Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which WYSIWYG HTML editor does this product use?
We use TinyMCE by Moxicode. It's a great open source WYSIWYG HTML editor which is extremely stable and reliable. It's cross browser, XHTML compatible and has a whole host of great features.

2. I am a web designer, ad agency or ISP. How can I offer Waterwheel Email Marketer to my clients?
   Waterwheel Email Marketer was built from the ground up to help service providers such as web designers, advertising / marketing agencies and ISP's offer a do-it-yourself email marketing solution to their clients. Waterwheel Email Marketer is a multi-user solution that means you can create a user account for each one of your clients, so they have access to their own "control panel". From inside this control panel, they can create and send email campaigns, view statistics and so forth. You can create an email template for them to use, or they can choose one of the built in email templates.
   
   You can choose to let them create and send their own email campaigns, or you can do it on their behalf.
   
   Every email that gets sent out is sent from the email address and URL that you define, so the recipient sees the email coming from your clients domain and not yours. There are many other service provider specific features such as email throttling, user specific timezones and more.
3. Can I have custom fields like First name, Last name, Address in my subscription forms?
   Yes, Waterwheel Email Marketer has the capability of allowing you to create unlimited "Custom fields" including names, addresses, dates and more. Simply select the "Manage Custom Fields" option (In the 'Newsletter' drop down menu) to create, edit and delete your custom fields.
   
   Once you have created your custom fields, create a new subscription form (or edit your existing form) and select the custom fields you wish to include.
   
   Once you have done that, you'll need to "Get HTML" for the subscription form and copy the new form HTML to your website.
   
   To insert Custom Fields into your newsletter or autoresponder click on the "Insert Custom Field" link underneath the WYSIWYG HTML editor (HTML emails) or underneath the Text Area (Text emails). A popup window will appear asking you to select which Custom Field you'd like to include.
4. Is it possible to create personalized emails, e.g. 'Dear Mr. NAME' or 'Dear Mrs. NAME'?
   Yes, such personalized emails use what we refer to as "Custom Fields". Custom fields can be created from the Contact List menu and users will be able to enter in data when they subscribe.
   
   Once you've created your Custom fields, create (or edit) your subscription form and select the Custom fields you'd like to display. Once you've added the subscription form to your website, users will be prompted to enter in the relevant information when subscribing to your contact list.
   
   To insert a custom field into your newsletter or autoresponder, click on the "Insert Custom Field" link underneath the WYSIWYG editor (HTML emails) or Text editor (Text Emails.) A popup window will appear asking you to select the Custom Field you would like to insert.
5. Can I suggest new features?
   Absolutely, We love customer input, ideas, and suggestions!
   Please feel free to contact us.
6. Can I automatically send out emails at some time interval after a user joins my contact list?
   Yes, such automated emails are referred to as Autoresponders. Waterwheel Email Marketer allows unlimited autoresponders that can be setup to send emails after a user signs up to the newsletter and a period of time has lapsed.
   
   Waterwheel Email Marketer currently works with a delay based on hours after your contact joins your contact list. You can make this into days simply by adding together the hours. That is 24 hours is one day, 72 hours is 3 days and so on.
   
   To do this, simply click on the Autoresponders tab in the control panel. Here you will be presented with the option of managing your existing autoresponders as well as creating a new one. Clicking "Create Autoresponder" will prompt you with an easy to follow step by step wizard in creating your autoresponder.
   
   If you already have imported users into a contact list, you can send them autoresponder emails too! When editing your autoresponder, check the box labeled "Send to existing contacts?". Email Marketer will do a one-time check for any existing users who meet the time interval requirements you have set, and queue them to receive the autoresponder also. This option will not save, so next time you edit that particular autoresponder, it will be unchecked, enabling you to do it again.
   
