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How To Customize The New Member: Welcome Email Message.

This Tip was inspired by: Overtone Music Network. You can check out this wonderful Ning Network at: http://www.overtone-network.org/

HOW-TO CUSTOMIZE THE NEW MEMBER: WELCOME EMAIL MESSAGE.

When a new member joins your Ning Network, they automatically receive a Welcome Email. You can customize the Welcome Email from your Language Editor.

Let's get started. You must be careful when changing code in the Language Editor. Fortunately, Ning has a "Reset Text to Original Version" button.

TIP: Use an external editor to write your welcome message. You can use our built-in HTML WYSIWYG Editor for this purpose.

Click on your Manage Tab.
Click on Language Editor.
Select your language (if English, make sure you select US or British versions, appropriately), by clicking on Edit next to language.
In top-left search box under "Original Text – Your Language", search on "Thank you for joining." - - without the quotes.
The Search will return 1 box (see above), that contains the previous search string.
Insert or start typing your message text, after "Welcome to %s!" Don't delete the %s. That contains the variable for your Network Name.
- You can customize your email, any way you want. I'm not sure if the 2000 character limit applies in the Welcome Email. Do test your results.
- After you have completed your message, click on SAVE.
Be sure to create a test member account, and check your customized email message.

IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure you SAVE your edits to an external file. I save all of my Language Editor files to a folder called LanguageEditorEdits. I name each file appropriately. This will prevent you from having to re-do, in case a Ning update ever wipes it out. I've NOT had that experience. But, better safe than sorry.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on March 30, 2009 at 8:29pm

It was a success and l thank you again for making my site better.

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on March 30, 2009 at 9:01pm

Oh good! BTW, did you see the comments I left you under "please don't lift tips, unless..."? You made me realize, I was going about that in the wrong way. Thanks!
Jen

Fantasyland said:

It was a success and l thank you again for making my site better.

Permalink Reply by MEDARD DU ROCHER - BOPE on March 31, 2009 at 5:19am

thank you

Permalink Reply by Dominic on March 31, 2009 at 8:04pm

Double Thanks for this post,

solves my welcoming problem and thats good advice because I have a lot of custom edits I would hate to lose and I'd never remember them all.

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on April 2, 2009 at 11:38pm

My pleasure! Glad it helped you out. :-)

Dominic said:...

Permalink Reply by Adam Lambert Network on April 28, 2009 at 4:28am

Hi Jen,

When you say email, is this something that is actually emailed to them when they join, or is this the first message they see when they join the network? Because I'm looking to change the welcome message they see when they first sign up, but not wanting to email them.

Thanks for your help.

Vicky

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on April 28, 2009 at 5:47am

This is the automated email they receive, customized.
Best to you,
Jen

Adam Lambert Network said:

Permalink Reply by Karen on March 31, 2011 at 8:53pm

Hi Jen, I was not successful in creating the custom message, I followed directions to the tee. I also created a dummy account to receive the welcome message and it did not include the information i put in the language editor? Would love to get your feedback.

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on March 31, 2011 at 9:26pm

Hi Karen, this would be a little tough to troubleshoot. One way might be if you add your custom text to a text file, and upload here.

Also, I don't remember (and things can change) if the private and public sites are different on where to add this code in the LE. Are you public or private?

Best,

Jen

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on March 31, 2011 at 9:56pm

Karen,

ahhh, seems this has gotten to be more complex. This tip was written way back.

If you approve members like I do, this is what you need to search on in the LE:

"Congratulations! Your %2$s membership has been approved. There are %1$s simple things you can do to get started:"

Do not include the quotes when you search. If you do not approve, what is your exact situation?

I'm guessing the original tip was for public sites that do not approve membership, and why we were searching on "Welcome to %s!"

Oh, and I suggest you add your custom text after "Congratulations! Your %2$s membership has been approved." Otherwise it will be inserted between the "There are %1s simple things..." and the list of those simple things.

Let me know, and I'll update the tip.

Best,

Jen

UPDATE: I tested this and it worked. But, I was extremely disappointed. I really can't believe Ning has stopped allowing simple HMTL. I could not insert a hyperlink or <br> tags for line break. That part was fixable by inserting a line break within my text in the LE. Otherwise you should be able to add your text. Not sure what to think about not being able to add a link, and going to question Ning about this when time allows. My guess is: it has to do with the new WYSIWYG Editor.

Permalink Reply by Pledging for Change on May 11, 2009 at 5:03pm

Oh excellent.
Can we put a hyperlink in the welcome message too? I'd like to link to a first page with an extended welcome and ideas to do
Cheers

Karen

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 11, 2009 at 6:06pm

Hi Karen,
My experience has been: you can add just about any HTML to the Language Editor fields. So, you should be able to add all the hyperlinks you want.
Best to you,
Jen

Karen Maskall said:...