Email Link Question

[dwhitesock]

I a building a small website, the client wants to be able to send out a newsletter each month or when ever they have something to say. They don't have the resources for a listserve and are willing to do a lot of the work on their end, compiling email addresses and sending the newsletter.
My question is this: Can I have the visitors click an email link with the subject line already filled out, for example: Newsletter Subscription and then simply hit send?
Or does some one have a better suggestion of doing this...

[Longhaired Genius]

In this day and age all email lists should be "double opt-in" so my better suggestion is to use dada mail, it's free and good.

[tbear]

Hi dwhitesock and welcome to the forum.

This is how you get the subject filled automatically........
mailto:[e-mail]?subject= Newsletter Subscription
In case you decide to go that way or need it in the future.

[dwhitesock]

Thank you tbear, that is exactly what i was looking for...

[tbear]

You could also add
&body= Your body text here
and pre fill the body area with text.......

[g1smd]

Write the whole email link code and text out from a document.write javascript function to the browser screen, otherwise the email address will be harvested within weeks, and you'll soon have more spam than valid subscriptions.

[tbear]

Something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var name = "user";
var domain = "yourdomain.com";
var subject = "your subject";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + name + '@' + domain + '?subject=' + subject + '\">');
document.write(name + '@' + domain + '</a>');
// -->
</script>

Anyone know how to add the following:
1. title tag,
2. body content
3. change what is shown on the web page (link text, that is)?

I've tried, but js is definitely not kind to me :)

[g1smd]

Put this in a text file called mail.js:

function mailer()
{
var a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t

a='<a href=\"mailto:';
e='</';
f='yourname';
c='\">';
g='yourdom';
e+='a>';
j='?subject=';
f+='@';
h='ain.com';
p='\" alt=';
k='The Message Title';
m='<img';
l='The Link Text';
s='&amp;body=';
n='The Image Filename';
p+='\"';
t='The Body Text';
q='Email.'
r='\"'
m+=' src=\"'
r+=' border=\"0\">'

if (f) if (g) if (h) i=f+g+h;

if (k) b=i+j+k+s+t
else b=i;

if (n) o=p+q+r;

if (l) d=l
else if (n) d=m+n+o
else d=i;

document.write(a+b+c+d+e)
}

mailer()

Fill in the Required Link Text in (l) OR an Image Filename in (n) else the Link Text will be the actual email address shown on screen (non-spiderable though!).

The domain is split across two variables, (g) and (h) so that even just the domain can't be easily reassembled in its own.

Fill in the Message Title and the Message Body Required too. If Message Title is blank, then no Message Title or Mesage Body will be appended.

.

This is the required HTML snippet that calls the javascript funtion:

<p><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2" src="/js/mailer.js"></script></p>
<noscript><p>Send email to <a href="contactform.html"
title="Fill in the Feedback Form">The Business Name</a></p></noscript>

<p>or simply fill in the <a href="contactform.html"
title="Fill in the Feedback Form">Feedback Form</a>.</p>

The user sees the email link if javascript is enabled, or gets a link to the contact form page where they can fill in the form if javascript is not enabled.

[eWhisper]

If they are going to do it all manually (good luck), you might want to add an autoresponder to your email program for the signup email.

Autorespond with a 'reply to this email for confirmation', and make the reply email a different email address.

Only add those to the newsletter who reply to the autoresponder email - it'll save you time signing up spammers.

formmail also has an easy way to add a form to your site that they host for not a lot of $$ a month, this could be another way to build your list without having your email displayed anywhere in the page to try and protect the inegrity of your list.