   For you to be able to use autoresponders and scheduled sending you will need to have set up Cron on your server.
7. What server requirements do I need to run Waterwheel Email Marketer?
   As we add new features and grow, our technical requirements can change over time. Also, as PHP, MySQL, and other technologies utilized by Email Marketer change over time, our requirements can be affected also.
   
   For up-to-date information on the most recent requirements for running Email Marketer, please look here.
8. Can I modify my copy of this product?
   Sure. All Waterwheel products come with complete PHP source code, so you are free to modify the code to suit your requirements. You are able to modify both the functionality of the applications and the look and feel of them to better suit your needs. Please keep in mind that all copyright notices must remain intact (in the source code) and that modified versions can not be resold or distributed without our prior consent. We also cannot support modified code.
9. Can I have an additional license key for our test server before going live?
   Yes. We understand the staging process involved when developing a website for a client or on behalf of your company and our licensing system accomodates this.
   
   If you purchase any of our products and generate the license key for your test server then all you have to do is contact us and we'll give you a new license key for your production server at no additional charge.
10. Is there a time-limited or other type of trial I can download?
    Due to the nature of the product, we cannot offer trial versions. We offer a 60 day, 100% Money back gaurantee, so if you do have any problems or concerns, we can always refund your purchase.
11. How often are product updates released?
    Product updates (which include bug fixes) are generally released every 4-8 weeks. Product upgrades (which include new features) are generally released every 2-6 months. When you purchase a Waterwheel product, you are entitled to free product updates (bug fixes) for a certain period, depending on the product purchased. After this you can optionally pay to extend your maintenance period. Please see each product's pricing page for more information.
12. Can I have a subscription form on my clients web site, and have Waterwheel Email Marketer installed on my web server?
    Yes, Waterwheel Email Marketer allows you to have seamless integration with your clients websites, so you can have subscribe and unsubscribe forms on your clients web sites, but still have the core Waterwheel Email Marketer files on your web server.
    
    To create forms you simply need to select Manage Forms from the control panel on the index page of Waterwheel Email Marketer or from the text links in the top right of the application.
    
    Simply follow the steps for creating a form and when you have completed this copy and paste the HTML into your website where you want it.
13. How many emails can Waterwheel Email Marketer send per hour?
    This depends greatly on your mail server specifications. We have conducted several sending tests which averaged 1,000 emails per minute using the cron sending method as opposed to the "popup" sending method.
14. Can I use Waterwheel Email Marketer to manage the email marketing of more than one website?
    Yes you can. There are two ways that you can do this.
    
    * You can purchase multiple user licenses (Waterwheel Email Marketer comes with 5) and then set these users up as your different websites. All users will log into the same application on the same URL but can set different reply to, from, bounce accounts and information etc.
    
    * You can purchase multiple website licenses in which case you can install Waterwheel Email Marketer multiple times on multiple websites. This will allow you to keep your customers in completely seperate databases.
15. How can I send thousands/millions of emails with Waterwheel Email Marketer?
    You can send the emails out using your web host's mail sending engine. This option is fine if you're sending only a few hundred emails per month, however as soon as you go over this, your host may impose email sending restrictions which makes it impossible to send.
    You can also buy your own dedicated server from someone like RackSpace.com or SoftLayer.com and configure it to send emails. The catch here is that you need an in-house systems administrator to monitor the server or you have to know what you're doing.
    You may be best served by using a third party to send your emails on your behalf. We've just partnered with SMTP.com who have been in the email sending business for over 10 years. Basically you can lease your own mail server, which you then use to send your emails. You can send hundreds, thousands or even millions of emails each week, and they take care of white listing, dealing with all of the email providers (such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, etc), etc - so you don't have to. You can focus on creating the emails and profiting from email marketing, and SMTP.com will focus on the sending. Contact us for pricing.
16. Why should I choose Waterwheel Email Marketer over one of your competitors?
    In a nutshell:
    -Optimized Database and indexing, tested with 250,000 emails on a basic shared server. 1,000,000+ on an optimized server.
    -Built from the ground up for service providers. Multi-user accounts, user permissions, email throttling, email credits, scalable pricing model, multiple email client tested CSS email templates
    -Unmatched intuitive user interface.
    -Dedicated customer support and development. Product in development for over 3+ years
    -Massive list of unrivaled product features too long to mention here. See the complete feature list.
    -Optimized for marketers. Contact segmenting, personalization, auto responders, scheduled emails, detailed per email level reporting and statistics.
    -Used by 1000+ low and high traffic websites.
17. Are all Waterwheel Email Marketer contact lists separate for my clients?
    Yes. All of your clients contact lists, contacts, email templates and statistics are separate. None of your clients will ever see your other clients private data. Waterwheel Email Marketer includes a permissions system that was developed over a 12 month period to make absolutely sure your clients data is safe, secure and separate from everyone else.
18. Can I use my existing user database with Waterwheel Email Marketer?
    Yes, you can use the API for Waterwheel Email Marketer to perform operations directly with Waterwheel Email Marketer instead of doing so with the control panel, such as importing users.
    
