E-Mails

Notify module is a powerful way to subscribe users to periodic emails which include all new or revised content and/or comments much like the daily news letters sent by some websites. Even if this feature is not configured for normal site users, it can be a useful feature for an administrator of a site to monitor new content submissions and comment posts.

Problem
Users have to enable this from the "my account" page and many novoice users dont know how to do this or are not aware of this feature, which reduces the return visits to site.

Problem in 4.7

In Version 5 you can Auto Enable from your Admin section.

I believe that e-mails are very powerful way to attract visitors to the site and to keep visitors informed about the site content.

Simplenews is a powerful yet simple newsletter module which allows both anonymous as well as registered users to subscribe to different newsletters.

Problem
Users have to subscribe to the newsletters and many novoice users
dont know how to subscribe. As a result for small sites the newsletter subscription is very low.

There is a need to auto subscribe users to Newsletters & later they can choose to unsubscribe.

Solution
SimpleNews module needs to be hacked either via

Cron

Do you want to increase your site usage and encourage users to post?

Posting by emails and getting updates by emails are the two most important things IMO for a small community sites. It is certainly the prefered way.

Modules required:

1. Mailhandler

Configuration required on webhost or mail host for.

1. Setting up an email address or mailbox.

It is a bit time consuming to set it up, but its worth it. Check out the details at

http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/mailhandler

&

http://drupal.org/node/39172 ( For BLOG Posts by email)

After successful implementation of above, a good user documentation is need to let the users know how to post in various forums on the site.