form to collect name, address, phone, into recipients list?

[germ]

I am currently researching what's available to create a simple email newsletter mailing list. I have a small music shop and have been collecting customer's names, mailing addys, phones, emails for a long time now. They come in slowly so I add them manually, but I also have a simple PHP form on my website for people to subscribe.

Maxbulk seems great so far, I love all the features EXCEPT I can't seem to figure out how to get people to subscribe thru a simple online form. Can Maxbulk do this, and how does it work exactly?

Currently I use a PHP form that sends me a simple email, then I use rules with my email program to add the EMAIL ONLY to a group in my address book (outlook express). This works great, its all automatic, BUT it doesn't collect mailing address, phone, etc. in the address book. I simply save the emails that are generated, which contain the extra info in the body of the message, and look thru them individually when sending out regular snail-mail.

There is also another program I am considering, called IntelliMerge, which does have PHP form capabilities. It saves the info I am inquiring about into a text file on the server, which IntelliMerge is able to connect to it, read it, and process the contents directly into the recipients list. Great for new subscribers, and also unsubscribers. No need to manually delete people. I am wondering if Maxbulk can also do this? Or if they're working on it?

Other features I like about IntelliMerge:
- recipients list can be sorted
- when a customer unsubscribes, it simply marks it as "unsubscribed" in the recipients list and no longer includes that person when sending emails

 

[stanbusk]

There are a lot of PHP and Perl scripts out there to handle subscribes and unsubscribes. Some use a plain text file, others a mySQL table. MaxBulk can read text files and can also connect to remote mySQL tables. To add a plain text list to MaxBulk you can simply copy it and use MaxBulk 'Paste Special' menu so it is easy, even if the list is on your server. To unsubscribe recipients from a file simply name it 'Unsubscribe' and drop it over your list in MaxBulk.

We wrote a simple Unsubscribe script a few months ago. It is simple to modify to handle subscriptions and mySQL. We have plans to make some enhancements to it in the coming months (Double opt-in subscribes).

Recipient lists can be sorted, just press the column header to sort by column. You can even sort e-mails by domain (ALT or Cmd + click on e-mail column header) and recipients by delivery status (ALT or Cmd + click on Delivery column header).

To unsubscribe recipients, select them and use the 'Unsubscribe' menu (main or contextual) and if you have a lot in a file, name the file 'Unsubscribe' and drop it to the list.

 

[germ]

thanx for the quick reply...

All the info you mentioned is already available on the Maxbulk website. I am aware that it can handle subscribes and unsubscribes, but I don't know much about mySQL so I'm just trying to figure out how exactly it works.

1. can Maxbulk collect name, address, phone, etc (not just emails)?
2. if so, what would be the simplist way to have a person sign up?
3. if using a PHP/Pearl script, how would it integrate with Maxbulk:
a. write it to a database/text file/other?
b. send it as an email (in which you use rules to file it somehow)?
c. communicate directly with Maxbulk's recipients list?

thanx for your help!

 

[stanbusk]

#1 Yes, MaxBulk Mailer has 20 columns which can contain whatever. Use 'First Name', 'Last Name', 'Company' and 'Email address' fields to store the corresponding data and any of the 20 columns for 'address', 'phone'...etc... If the file containing that data is created on a subscription system, you just need to use a comma, tab, colon or semi-colon separator between fields. Note that creating such system with PHP is trivial. You can also order the fields the same way MaxBulk columns are disposed in order to simplify importations. Columns can be renamed to match the data they contain.

#2 A form with a PHP script saving the data to a plain text file on your site. To make the subscription secure you should implement a double opt-in system. It is simple, rather than adding the subscriber directly, you create a unique reference, send an email to him with a PHP url containing that reference and ask the subscriber to click on it to confirm its subscription. Then the data is added. It looks complex but actually it is not. Note that MaxBulk Mailer distribution comes with such system but created with Perl. It is located in the 'Documentation/Goodies' folder. It is labeled 'Subscription system'. You can see it working here. It can be configured to ask for more information. This script save the list to a plain text file.

#3 Simple, the script write the data to a file. You just need to download that file and import it to MaxBulk right before sending your message. The best would be having MaxBulk doing that for you. It will in a near future. Likelly we will add this feature as soon as we create our own PHP subscription system.

 

[germ]

thanx again for the quick reply. this is one of the reasons why I want your product more than others so far!

you also have better documentation, help pages, etc, and great features, such as the delayed messaging (overriding ISP limitations), and great ISP specific limitations info right on the website. brilliant! I want your product but I may have to wait for the PHP integration that you mentioned and auto importing of data files would be great. I'm glad to hear you're working on it! Any idea how long that may be?

 

[germ]

oh, and I MEANT to say in my original post:

Other features I like about IntelliMerge:
- recipients list can be sorted (ok so can Maxbulk, thats great to hear!)
- when a customer unsubscribes, it simply marks it as "unsubscribed" in the recipients list and no longer includes that person when sending emails BUT STILL KEEPS THEIR INFO IN THE DATABASE

I guess that's my lame attempt at a feature request...

 

[stanbusk]

When you unsubscribe a recipient in a list with MaxBulk, the recipient is kept as is, it is not removed. It is just marked as unsubscribed, show a different icon and appears as deactivated. All the data is kept. The only difference is that such recipient will no longer be included in deliveries.

Just out of curiosity, why do you believe MaxBulk can't sort lists or do delete unsubscribed recipients? Deleting unsubscribed recipient would be a big design error. Such recipients have to be maintained to avoid being added again accidentally.

About the PHP subscription system, it is a work in progress, I am not sure when it will be available.

 

[germ]

I originally thought it couldn't sort lists, but you corrected me. my mistake. I'm glad to hear it can.

As far as deleting the unsubscribed recipients, I looked through your documentation and couldn't find anything about that, just info on how to drop a list in there to delete people. Never said it marks them as unsubscribed. So I'm glad to hear that too!

Can't wait for the PHP stuff! Thanx for all your help.

 

[stanbusk]

The unsubscribe function is explained here, 'Adding, deactivating and deleting records' paragraph.