email Archives - ButlerBlog

Easy wp mail SMTP settings for WordPress

Here’s a simple way to make WordPress email more reliable using SMTP. These instructions will make your WP mail secure and robust.

Dealing with getting WordPress to properly send email can be a source of frustration for even a seasoned developer. Relying on the web server to send mail (which is what WordPress’ wp_mail() function does by default) is unreliable and insecure.

Here’s a simple method to change that – without needing a plugin. A plugin is a simple solution, and there are some good ones out there; but this method will give you the same benefit in a smooth and secure configuration for wp mail SMTP.

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How I Saved Thousands Per Year on MailChimp Email Marketing

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

MailChimp pretty much owns the email marketing space. They’re like the NetFlix of email lists. They were early to the game while providing a good product that was easy for non-technical users to use.

In fact, I personally used them for multiple companies I ran and controlled.

But over time, if your list grows, it can get mighty expensive to keep up with MailChimp’s costs (or any other list builder/manager for that matter).

MailChimp offers many great features for marketing automation and data management; but I found I was handling most of that work with other tools (like Mautic, which I’ll write about another time). MailChimp was primarily used for one thing – to send email to the marketing list.

If you’re not making use of their tools, it’s ridiculously expensive to use MailChimp. So I began looking for alternatives that would save me money.

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WordPress Email Settings: Changing the wp_mail address with a simple plugin

By Chad Butler 13 Comments

The ability to customize WordPress email settings in the admin panel is essentially non-existent. So what if you want to change the default email address that WordPress sends email from. Generically this is wordpress@yourdomain.com, and who wants that? I know I don’t. You probably don’t either.

In a previous post, I discussed how you can change your WordPress email settings to change this address with a simple filter snippet added to your theme’s functions.php file. That’s my preferred method of customizing WordPress.

But what if you are a person that prefers the ease of loading a plugin to do your bidding? Well, adding these filters as a plugin is as simple as taking those filters, applying the appropriate plugin header, saving it as a php file, and loading it to your plugins folder.

Note: this particular process does not make use of admin panels. While that makes for a nice interface for your WordPress email settings, it would also add needed bloat to the file. Simple edits to the email settings for the email address and name prior to saving is all you need for this project. This results in a light weight and efficient plugin with the email settings you need.

I have created a code snippet you can use for this “quick-and-dirty” email settings plugin. To implement, follow these steps:

Save this file as a .php file.
Open it in your favorite editor (or notepad).
Change the email name and address in the functions to the name and address you want your email coming from.
Save your changes.
Load to your plugin folder.

There are several other plugins that can manage WordPress email settings with more features, so if that is what you are looking for, by all means, search the wordpress.org plugin directory. But if you want something simple and light, this will do the trick!

For more information on testing, troubleshooting, and changing your WordPress email configuration for wp_mail, here are some additional posts:

Testing your WordPress email settings for the wp_mail function – some information on wp_mail and a testing script you can use to make sure it is sending messages.
Troubleshooting wp_mail WordPress Email Configuration – not everything that can go wrong is directly a problem with WP. This post has information on host restrictions and other outside problems that should be checked.
Changing the wp_mail from address in WordPress without a plugin – provides a simple code snippet you can use to change the email address that WordPress sends from, no plugin required.
Easy SMTP email settings for WordPress – how to change your WordPress email configuration to send email from a valid SMTP server with a simple script, no plugin required.