How to Set Up WP Email Capture Free

After receiving a few emails about this, I thought I’d create a guide for setting up the free version of WP Email Capture. It appears there has been a bit of confusion in setting it up, so this guide is designed to take you through the steps from plugin installation to having a fully functioning form in your sidebar!

I am going to skip the installation bit, as you should be able to install a WordPress plugin, so once you have activated the plugin, keep reading below on how to set up WP Email Capture.

1. Create Two Pages On Your Blog

For WP Email Capture to work effectively, you will need to create two pages on your blog. These pages are the page that WP Email Capture redirects to when you first enter an email address (known as the “Subscription” page) and the page that is redirected to when you confirm your email address (known as the “Subscription Confirmation” page). Ideally, if you are using a free gift to help build your list and capture emails, you need to add a link to the free gift on the “Subscription Confirmation” page.

T0 create a page, in the WordPress administration, click on “Pages” > “Add New”. Write what you wish on this page (for the “Subscription” page, it’s a good idea to tell users that they need to check their email and click the link, and to check the spam folder as well) and then click “Publish”. When do so, copy the link to the page by right clicking on the “View Page” link in the yellow box (it also appears in the “Permalink” area beneath the post title). Paste it into a Notepad, as you will need this URL later (we’ll call this URL “A”).

Repeat this step to create a page for the “Subscription Confirmation” page – again noting down the URL (we’ll call this URL “B”).

2. Set Up the WP Email Capture Plugin

Your next step is to set up the WP Email Capture Plugin. You may see a large red warning along the top of the screen, that’s normal 🙂 – so to get rid of it, go to Settings > WP Email Capture and fill in the details as per below:-

• Page to redirect to on sign up (full web address ie: http://www.domain.com/this-page/) – The URL to the “Subscription Confirmation” page. (URL A  as obtained in Step 1)
• Page to redirect to on confirmation of email address (full web address ie: http://www.domain.com/this-other-page/) – The URL to the “Subscription Confirmation” page. (URL B as obtained in Step 1)
• From Which Email Address – This should be an email address you have control over, as this is the email address that your users will receive the “click here to subscribe” email from.
• From Which Name – This is your name or a name your readers will be familiar with, as this name will appear on the “click here to subscribe”.
• Body Of Email – This is the body of the “click here to subscribe” email. It’s a good idea to include instructions on how to subscribe and why they are receiving this email.
• Link to us (optional, but appreciated) – Checking this box will give a link back to WP Email Capture from your site. Completely optional, and I’m working on a system that will allow you to link to use via a WP Email Capture affiliate link.
• Make The “Name” field a required field? – If checked, the user will have to supply a name with their form, as well as an email address.

Click save and the red notice should disappear!

3. Add The Widget To the Sidebar

Now everything is set up, head to Appearance > Widgets and drag the WP Email Capture widget into the sidebar. The “Widget Title” and the “Widget Text” is what goes above the widget. Use this to introduce your email newsletter, what are they getting if they subscribe?

Go to the blog and test the sign up. If it all works wonderfully, congratulations! WP Email Capture is set up.

Please don’t use the comments for support requests, they will not be answered. Instead please ask them on the WordPress.org dedicated forum. Thank you!