Thank me later is a plug-in that allows you to automatically email your post commenters. You can set the plugin to send the email out after a delay, giving the reader the sense that you read their comment and personally sent them an email.
Here’s how to setup and use Thank Me Later.
Step 1: Installation
Go to your Plugins section, click Add New and click Install on Thank Me Later.
Step 2: Go to Thank Me Later’s Settings
Thank Me Later’s settings is located at the bottom of the Settings menu. Click the link.
Step 3: Create Your Message
When you land in the settings screen, you’ll immediately be prompted to create your first message. Click the link.
Tell Thank Me Later who the email should be from, the subject and the actual message. You can customize the message with tags to insert your name, their comments, their name, etc.
Once you’re finished, hit save.
Step 4: Add More Messages (Optional)
If you want Thank Me Later to randomly select from a few different messages, you can. You can also set it to send someone a different message every time they comment.
To do this, first create several different messages by clicking the Add New Message link.
Set the probability to determine how likely a message is to be sent. .5 is 50%, 1 is 100% and so on.
Step 5: Message Settings
Your message settings will determine exactly how Thank Me Later interacts with your readers. For this plugin in particular, it’s best if you don’t just leave it on its default and instead customized it to behave exactly as you want.
To access the options, click on Additional Options along the top.
This is what the message options screen looks like:
Here you can choose exactly how your users receive your messages. Here’s what each of these options means:
- Maximum Number of Messages: How many emails from you any particular user can receive over their lifetime.
- Send Unique Messages Only: Never send the same user the same email.
- Comment Gap: If comments are posted in close succession, you can set Thank Me Later to only email users once.
- Send Gap: To prevent users from getting to many emails, you can put a waiting time requirement between emails.
- Opt Out: Allow users to opt out.
Step 6: Set Your Message Restrictions
In addition to your Global Options, you should also set your Message Defaults. Click on Message Defaults to access this panel.
Here are the options available in this tab:
- Message Delay: How long do you want Thank Me Later to wait before sending a message?
- Restrict by Tags: If you don’t want Thank Me Later to email posts on a certain topic, you can block them out.
- Restrict by Categories: Same as above, but sorted by categories.
- Restrict by Users: Choose whether to send emails only to logged in or logged out users. Leave it unchecked to send it to everyone.
The two other tabs, “Miscellaneous” and “Installation and Information” deal with more technical issues and don’t really affect functionality.
It’s that easy! You’ve just learned how to install Thank Me Later, customize it and use it to send messages to your readers.