# Pilot Group Newsletter Software FAQ

- General questions

- What to start with?
- Does your newsletter script have auto responder function?
- Do we need any special software to work with it?
- I send 2000 Newsletters to 2000 subscribers. The first 800 are sent without problems, others give out an error. What’s happening?

- Newsletters

- What's the difference between WYSWYG and Textarea?
- What is sending by schedule feature used for?
- How many newsletters can I create?
- How does the unsubscription work?
- Is it possible to personalize text message using the newsletter script?
- Each month I want to send three different mailings to three different groups and I want to do this with one simple mouse click. Is it possible?
- I have a problem when sending a newsletter. For every subscriber I see status “Error” And I indicated a correct smtp-server. What should I do?
- I created html newsletter using my own software (Dreamweaver). All the subscribers receive it in text format. How can I solve it?

- Mailing Lists

- How many mailing lists can I create?

- Subscribers

- How many subscribers can I create?
- How many emails at one time can this software send without problems? Would 5000 subscribers be a problem?
- I would like to import subscribers that are in txt format. Is this possible?

- Attachments

- Why are files uploaded to a separate section but not for each newsletter?

- Templates

- Can I edit current templates or add new ones?

- Templates

- Can I edit current templates or add new ones?
- Can I use a template created in dream weaver with this program?

- Forms

- Can I edit the form once a code is placed on the webpage?

- Administrators

- How many administrators can I set?
- Does an administrator see all subscribers and lists or only those lists this particular administrator generated?

- Statistics

- Is it possible to track URLs click-through statistics in the newsletters (for HTML newsletters)?

- Settings

- How many SMTP servers can I add?

# General questions

## What to start with?

1. Change administrator login and password (in "Settings" section). Make sure correct SMTP-server is used.
2. Create a Mailing List (in "Mailing Lists" section ).
3. Create a Form for users’ subscription to your Mailing Lists (in "Forms" section). Generate HTML-code and place it on your site section for users’ subscription. Subscribe to the form to check how it functions.
4. If you already have a file with users’ list you can import it (in "Subscribers" section).
5. Create Newsletter Template you will mostly use for creating each new newsletter of this Mailing List. Add maximum of possible elements for each Newsletter (in "Templates" section).
6. Create newsletter based on your Template (in "Newsletter" section). If this is your first newsletter test it with the help of "Test" button.
7. Go to "Statistics" section after Newsletter was sent.

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## Does your newsletter script have auto responder function?

Yes, there are 2 types of auto responders.
1. Auto responder is set on a certain Mailing List subscription/unsubscription. To set up that kind of auto reply, please, go to Mailing Lists section and press “Edit” button next to appropriate Mailing List. All system Newsletters are in Autoreply on subscription list. They are divided into not sent and sent Newsletters for convenience. Choose Newsletter sent as a reply to the user on his/her subscription. We recommend you creating special Newsletter (in HTML or text format) that can be personalized (that is contact a receiver by initial). Similarly you can set auto responder for user’s unsubscription from this Mailing List, i.e. a certain user will receive a newsletter chosen from the list of auto responder on unsubscription.
If newsletters are not chosen user won’t receive any additional Newsletters.
2 Auto responder is set on a Form. User receives text Newsletter when he subscribes/unsubscribes. There are the following steps:
1. You create a form in “Forms” section.
2. Choose “Yes” in “Send thank you” list. It means a user will receive newsletter after submitting a form (independently if he subscribes or unsubscribes). It doesn’t matter if Mailing List auto responder was set or not. Please, mind it not to engulf your users with Newsletters.
3. Complete newsletter fields in “Gratitude” section. User will receive this Newsletter after submitting a form.

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## Do we need any special software to work with it?

System requirements: PHP4.xx-5, MySQL 4.x., Browser: Internet Explorer 6 and higher (because JavaScript is used).

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## I send 2000 Newsletters to 2000 subscribers. The first 800 are sent without problems, others give out an error. What’s happening?

The problem can be in SMTP-server settings. Most servers are set specially for spam (sending a big amount of advertising emails). They restrict sending more than a definite number of Newsletters from one PC. Use quotas (sending Newsletters by portions) to perform Newsletters delivery in such. Set Quotes for the number of sent letters of SMTP server value from 500 to 1900 or maximum quantity of sent Newsletters in “Settings”. It is enough to set one hour as time period for sending newsletters (in hours). So, you can set sending each portion of 1000 newsletters every hour.

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# Newsletters

## What's the difference between WYSWYG and Textarea?

WYSWYG (What You See What You Get) – editing with the help of visual editor for those not familiar with HTML. However, visual editor formats ready html-pages in his own way. Do not use it for pages you’ve created in another program (for example, Dreamweaver).
Textarea – direct editing of html-code as it is for those familiar with HTML. Use this mode for editing documents created in other programs.

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## What is sending by schedule feature used for?

When you need to depart you can create newsletters for your subscribers in advance and set sending date. The following files should be set to cron jobs: newsletters/cron_send.php (every day run) and newsletters/cron_send_hour.php every hour run). The command for a run in most cases is the following: wget -q -O /dev/null http://your_host.com/newsletters/cron_send.php . If these settings do not run Schedule feature, apply to your server Support Team.

