Outstanding Alternative to Jetpack Update Function

I recently dropped Automattic’s Jetpack plugin and the one gap I needed to fill was the newsletter feature, the new post update function to subscribers. The Newsletter plugin has been an outstanding replacement. It frankly provides me with way more than I need for my small site and subscriber base. But it is easy to create, and duplicate, templates for email blasts. I have only one list although I appreciate that someone could do a lot of segmentation within the interface. The scheduler works great although I see cron warnings on the dashboard despite the external cron working fine and the emails being delivered. The free Generic SMTP add-on from Newsletter meant I could connect to my web host SMTP, mail securely, and allowed my newsletters to comply with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC security checks.

I had not reflected on how little input I had into the content the Jetpack updater sent out. It is great to see email opens and for people to be able to manage their own subscriptions, even if they’re not logged in as site registered users. I hadn’t anticipated it, but I’m starting to think of how I can expand the newsletter content beyond “new blog post” and make the subscription, while still free, more sticky.