e-mail

I have been searching for a plugin for Wordpress to automatically send an email to my subscribers each time I post a new article. I haven’t been very lucky, until now! I have found a tool called Subscribe2. The name isn’t very telling however it will let you set up how new blog subscribers are registered for emails by default.

Before installing this plugin at www.thesleepygeek.com, subscribers did not receive an email notifying them of a blog post. Since installing the plugin, I can set that any future blog subscriber will automatically be put on the email list (unless they choose not to) so when posting they will be notified.

This is an exciting addition to The Sleepy Geek. I have wanted a medium to notify users of new material if they are not involved with the Web 2.0 scene. It has been easy to setup plugins that update twitter, facebook, pownce, etc. but there are people in the world who don’t subscribe to those services.

When starting out hardcore on this blog a month and a bit ago I was trying to find a couple of good sites to help with the networking aspect of the whole endeavor. I chose a few different options, one of them being twitter. I like the simplicity of the interface, and everyone and their dog seemed to be on there tweeting away.

I am slightly disappointed with the service however. Many people have written articles about their up time. That for some reason didn’t bother me as much as not receiving an email when a person starts to follow me.

In a serious effort to gain a following an build a community, those email notices become quite important. This allows me to see who is watching, what type of reader I am attracting, etc., etc.

So my vote is to work on that outbound email system. It is an invaluable tool for myself and I am sure other people in my boat.

I was poking around and noticed on twitter a mention from ponzarelli about a new IM client called Digsby. I am always looking for something since the promises of Trillian kept falling short. I don’t even know if they have released Trillian Astra which would be the predecessor to v2.x.

So I downloaded Digsby, fairly small download and very easy installation. The setup wizard is very easy. If first will prompt you to choose a username for their service and then ask for a couple of personal details. Once done, then it’s as simple as adding all your IM accounts to the interface. This process is also very easy through their main account window.

What is amazing about this IM client is that it is so much more than simple IM. It is a client for e-mail, twitter, facebook, myspace and a number of other things. It allows you to link to more than just your IM accounts in a sort of ’social utility’. I think I need to coin the phrase *wink - wink*. We have so many social links and they are in varying forms that a utility like this is going to be critical.

I really like the user interface once you are in the program. It is clean and user friendly. The lists can be organized as most other IM programs allow and you are able to use most of their features.

I suggest that you head over to the website and take a look at their product. Unfortunately there is only a Windows version, but they have plans to release for Mac and Linux. They seem to have started something that I think will take off with other programs. We will see integration a lot more in the future. People are starting to need to bundle all their external connections together because they are becoming too many and thus segmented.