What is an Email Blacklist? 

The email blacklist is an extensive database of public domains and IP addresses marked as suspicious for sending spam emails through the internet. It’s also known as DNSBL (Domain Name System-based Blackhole List) or RBL Real-time Blackhole List. Organizations like Email Service Providers (ESP), Internet Service Providers (ISP), and anti-spam agencies (ASA) use this list to detect, monitor and block any spam emails entering their network. 

Am I Blacklisted? What Are the Signs?

There are many signs to alert you of your IP’s status. When you’re blacklisted, you can’t send emails to the recipient’s mailbox properly. Now, this doesn’t mean you’re going to be blacklisted from every mail server in the world. If you’re blacklisted with one DNSBL service, there are hundreds more that may not have blacklisted you. A few key signs:

1. There are an increased number of emails lost. 
2. You experience deteriorating delivery rates.
3. You find a high number of email bounce rates. 

These don’t confirm you’re blacklisted but are some warning signs. If you check a few of the boxes for delivery issues, you can now check to confirm the blacklisting of the domain or IP address. 

Checking Your IP address and Domain in an Email Blacklist Directory

There are various email blacklist services on the internet. It’s not practical to check every single one of them, but some applications maintain a list of live RBL (real-time blackhole list) directories to save your time. They provide a page dedicated to that RBL service and also offer a service to delist your domain or IP address. 

Here are a couple of popular RBL applications:

• MXToolBox: This checks for domain blacklisting across multiple RBL lists. It provides detailed information and suggestions on your domain’s current status. 
• MultiRBL: This is a free DNSBL lookup site that can scan 100+ DNSBL lists to check for domain blacklisting. It also details the steps to remove your domain from the blacklist. 

Malicious sites can be blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing, which will warn visitors of potentially unsafe pages. Dropmysite includes a feature that sends you alerts if your site is listed on this blacklist monitoring program – so take immediate corrective actions before it gets too late! A2 Hosting offers Dropmysite as an add-on cPanel plugin so that you can back up your data and monitor your websites. These services can help you actively monitor your IP address so that you can ensure swift delivery of all of your emails. 

Blacklists are an important tool for email deliverability. They help protect email users from spam and phishing emails and improve the deliverability of your legitimate email campaigns. If you’re not familiar with blacklists or aren’t sure if your IP address is on one, we encourage you to use a blacklist checking tool. Use this information to clean up your email practices and improve your chances of getting delivered to the inbox. If you have any more questions or concerns feel free to contact our support team 24/7/365!

Related Articles:

• How to stop unwanted e-mail using Spam Filters
• How To Prevent Outgoing Email From Being Marked As Spam
• How to monitor blacklisted sites using Dropmysite

The post What Is An Email Blacklist? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Continue reading to explore what web hosting is and what the common types of hosting are. Learn why it is important to find a first-rate web host provider and discover which web host provider has the fastest hosting service and what kinds of plans they offer.

What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is an internet hosting service that hosts websites and web pages on behalf of businesses and individuals.

The backend and files of websites are stored on servers. Internet users can view a website by typing its URL address on their browser or by clicking on a link. The users’ computers will be linked to the server so that the webpage will load on their browser.

During the early days of the Internet, companies and persons were required to have their own computer or server to host a website. However, not everyone could afford to buy technological equipment or hire in-house professionals who specialize in website hosting. The need for web hosting services started to grow as the number of Internet users all over the world began to increase exponentially.

These are some of the popular types of web hosting:

• Shared Hosting: It involves the sharing of server space among various websites. The shared resources typically include the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and RAM (Random Access Memory). It is ideal for businesses that plan to build new websites because it is priced relatively low and allows for growth.
• Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting: It offers more control than shared hosting, but less control than dedicated hosting. Every website is allotted its own space and reserved resources within the parameters of the server making it a virtual private environment while still sharing hardware. It is appropriate for businesses with existing websites with low to medium amounts of traffic.
• Dedicated Hosting: It allows the webmaster, who is the owner of the website, to have almost full control of the site. The webmaster can manage the administration access, select the security features, and pick the operating system of the server. It is suitable for businesses with existing websites that have a high amount of traffic. This arrangement is usually preferred by companies with an in-house IT department that can oversee the site unless they have a managed plan which we outline below.
• Managed Hosting: This is most common type of web hosting service and can be added to Shared, VPS, and Dedicated hosting. In this scenario, the web host is in charge of server maintenance rather than the webmaster. The webmaster is freed from the responsibility of maintaining the operating system, software, and hardware related to the website. The website owner just needs to select the hosting package that will suit the needs of the business. This form of hosting is appropriate for businesses that plan to build and maintain websites with minimal effort. A2 Hosting has managed shared, VPS and dedicated hosting plans to choose from!

Why Is It Important To Have a Good Web Host?

A web host is a company that provides web hosting services to businesses and individuals. There are several reasons why any business needs to have an excellent web host:

1. Optimized Data Storage

It is critical for a business to have a dependable web host that offers ample data storage options. Proper data storage enables a website to handle more online traffic. Storage limitations can cause a site to shut down when the amount of traffic is high.

2. Secure Server

A competent web host can improve the cyber security of a business website. It ensures the safety of the network space to safeguard the website files and customer information from being accessed by outsiders. It blocks hacker attacks, phishing attempts, and other kinds of cybercrimes.

3. Zero To Minimal Downtime

Downtime refers to the timeframe when the website is not available online for various reasons. Whether it is scheduled or unscheduled, downtime can be detrimental to a business if it occurs often. It reduces opportunities for lead generation and conversion. Plus, frequent downtime makes a website seem unprofessional. That’s why it is critical for a business to select a dependable server with zero to minimal downtime.

4. Backup Protection

A business should work with a website host that offers backup options. Backup measures will allow the team to roll back the website in case of technical issues. A website must have backups so that a business will not lose important data.

5. Email Services

A business will appear more professional if the team members use customized email addresses that are related to the domain name, instead of communicating via free email accounts from popular email services.

Official work email addresses can help a business build a reputation as a credible, legitimate organization. Email hosting is one of the basic but essential features that a web host should offer in their packages.

6. Customer Service

A commendable web host should always be prepared to provide technical support to a business in case they encounter problems with their website. The company should provide alternative ways for their clients to contact them whenever they need professional assistance.

7. Flexible Pricing Options

Different businesses have varying budgets when it comes to web hosting. That’s why a business should choose a web host that offers multiple packages that they can choose from. This will allow the team to pick the plan that suits them best, based on their estimated budget and the specific services they need.

The availability of various packages also grants flexibility to a business. It allows the team to customize their plan in the future, in case they will need more server power, data speed, and storage space as their business expands over time.

8. Speed

Speed is one of the most important factors that a business should consider when choosing a web host. Slow website speeds can discourage users from spending time on a website. The user experience of website visitors will suffer if each web page takes too long to load. A business team should select a web host with the fastest hosting service to ensure swift loading speeds.

Why Is It Important To Have a Fast Website?

Having a fast website can be advantageous to any business in various ways. These are some of the benefits of having a quick-loading website:

1. Online Visibility

The website is a central marketing tool because it can increase the online visibility of a business. It has a significant impact on the marketing efforts of any company, in spite of the availability of other social media channels. The content and structure of a website should be strategic for it to be effective.

A website must feature basic information about the business, as well as its products and services. It should include compelling landing page copy that catches the attention of the audience. It ought to focus on results-driven solutions to the problems or needs of the target market.

Last but not least, a website should have fast loading times. No matter how well-crafted the content is, Internet users will not explore a website if the web pages are loading too slowly. A speedy website will motivate visitors to read the content so that they will learn more about the business and the brand.

2. Lead Generation

A fast website can result in lead generation for a business. Lead generation is the process of attracting attention and sparking the interest of future customers. Leads are people with the potential to purchase the products or subscribe to the services of a company someday.

