More bloggers are launching weekly email newsletters to engage their audience. These deliver a curated summary of the week's content plus exclusive tips, driving subscriptions without the high costs of services like AWeber. While premium tools offer advanced features, this guide shares a reliable, budget-friendly alternative using WordPress and Feedburner—proven effective for countless sites I've optimized over years of WordPress consulting.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll combine WordPress, Feedburner, and key plugins to create a simple yet powerful newsletter system. Track subscribers, clicks, and performance effortlessly. Note: Code snippets may vary by theme—adapt as needed. Basic HTML/CSS knowledge helps, but beginners can follow along.
Start by adding a new category for newsletter-exclusive posts. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Posts > Categories. Name it something like "E-Newsletter".
Crucially, note the Category ID—hover over the category in Posts > Categories to see it in the status bar. We'll reference it as [Replace with your category ID] throughout; substitute your actual ID (e.g., 10).
Most themes display categories in sidebars, headers, or footers. Exclude your E-Newsletter category to keep it subscriber-only. Edit sidebar.php (or relevant files) and update code like this:
Replace with:
Search your theme files for category lists and apply this everywhere. Users won't see it now, but more tweaks are needed.
Posts in E-Newsletter still appear in RSS, searches, homepages, and archives. Use the free Advanced Category Excluder (ACE) plugin for quick exclusion everywhere except individual post views.
In ACE settings, select your category for all options except "Individual Posts."
For themes with next/previous navigation in single.php, locate and replace the navigation code as needed.
Your hidden category has its own RSS feed. With SEO-friendly permalinks, it's typically /feed/?cat=[Replace with your category ID]. Default structure: /?cat=[Replace with your category ID]&feed=rss2.
Create a Feedburner account if needed, then add your feed URL:
Verify and proceed:
In Feedburner, go to Publicize > Email Subscriptions and enable it:
Copy the subscription form code and add it to your theme (e.g., sidebar). Style it to match and place prominently for maximum sign-ups.
Ensure readers get complete articles, not excerpts. In WordPress admin, visit Settings > Reading and select "Full text" for feeds.
Post to your E-Newsletter category—Feedburner auto-notifies and emails subscribers at your scheduled time. Adjust delivery in Feedburner > Publicize > Email Subscriptions > Delivery Options.
For instant sends, tweak per post (ideal for weekly cadence).
This free setup won't match AWeber's sophistication but delivers solid results affordably. Test on a staging site first. Users could still access the feed directly, so monitor and consider advanced options like a subdomain for privacy.