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## How many newsletters can I create?

Newsletters number is unlimited.

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## How does the unsubscription work?

Unsubscription can be done by the following ways:
1 way
1. You create a form with Unsubscription form type.
2. You choose lists a user will unsubscribe from.
3. Place generated code on the webpage.
4. User completes a form and unsubscribes from the lists if indicated email was found in the database.
2 way:
You add unsubscription link (tag %BASIC:UNSUBLINK%) into newsletter body. Newsletter dispatch will change it to the unsubscription URL. Once user jumps to this URL he will be usubscribed from the lists delivering him a newsletter and will be informed what lists he unsubscribed from. However, he will not be deleted from database.

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## Is it possible to personalize text message using the newsletter script?

Yes, you can personalize both HTML and text newsletters. You can personalize each newsletter while creating it. That means that newsletters will be addressed to each subscriber. For example, if you insert HTML Merge Field "Hello, % BASIC: FIRSTNAME% %BASIC: SECONDNAME%" while delivering it will be changed to "Hello, John Brown".

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## Each month I want to send three different mailings to three different groups and I want to do this with one simple mouse click. Is it possible?

It is possible in several clicks:
1. Create 3 lists;
2. Subscribe users’ group for each list;
3. Create newsletter and send it to these 3 lists;
You can schedule delivery for chosen date in “Manage Newsletters” - > “Delivery Schedule” Section. However, do not forget that the following files should be set to cronjobs: newsletters/cron_send.php (every day) è newsletters/cron_send_hour.php (every hour).

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## I have a problem when sending a newsletter. For every subscriber I see status “Error” And I indicated a correct smtp-server. What should I do?

Most probably the problem is that your smtp-server requires authentication/authorization. So, you need to enter in Settings -> SMTP server area login/password. If you don’t know this info, please refer to your hosting company.

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## I created html newsletter using my own software (Dreamweaver). All the subscribers receive it in text format. How can I solve it?

Dreamweaver, and most of html editors, generate at the very top of a document the following block (it can be slightly different for different software): <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Change this block to simple tag <html> and your newsletters will be in html format.

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# Mailing Lists

## How many mailing lists can I create?

Lists and subscribes number is unlimited. However work with subscribers is slows down if their number is more than 50 000 and Internet connection is weak (see Sorting). Newsletters delivery is correct in under any subscribers’ amount. On the average delivery speed of one newsletter to one subscriber takes 2 seconds.

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# Subscribers

## How many subscribers can I create?

Lists and subscribers’ number is unlimited. However work with subscribers is slows down if their number is more than 50 000 and Internet connection is weak (see Sorting). Newsletters delivery is correct in under any subscribers’ amount. On the average delivery speed of one newsletter to one subscriber takes 2 seconds.

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## How many emails at one time can this software send without problems? Would 5000 subscribers be a problem?

5000 subscribers would not be a problem. Theoretically problems occur when you view and sort subscribers when their amount exceeds 50 000. However, subscribers’ number does not influence newsletters delivery. It will just take more time.

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## I would like to import subscribers that are in txt format. Is this possible?

File for import can have any extension (for example, txt, csv, dat, etc.) But file contents should fit format. The first string – headers that indicate columns, for example:
Name; Last name; email
Register and columns order are unimportant. It can contain only one column (for example, Email) with required header. Separator is generally “;” or “,”. Subscribers’ data are indicated per line further, for example:
Jhon; rurk; jhon@rurk.com
Alex; stoun; alex@stoun.com
……………………………
That is in our case a file has the following format:
name; Last name; email
Jhon; rurk; jhon@rurk.com
Alex; stoun; alex@stoun.com
Indicate file separator for the import.

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# Attachments

## Why are files uploaded to a separate section but not for each newsletter?

The reason is that one and the same file can be attached to different newsletters several times. This section was created for the purpose not to upload one and the same file each time.

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# Templates

## Can I edit current templates or add new ones?

Yes, of course.

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## Can I use a template created in dream weaver with this program?

Yes, you can. Creating the templates is separated specially for those who has HTML knowledge and for those who don’t. Use WYSWYG-editor (What You See What You Get) for creating and editing if you do not have HTML knowledge. However, visual editor formats html-code in its own way partially changing it. Therefore, do not surprise if added html pages change after saving.
Use Textarea for editing if you wish to save ready html newsletters. Just mind that you should have some HTML knowledge. This editing mode is for advanced users.

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# Forms

## Can I edit the form once a code is placed on the webpage?

Yes, you can. Besides, you should not change the code on the page.

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# Administrators

## How many administrators can I set?

Number of groups and administrators is unlimited.

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## Does an administrator see all subscribers and lists or only those lists this particular administrator generated?

Administrator has full access to all subscribers and lists.

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# Statistics

## Is it possible to track URLs click-through statistics in the newsletters (for HTML newsletters)?

Yes, it is possible. In “Statistics” –> “Interested Subscribers” Section there is statistics on every sent newsletter and every URL.

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# Settings

## How many SMTP servers can I add?

Number of SMTP servers is unlimited. When system delivers newsletters and current connection is lost a program will automatically connect to next server.

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