    You can add contacts with a few simple commands, but if you wanted to use your existing list of users instead of adding them into Waterwheel Email Marketer that can't be done - you would have to import them in a batch using the API or Waterwheel Email Marketer, or add them one-by-one with the API or from within Waterwheel Email Marketer.
    
    Using the API is simple. For example:
    
    require('/path/to/wem/admin/functions/api/subscribers.php');
    
    $subscriber_api = &new Subscribers_API();
    $subscriber_api->AddToList('email@address.com', 'My Contact List');
19. Can I setup Waterwheel Email Marketer with multiple users with their own contact lists and newsletters?
    

    Of course. Waterwheel Email Marketer is a multi-user application, that allows you to create users that can manage their own contact lists, newsletters and other functionality. Users are created in the 'users' section that you can browse to using the link in the top right of your installation.

    A user must have sufficient privileges to be able to create and edit users.

    By creating users and giving them their own access, you can offer Waterwheel Email Marketer as a hosted solution to multiple clients, as it does not need to be installed on the clients website, but instead can be installed in a single location (such as your web site) and your clients can login and manage their email marketing from there.

    Emails sent from Waterwheel Email Marketer can be easily configured to come from your clients own email address / domain name.
    No additional scripts or code are needed to be added to your clients website, all sending, link tracking etc is handled inside Waterwheel Email Marketer.
20. Is this installed on my web server?
    Yes, all Waterwheel products are installed directly on your web server, which means no monthly fees and no transaction, email fees etc. Each product has a simple step by step installation process, or we can install it for you.
    Waterwheel products can be installed on virtually any web hosting account and do not require a dedicated server.
    An installation usually takes no longer than 24 hours. If you require an installation, please contact us.
21. Can you customize this product for me?
    Our in-house team does customize different products from time to time. Contact us with details on what you are looking for, and we'll see if we can help!
22. Do you offer ASP, .NET, Perl or ColdFusion versions of this product?
    In the past, we offered different language versions of some of our software, but we have now discontinued our PERL, Cold Fusion, ASP and .NET products due to low demand and high production costs. We are now concentrating on making our existing PHP based products even better.
23. Do I need a dedicated server to run this?
    No. None of the Waterwheel products require a dedicated server, and shared hosting environments will suffice. Please see the requirements however, to make sure your web host meets the requirements.
24. Is the license a life time license? Do I have to pay any additional fees?
    The license you purchase is a lifetime license, and you do NOT need to pay license fees at any time after your purchase. There are no additional monthly or yearly fees to use the software.
25. Does this product require users to download a browser plug-in?
    No, all Waterwheel products are completely self contained and require no outside plug-in's or add-ons.
26. How do I receive the product after my purchase?
    The software is distributed electronically. You may also opt to have us install the product for you on your server.
27. Do I need root access to install this?
    No, you do not need root access to install any Waterwheel product, just FTP access.