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newsletter never be able to send out


ce7

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Hi there,

I have tried so many times with the newsletter manager,
register the email, can not send  send the newsletter out at all.

however when i register the store email, it does send email out.

Can anyone please help and figure out what maybe causing the problem?

Thanks!  Lyn

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Personally I wouldn't use the supplied email manager. its rubbish at best and could cause problems if those that receive the newsletter mark it as spam. It could lead to being blacklisted which is not good. I export my customers names and emails and use something like Mailchimp.  There is no real good addon to link with Mailchimp which is surprising and so many people use it, but there is an addon to export customers details, which allows you to select only names and email addresses. Mailchimp is so much easier to use, tracks opening and clicks of your mail, and is free for the 2000 customers. All you then need to do is to unsubscribe customers on your site when they unsubscribe using the link in the newsletters.

I used to believe that a good newsletter would do nothing for my business, but this year I have been sending weekly newsletters, and business is booming.

REMEMBER BACKUP, BACKUP AND BACKUP

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I hear that a lot of people do use Mailchimp, so I would make sure I did a look around this forum for discussion. Some major developers like @burt work on it, and may have add-ons (possibly paid).

There are other newsletter managers, such as PHPlist, but I don't think they're well integrated into osC (i.e., it's a manual DB operation to export the mail addresses to it). Look around. Do you need just boilerplate for a mailing, or do you need customer-specific customization of the newsletter content (e.g., a different letter or section for someone you haven't seen in a while, versus a frequent repeat customer, versus...)?

A few things to keep in mind with newsletters and mailing lists:

  1. Make sure your customer has to explicitly opt in to receiving mailings. It is not only unethical, but in many places illegal, to default check the opt-in box, or have to explicitly opt out.
  2. In each mailing, remind the recipient that they signed up for this, and give them a link to easily unsubscribe. This cuts down on your being reported as a spammer.
  3. Choose a mailer which can be configured to respect your host's email rate caps (emails per minute, hour, day) and total bandwidth. You don't want to get your host upset with you.
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You can use the existing built in email functions but Steve is right it needs work and I to am surprised there are no better options that can be used within osC.  It is an area that is critical, if you intend to succeed as an online marketer. 

I use the built in functions for smaller transactional mailings...ie anniversary coupons, new product mailings, review requests etc but I use an outside service for bulk mailings for many of the reasons Steve has mentioned.   I'm always concerned about providing customer data to outside services but this is once instance where I bend a little.  I do use a double opt-in subscription routine for our bulk email subscribers, to ensure that those emails are welcomed and not treated as spam.  If you are located in the UK, Steve can probably help with anything you might need to do regarding the GDPR rules and what you might need to do, if anything, about providing data to external service providers.

Dan

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14 hours ago, ce7 said:

Can anyone please help and figure out what maybe causing the problem?

I use the CE newsletter and it works fine! Which version osC are you using and what if any error code do you get when the email fails.

Check your error log and see if it points to anything.

 

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@JcMagpieHi Zahid,

Thanks for reply. I am using Hostpapa the past years, the services quality drop dramatically recent 2 years, this year UNLIMITED problems.... I was told that my account was mark as SPAM because of PHPIDS send the alarm Eamils to ourselves(that is why I did not like to mention my websites anywhere cause I always having lots of PHPIDS even the level setup not high...)

I just wonder with newsletter at admin, it always showing the GIF file, don't close it while file sending but then have a red text line said been sent, it is just so confusing.....i have message on header setup that show if email or newsletter been sent or not, it always show sent but if i check my email account even spam or just mail, never receive it.

However I did receive email when osCommerce set up confirmation email and when PHPIDS send report, but not from admin at all (to anyone)... so not sure it is Hostpapa server problem or admin problem.... gave the duplicate steps to Hostpapa and waiting for them to try and reply me back, maybe again take long time to respond....I will come back to update when i know what is going on....

Thanks!  Lyn

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I have never got my email to work since moving to my new host, and it turns out they don't 'approve' of marketing email! - which probably explains why nothin ever gets sent.

I have over 3500 people who have subscribed (opted in voluntarily) to my newsletter - but I can't send any!

I just thought I'd try the TinyLetter.com and first attempt they blocked me - I'm apparently too high a risk!!!

TinyLetter is free, but part of MailChimp, so I concerned the same will happen if I try Mailchimp.  I don't think it helps because I sell items for making bra and lingerie - not weird stuff - but apparently the TinyLetter folk don't wear pants!

I need to upload my csv file and send a newsletter with an offer (ASAP!), has anyone uploaded a file of similar size? and been able to send without trouble? - if so which company did you use.  It will literally be 1-2 times per year, so I am thinking of splitting the file into two halves, though could do without the added effort.