A website that functions smoothly and swiftly can transform website visitors and prospects into leads. It can enable a business to develop connections with leads by featuring relevant content that is tailored to their wants, needs, and demographic information.

3. Lead Conversion

A website is a tool that can promote lead conversion for a business. Lead conversion is a sales and marketing procedure that converts leads into actual customers through retargeting, behavior automation, and relationship development.

A website that is quickly and easily accessible allows a business team to nourish their leads in each step of the marketing process. It can serve as a central venue where leads can morph into customers by taking concrete action, such as buying a product, utilizing a service, or signing up as a paid subscriber.

4. Sales and Profits

An official website can play a role in increasing the sales and profits of a business. Sales refer to the total amount of income that a business earns from selling its products and services. Profits are defined as the amount of income that remains after the costs, expenses, and taxes have been subtracted from the sales.

A fast website has the potential to boost the sales and profits of a business by showcasing the benefits of its products and services through text information, photos, videos, testimonials, blog posts, and customer reviews.

5. Business Growth

A website can be instrumental to the overall growth of a business. It can help the team to achieve their goals and objectives in every stage of the marketing and sales process. It can also increase brand awareness and improve the reputation of the company over time. It gives the team more opportunities to establish new professional connections and to strengthen existing customer relationships.

Nevertheless, the general efficacy of a business website in achieving optimal results is largely dependent on its speed. That’s why a business team should ensure that the web host they select can provide fast loading times for their website.

Which Web Host Provides the Fastest Hosting Service

The speed of a website can determine how effective it is in contributing to the success of a business. That’s why you must choose a web host that is capable of providing impressively swift speeds for your business website.

A2 Hosting is the ideal option for startups, reseller agencies, companies, and organizations who need the fastest hosting service for their websites.

Who Is A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is a website hosting provider that offers up to 20X faster web hosting speeds for businesses. Our high-performance solutions are suitable for everyone in the business industry, ranging from first-timers who wish to develop new blogs to professional developers with high-traffic websites.

A2 Hosting was founded by our CEO Bryan Muthig in 2001 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He utilized his strong technical background as a UNIX systems administrator and his passion for technology to establish a global hosting company.

At present, we have more than 200 hundred teammates and various data centers in 223 countries all over the globe. Our company has provided 120,000 active services and counting to our clients. An estimated 110,000 people have already used A2 Hosting products.

Our mission is to help people to thrive in the online world so that they can succeed in the real world. We harness our skills, knowledge, and resources to make it possible for others to bring their digital visions to life.

A2 Hosting has gained recognition as a reliable hosting provider in the web hosting industry. We have received awards and accolades that highlight the accomplishments of our team as we continue to empower our customers with the best web host solutions.

What Are the Benefits of A2 Hosting Services

These are many reasons why A2 Hosting is superior to other web host providers. These are some of the important advantages of choosing A2 Hosting and our services:

• Faster Speed: We offer up to 20X faster web hosting speed for business websites.
• Better Results: We can help small businesses and agencies gain improved SEO rankings, reduced bounce rates, and increased conversion rates.
• Accessible Customer Service: We provide 24/7/365 technical assistance through our friendly, skilled, and knowledgeable guru crew support team.
• Free Account Migration: We can move your website from your previous web host to A2 hosting for free.
• Risk-free Trial: We offer you a money-back guarantee if you are interested in trying our hosting services.
• Reliable Servers: We commit to 99.9% uptime so you can rest assured about the dependability of our servers.

What Plans Does A2 Hosting Offer

A2 Hosting offers a variety of web hosting packages to suit the multiple needs of our different clients. These are the plans from A2 Hosting that you can choose from:

Shared Web Hosting

The Shared Web Hosting service of A2 Hosting is powered by our top-of-the-line servers. All our servers are optimized for speed. Each server is only limited to a certain number of clients. This industry-leading web hosting service features 20X faster page load times at an affordable cost. You can experience an excellent combination of performance enhancements, resources, and limited occupancy if you subscribe to one of the shared hosting packages.

Here are the pricing plans for Shared Web Hosting:

• Startup: $2.99 USD monthly*
• Drive: $5.99 USD monthly*
• Turbo Boost: $6.99 USD monthly*
• Turbo Max: $12.99 USD monthly*

VPS Hosting

The VPS Hosting service of A2 Hosting features dedicated resources for maximum power. Because you will be allotted your own dedicated resources, you will have the advantage of enhanced server reliability and performance. This cost-effective model allows you to experience the benefits of a BMD server without the price tag. Our plans include 24/7 Guru Support, free SSL Certificates, and free website migrations.

Here are the various VPS Hosting plans with assorted VPS features for different management levels:

Unmanaged VPS Hosting

Unmanaged VPS Hosting allows you to configure the settings and requirements of the server operating system and other software that you plan to run at the server level. Keep in mind that this level of configuration is ideal for people with a high degree of technical skills.

• Runway 1: $4.99 USD monthly*
• Runway 2: $7.99 USD monthly*
• Runway 4: $9.99 USD monthly*
• Supersonic 8: $34.99 USD monthly*
• Supersonic 16: $54.99 USD monthly*
• Supersonic 32: $74.99 USD monthly*

Managed VPS Hosting

Managed VPS features high-level maintenance service from our team. It ensures that your server is regularly upgraded, fixed, and adjusted to increase the security levels of your business website. Managed plans are worth the extra investment because we will efficiently handle all the crucial management tasks on your behalf.

• Lift 4: $39.99 USD monthly*
• Lift 8: $54.99 USD monthly*
• Lift 16: $67.99 USD monthly*
• Mach 8: $59.99 USD monthly*
• Mach 16: $89.99 USD monthly*
• Mach 32: $99.99 USD monthly*

Bare Metal Dedicated Servers

The Bare Metal Dedicated Servers of A2 Hosting will allow you to select between Intel or AMD processors. They also include advanced NVMe storage options for your business website.

Here are the available Bare Metal Dedicated Servers plans:

Unmanaged Bare Metal Dedicated Servers

• Hyper 1: $129.99 USD monthly*
• Hyper 2I: $199.99 USD monthly*
• Hyper 2 Turbo Intel: $219.99 USD monthly*
• Hyper 3 AMD: $509.99 USD monthly*
• Hyper 3 Turbo AMD: $539.99 USD monthly*

Managed Bare Metal Dedicated Servers

• Warp 1: $179.99 USD monthly*
• Warp 2 Intel: $249.99 USD monthly*
• Warp 2 Turbo Intel: $279.99 USD monthly*

Reseller Hosting

The Reseller Hosting service of A2 Hosting enables you to begin your own hosting business. Selling our white-labeled reseller solutions allows you to make income, manage your customers, and run your own hosting company. We will grant you full control of the various aspects of your business. We will utilize servers with AMD EPYC CPUs and NVMEe drives to set up your reseller package.

Here are the Reseller Hosting plans we have available:

• Kickstart: $18.99 USD monthly*
• Turbo Kickstart: $24.99 USD monthly*
• Launch: $24.99 USD monthly*
• Turbo Launch: $32.99 USD monthly*

Turbo Web Hosting

All our web hosting packages have turbo versions for increased power and speed. These are the impressive features of Turbo Web Hosting plans that you can take advantage of:

• LiteSpeed Web Server: It is a speed-enhanced, drop-in web server alternative to Apache. It allows you to experience up to 20X faster page loads.
• NVMe: It is a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) Hosting solution that generates 3X faster read/write speeds.
• HTTP/3: It is a cutting-edge web standard that enables quicker and more stable connections for APIs and websites.
• ESI: Edge Side Includes (ESI) lets you conveniently designate portions of your web page as cacheable or non-cacheable.
• QUIC: Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC) is a speed-enhanced alternative to TCP. It minimizes latency by forming multiplexed connections among computers in a network.

Learn more about our Turbo Plans by viewing the turbo options for each type of web hosting package that A2 Hosting offers.

