LetterPop

Starting right now, you can use your Flickr photos with LetterPop. If you have a Flickr account, you now have access to every photo in your Flickr account for use in your newsletters. There are two ways to link your Flickr account with LetterPop:

Go to My Account and click Images. Then click the link at the bottom of the page to link your Flickr account. Or click the link Click to view Flickr Images in the My Pictures & Images tab while you are working on a newsletter.

From there, just follow the instructions and in a couple of clicks you’ll be able to browse your Flickr photos while working on a newsletter. Just click the Click to view Flickr Images link while working on a newsletter. You’ll see your most recent uploads and a tag search box. Enter a list of tags separated by commas to find photos with all of those tags.

You can revoke your permissions at any time from within your Flickr account or by simply signing out.

We know a lot of you have a ton of photos in Flickr accounts so we hope this will make your LetterPop experience a lot more fun.

Please let us know if you experience any issues with this new feature.

(And to the Flickreenos: Thank you!)

Today the first version of the LetterPop Explore Page launched. It’s simple, straightforward, and an enjoyable way to browse other people’s newsletters. If you’d like to be featured on the Explore Page, remember to activate your profile and make it public. Also, add a newsletter or two. If for some reason you do not want the fame that having your profile featured on the LetterPop Explore Page is sure to bring you, just email us and let us know. We’ll unfeature your profile and return you to a comfortable state of anonymity.

Also keep a watch out for new features in the Explore Page, Profiles, and Newsletters including the ability to comment!  You’ll be socializing on LetterPop before you know it.  Enjoy!

We’ve just rolled out some improvements and bug fixes around the address book. Primary among these is the ability to import addresses from your personal information manager of choice (Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, etc.).

Just export your contact list as a CSV file and save it somewhere on your computer (your desktop works well). Then come back to LetterPop, click My Account, click Address Book, and click Import Addresses. From there just follow the on-screen instructions and you’re address book will be loaded in a matter of seconds.

Let us know if you have any problems with this enhancement. And thanks for using LetterPop!

I’m sure many of you have already noticed, but we’ve got a slew of new templates ready and and waiting for your creative genius! We’ve got a crew of Photoshop-wielding, code-slinging template-wranglers on board now to get new designs onto the site faster than ever. If you’ve got suggestions for a template, now is a better time than ever to let us know about it.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of activity we started getting this month. Thousands of people have flocked to us based on word of mouth (or blog/podcast, as it were). We’d like to personally thank everyone who has linked to us and/or said something nice about us but it’s just not possible. So here’s a rundown (in no particular order) of some of the kind folks who have commented about our launch. Our most heartfelt and sincere “Thanks” to all of you.

Thank you!

• Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide
  
• Download Squad
• GenTech #16
• techbuzz
• Smashing Magazine Websites of the Month
• Hawk Wings
• Weddingbee
• web2null (danke!)
• BaluArt.net (gracias!)
• Everything2.0
• The Kim Komando Show

And thank you to everyone else who was gracious enough to link to us! We really appreciate your support. If we didn’t mention you, please add a link to your blog in the comments section.

We just rolled out a couple of new features and fixes:

• You can now adjust the position of images within frames. When you drag a photo onto a frame, arrows will appear near the top of the frame. Click an arrow to nudge the photo in that direction. Click the “undo” arrow to revert back to the centered photo and click the checkmark to confirm the position. If you want to re-adjust an image later, just re-drag it onto the frame.
• We fixed a bug that was preventing multiple contacts from being deleted at one time.
• Also, the contact list now shows 20 addresses simultanesouly instead of 15.
• Finally, a new mailing list has been added to everyone’s address book. “All of my contacts” allows you to send a newsletter to all of your contacts without having to select them all. This special mailing list cannot be edited or deleted.

Enjoy.

Two new templates are ready for your enjoyment. The first is surfing-inspired. It’s rad (I can say that without sarcasm because, for better or worse, I was a teen in the 80s). Our second is a blue paper theme. Not as rad but definitely cute. Have fun.

Hey, did you know that there’s a LetterPop! group on Flickr? (Of course there is. There are ten groups on Flickr for everything.) If you’re so inclined, add your LetterPop! screenshots to the group pool. We’d love to see ‘em.

We have a philosophy at LetterPop that includes the belief that you, our users, can think of ways to use and improve our site at least (probably better) than we can.  And tons of you have written suggestions to our support email or participated in this blog.  Thanks!  And now I want to go one step more in getting feedback from you…

Here’s my assumption: You have been getting feedback too.  Many of you have created finished newsletters that you have sent to a handful and even hundreds of people at a time.  I’m assuming you have heard back from some of them.  And I’d love to hear what they are saying to you.  Did they like it?  Did they suggest something back to you?… that you could suggest to us… that we could use to improve our service?  Let us know Thanks!

All newsletters sent out by LetterPop now include an unsubscribe link in the email. This allows recipients to opt-out of receiving newsletters sent by LetterPop members. This is an important part of using email responsibly and to prevent LetterPop from being used for sending unsolicited bulk email (spam).

You’ll notice a new checkbox on your account page as well that allows you to opt-in or opt-out of receiving newsletters sent by other members.