Running a botched up version of  osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3.4 bootstrap with the dresscode theme installed, numerous add-ons, terrible coding, terrible website, but will have to make do until I have made up for my losses and can risk shutting down for a couple of weeks while I start all over again. - I did not install my program but am endeavouring to fix it with your help.

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I have never done this in anger but simply using your cpanel mail ( or similer) should do what you need. Simply import your email address into whatever you like

hord, roundqube, squirrelmail are a few oprions.

Then talk to your hosting company to find what there limit is for emails they all have one and then just send in batches of the amount allowed.  It's worked fine for the few times I

have needed to sent out product recalls and stuff. Luckily I’ve never needed to do it reularly.

 

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I have not tried to send emails from the cpanel, though ideally I just wanted to upload my entire list and simply drop everyone a quick email with an offer code before Christmas!  It was just a one off really as I need to claw back my business as it seems I may have inadvertently allowed a competitor to steal my customer database a few years ago!

Running a botched up version of  osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3.4 bootstrap with the dresscode theme installed, numerous add-ons, terrible coding, terrible website, but will have to make do until I have made up for my losses and can risk shutting down for a couple of weeks while I start all over again. - I did not install my program but am endeavouring to fix it with your help.

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well if it's a one off then doing it in you cpanel or even from outlook or your other personal email is probably the quickest solution. I use Mozilla Thunderbird on my laptop to do all comunications with my customers. I use gmail with this, Thunderbired is setup so my customers see the email comming from the website they have contacted.  This way I have unlimited storage no send restrictions or other crap to worry about. I don't do mass mailings but if you chop up your list in to sections it should be fine.

I did it a long time ago but from what I remember the se up was not that hard. I'm sure omeone here will be an email expert that will show you how to do it quickly or just try whats he harm do a test emailing to your self to make sure its all working first.

 

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16 hours ago, zefeena said:

I have never got my email to work since moving to my new host, and it turns out they don't 'approve' of marketing email!

You've got to find out exactly what's going on here... they have no business interfering with legitimate (opt-in) emailings from a business customer, but they do have the right to limit the rate at which emails are sent (and received), to avoid overwhelming their system and/or being labeled a spammer by other hosts. Any legitimate host is going to have email "caps" limiting traffic by the minute, hour, and day. It's your job to find out what these caps are, and use email software that can be configured to obey them. If last time, you simply dumped 3500 emails in the hopper at once, it wouldn't be surprising if any host slapped you down.

Say the caps are typical: 10 per minute, 300 per hour, 4000 per day*. You should be able to get through your mailing list in 12 hours if you space them out properly (5 per minute constantly). This would be a considerable task to do manually, even for a one-off job, but there are plenty of mailers that can do it. It becomes a matter of how much manual labor is needed to get the address list to the mailer. Some systems may directly connect to your osC database and only require you to press the "send" button, while others will require you to go into phpMyAdmin and export the customer table as a CSV. That may be tolerable for once or twice a year.

Some mailers may be able to "shuffle" your address list so that one service (e.g., yahoo.com) doesn't get a huge slug of emails in one burst, and retaliate by blocking your server as a spammer. They would dole out emails as evenly as possible among target services to avoid tripping blockers. I've heard of people having had to resort to this. Also, be aware of whether your host counts incoming emails against your rate caps, which would mean you have to keep somewhat under the caps for outgoing emails.

* Yes, these are burst rates. At 10 emails a minute, you would exhaust your hourly quota in 30 minutes, etc.

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MrPhil, I'm fed up of trying to get sense from my host - see support screenshots!  The order emails don't even send, and I get constant  moans about that from customers.  I have tried everything, and now given up! Unfortunately, all of this is really beyond me, and I have wasted so many hours on trying to get the emails to work, its easier for me to just respond to my customers personally when they email me about the lack of email!

 I have just joined Mailchimp (free) and uploaded 2000 email addresses from my newsletter csv file.  I will probably get blocked as it seems a fair few people sign up (they have to tick yes to join the newsletter) and then decide when they get an email to report it as spam rather than simply unsubscribing! But hey ho, its worth a go! 

Screenshot 2018-12-16 at 14.33.01.png

Screenshot 2018-12-16 at 14.33.01.png

Running a botched up version of  osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3.4 bootstrap with the dresscode theme installed, numerous add-ons, terrible coding, terrible website, but will have to make do until I have made up for my losses and can risk shutting down for a couple of weeks while I start all over again. - I did not install my program but am endeavouring to fix it with your help.

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apologies for the duplication!

Screenshot 2018-12-16 at 14.33.37.png

Running a botched up version of  osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3.4 bootstrap with the dresscode theme installed, numerous add-ons, terrible coding, terrible website, but will have to make do until I have made up for my losses and can risk shutting down for a couple of weeks while I start all over again. - I did not install my program but am endeavouring to fix it with your help.

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Quote

I will probably get blocked as it seems a fair few people sign up (they have to tick yes to join the newsletter) and then decide when they get an email to report it as spam rather than simply unsubscribing!