Contact the A2 Hosting Sales Team to Sign Up for the Fastest Hosting Service

Whether you own a reselling agency, startup, or company, a fast website is a powerful marketing tool that allows your business to reach new heights of success. Partnership with the fastest hosting service allows you to transform your site for the better.

A2 Hosting is the best option for you if you are committed to leveling up the speed and security of your business website. Contact our sales team today if you have questions about our exponentially fast web hosting services. Sign up for our web hosting plans to start speeding up your website.

The post Who Has the Fastest Web Hosting? Matching Your Need for Speed appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, WordPress supports many popular email marketing platforms. Whether it’s sharing exclusive discounts, notifying subscribers about new content, or re-engaging disconnected customers, WordPress and email marketing software can be a powerful combination.

In this article, we’ll show you how to connect the popular Mailchimp marketing platform to your WordPress account. Then, we’ll create an embeddable sign up form, so visitors can subscribe to your mailing list directly from your WordPress website. We have lots to cover, so let’s get started!

What Email Marketing Is (And Why You May Already Be Doing It)

Today, it’s difficult to imagine someone who doesn’t have an email address. It’s estimated that the number of email users in the U.S. will reach nearly 255 million by the end of 2020. Regardless of your target demographic, statistically your ideal customer already has at least one email address. If they have an email address, you can target them with email marketing.

Email marketing is the process of promoting your business, products, and services via email. This includes everything from your company newsletter, to messages about upcoming sales, and even exclusive discount codes that you email to your best customers.

Organizations in the U.S. spent over 350 million dollars on email advertising in 2019. This makes email marketing one of the most popular forms of marketing.

Your business may not have a formal marketing strategy. However, if you email your customers, you’re probably already performing some form of email marketing. With the exception of order confirmations and direct responses to customer queries, the majority of customer emails will most likely fall under the heading of email marketing.

If you’re already investing time and resources into email marketing, it’s a smart move to ensure you’re getting maximum return on your investment. For the best results, we recommend taking a more structured approach to email marketing. This involves creating a formal marketing strategy, and investing in email marketing and automation tools. This will help drive conversions and maximize sales, while minimizing the day-to-day workload for your marketing department.

Why Email Marketing Is Important for Your Business

Email is the most direct form of communication you have with your target audience. This makes email a powerful tool for marketing your products and services.

Most people check their inbox multiple times a day. According to the 2019 Adobe Email Usage Study, Americans spend over three hours per day checking their work email, and over two hours checking their personal email. That’s five hours every single day, where you could be connecting with your target audience.

A lot of attention is given to social media marketing and online influencers. However, there is evidence to suggest that your customers are spending far more time in their inbox, rather than social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In 2019, the average daily social media usage of Internet users came in at 144 minutes per day. That’s significantly less than the five hours the average American dedicates to email every single day.

In addition, emails remain in the customer’s inbox until they take some action. On social media, your marketing content can easily get buried in the user’s timeline.

Despite their popularity, there’s also no guarantee that your audience will have accounts on every social media platform. Today, there are a huge number of social platforms, from household names right through to more obscure brands.

With social media marketing, you may have to make tough decisions about the number of platforms you can realistically target. As a result, you may miss out on conversions. By contrast, a single email can potentially reach everyone on your mailing list – assuming you steer clear of their spam folder.

Email marketing can also be a great way to keep your visitors engaged. By regularly notifying customers about great new content or offers, you can help keep your site at the forefront of their mind.

An Introduction to Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a popular marketing automation and email marketing tool. It’s designed to help companies market their products via email, build lasting relationships with their customers, and ultimately transform leads into sales.

Mailchimp has a range of useful features for email marketers. This includes drag-and-drop editors that you can use to design beautiful, engaging emails without having to write code.

You can also use Mailchimp to create automated email campaigns. This includes email series that target specific subscribers. For example, you might create an onboarding series where various emails are sent to new subscribers, at specific intervals. This can help get new customers up to speed, without requiring manual intervention from your marketing team.

You can also use Mailchimp to monitor subscriber behavior. This is particularly useful for identifying and re-engaging disengaged customers. For example, if a subscriber doesn’t open three emails in a row, then Mailchimp can automatically send them an exclusive discount for your e-commerce store.

Mailchimp also has built-in analytics and reporting functionally. This enables you to analyze the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, and identify any opportunities to improve. By continuously refining your campaigns, you can help drive traffic and conversions.

There are a number of paid Mailchimp plans available. However, you can also use Mailchimp for free for up to 2,000 contacts. This means you can see whether Mailchimp is right for you, before purchasing a subscription. The free plan is also a good fit for smaller businesses, or anyone just getting started with email marketing.

If you don’t have a regular email marketing strategy, Mailchimp also has a Pay As You Go plan. This plan may be a good fit if you’re planning a one-off email campaign, where it wouldn’t necessarily make financial sense to purchase a subscription.

Why (And When) You’d Want to Add Mailchimp to WordPress

Mailchimp is a standalone email marketing and automation platform. However, you can also connect Mailchimp to your WordPress website. There are several key benefits to making this connection.

You can grow your email marketing lists, by adding a Mailchimp subscriber form to your WordPress website. Anyone who completes this form will be added to your Mailchimp mailing list. You can then target them as part of your email marketing campaigns.

You can even create a compressed subscriber form that you can add to your site’s recurring elements, such as the sidebar or footer. This ensures visitors can subscribe to your mailing list, from any page of your website.

After creating your subscriber form, you can use your site to drive conversions. This might include providing additional content for subscribers, such as blog posts or a members-only forum. You might also offer special discounts, such as a coupon code that’s emailed to new subscribers. You could even run a competition, where every new subscriber is entered into a prize draw.

Mailchimp also has a useful RSS campaign. This RSS feature will automatically send a summary of your latest blog posts to your subscribers. This can be an easy and effective way to keep visitors engaged, and drive more traffic to your website without requiring manual intervention from you, or your marketing team.

How to Connect Mailchimp to Your WordPress Website

Now we’ve explored the benefits of connecting Mailchimp to WordPress, it’s time to see how you’d make this connection. Let’s integrate your email automation platform and your website, in eight easy steps.

Step 1: Sign Up for a Mailchimp Account

To start, you’ll need to head over to Mailchimp and create an account. Once you’ve entered your information, Mailchimp will send an activation link to the email address you provided.

After activating your Mailchimp account, the next step is choosing your plan. There are several paid plans available, as well as a free plan. If you opt for the free plan, you’ll be capped at 2,000 contacts. However, you can always upgrade to a paid plan at a later date.

You will now have the option to connect your social media accounts to Mailchimp. This can be particularly useful if you plan to share your email marketing campaigns across multiple platforms.

Step 2: Create a Mailchimp Mailing List

Now you’ve set up your Mailchimp account, you’re ready to create your first mailing list. If you’ve previously dabbled in email marketing, you may already have some contacts. To get your mailing list off to the strongest possible start, we recommend uploading this information to Mailchimp.

Typically, the quickest method is to upload these contacts as a Comma-Separated Value (CSV) file. Once you’ve formatted your CSV file according to Mailchimp’s requirements, you just need to upload that file to Mailchimp, using the dedicated upload tool.

In Mailchimp’s left-hand menu, select the Audience icon. You can then select Audience dashboard.

Next, select Import Your Contacts > Upload file > Continue to Upload. Once you’ve completed the import process, you can review all your contacts by navigating to Audience > All contacts. Then, you can select Manage contacts > View contacts. You should now see a list of all your contacts.

Alternatively, you can copy/paste or manually type this information into Mailchimp. This method may be easier if you have a more modest contact list, or are unfamiliar with CSV formatting. To add your contacts manually, navigate to Audience > Audience dashboard > Import Your Contacts.

On the subsequent screen, you can input each contact. Regardless of whether you’re copy/pasting or typing, it’s important to follow Mailchimp’s formatting rules, as they’re shown onscreen.

