Newsletters made easy with LetterPop
Tim February 25th, 2007
Letterpop is a an online newsletter creation application. Think Microsoft Publisher for the web. From their site LetterPop is described as “the best way to create and send newsletters online and in print for families, businesses, friends, churches, schools, or any other organization. No matter who you are, or who you want to communicate with, LetterPop can help you do it quickly, easily, and with style.” We agree and decided to demo it here at DemoMarks.
Requirements
- E-mail Address
- Optional Flickr Account
- Creative Imagination (or not really)
1. LetterPop advertises itself as giving the user the ability to create attractive newsletter’s in minutes. One of the first things I notice from the homepage is that I am not require to sign up for an account in order to begin creating a newsletter. Though a few features will be disabled, this still gives me a chance to testdrive their product without commitment, a great way of breaking down the barrier of new user signups.
2. After putting in the Title of my newsletter I’m brought to the Newsletter editor page. On the right sidebar I have the choice of many different templates and can simply drag and drop one onto the main area to see it in action. At the top I have the option of Saving, Emailing, Publishing, and Printing my newsletter, however the last three will require a logon to complete.
3. I’ve chosen my template now and they’ve even got the layout filled in with some basic information so I know where all the elements are.
4. The sidebar has a second tab for adding images to your newsletter. They have a few default images to choose from. In order to upload images of your own you will need to sign up for an account. For the time being I’ll just use one of their images for my newsletter. Adding it is as simple as dragging the image from the sidebar to the newsletter placeholder for the image. I can also zoom in or out on the image and rotate before confirming the placement.
5. It’s time to edit the text of the newsletter. As you might have imagined, to edit text I simply have to click on the appropriate heading or body text and an editor pops up for use. The TinyMCE editor used here is not the most attractive interface but pretty intuitive with all the basic functions needed for editing the font, size, alignment, color, and other options.
6. For elements like the subheading a more simple editor pops up with just the ability to edit the text and none of the other options.
7. After adding in some greek text for the main content section I’ve got a basic newsletter completed and it really did only take 5 minutes or so. The nicest feature was the drag-and-drop intuitive editing interface. The templates are also very attractive and more are being added each week.
8. Of course I didn’t want to end the demo right there because I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s more under the hood for users that signup, and being the martyr for the cause that I am I’m going to check it for the good of the community. At their login page we get the first hint that there’s a business model built in somewhere with the mention that I can sign up for a “Basic” account for free.
9. Just some basic information requested to sign up with the site, nothing out of the ordinary here.
10. After verifying my email address by clicking the link they sent me I’m authorized and ready to work with the other features now available to me. You’ll notice that LetterPop remembers the newsletter I previously created even though I didn’t have a login at the time.
11. The first thing I want to check out is the account settings under “My Account” to find out what restrictions there are and the difference between this “Basic” plan and others available. The account page spells out exactly what my quota is for a number of different elements: 10 Newsletters, 10 mailings, 25 contacts, and 25 image uploads.
12. I click on the “add features” link to find out what the cost of other plans will be. There are 3 tiers: Basic, Premium, and Business. Although the basic plan seems a bit limiting (the quotas represented are yearly, so 10 newsletters/year, 10 mailings/year, etc) The premium plan at only $10/year is pretty good deal. While the business plan has a lot to offer, it is quite expensive and really LetterPop is probably not aimed squarely at the business market insomuch as the personal and single owner businesses.
13. In the Image Management section I have the option of uploading images of my own but what I really enjoy is the ability to link my Flickr account to LetterPop. Now only can I save from the available Image Uploads in the basic account but I can use all the photos I already have with Flickr.
14. To access my Flickr pool of photos Letterpop uses the Flickr API to verify my account.
15. After clicking the link in Letterpop I am sent to Flickr where I am already logged in so I get the screen to verify access to my account to Letterpop.
16. After authorizing Letterpop through Flickr I am sent back to the Letterpop site and a message notifies me that authorization is complete and I now have access to my Flickr photos.
17. To see how that works let’s go to the Newsletter section and pull up the newsletter we created earlier.
18. When I open up the newsletter I see the same options except this time under the images tab of the sidebar I have a link to use my Flickr photos. Inserting one into the newsletter is as easy as dragging it from the sidebar, just as before.
19. LetterPop also has a featured gallery of other users with newsletters for inspiration and information.
I found LetterPop to have a good handle on their user interface and design. The templates were clean and polished, the drag-and-drop interface was simple to use, and the ability to create newsletters without the requirement of signing up ahead of time was golden. Their business model seems pretty fair with a minimal fee for a lot of extra features, though the high end business plan will probably not be purchased by many. LetterPop is a great option for users who are not tech-savvy or willing to fork over the money for Microsoft Publisher or Apple iWork Pages but want to create a sophisticated newsletter and send it out to friends and customers.