Yes, that happens. People are stupid. Anyway, you minimize that by reminding recipients right at the top of the email that they signed up for this email, and give easy instructions to be unsubscribed. If you show that to your host when someone reports you as a spammer, they should go easy on you. If not, find another host.

Now are you also having problems with no regular emails (order notice to you, order acknowledgment to customer) or just with newsletters? These could be two separate problems. Is your email forwarder blocked as spam? Is it working for emails coming from the outside world? It sounds like either your host is incompetent, or you are giving them vague and unhelpful information. At the least, can you change you setup so that you send directly to the aol.com address rather than to your site (avoiding the forwarder)? Some hosts don't like email from one address on a site to another address on the same site.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

@14steve14

hi Steve,

thank you very much for your reply.
i never can send email or newsletter out from oscommerce backend. with or without addons, basically what hostpapa told me is that when i install oscommerce, i put the owner name and email address, oscommerce will it it "owner name" <[email protected]> which is not fit with the email format, and causing the problem, so need to change to only email@mywebsite, not "owner name" <[email protected]>

if i changed, i can only send email, not Newsletter, as hostpapa told me, their services not support email attachment and newsletter format...i think it is rediculous. So i change the server and took more then a week to A2, but just now today i tried, even change email format, i can not send email out at all....

and one thing annoy me so much is that you have to register customer enable to use the email, i thought should be able to manual just copy and past email to the email column....

been use oscommerce for couple years,  but feel quite frustrated, i am thinking to change to different shopping cart system that have easier function for email/newsletter and template design....

many thanks!

Lyn

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@Dan Cole

hi Dan,

thanks for reply. regard to the spam, i already been marked as spam by hostpapa, not happy they did not inform me first. i changed the server company just before xmas and now start testing on new hosting company, but i can not even send email out at all even with right format, of course not newsletter too....

i think newsletter is very important nowaday, unfortunatelly i never can use newsletter function even i have several newsletter addons installed, but not able to send...and also facing problem with the newsletter format as well....

frustrated.....😭
 

thank you!  Lyn

 

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1 hour ago, ce7 said:

 

@14steve14

hi Steve,

thank you very much for your reply.
i never can send email or newsletter out from oscommerce backend. with or without addons, basically what hostpapa told me is that when i install oscommerce, i put the owner name and email address, oscommerce will it it "owner name" <[email protected]> which is not fit with the email format, and causing the problem, so need to change to only email@mywebsite, not "owner name" <[email protected]>

if i changed, i can only send email, not Newsletter, as hostpapa told me, their services not support email attachment and newsletter format...i think it is rediculous. So i change the server and took more then a week to A2, but just now today i tried, even change email format, i can not send email out at all....

and one thing annoy me so much is that you have to register customer enable to use the email, i thought should be able to manual just copy and past email to the email column....

been use oscommerce for couple years,  but feel quite frustrated, i am thinking to change to different shopping cart system that have easier function for email/newsletter and template design....

many thanks!

Lyn

As I said in my previous post the inbuilt newsletter manager is not really useable. You have been blacklisted so all emails you do send may be marked as spam. This is one of the things that can happen as you have found out. Bin it. Forget all about it, and use something like the free version of Mailchimp. There is an addon somewhere that will allow you to export customer details and this includes just first, last and email address of newsletter subscribers. Import this list into Mailchimp regularly to catch any new subscribers, and send up to 2000 newsletters for free. Any more and the paid version will be required.

Mailchimp allows you to create your own layout of newsletter, so a bit of time spent doing this is important. Its also easier to use than the inbuilt oscommerce system and will get better results for your marketing campaigns. In 2018 I started sending newsletters weekly rather than monthly and my turnover has significantly increased.

You can sit messing about with a system that will never really work, or you can use something that does work and was designed specifically to send newsletters. I know what I would do.

REMEMBER BACKUP, BACKUP AND BACKUP

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@14steve14

hi Steve,

thank you for your reply again. Yes i will take your suggestion to use mailchip. During these couple days I have tried to talk to new hosting company.

Just now they told me they can not find anything wrong with the setting, but the email can never been send out even it is not mark as spam.
These 3 days after few chat and ticket  communication, they told me to set up webmail which definately will not have hotmail or gmail spam problem.
however with hotmail at least i got error message, with webmail, i got nothing, no send record, no receiving any email, but did receive new customer set up welcome email. That is all i can get every time, welcome email, nothing else.
 

the new hosting company gave me this link:

https://www.smarterasp.net/support/kb/a1498/how-to-setup-smtp-authentication-in-oscommerce-site-to-send-emails.aspx

and ask me to come back to forum to ask help from developer.......(the code mentioned in the link is not exit in BS CE...)
 

I am not sure if others having the same problem as me....just an updated for reference.

Once again, thank you!

 

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