Step 3: Connect to Your Mailchimp Account to WordPress

An API key is the secret to integrating Mailchimp with your WordPress website. This key is a unique identifier that grants applications and services access to your Mailchimp account. This is how we’ll create a connection between Mailchimp and your WordPress website.

To request an API key, log into your Mailchimp account. In the bottom-left corner, select your profile picture and then choose Account. On the subsequent screen, select Extras > API keys.

Under Your API Keys, select Create A Key. Mailchimp will now generate an API key.

We’ll be using this information in the following step, so it’s a good idea to leave this page open in a separate tab. It’s also important to keep this key a secret, to ensure no-one gains access to the information in your Mailchimp account.

Step 4: Install the Mailchimp for WordPress plugin

Although you can use Mailchimp on your WordPress website without any extra tools, there are several plugins that can make the integration process easier. Some popular options include MailChimp Plugin for WordPress, and MailChimp Forms by MailMunch.

We’ll be using the Mailchimp for WordPress (MC4WP) plugin, as it can integrate with the existing forms on your WordPress website. It’s also compatible with a range of popular WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, MemberPress, and Gravity Forms.

After activating this plugin, navigate to MC4P > Mailchimp in your WordPress dashboard. You can then enter the API key from your Mailchimp account, and click Save Changes.

After a few moments, you should see a Status: Connected message. You’ve now successfully connected your Mailchimp account and your WordPress website.

Step 5: Renew Your Mailchimp List

You can now access your Mailchimp data from the WordPress dashboard, including your subscriber lists. To view all your subscribers, select MC4P > Mailchimp in the WordPress dashboard.

Since you’ve just connected your WordPress and Mailchimp accounts, we’d recommend pressing the Renew Mailchimp lists button. This will renew the cached lists configuration, and ensure you’re looking at the latest version of your Mailchimp data. It’s also worth pressing this button every time you make changes in your Mailchimp lists, just to ensure you’re seeing up-to-date information.

Step 6: Build a Mailchimp Signup Form to Your Website

Now, visitors can subscribe to your Mailchimp mailing list, directly from your website. To grow your mailing list, it’s a good idea to add at least one subscription form to your WordPress website.

An embedded form is particularly useful for encouraging signups, without disrupting the visitor experience. To create an embedded form, switch back to the Mailchimp dashboard, then select the Audience icon. Next, navigate to Audience dashboard > Manage Audience > Signup forms.

Find Embedded forms, and give its accompanying Select button a click. You can now choose from several styles: Classic, Condensed, Horizontal, or Unstyled.

Depending on your selection, you’ll now have access to various editing settings. For example, you can change the form’s title, or display mandatory fields only. It’s worth spending some time experimenting, to see what different effects you can create.

Mailchimp will generate an embed code automatically. When you’re happy with the signup form you’ve created, copy this code.

Step 7: Add Your Mailchimp Signup Form to WordPress

To add a Mailchimp form to your website, switch over to the WordPress dashboard. You can position this form anywhere on your site, including adding it to specific pages or posts, or featuring it in recurring elements such as sidebars.

To add the form to a specific page or post, open that page or post for editing. You can then create a new Custom HTML block, and add your embed code.

Once you publish your page or post, your Mailchimp signup form will appear on your WordPress website.

You can also feature this signup form in your site’s recurring elements. One option is to add the signup form to your sidebar using a widget. In your WordPress account, navigate to Appearance > Widgets.

You can then select the Custom HTML widget, and drag it to the Sidebar or Footer column(s). Note that the available options may vary depending on your WordPress theme.

Now, click to expand your custom HTML widget. You can then copy/paste Mailchimp’s embed code into the popup that appears.

The Mailchimp signup form will now appear across your website, as part of your theme’s sidebar.

This is great for encouraging visitors to join your mailing list, without disrupting the visitor experience. Now that visitors can subscribe to your mailing list, the next step is to ensure you’re sending them regular email updates.

Step 8: Set Up a WordPress RSS Feed Newsletter in Mailchimp

Mailchimp can automatically send your latest blog posts to your subscribers. This kind of RSS newsletter is a great way to keep your audience engaged, and can help re-engage any disinterested subscribers.

To setup an RSS to Email campaign, switch over to your Mailchimp account. You can then select Automations > Customer journey. In the upper-right corner, select Create > Classic Automations.

In the subsequent popup, make sure the Automated tab is selected. Choose Share Blog Updates.

Now, give your campaign a descriptive name, and choose who should receive these updates. You’ll now need to enter the URL of your website’s RSS feed, and specify the days and times when Mailchimp should send its RSS newsletters. Note that Mailchimp will only send an email when you have new content to promote.

You can now build your email, and configure some additional options. These settings include enabling Google Analytics tracking, auto-tweeting your updates, and automatically converting any embedded videos into Mailchimp’s email-friendly video merge tags. There’s lots to explore here, so it’s worth taking some time to see what’s on offer.

When you’re ready to proceed, click Next. You can now choose the template that you want to use. Regardless of the template you select, you’ll be able to customize it using Mailchimp’s built-in editor.

Select Next, and Mailchimp will display a preview of your RSS newsletter campaign. You can review this information, and make any required changes.

Once you’re happy with your campaign, click Start RSS. Now, everyone on your mailing list will receive email updates about new content you publish on your WordPress website.

Conclusion

Email is one of the most powerful ways to market your business, drive traffic, and ultimately increase conversions. By using a powerful email marketing and automation platform such as Mailchimp, you can get your email marketing strategy off to the best possible start, and grow your mailing list.

By connecting Mailchimp to your WordPress website, visitors will be able to subscribe to your mailing list, potentially from any page of your website. You can even use Mailchimp to create an RSS email campaign that automatically notifies your subscribers about all the new content you’re posting over at your blog.

A successful email marketing campaign can significantly boost your traffic, so you’ll want to make sure your site is prepared. This includes choosing a hosting provider who can help you manage large volumes of traffic. For the best results, we recommend a flexible hosting provider that gives you the option to temporarily upgrade during times of high traffic.

Image credits: Pexels.

The post How to Use Mailchimp With WordPress appeared first on The A2 Posting.

However, these challenging times also represent a major opportunity for brands to build relationships with their current and potential customers. By adapting your email marketing strategy to maximize engagement and deliver value to subscribers, you can build trust and turn uncertain shoppers into loyal, lifelong fans of your brand.

In this article, we’ll consider some of the challenges email marketers are facing. We’ll then offer tips to overcome those challenges and look at some email marketing tools that can help you do just that. Let’s dig in!

How the Business Landscape Has Changed Due to COVID-19

You’d be hard pressed to find an aspect of life that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic. However, one of the largest shifts has been in retail and consumer shopping habits.

To start, people are just spending less. Some reports earlier in the crisis indicated a drop of as much as 7.5% in personal spending in the US, the largest such drop on record. People are hesitant to spend on non-essentials when there’s so much uncertainty about the future.

Additionally, when people do make purchases, they are increasingly doing so online. Part of this is simply the fact that many shops were closed for several months, but many people are continuing to buy online even after brick-and-mortar stores reopen. Habits are changing, and some experts expect a 160% increase in e-commerce purchases by new or low-frequency consumers.

Combine these changing habits with the increasing amount of time being spent online due to quarantine, and email has become a more powerful vector than ever for reaching customers.

Email isn’t just about letting people know what’s on sale (though that’s important, too). Used properly, it provides a way to build relationships with current and potential customers, so that when they do return to spending, they spend with you.

How to Maximize the Impact of Your Email Marketing

With so many emails being sent out during this time, it’s important to keep a couple points in mind. First, brand image is more important than ever. People want to know the brands they support are responsible and trustworthy.

Second, consumers are tired of the constant influx of COVID-related emails. As Marketo pointed out, folks are also all too happy to hop on social media and call it out.

