The program logic is simple. It installs in the newsletter manager and makes use of the programming there to select the 1)newsletter to send and 2) customer group to send to.

Then it simply sends the newsletter to the first customer in the database and flags that customer. The program stops at that point after having sent one email (newsletter). However, the program 'refreshes' the newsletters page in x number of seconds (x being whatever you like) and the program sends another email (the selected newsletter) to the first customer in the database that is not flagged and then stops. In this manner the program walks through every customer in the database. When it gets to the end it 'unflags' everyone.

One advantage to this approach is that if your server or computer crashes, the customers who have been sent an email are still flagged and the program when restarted picks right back up where it stopped. The other advantage is that between emails (refreshes) the program is not running and uses no resources.

To me the big advantage was that it uses the existing customer database and existing newsletters, and simplified 'unsubscribe subscribe' issues.

Hello all,

I too have a limit of 500 per hour. So, I have contacted my Host and they are willing to up my limit if I can prove to them that I have an Opt-in and Opt-out function and that I can let them view my email logs.

So, I have provided links to the store and to the opt-out page... but, for the life of me I cannot locate the email logs. Or the logs that show IP addresses etc... for those whom have requested to be removed from the mailing list.

Please advise.

Thank you!

If you're referring to standard Zen Cart, without addons related to email/newsletter subscriptions, there is no log of IP addresses requesting opt-out, because every customer has the option of opting in/out via their password-protected My Account area. They are required to log in if they wish to change their opt-in or opt-out preferences.

If you are referring to something related to any addons which alter the original email/newsletter behavior, you'll have to refer to those addons for details about whether any logs are kept.

DrByte:

If you're referring to standard Zen Cart, without addons related to email/newsletter subscriptions, there is no log of IP addresses requesting opt-out, because every customer has the option of opting in/out via their password-protected My Account area. They are required to log in if they wish to change their opt-in or opt-out preferences.

If you are referring to something related to any addons which alter the original email/newsletter behavior, you'll have to refer to those addons for details about whether any logs are kept.

I was referring to the standard Zen-Cart email/newsletter subscriptions. It looks like I won't be able to prove that users can remove themselves via the unsubscribe link.

Thanks for the info thou.

The hosting company that I am referring too is DreamHost if anybody was wondering.

Quote from Dream Host:

Thank you for the details, however I'll need you to clarify a little more
on the opt-in and opt-in confirmation steps. Specifically:

Were all opt-in confirmations logged with the date/time and IP address

recorded when they followed your confirmation link?

Where may we independently review your opt-in confirmation logging

data?

beretta627:

I was having a problem with getting timed out from sending large email newsletters (well, 500+).

My solution was to add query_builder records to cut up the email list into smaller pieces.

Examples:

select c.customers_firstname, c.customers_lastname, s.email_address as customers_email_address from TABLE_SUBSCRIBERS as s left join TABLE_CUSTOMERS as c on c.customers_id = s.customers_id limit 0, 200

select c.customers_firstname, c.customers_lastname, s.email_address as customers_email_address from TABLE_SUBSCRIBERS as s left join TABLE_CUSTOMERS as c on c.customers_id = s.customers_id limit 200, 200

select c.customers_firstname, c.customers_lastname, s.email_address as customers_email_address from TABLE_SUBSCRIBERS as s left join TABLE_CUSTOMERS as c on c.customers_id = s.customers_id limit 400, 200

select c.customers_firstname, c.customers_lastname, s.email_address as customers_email_address from TABLE_SUBSCRIBERS as s left join TABLE_CUSTOMERS as c on c.customers_id = s.customers_id limit 600, 200

Hope this helps people.

I want to try this.. I have another newsletter to send but have over 1,000 subscribers and I don't wish to max out my 500 hour limit by trying to use the current standard Newsletter config.

Any help with this would be great and believe others can use it too. Would be a great addon.

jasmel:

I want to try this.. I have another newsletter to send but have over 1,000 subscribers and I don't wish to max out my 500 hour limit by trying to use the current standard Newsletter config.
I recommend the free GroupMail tool: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38322

DrByte:

I recommend the free GroupMail tool: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38322
Thank you for the tip!

I am interested in the program, thanks!

So, has anyone figured out a solution to this? Bluehost has a 750 email per hour limit and my clients list is almost 2000. Some kink of time delay would be great!

