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13 Comments

Substack for WordPress beta plugin is ready - Want to try it out?

Hey everyone,

Here's a follow up to the Substack for WordPress post I published about a month ago.

Since then, I've worked hard to make the idea a reality, and am excited to share that the beta version is now ready!

The beta version of Newsletter Glue does just one thing, but does it well (I hope 😅)

Following the principle of SLC (simple, lovable, complete), I focused on one simple feature for our launch:

Send posts to subscribers straight from WordPress.

This feature is free, and lets you:

  1. Simplify your publishing workflow. Fewer steps allows you to focus on the content, not the tech.
  2. Use the WordPress editor for your newsletter. It's now significantly more powerful and pleasant to use than many people realise.

To show how it works, I created a quick demo video on Loom

Link to demo video 👀

In just two minutes, you'll see how users go from activating the plugin for the first time to sending their first post to email subscribers.

For the rest of the video, I go into a bit more detail about features and customisation.

How you can try the plugin

If you currently use WordPress and Mailchimp and would like to try out our beta plugin, please email (lesley at memberhero.pro) or DM me on Twitter.

If you don't currently use Mailchimp, either add a comment here to let me know you're interested and what email service provider you use. We should have ConvertKit by next week, and MailerLite shortly after.

Doubts on publishing using WordPress

One last thing...

I know some people might read "powerful and pleasant + WordPress editor" and scoff... Well, you're not alone. Many of the people I've spoken to were surprised by how far the Gutenberg editor has come and just how much you can do with it these days.

Which is why I'm working on a massive guide on tips to using the Gutenberg editor and publishing newsletters in WordPress. It should be done by next week, and will share it on IH once it's ready.

Feedback and sharing

Ok, one final final thing..

If you've watched the video, please feel free to comment with your feedback. Even better, let me know the one thing that's missing from this plugin that's preventing you from trying it out.

And if this plugin isn't for you, but you're an incredibly kind soul and think this plugin might be useful to your followers... I'd be eternally grateful if you could tweet us!

Thanks everyone!

  1. 1

    I don't understand. Is this a plugin for WordPress that sends emails though Substack,?

    Does this integrate Substack in some way INTO WordPress?

    There is NOT anything on your website that says anything about Substack integration that I can see

  2. 1

    This looks really neat. Thanks for creating such a simple and efficient beta. I shall check back when I’ve got some live projects to test it with. Congrats!

    1. 1

      Thanks so much, @Heyitskate! Let me know if you have any questions or run into any problems at all. Very happy to help!

  3. 1

    You're plugin is really nice! I am shocked WordPress doesn't have more natural integrations like this. I have a Substack newsletter at ScriptureSauce.substack.com and want to move it over to either Wordpress or Ghost.

    If I want to expand to tiered / paid memberships, how would I integrate protected content with the Newsletter Glue plugin? Would it support or work with other integrations? If somehow NewsletterGlue could also support memberships one day (and be one-stop-shop), that would be amazing.

    Thanks for making this amazing piece of tech! And YES I would like to try the plug in. (-:

    -Jordan

    1. 1

      😻😻😻
      Your words make my heart sing, @JHopsWrites!

      What's the best way to get in touch with you?

      I'll also make a loom video to show you how you can integrate protected content features easily with a different plugin.

      And we also plan to do this in the future so that it's all under one roof.

      1. 1

        Hi Lesley, the easiest way is my email in my profile.

        I noticed you made Member Hero for memberships. Does this handle tiered content or does Newsletter Glue? Just trying to find the best solution without a million plugins.

        Thanks for getting back so quickly!

        1. 1

          Cool! Will email you now...

          Yeah, we made Member Hero for memberships. And plan on re-launching that in a few months' time.

          When we first launched, it was missing quite a few things, so we decided to take a step back, make something smaller and try to get traction with that first. And that's Newsletter Glue :)

          You actually don't need a million plugins no matter what. Here's what I think you need:

          1. Security (iThemes)
          2. Site optimisation (Jetpack or Siteground has an optimisation plugin too)
          3. Image compression (Smush or tinyPNG. Maybe Jetpack already does this... Not sure)
          4. SEO (Yoast)
          5. Analytics (Site Kit by Google)
          6. Send posts to subscribers (Newsletter Glue 🤭)
          7. Content restriction (Paid Member Subscriptions)

          That's about it... Unless you're planning on additional features I don't know about.

          You'll also want to ensure you get a theme that's Gutenberg block-friendly. The Gutenberg editor is killer, and you want to make sure you can make use of it. Rather than get shoe-horned into something weird because of the theme you're using.

          1. 1

            Oh, and for content restriction, are you referring to the plugin "Paid Memberships Pro?"

            Thanks again!

            1. 1

              yeah, paid memberships pro will work. so will paid member subscriptions.

              you basically want one that's reliable (if you want to accept payments, you'll wanna make sure your customers have no problem paying and changing their subscriptions) and stripped down (cause you're not trying to do anything too fancy).

              1. 1

                Got it, thank you! (-:

                Part of me is leaning towards using Ghost as all of these capabilities are built into it natively. I will experiment with my current WP website, and look forward to trying out your plugin some more.

          2. 1

            Thanks so much! I've tried a few test runs with Newsletter Glue with my WordPress site jhopkinswriting.com. I really like the simplicity of it and how it's naturally integrated into the Document builder. Also easy setup!

            Some feedback:
            Would be great if the Newsletter Glue email included the featured image above the H1 title in the email.

            Also, is there a way to add a "preamble" to an email with Newsletter Glue? (i.e. newsletter content that's not in the post itself?)

            Thanks for this awesome plug-in!

            1. 1

              So glad to hear you like the plugin and especially glad that you like the easy set up! It's something I was really focused on. :D

              H1 featured image --> great idea.. I've been toying with that for awhile, but also a bit nervous about adding too many features. Will give it a go and see how it affects the overall feel of the plugin.

              Preamble --> yes. So what I personally do for my own newsletter is... I write my preamble, send the newsletter off, then delete the block after that.

              But if you want it to be completely separate, then you can just duplicate the post, and write the preamble there. That way, you'll have two separate categories: a blog category and a newsletter category.

              Just depends on how differentiated the blog is from the newsletter.

              1. 1

                Hi Lesley, thanks for getting back again. Maybe the featured image or a stock banner could be check-box option with Newsletter Glue plug in. I think having to create multiple posts would take away from the simplicity of its intent: Write one post, publish it, and send it as a newsletter. Again, thanks for listening to feedback!

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