WordPress is the world’s #1 content management system and one of the most popular blogging platforms out there. Forbes has ranked the top 25 social media platforms using data collected from the Alexa, Google Trends, and YouTube Analytics platforms. WordPress is in the #1 spot with over 15.5 million monthly active users. When you combine this with the fact that 40% of all websites in the world are created using WordPress and that it’s the most popular content management system on YouTube, it’s clear to see why WordPress is dominating the world of blogging.
However, while WordPress is a great platform for blogging, it doesn’t come with any default email features. This can be quite limiting if you start receiving a lot of email messages from your readers. If you’re looking for a simple way to have a more professional-looking email signature, you’ve probably considered trying out a WordPress email plugin.
But is a WordPress email plugin really the right choice for your needs? Let’s take a closer look.
The Problem With WordPress Email Plugins
First and foremost, let’s examine the WordPress email plugin itself. When I say “WordPress email plugin”, what exactly do I mean?
This is a piece of software that you install on your WordPress website. Once installed, it will give you a small panel in the corner of your blogs’ email signatures. The idea is that you can enter your email address there, and when an email is sent to that address, the signature from the blog post will greet the email client.
While this is a very convenient solution for bloggers who don’t want to go through the effort of creating an email signature manually, there are a few problems that you need to be aware of.
Size And Performance
When we talk about performance issues on websites, we usually mention page loading speeds. But what about the storage implications of having a large number of blog posts with email signatures?
When a blogger creates a blog post with a heading, they typically include a couple of hashtags (#) and then a piece of original text. When someone clicks on that blog post’s link, the server will retrieve the post’s content from the database and send it to the visitor’s web browser. During this process, the server has to load the content from the database and process it through the text-to-HTML and HTML-to-PDF conversion steps.
With a large number of blog posts with email signatures, this process can place a heavy strain on the server and bog it down. To prevent this, you need to make sure that you have a fast server and that you have enough storage space. If you’re running a shared hosting plan, this will require either upgrading your account or moving to a different hosting provider.
Privacy
WordPress, like many other content management systems, comes with a bundled privacy plugin. While this plugin doesn’t have many features, it does have one incredibly useful one. When you enable this feature, WordPress will randomly generate a keyword(s) from the content you enter into the search bar, and it will use those keywords to help improve your search engine rankings. So if you have a self-help blog, you might want to consider enabling this privacy feature.
When someone clicks on a link to one of your blog posts, their browser will send whatever data they have (usually just their IP address) to the blog server. This is usually just enough information for the server to determine if the visitor is a new or returning visitor. But if you have a lot of sensitive data like credit cards, you might not want these click-tracking services to have access to that information. In that case, you will need to find a private blog plugin.
Security
Most people don’t think about security when it comes to their blogged content. They write whatever they want, and they assume that no one will be able to read their words anyway. While this may be true in the short-term, it’s not a security issue, it’s a maintenance issue.
Once your blog is live with content, the security of that content is now your responsibility. To make sure that your blog content remains secure, you need to take the following steps:
- Create a strong password for your WordPress account and use it whenever you login.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your account. 2FA is a security measure that requires you to enter a code that is generated by an authentication app (like Google Authenticator or Authy) into your account’s login page whenever you log in. This code can be changed using a password reset link that is sent to you via email.
- Review your account’s privacy settings to make sure that your content is not public.
- Make sure that your WordPress installation is up-to-date via the WordPress plugin directory’s package checker.
- Use a reputable source for your blog’s domain name registration. Once your domain name is registered with Google, you can choose to use Google’s Certificate Authority (CA) to secure your site. This step also requires you to purchase an SSL certificate for your site. An SSL certificate encrypts your site’s traffic, ensuring that information is not intercepted while in transit.
- Use a reputable source for hosting your blog. If you decide to use WordPress, you will need to purchase a web host that is certified by the Common Certification Program (CACert). The CACert certification ensures that you are using a secure and consistent hosting environment.
By taking these steps, you can rest assured that the content you create will remain secure and that no one will be able to gain unauthorized access to your blog. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all risks have been removed. You still need to be aware of the fact that, despite your best efforts, an attacker might still be able to gain access to your blog’s content.
As you can see, there are a few problems that come with having a large number of blog posts with email signatures. But if these problems are keeping you up at night, maybe it’s time to consider an alternative.
Why Use Email Template Platforms Instead Of WordPress Email Plugins?
WordPress is a phenomenal product, and I don’t want to take away from its success at all. But if you’re looking for an alternative solution, consider using an email template platform like Mad Mimi instead of a WordPress email plugin. Email template platforms were made for just this sort of thing. They were designed to help bloggers easily manage their email communications, so they don’t have to worry about the low-level details of delivering mail.
WordPress was built with blogging specifically in mind. But if you’re looking for a solution that can help you manage all of your email communications, whether they’re related to your blog or not, Mad Mimi is the perfect fit. Plus, with its drag-and-drop email builder, creating and editing email templates is as easy as making a short blog post.
As I mentioned earlier, 40% of all websites in the world are created using WordPress. This means that there are a lot of websites out there that use WordPress email plugins, but almost all of them are broke.
WordPress has some great solutions for popular blogs, but if you’re looking for a completely custom solution, consider using an email template platform, like Mad Mimi, to build your website.