With that said, here are some tips for making the most of your emails:

• Use authentic messaging. Your audience will know if you’re being genuine or just trying to take advantage of the situation.
• Provide real value to your audience. Don’t just focus on selling. Instead, provide compelling content and useful advice related to your product or service.
• Consider your demographic carefully and be sensitive to their needs. Stress and concern about the future are high right now, so keep that in mind.
• More frequent campaigns appear to be doing better, though this depends a lot on your audience. Since many people are still stuck at home, they’re hungry for content. Give it to them!
• Be personal. Customize your email templates to include little touches like names. It goes a long way.

Finally, consider the tools you’re using for email marketing. The right platform can make it much easier to create memorable, personal emails that speak to your audience. Don’t forget the importance of a reliable email host, either. A robust hosting platform is vital to ensure your messages make it to customers.

4 Email Marketing Tools That Can Help You Stand Out

There are a lot of email marketing platforms on the market. Choosing the right one can make or break your campaign. We’ve narrowed the field down to four of the most powerful and popular options. Let’s start with arguably the most popular.

1. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the biggest names in email, and for many it’s the first one that springs to mind. It certainly earns that reputation, too, with powerful features like the clean template editor and incredibly thorough reporting and analytics.

MailChimp is ideal for very small businesses that don’t need to send a lot of emails (thanks to the free plan), as well as users that value strong reporting, useful integrations, and a simple interface.

As mentioned, there’s a free plan that’s good for up to 2,000 subscribers. After that, prices start at $29.99 per month.

2. ConvertKit

If you’re looking for a MailChimp alternative, ConvertKit is an excellent option. This tool has been gaining popularity in recent years, and much of that has to do with its fantastic targeting features.

ConvertKit allows you to get really granular with user segmentation, so you can easily send the right emails to the right people. The other major advantage of ConvertKit is its built-in landing page editor, which lets you manage your entire funnel from a single platform.

ConvertKit is ideal for any business that needs to send a lot of highly-targeted emails. Prices start at $29.99 per month. There’s also a limited free plan available.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is the tool of choice for businesses that need a more powerful email marketing platform. It’s packed with features, but the standouts are definitely the robust automation and easy-to-use editor.

ActiveCampaign also includes a built-in CRM tool to easily manage contacts and customer relationships, and the customer support is hard to beat. Overall, it’s a fantastic all-in-one tool for email management.

Prices for ActiveCampaign start at $9 per month, but vary highly depending on how many contacts you have. Unfortunately, there is no free plan, but the company does offer a limited free trial.

4. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an excellent all-around email solution for small to midsize businesses. Standout features include versatile templates, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, and a useful autoresponder tool.

True to its name, Campaign Monitor also provides highly granular analytics that let you get a clear view of your campaign’s performance. It also features automation and segmentation tools to help target your emails and tailor them to your audience.

Campaign Monitor starts at $9 per month. Although there is technically a free trial, it’s limited to just five subscribers.

Conclusion

Whether your business is pivoting to meet the changing needs of consumers, or you’re looking to maximize impact with existing customers, email marketing can play an important role in the process.

The keys to email marketing, particularly in this climate, are authenticity, personalization, being sensitive to the emotional needs of your audience, and providing genuine value. Combine these pillars with a solid email marketing tool and reliable hosting, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post Does Your Email Marketing Strategy Need to Change Due to COVID-19? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, Cloudflare offers plenty of options to make your site more secure and help it load faster. This CDN is also easy to use, with an intuitive dashboard and plenty of documentation to guide you.

In this article, we’ll first discuss what Cloudflare is. Then, we’ll look at some of the performance and security benefits that come with using it, including image optimization, minification, brute-force and hacking protection, and Domain Name System (DNS) security extensions. Let’s dive in!

An Introduction to Cloudflare

In order to understand Cloudflare, you first need basic knowledge of CDNs. Essentially, they’re systems of edge servers scattered around the world to help your pages render faster. When visitors request content from your site, they connect to the edge server that is closest to them, which reduces latency and improves loading times:

Cloudflare’s network includes servers in 200 cities that span 90 countries. This not only means that you have an opportunity to reach a global audience at top speeds, but also that you can count on this service to provide reliable support for your site.

Additionally, Cloudflare includes numerous built-in security features such as a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to stop comment spam and SQL injection attacks. This helps you save on bandwidth by blocking abusive bots and crawlers. Finally, it provides optimization tools to further improve your page loading times.

One of the unique things about Cloudflare is that it’s highly affordable. Basic CDN functionality and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection are available for free. Paid plans start as low as $20 per month.

How Cloudflare Can Benefit You (4 Key Ways)

Cloudflare can confer many advantages in terms of making your site run faster and enhancing its security. Here are four key ways it can benefit you.

1. It implements Image Optimization to Improve Loading Times

Image optimization primarily refers to compression, which is the act of making file sizes smaller. It’s accomplished by removing pixels from the image and/or resizing it, ideally without reducing its quality.

The result is that images can load faster in users’ browsers, which improves page speed and performance. This is important because loading times are a significant search engine ranking factor.

Additionally, fast loading times may also reduce your bounce rate. A page that takes two seconds to load is benchmarked at a nine percent bounce rate, while one that loads in five seconds has a 38 percent bounce rate.

Cloudflare offers a suite of tools to help you optimize your images, including:

• Mirage: Provides automatic image resizing.
• Polish: Compresses images and converts them to the WebP file format.
• On-demand image resizing: Enables you to adjust image dimensions and convert files to WebPs.

However, note that these features are only available to users with paid accounts.

2. You Can Use It to Optimize Your Site’s Code through Minification

Minification involves removing unnecessary characters from JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files. It’s another important step in reducing the time it takes for your pages to load. This is especially true for mobile users, who make up as much as 60 percent of all search traffic.

Mobile devices take a greater amount of time than desktop computers to download webpages. If your files are not properly minified, your site’s overall User Experience (UX) may suffer and cause visitors to leave.

With Cloudflare, you can enable the Auto Minify tool to automatically reduce Javascript, CSS, and HTML files:

To do this from your Cloudflare dashboard, click on Speed > Optimization. Next, scroll down to the Auto Minify section. Finally, tick the checkboxes for which website files you’d like to minify.

3. Cloudflare Defends Your Site with Brute-Force Hacking Protection

Cloudflare can also protect your site against brute-force attacks. This refers to a mass trial-and-error method carried out by scripts or bots that test random sets of credentials to gain access to your site.

A successful brute-force attack can have devastating consequences, which means it’s essential to prevent them early on. If an attacker gains access to your site, they can inject viruses or malware, steal your users’ data, or deface your site entirely.

Cloudflare blocks most of these attempts from sensitive parts of your website such as your database and login pages automatically. You can activate the Under Attack Mode feature to perform additional security checks to mitigate the threat of brute-force attempts:

To enable Under Attack Mode from the Cloudflare dashboard, click on Overview then toggle the Under Attack Mode option to On in the Quick Actions menu on the right-hand side.

4. Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Encrypts Your Records

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) add a layer of security to your DNS records using cryptographic signatures. Through the use of these signatures, DNS resolvers can ensure that the requests come from your authenticated name server.

By using DNSSEC, you can ensure that your visitors are shown content that actually comes from your server and not from a hacker. Verifying your DNS records in this way is important as it can stop bad actors from hijacking traffic coming to your website.

A website that has been hijacked can be used for phishing scams, distributing viruses and malware, or blocking access to your site entirely. Cloudflare offers a free DNSSEC service you can access from your dashboard:

To enable DNSSEC, click on the DNS option in your Cloudflare dashboard. Then scroll down and click on the Enable DNSSEC button.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CDN for your website is not an easy task. It’s important to select a service that offers both security and performance features and is still simple to use.

In this post, we covered what Cloudflare is and four ways it can benefit you, including:

1. Reducing the file sizes of your images to decrease loading times.
2. Minifying your website’s CSS, HTML, and Javascript files to improve page speed.
3. Enabling brute-force hacking protection to secure your website.
4. Preventing website hijacking with DNSSEC.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels.

