The topic of this article is supported in its entirety by our customer support department.

The Newsletter ValueApp allows you to create a notification list for sending a newsletter or update to multiple email users. This is a great tool for businesses who would like to inform current customers about specials, or families who would like to keep their friends and loved ones up to date about upcoming events.

To get started with the Newsletter ValueApp, first Log in to your VDS Manager by clicking the ‘Login to VDS Manager’ link from the Products page of the Customer Manager, which is located at https://my.opensourcehost.com..

Click on Install & Manage on the left side of the screen.

Click on the Newsletter icon under Available ValueApps on the left.

Agree to the license.

Click

Click on the “Launch Application” link next to the installed copy of Newsletter to login.

You can have multiple newsletters, each with their own list of recipients and settings (such as a pre-defined header and footer). The first time you login to the Newsletter ValueApp, you will be prompted to create your first newsletter. Enter the following information:

• Newsletter name - The internal name you will use to refer to this newsletter. Example: “Family Reunion Announcements“
• Sender name - The name that will appear in the “From:” line of email that is sent out. It is best to use your full name so your recipients can identify the messages
• Sender email address - The email address that will appear in the “From:” line of the email that is sent out
• Message subject - The “Subject:” line of the email that is sent; be sure to make this informative so that your recipients will not ignore the message
• Message header - The contents of this area will appear at the top of each message you send. Remove the line starting with “===” or it will be included in your messages. An example header would be “Important Update about the Smith Family Reunion from Jackie Smith:“
• Message footer - The contents of this area will be appended to the bottom of each message you send. Be sure to remove the line starting with “===” or it will be included in your messages. An example would be “This message was sent by Jackie Smith because you signed up for the Smith Family Reunion newsletter.“
• Subscription message subject - The “Subject:” line of the email that is sent to your receipients when they sign up, so that their email address can be confirmed
• Subscription message - This message, along with a link to click, is sent by the system when someone joins your newsletter list; they must click the link that is included so that their address is confirmed (to prevent spam).
• Welcome message subject - The “Subject:” line of the email that is sent once a new user’s email address is confirmed
• Welcome message - The body of the email message that is sent once an email address is confirmed
• Unsubscribe message subject - The “Subject:” line of the email message that is sent to people who wish to be removed from your newsletter list
• Unsubscribe message - This message, along with an unsubscribe link, will be sent to people who do not wish to receive your email messages any longer

Once you have customized your newsletter, select the Save button at the bottom of the screen. You can always return to this “Newsletter Settings” tab to update these settings, or click the Delete or New button to remove or add a new newsletter. If you have multiple newsletters, use the drop-down below the tab area to select the active newsletter that you are working with.

After your newsletter settings are saved, click on the Subscribers tab at the top to begin adding subscribers. Enter an email address in the “Add a subscriber” box, then click “Add this email address”. You can repeat this process to add additional receipients; if you make a mistake or wish to remove a user, select their email address from the “Delete a subscriber” box, then click “Delete this email address”. If you already have a list of your email users in CSV format (exported from a spreadsheet), you can load this from the Subscribers - Import a list of email addresses section. You can also export a CSV format list of your subscribers by clicking the Export button at the bottom of the Subscribers page.

Now that you have added your email receipients, you can begin sending out newsletters. Click the Compose tab at the top of the screen, then be sure that you have the correct newsletter selected from the drop down. You can now enter your message in the area provided; you will see your header and footer included, which can be edited from here if you wish. After you complete your message, click Message Preview to continue, then click Send this Message after you are happy with how your message looks. Each of your receipients will receive a copy of the message, along with an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email where they can select to be removed from the list.

If you wish to refer back to an old message that was already sent to your subscribers, click on the Archives tab at the top of the screen, then click on the message in question from the drop-down and click Display this message. This allows you to review the contents of any previous newsletter, which is useful when informing your newsletter subscribers about past issues or previous discussions.