Hi there,
It seems to be the trend to use 3rd party services to handle newsletters, for example Aweber, Mailchimp, etc
That's great in many cases, but sometimes an integrated solution within Drupal is the better solution, because you want to use content from your website, or you'd like to just keep your data on your own server.
I've been looking into a few different options on how to do this. The only two that came close to my requirements where the Simplenews Module and the Newsletter Module.
But both of them have in my opinion 'critical' pending issues that haven't been sufficiently addressed yet.
Simplenews:
The subscribe block doesn't have a name field (only an email field) - example: http://drupal.org/node/1274942
I find it essential to provide a name field, in order to personalise the newsletter (Hello John, ...)
This issue can't be solved by using theSimplenews Realname module nor by using the Webform Simplenews Component module. Both are throwing errors.
Newsletter:
This module is only minimally maintained, even though is looks awesome. There is so many great features that work really intuitively and out of the box. A name field on the subscribe block can be shown or hidden within the module settings. It integrates really well with the Token module, and can even send out automated emails with a list of the latest nodes once a certain number of nodes has been published. But it lacks in the simple option to send a one time newsletter. All settings are laid out for the multiple use of the same dynamic newsletter template.
My requirement
I was looking for a module that allows users and visitors to subscribe to a newsletter. Both name and email should be required. Each newsletters should be written into a node which is send out to all subscribers, and which can be accessed via the web as well. Short codes or tokens should be available for the receivers name and a unsubscribe link. No fancy theming for the newsletter required, just plain old text with a link.
Is there not enough interest anymore for email newsletters? Or is there maybe a Drupal project i don't know about which would fit my needs? I'm happy to contribute towards such a module...