The post An Introduction to Cloudflare (And How It Can Benefit You) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

With that in mind, you may find a solution in Horde Webmail. It’s an application that offers a full suite of features – including productivity tools and an intuitive interface – for both individual and enterprise-level users.

In this article, we’ll first introduce you to Horde Webmail. Then we’ll look at four specific advantages that come with using it as your primary communication solution. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Horde Webmail

Generally speaking, webmail is a form of email, but with a twist. It’s a browser-based application, rather than a desktop app you might install on your computer. This means that you can access it anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

Horde is a webmail provider, and its email application is free to use. Like many other similar platforms, it’s sometimes bundled as a part of a web hosting plan:

Horde comes with three-pane and three-column layouts for viewing and managing your inboxes. It markets itself as an enterprise-ready solution, and has IMP, POP3, and MIMP options. IMP is its web-based email client, while MIMP is optimized for smaller screens and those with limited HTML capacity.

Moreover, through Horde Groupware, Horde webmail can be further enhanced with a range of applications produced by the Horde Project for extended functionality. This includes Ingo and Sork, which provide filters, the ability to forward email, a vacation setting for automated responses, and more.

4 Advantages of Using Horde Webmail for Your Business

Of course, you don’t have to take our word for how effective Horde webmail can be. Let’s take a closer look at four advantages that come with using it!

1. It Provides Mobile-Friendly Support for On-the-Go Communication

One feature just about everyone needs for their webmail client is mobile support. You likely already know the importance of prompt communication. There is always the potential that you might have to deal with a customer query or complaint, or organize tasks for your staff in a hurry.

If you’re away from your computer or office, then you could quickly find yourself out of the loop. That’s why it can be prudent to consider webmail clients that offer comprehensive mobile functionality.

Fortunately for businesses, Horde Webmail provides a fully-developed mobile User Interface (UI). If you expect to use email on the go, then this feature alone can be vital.

Thanks to Horde, if you encounter a customer snag when you’re not at your desk, you won’t have to wait to reply and risk losing their business. Instead, you can respond from anywhere, at any time.

2. Horde Webmail Has an Intuitive Interface

One of the most important aspects of a quality webmail application is how simple it is to navigate. If logging in or creating and sending emails is difficult, there’s little point in using the platform.

Indeed, having an intuitive interface can make accessing, organizing, and utilizing your email less of a hassle. This can be particularly important for businesses that have to deal with a large volume of messages. It can also make on-boarding new team members simpler.

As we previously mentioned, Horde has a three-pane layout, which provides a customizable dashboard. You can therefore enjoy quick access to your inbox, outbox, and other folders, as well as individual emails and other features (such as local weather reports):

Furthermore, there is a drop-down menu system for Horde’s various features, such as a calendar, address book, tasks list, and notes. Again, this emphasizes ease-of-access and navigation, letting you smoothly transition between different features without having to jump through hoops.

In addition, there’s a conveniently located search bar that enables you to comb through your messages. After all, nothing is worse than having to endlessly scroll to find a single email in a full inbox.

3. You’ll Gain Access to a Suite of Productivity Tools

While the primary focus of any webmail application is the email system itself, having extras is often advantageous. Horde Webmail is no exception.

Given the common uses of webmail for website owners and businesses, it’s only natural that you may be looking for various productivity tools. In fact, these features can make all the difference when choosing between two similar services.

With Horde, you gain a number of features to help with productivity. These include assets such as a calendar (known as ‘Kronolith’) and scheduling, which can aid your business’ organization and help your team stay in the loop. You can even set alarms and event reminders to keep track of important dates:

Additionally, Horde comes with the ability to take notes (using an application titled ‘Mnemo’), and create a task list (designated ‘Nag’). With these tools, you’re less likely to lose track of your thoughts while managing various communications from customers and team members:

Lastly, there is a spellchecker that accommodates multiple languages. This feature could streamline the composition of your emails, and help ensure they are of professional quality. All combined, Horde’s productivity tools can support your short and long-term goals.

4. Users Have Extensive Organizational Functionality

We’ve discussed the importance of a search function in any quality webmail application. However, there are other organizational attributes that most businesses can profit from, and Horde has these in spades.

For example, another benefit of using Horde is the option to manipulate folders, with typical functionality such as ’empty’ or ‘mark all as read’. This way, if you need to mass-delete or move emails between folders, you can:

Furthermore, Horde enables you to view conversations in a thread format. You can therefore fully process and contextualize emails you receive and send without having to forage through your inbox to find previous messages:

When it comes to email protections, you have even more filter features. These include blacklist and whitelist options, and the ability to flag individual messages:

If you’re looking for a webmail app that gives you choices, bonus features, and the ability to organize your content, Horde is a solid choice. As you can see, it provides many more options than just sending and receiving emails.

Conclusion

There are many different email clients you may be considering. Each certainly has its own advantages, and it’s important for you to find the platform that has the functionality you need to help your business flourish.

Let’s take another look at the four benefits of Horde Webmail we discussed in this article:

1. Horde has a mobile-friendly interface.
2. It offers an easy-to-navigate dashboard.
3. You’ll have a suite of useful productivity tools.
4. Users have extensive organizational functionality.

Image Credit: Pexels.

The post Your Guide to Horde Webmail and Its Advantages appeared first on The A2 Posting.

That’s where a reliable email host can be advantageous. Rather than having a basic address, such as yourbusiness@outlook.com, you can personalize it and use your own domain instead.

In this article, we’ll take a look at just what email hosting is, and why you should consider using it. Then, we’ll dive into how you can set up your own custom address with us at A2 Hosting. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Email Hosting

Email hosting is a service that allows you to send, receive, and store emails on a server provided by a company. Often, it comes with additional functionality such as folder creation, file transfers, and template usage.

Many web hosts offer email hosting as an additional service:

One of the most attractive qualities of email hosting over free providers such as Gmail and Outlook is that you can set your address up at your website’s domain. On top of that, this solution gives you more control over your data and is often more reliable than other platforms.

5 Benefits of Using Email Hosting

We’ve already briefly touched on some of the features email hosting provides that free providers don’t. However, that’s not where the advantages stop. Here are five benefits to consider.

1. Having Your Domain in Your Email Address Improves Brand Consistency

In addition to making your email address look more professional, incorporating your own domain could also improve your brand consistency. One of the key aspects of a strong company is the ability to be recognized.

In other words, it can be a testament to your business if consumers can quickly connect your products or services with your name. This applies to your email as well. Ultimately, having any inconsistencies in your branding can hinder your attempts at gaining exposure and recognition.

Furthermore, having a solid brand identity makes you more accessible to potential clients or customers. If they can’t readily communicate with you, then you may lose out on conversions.

That brings us to another valuable aspect of email hosting: it allows you to easily manage multiple addresses. For instance, you could have accounts for marketing, support requests, and general contacts. This way, consumers can get in touch with the right member of your team.

2. Email Hosting Is Scalable and Can Grow With Your Site

Scalability is an important feature of every aspect of your business. With an email server, you can have your requirements met both in the short and long-term. That could include dedicated customer support, increased storage capacity, or simply adding more addresses to your domain.

If you want your business or website to expand in the future, an email host is one of the best options for providing your primary point of contact. Not only are plans usually scalable to your needs, but they can deliver high-performance and layers of additional security.

Indeed, depending on your email host and plan, you may even be able to create an unlimited number of accounts. Whether you’re adding more employee addresses or creating new branches to your website, this can be helpful for meeting your business’ growing needs.

3. You Can Increase the Security of Your Inbox

We briefly glossed over the added security that an email host provides, but the features are worth diving into. With data breaches drastically increasing in recent years, this is understandably a top priority for many.