I ended up using the function bunyip (see post 19 of this thread) put together - I asked him for it via PM and he emailed it to me. It modifies the admin/newsletters.php file and has an sql-patch. It has worked very well for us, although he said he personally wouldn't want to run it if the list grows into a couple of thousand subscribers (we have maybe 700-800).

Not sure if bunyip would want me to share his work without permission, so better to ask him for it directly. I think it would be great if this was put in the download section - it could have a note saying it might not be stable for very large lists, but might help people with smaller lists and perhaps someone else can improve stability of the script as time goes on?

Oh that would be wonderful i would love to have it, my host wants to charge me $170 per month just to send more than 500 emails, rediculas, so any help is appreciated tytyty

:hug:

sweetikins:

Oh that would be wonderful i would love to have it, my host wants to charge me $170 per month just to send more than 500 emails, rediculas,
sweetikins, I am not picking on you specifically - - Just venting on most individual business sense....
This is Advertising!!!
If in the US and you had to mail these, forget the cost to print them, the envelope and stamp would be 0.50 each
Want to send a flyer to 500 customers then that is $250.00

Have we lost site of basic business facts in this "instant" age??

sweetikins:

Oh that would be wonderful i would love to have it, my host wants to charge me $170 per month just to send more than 500 emails, rediculas, so any help is appreciated tytyty

Since my problem probably isn't going to be solved here... my suggestion is to look into a virtual dedicated server.. even at $100 per month you won't have this limit...

For me this sucks because I just moved this [clients] site to bluehost not even thinking of an email limit - I was hosting it on my v-ded before...

So, if there is a way to do a timed-release mailing to the newsletter list...

len7560:

So, if there is a way to do a timed-release mailing to the newsletter list...
As I said in an earlier post:

I recommend the free GroupMail tool: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38322

You can export your mailing list, import it into GroupMail, and send your message in a timed-release manner fully configurable by you.

Yeah - I can already do that with my own autoresponder/mail manager (autoresponse plus 3) on my dedicated box for my client.

I would simply like to slow down the natural process...

The other option would be to drive all the sendmail functions to my server where I am already hosting their mail.

Any idea how to do this? Is there a way?

If you want to send mail from a different server, simply change the Email Transport Method to SMTPAUTH, and supply the SMTP username/pwd/port/host in the email settings area.

As for slowing things down via your admin, feel free to write your own custom code to handle finding a way to tell your PHP script to sit idle longer than the server's pre-configured timeout length. There are ways to do it, but most are server-specific, and thus you'll need to build it unique to your configuration requirements.

lancemonotone:

This looks promising. How did you use this? I assume you have to come back every hour and send the newsletter to the next list? What did you modify to get the shortened lists into the audience dropdown?

Can you help me?
Where table query_builder is located?

Catia Cunha:

Can you help me?
Where table query_builder is located?

Don't know if this is too late but you can find the query_builder in your PHPmyAdmin or through what ever means you access your MySQL.

Good luck!

bunyip:

I've just completed a small modification to the newsletter page for a client.

What the mod does is throttle the email sending rate to 80% of your server limit (which you input manually as a new key on the email configuration page). So if you set a value of 1000 for the server limit, it will send emails at the rate of one every 4.5 seconds, giving an overall rate of 800/hr. That leaves a reasonable percentage of the server allowance for normal store emails to proceed unimpeded.

The script progress is shown on the admin page, and it shouldn't tie up a lot of server CPU resources (on linux servers) because the mod uses the php sleep function as the throttle. I don't think it's suitable for Windows servers though - I believe the php sleep function doesn't work the same on those.

If anyone wants to participate in beta-testing this mod, contact me via PM.

Just want to say thanks to bunyip. I pmed him and got this mod and it is easy to install and works perfectly for me. I have a small digitalscrapbooking shop with 700 subscribers. I set the hrly limit for my server [400] and it just calculates and sends them out throttled back to as an example one every 20 sec. Saved me so much mucking around with other newsletter options as I only send 1 or 2 per mth. :clap:

What happens say if you have a Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal and heavens forbid you get over 100 orders an hour? (with an email limit of 100)

Since we receive an email saying we have a new order, and the customer receives their order confirmation.. does that mean only the first 50 customers each hour will receive an email before you have locked your account by going over your 100 an hour email limit with your hosting company?

Asking this because I just locked my email account by sending a blast of 200 at 3:45PM PST then another 200 at 4:59PM PST and locked my email account . Now I have a help ticket to unlock my account so I can start sending email confirmations to the customers again. Fun times... :wacko: