Do you want to use WordPress to send out blog posts by email? One of our users recently found the WordPress hidden posts by email option and wanted to learn more about it. You may write and publish blog entries directly from your email in WordPress. In this article, we’ll teach you how to create posts to WordPress via email, as well as how to expand on this capability.
Who Needs WordPress’s Posts by Email Feature?
Governments in some nations have banned websites that criticize their policies. When a government blocks a website, it makes it more difficult for users to access and publish content.
When you use the Posts by Email tool, you can post information even if you don’t have access to your website.
Journalists and activists working in unstable locations with limited internet access will benefit from this service.
It could also be used in school, college, and office networks to restrict monitor, or log access to external websites.
How to Setup Post by Email Feature in WordPress
You must create a hidden email account with POP3 access.
You can use Gmail to set up this email account, or you can set up an email account with your own domain. Most WordPress hosting companies provide free email addresses for each domain they host.
When setting up your email account, be sure the address you chose is difficult to guess. A random string of integers and alphabets should be used. [email protected] is an example.
Because all emails received are published as blog articles, it’s critical that no one else guesses this email.
After you’ve generated the email address, you’ll need to set up posts by email in WordPress so that any email you receive is considered as a new post.
WordPress includes a built-in post through email feature that can be found in the WordPress admin area under Settings » Writing.
However, in a future version of WordPress, this feature is expected to be eliminated. It’s also not very sophisticated, and it’s missing key elements that you’ll need to send out emails correctly. As a result, we advise you to utilize a plugin.
Using Postie to Create a Post via Email
The first step is to install and activate the Postie plugin. The plugin will add a new menu item to your WordPress admin bar once it is activated. It will send you to the plugin’s Settings page if you click on it.
This is where you’ll enter the login information for the private email account you set up earlier.
If you’re going to use Gmail for your private email account, make sure that pop3 is turned on. In Gmail, go to the gear icon and then to settings. Select Enable pop for all mail under the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ menu.
Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking the save button.
Select POP3 as your mail protocol and ‘No’ for the ‘Use Transport Layer Security (TLS)’ option in the Postie options.
Use port 995 and the mail server pop.gmail.com. As the mail user id, provide your full email address and the password for that email account.
Select ‘Check Manually’ next to the ‘Check for mail every:’ option for testing purposes.
To save your changes, click the Save Changes button.
Trying out the feature of sending a post by email.
Let’s put our post-by-email feature to the test and see if it works properly.
It’s as simple as sending an email to your secret email address. This email can be sent from any email account. You may send your email with image attachments and links.
Now go to Postie’s settings page and press the Run Postie button.
Postie will now attempt to retrieve your message by logging into your secret email account. If it discovers a new message, it will be added to WordPress as a new post and published on your blog right away.
Advanced Email Posting Options
You may use Postie to post to WordPress and use all of the post editing capabilities. HTML formatting, inline graphics, and audio and video files are all supported.
The message tab can be found on the plugin’s Settings page.
To begin, choose your preferred text type to HTML. You’ll be able to display inline graphics as well as your own HTML formatting.
For every posts received by email, you can set a default category and tags. You can also change the default post status and choose a default post type.
Then, under Postie settings, go to the picture tab, where you’ll find a slew of choices for dealing with photos in email. Attachments can be used as featured images or inline images. You can even tell Postie how many photographs there are and have it make a gallery with them.
You can change the settings for associated audio and video files by switching to the video and audio page. Postie, like WordPress, allows you to embed videos and use shortcodes. This is especially beneficial if you’re using a plugin that requires you to utilize a shortcode to wrap your video URL.
We hope you found this tutorial useful in learning how to add posts to WordPress via email.
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