Encryption can prevent your emails from being intercepted and read by parties other than the intended recipient. At some point, you’re probably going to have to send sensitive information either internally to your team or to customers, so this is a key security feature.

Once you’ve taken care of that, you’ll also likely want to set up extensive malware and spam filters. These can protect you and provide peace of mind that your messages are safe to open.

4. Reliable Email Hosting Provides More Uptime

Another benefit is that you are likely to have guarantees when it comes to uptime. Ultimately, that can be a crucial difference between an email hosting solution and a standard free email client.

Indeed, uptime can be pivotal for a thriving business with respect to customer service as well as team communications. For example, if someone has a complaint that needs to be addressed quickly, it’s vital that it gets to you right away. Downtime could equate to lost emails or delays in receiving important information.

A successful business is one that flourishes on reliability, and that means being available when your consumers and employees need you most. A quality email host is likely to offer some kind of guarantee that you won’t be let down or find yourself in a pinch.

5. Your Email Solution Will Integrate With Other Tools

Typically, email hosting comes with a wealth of options that can enhance your workflow. For instance, phpList is a newsletter solution that can support marketing campaigns.

Likewise, Mailman facilitates the management of newsletters and subscriber lists. With email marketing still a key player in many brands’ lead conversion processes, tools like these can be invaluable.

It’s therefore prudent to consider what additional functionality an email host offers to round out your arsenal. After all, a quality provider will make your life easier by giving you the tools you need to succeed.

How to Set Up an Email Account With A2 Hosting

Setting up an email account after you’ve purchased a plan with us is a quick process that can be accomplished through cPanel. To create an account, scroll down to the Email section, then click on Email Accounts:

After you’ve done that, click on the Create button:

Then, select your domain from the Domain menu, enter a new email address in the Username field, a create a password for your new inbox:

You’ll also want to select how much storage this account should have. The options will depend on your email hosting plan.

Finally, click on the Create button at the bottom to complete the process. This will take you back to your list of email accounts in cPanel:

Your account is now ready to go. You can click on the Check Email button in cPanel to visit your inbox.

Conclusion

While there are numerous free options available for creating email accounts, the benefits of using a premium service are extensive. You can scale your plan based on your current needs, and enjoy the high performance you expect from a top-tier host.

Let’s recap some of the benefits you can expect from using an email hosting service:

1. You can improve your brand consistency.
2. Email hosting can grow with your site.
3. Both your inbox and your data will be more secure.
4. A reliable email hosting service will give you more uptime.
5. Other tools can be integrated into your email solution.

Image credit: Unsplash.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to the Benefits of Email Hosting appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The good news is that RoundCube may be what you are looking for. Offering a wide range of features, RoundCube is also easy to understand and provides a user-friendly interface. For those and other reasons, it’s become a popular application for personal, business, and educational use.

In this article, we’ll look into RoundCube’s background in more detail. Then we’ll check out why its features can make it such a useful tool. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to RoundCube

Webmail differs from traditional email, as it’s hosted by an external web server. RoundCube is an excellent example of that technology in action. It’s open-source software that operates like a desktop application:

First released in 2008, RoundCube is a free browser-based Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) email client application. Due to its age, it’s had time to develop and offer users a smooth experience.

One of RoundCube’s primary selling points is that it’s a user-friendly option with an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface. Moreover, it allows for customization with plugins, offers multilingual support, and provides ample privacy protection.

To make things even easier, here at A2 Hosting RoundCube is already integrated into our hosting service. Thanks to server reliability you can count on, you can rest assured that you won’t miss a single email.

4 Key RoundCube Features (And How They Can Benefit You)

When looking for a new webmail host, you’ll undoubtedly have certain requirements in mind. That may leave you wondering if RoundCube offers what you need. With that in mind, let’s take a look at four of this application’s key features.

1. Drag-and-Drop Support

As we mentioned earlier, RoundCube is designed to be easy to use. One example of this philosophy in action is RoundCube’s drag-and-drop editing.

This drag-and-drop feature helps to facilitate email management. With only a click, you can move emails around and organize your folders. Rather than having to navigate through various steps, you can simply drag-and-drop folders and emails wherever you like.

This also works if you need to move a group of emails simultaneously. You can select multiple emails, and drag them to where they need to be. Likewise, RoundCube lets you quickly move folders, adjust archive settings, and so on.

2. A User-Friendly Interface

One of the biggest advantages of using RoundCube is its user-friendly interface. This particular solution places an emphasis on being simple, easy to use, and intuitive to navigate. Let’s look at a few things that help to make it that way:

• Multilingual support, with availability in over 80 languages
• The ability to search messages and contacts alongside a threaded conversion view
• Find-as-you-type functionality and a spell checker
• Multi-device support, including mobile devices

You also get the benefit of other quality-of-life features, such as attachment previews. That can help to ensure that you are sending the right files. Plus, you can program specific keyboard shortcuts that enable you work faster and more efficiently.

3. Security and Privacy Protections

Security in email is vital. Roughly 82 percent of organizations experience some form of a threat to their email systems at some point. If your email security is breached by a phishing scam, you could face unfortunate consequences.

Many businesses report a decline in employee productivity, loss of data, and adverse financial impacts due to recovery costs and reputation damage. Fortunately, RoundCube has security measures in place that can lower your risks.

This includes support for Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) email encryption, protection against brute-force login attempts, and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack protection. All of these add up to provide extra layers of defense for you and your business.

4. Canned Response Templates

Different business often require specific email features, such as address books with groups or Access Control Lists (ACLs). However, having access to canned response templates is important for improving your workflow, regardless of what industry you’re in.

A canned response template means that you simply have to click a button in order to insert a pre-written response into an email. This can be particularly useful for customer support agents looking to streamline replies. It saves everyone from having to create the same responses from scratch over and over again.

RoundCube provides you with these templates and makes them easy to use, so you don’t become bogged down by replies. This way, you can spend your time focused on what matters to your business.

How to Get Started With RoundCube

If you’ve decided that RoundCube is the webmail server for you, then your next step is ensuring you have the right host. After all, while the software for RoundCube is free, you’ll still need someone to host it.

When picking a host, try to ensure that it’s compatible. It must use Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, Cherokee, or Hiawatha as web server technology. Just as important, you’ll want to look for a host that offers several plans to pick from.

For example, at A2 Hosting we offer various RoundCube hosting solutions, based on your business’ specific needs:

Plans start at just under $4 per month, and cap out at under $10 per month. That way, you’re covered for whatever you need. Whether that’s a single or unlimited account, or even regular or turbo speed, you can get it. RoundCube comes pre-installed, so you’ll be ready to email to your heart’s content.

RoundCube Conclusion

With so many options available, finding the right webmail application can seem overwhelming. Of course, you’ll want something that offers a host of useful features, including ease of use and security.

With that in mind, RoundCube is an excellent choice. Let’s take another look at how RoundCube can benefit you:

1. It offers drag-and-drop support that facilitates email management.
2. The interface is user-friendly and easy to use.
3. There’s a package of vital security and privacy protections.
4. You can streamline your workflow with canned response templates.

Do you have any thoughts or questions about using RoundCube as a webmail application? Let us know in the comments section below!

Image credit: Noelle Otto.

The post RoundCube: Why It’s a Viable Application for Webmail Needs appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The solution is to automate at least one aspect of that process. With email automation, you can set up campaigns in advance and configure precisely when they go out. You’ll be able to use specific times or actions as triggers, and you can send a single message or a fully-scheduled campaign.

In this article, we’re going to talk a bit more about what email automation is and when it makes sense to use it. Then we’ll go over three simple steps to get you started. Let’s get to work!

What Email Automation Is (And When to Use It)

A lot (if not most) of the emails you get are likely automated. That doesn’t mean a human didn’t write them, but it does mean that someone created and configured them so they’d be sent out automatically.

Consider welcome emails, for example:

There isn’t a guy waiting patiently by his computer to welcome every person that joins his email list. Instead, you joining the mailing list becomes a ‘trigger’, which causes a pre-written message to be sent out.

