readers send out a personal email to their friends encouraging them to visit your website and read your newsletter.

 

This requires two steps. First, you want to write a brief Joomla article explaining to your readers how they can help you spread the word about your newsletter and the information in it. You should link this page to the words “Forward to a Friend.” Personal emails of endorsement will have a far better result than filling out forms anyway.

 

The second thing you need to do is create a Joomla article to act as a website version of your E Newsletter. You need to do this anyway in order to have a link to place at the top of your newsletter for those whose email processing servicer do not allow them to see your html E Newsletter.

 

CREATING A HELP SPREAD THE WORD WEBPAGE

Before we go back and finish the final links on the newsletter, we also need to create a Forward to a Friend webpage and get the URL for that page. So go back to CONTENT > ARTICLE MANAGER > NEW and title this page “Help Us Spread the Word”

 

For the content, type in:

We could really use your help in getting this important information out to others in our community. The best way to share this information with your friends and neighbors would be to go to the top menu, click on Newsletters, then click on this Newsletter and copy the URL shown in your browser. Then open up a new email and paste this URL into the content section of your email – including a couple of sentences of why you think your friends and neighbors would be interested in reading this newsletter and signing up for our Newsletter email list. You can then send this email to any friends in your address book.

 

Thanks again for helping us spread the word!

Regards, David Spring

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Next SAVE the article and go to MENUS > MAIN MENU >NEW to create a new menu item. Click on Articles > Article Layout and call the menu item “Help Us Spread the Word”

 

Use the Select Article button to find the article you just wrote.

 

Then for the PARENT ITEM, scroll down to Newsletters and place it under this parent menu item. Then click on SAVE.

 

Next click on Preview, Newsletters and Help Us Spread the Word to open the article: Here is what it looks like:

 

 

Most important, here is the URL:

 

http://springforwardwebdesign.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=105

 

At last, we have all the links we need to finish our newsletter (since the Unsubscribe section already has its page and link pre-built into the template. 

 

So to make sure that future newsletters only need to alter the content and not the top and bottom links, let’s first revise our custom template by going to COMPONENTS > ACYMAILING > TEMPLATES. Click on the Community Newsletter template to open it.

 

First let’s create a better and more obvious text at the very top to link the newsletter webpage to.

 This email contains graphics, so if you don't see them, {readonline}view this newsletter in your browser{/readonline}.

 Then select the words “view this newsletter in your browser” and bold this text. Next, click on the LINK icon in your text editor. Then paste in the URL for your webpage and click OK.

 At the bottom of the template, select the words “Forward to a Friend” and click on the LINK icon. Then paste the URL for our Spread the Word webpage.

 Before we fix the final problem with this template, click on APPLY to apply the changes we have already made.

 

 In the next article, we will finish making the newsletter so we have something to turn into a webpage and something to test.