Email automation is a lot more complex than simply scheduling campaigns in advance, however. In practice, there’s a broad range of triggers you can use for automation. You could set up an email to go out when:

• Someone hasn’t opened your emails for a while
• A customer makes a purchase
• A subscription is due to be renewed soon

Of course, those are just a few examples. What email automation options you can use will depend mainly on the marketing provider you choose. Most reputable Email Marketing Providers (EMPs) give you plenty of choices.

How to Get Started With Email Automation (In 3 Steps)

Before you can automate your emails, you’ll need to sign up for an EMP. Let’s take a look at how that process works.

Step 1: Sign Up for an Email Marketing Tool

A lot of EMPs don’t offer automation functionality with their free plans. This means that many users who are just starting to build their email lists miss out on a powerful feature.

We’ve talked about some of our favorite EMPs for small businesses in the past. For this tutorial, we’re going to use MailChimp, which does offer automation functionality for its free users:

The sign-up process will vary a bit depending on which EMP you use, but it should be straightforward. If you want to follow along, go ahead and sign up for an account now, and then move to the next step.

Step 2: Create a New Campaign and Select a Trigger

Once you have a MailChimp account, you can access your dashboard. It includes an option to create a new email campaign right at the top:

On the next screen, you can choose what type of campaign to set up. Let’s go with Email:

First, you’ll choose what kind of email campaign you want to design. The options include regular and plain-text emails, as well as automated messages. We’ll go with the latter option.

Next, MailChimp enables you to configure what you want your campaign’s trigger to be. There are a lot of options here, so take your time to get acquainted with them all:

We’re going to keep things simple, and select the Welcome email option, in order to demonstrate how automation works.

Finally, select an internal name for the campaign, and choose which list of subscribers you want to target:

Note that MailChimp also enables you to choose if you want to design a single email or a full series. You can always add more emails to your campaign later, however, so let’s go with Single email for now.

Step 3: Put Together Your First Automated Message

At this point, you’re ready to start working on your welcome email. To get the ball rolling, you can configure from which account the email will be sent, and give it a subject:

There’s also an option that enables you to further customize your email’s trigger. To access it, select Edit Delay And Recipients:

From this screen, you can set a delay for your welcome email. By default, it will send automatically when someone joins your list:

Some websites use a one-day delay, so as not to overwhelm new users too quickly. Feel free to tinker with your email’s delay. When you’re ready, save your changes and click on the Edit Design button:

This is where the magic really happens. MailChimp will set you up with a welcome email template to help you hit the ground running. However, you can edit any aspect of its design and content to suit your needs:

The MailChimp editor is fairly intuitive. You can drag around elements, click on them to add customizations, and include new elements from the menu to the right.

At the very least, you’ll probably want to add your logo to the email, as well as links to your social media profiles:

When you’re ready, hit the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the screen. Then, return to your email campaign’s overview page. From there, you can ‘turn on’ the campaign by selecting the Start Sending option:

You’ll should see a success message that looks like this, which means you’re good to go:

Now every time someone joins your email list, they’ll receive the message you just designed. It’s a small touch, but considering that this is your first step in the world of email automation, it’s not a bad start.

At this point, you can go ahead and play with some of the other trigger options MailChimp has to offer. Chances are you’ll find several triggers that can make your job easier.

Conclusion

The sooner you get started with email marketing, the easier it will be to build a sizable list of subscribers. Then, you can use that list to send out all kinds of automated messages, keeping your audience up to date and informed.

To get started with email automation, you can follow these three steps:

1. Sign up for an email marketing tool.
2. Create a new campaign and select a trigger.
3. Put together your first automated message.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post A Quick Guide to Email Marketing Automation appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Computation vs. Communication

Early computers had no messaging protocol, because computers were designed for computation not communication. While big mainframe computers had some sort of messaging protocol by the late 1960’s, these computers were not interconnected in any way and nothing was standardized. Then ARPANET came along and started interconnecting universities and research labs.

ARPANET was the US government’s research network, and all users of the network were directly involved in government work. The inventors of email were the researchers who wanted to advance from tasks like leaving messages for each other inside of files to addressing messages to each other just as you would with a paper envelope. As you can see, email was an afterthought. It wasn’t designed as much as it evolved. Let’s look at that evolution a bit more closely.

The First Email

These days we take the @ symbol for granted, but it wasn’t always this way. Until this innovation, it wasn’t possible to email other people who weren’t on the same mainframe as yourself. The first message sent using the @ symbol is widely considered to be the first email ever sent. This occurred at a university in 1971, almost 50 years ago.

Researchers, the very users of email, kept adding functionality to it to make email more useful. The first email programs were built on top of existing tools. The programs could only read, sort, and delete email. Sending email had to be done with a different program. By the late 1970’s, email was stored in a standard format that is almost identical to how email is stored on modern email servers. That’s right; the format we use these days is over 40 years old.

ARPANET: A Trusted Environment

ARPANET was a trusted environment. Everyone using this new mail system was entrusted to use computers costing hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. Most users of the network knew each other in some way. In fact, if you needed to look up a colleague’s email address, you could refer to a printed list of every email owner and their address. 

Technologically speaking, nothing stopped them from abusing email. Nothing stopped them from impersonating another user or sending a malicious payload with the email. Everyone trusted each other and used email as intended.

This changed on one fateful day in 1978 when an overly zealous Digital Equipment Corporation salesman sent marketing material to every person on the published list of addresses, becoming the first spammer. He never heard the end of it. 

INTERNET: An Untrusted Environment

Eventually, commercial entities like MCI wanted to be part of ARPANET. In the 1980’s, ARPANET became the INTERNET. With all of these new companies and people online, the Internet was full of people that no longer knew each other directly. These early Internet users wanted to communicate with each other just the same, and because of this, email was one of the first “killer” apps!

Email was fundamental in making the Internet what it is today. But email didn’t really become what it is today until the mid 1990’s. By then it was still just text that could be sent over the Internet, and it was still designed to work in a trusted environment. Attachments, forwarders, autoresponders, even password based authentication; these solutions didn’t exist at the beginning. They were all added after the fact. 

As the DEC salesman (the first spammer) so blatantly pointed out, all anyone had to do to send spam successfully was to try. The DEC salesman was not malicious though, just eager to make a sale. But what about people who did have malicious intent? All they had to do to abuse the system was try. 

As a result, email is abused heavily. Between 60% and 70% of all email sent is spam. Email is used as an attack vector in phishing, malware, scams, ransomware, and more. Technologies like SPF, DKIM, blacklists, and others are just bandaids to a product that is built on a fundamentally broken trust model. 

Email Today

We’d all agree that email has come a long way since that first email in 1971. We’ve come to expect that emails should be received within minutes without any possible interruptions. When communicating with email addresses on the same system (such as sending to and from Gmail) that is a fairly reasonable expectation.

What can complicate matters? The fact each email server isn’t required to work in the same way at all. Some are vastly different. Instead, email servers are only required to speak the same language so that they can communicate with each other. 

How can that affect you personally? At times, email might not work as expected. Mail servers at various companies will arbitrarily block emails coming from an email address, domain, or email server. Such a block can happen without warning, explanation, or even so much as a second chance. Other email hosts may delay an email in an effort to make the sender prove themselves to be a real server. Others may employ spam filters that incorrectly mark email as spam, causing delivery problems. There are dozens of ways that an email can fail to reach its destination promptly. 

The Verdict – Email Hosting

At A2 Hosting, we’ve done our best to provide a solid email hosting solution, but we realize that things don’t always go according to plan. Email is a complex service that is surprisingly difficult to provide! If you are having issues with your own email hosted at A2 Hosting, let us know and we’ll be glad to help you!

The post How Email Became An Important Yet Complex & Abused Solution appeared first on The A2 Posting.