great component. It takes a bit of effort to get everything right but it's great.

At first I had a problem with user subscription: the users could confirm their supscription but were not activated automatically. As a result, sending out a mailing did not reach any of the not-activated subscribers.

One thing that solved this final bug for me was to perform the 'check for updates' from the YaNC config panel.
You get a nice list of the last updates and you can confirm them one by one. Nice work!

I tried several tools but nothing worked really well with HTML, statistics and multiple lists. YaNC came to the rescue with some really excellent features.

Some suggestions for future versions: When sending a mailing it would be great to have a box to check which lists you want to send it to so that a single mailing can go to multiple lists. Also, it would be great to be able to change the reply-to address for each list without changing the from address.

Overall a very awesome component!

I am using this component on a number of site because the feature set is so strong compared to other mass mailers. Its true that this component is continuously in development but I think that is a strong point. I don't know what the previous reviewer was using but in YaNC 1.4 there are excellent features:

- Multiple list
- Multiple templates
- Insert of teasers from web content
- Use any site modules in newsletters
- Users can sign up without creating Joomla! account
- Easy install
- Throttle email sending
- Deactivate accounts on multiple bounce backs
- Mailing list sending status bar
- Resume sending if an error occurs
- Easy import/export of mailing users which handles duplicates
- Import existing Joomla! users to mailing list

I did have to create a hack to integrate the sign up with account creation but if you use Community Builder 1.1 it will do this for you.

I think this component is, or is very close to being the forerunner in mass mailers. Way better than Letterman or Vemod.

I wanted something that would install easily and work out of the box. Tried some of the others and found YaNC 1.5. beta 2 was the application I sought.

Easy install. Easy implementation. Easy to understand documentation to download. Signed up a test account and successfully sent an email newsletter to my test account.

Looks like it is ready to roll!

i like this one,
easy install easy config
it does what it needs to do. thats what i like.

I previously purchased a different newsletter component, which had bugs in it, so was delighted to find that this free component has even more features than the paid one, and free support is very quick on the forum.

The statistics section in the new 1.5 beta version is great, where you can track who has viewed/not viewed the newsletter by email address, and the subscriber section displays the ip address, date subscribed, etc. No 'unsubscribed' stats though.

The main drawback is the lack of instructions for the 1.5 beta version (I understand these are coming). I tried version 1.4 first, which does have instructions, then went to version 1.5 beta (released end of May 07). It's easy to use, once you know how. Only the component installation is required now, not the complicated install procedure of previous releases.

Look. Operationally, YANC knocks the socks off of Letterman. I know, I've tried both and had trouble getting Letterman through the filters on a lot of company servers...being pegged as a spammer.

YANC's HTMl worked fine for me and I like the statistics section a lot.

Here's the problem. I inadvertantly installed the 1.4 version first and created my subscriber data base by hand. I upgraded to the 1.5 Beta...which is the only YANC you should have... It uses a completely different SQL database which is also laid out in an absolutely different order... so, you can't dump the old database into the new. The 1.4 only exports in XML format. The 1.5 Beta only imports in the CSV format... The XML export contains more data than a CSV...such as whether the subscriber is confirmed and the date of registration. Hello?... Did anybody at the keyboard not see the headaches you were creating? This is a major database / subscriber migration problem.

YANC is good, but I'm YANC'd off at the moment.

Owner's reply:
Did you check out the 1.4 to 1.5. FAQ that's here: http://www.joomla-addons.org/easyfaq/view/yanc/how-can-i-update-from-yanc-1.4.-to-yanc-1.5/143.html

It got a LOT off options, and it will take you time and thats the strong side. You can konfigure it all.

I used letterman....

I got off to a shaky start, trying to use 1.5Beta2-preview with CB 1.0.2, but I posted on the CB web site and someone told me that 1.4 does. So, I installed 1.4 and it works well.

I didn't have any problems with front end layout and defaults being ignored, as I did with one of the other newsletters I tried. This version seems to integrate very well with CB 1.0.2 and Joomla 1.0.11.

I haven't used the actual newsletter feature yet, though, because I haven't had it up long enough to get anyone to subscribe. I'm expecting that it will work fine, but if it doesn't, I'll amend my review.

Being new to joomla, I found yanc installed easily, and after a few gliches that went away after rebooting, it runs fully smoothly. Emails send quickly.

The questions I had were answered in the forum within 1 day, sometimes several times in a day. Answers were clear and helpful. I also couldn't get the html to work (like an earlier reviewer), but support gave answer [paste html in regular pane - do not turn on html editor]

Two suggestions for future: newsletter archive would look nicer if it could open in the joomla template instead of as a _blank (new page). Subscribe would be great with captcha on/off option. Other than this - its a dream.

many thanks

The latest version (1.5 beta) fixed a lot of the bugs from the last version. Had good integration with CB, but I could never get the HTML in my emails to show up. The discussion board on their website showed others with the same problem, but no resolution. Can't have a newsletter w/o any content. Hopefully they'll fix it for later versions, but I've already moved on to another newsletter system.

I tried YaNC 8 months ago and was unimpressed. I tried Letterman but couldn't work with the HTML and couldn't get content in easily. I tried YaNC again - and it has very much improved.

Pros
A very strong feature set with multiple lists, integration of content and HTML templating.
Cons
No attempt at integration with the Joomla user database. Interface and installation can be difficult to manage.
Features: 3 stars
Interface: 3 stars
Overall: 3 stars
Yanc has a difficult installation process. There are numerous files to install beyond the basic component. Its interface is sometimes confusing, but it has a solid feature set and a good track record for reliability.

Reliable sending mechanism
There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from Yanc. There does not seem to be anyway to resume a failed sending. Once you send, there is no progress monitor.
Ability to throttle sending
When you send an email, you can set how many you need to send out at once as well as set a time delay to pause between batches.
Unsubscribe mechanism
All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer.
Subscribe form
The subscribe form module works well, its a one step process. This is always better as more steps lead to abandonment.
Double opt in
Yanc has a simple, but effective double opt in process.
Multiple lists
You can have as many lists as you need with Yanc. Each one can be subscribed to individually. You can even customize subscribe/opt in messages for each list.
Bounce handling
Yanc does not have any bounce processing.
HTML templating
Emails
can be created with html and a text only version provided.
Import/Export subscribers
Yanc allows importing from CSV files and XML files, and allows exporting to XML. There is no visible process to handle duplicates.
Integration into Joomla user database
There is not method to integrate into the Joomla user database. The only possible way to achieve this is to export users from the MySQL tables and them import them into Yanc. Apart from being technically difficult, this means that if someone unsubscribes from your list, you might re-add them as they would still be part of the user database. This can quickly lead to conflicts with the CAN-SPAM act.
Email Statistics
Yanc allows you to track simple statistics about how many emails were opened and how many subscribes/unsubscribes you have had.
For full comparison of reviews see http://www.compassdesigns.net/joomla-blog/joomla-reviews/joomla-email-newsletter-review.html

Owner's reply:
Please note that this review is pretty old and based on YaNC 1.4.

A lot has improved with the new 1.5 series.

Lots of great features. Wish I could have used it, but ran into a few problems and saw no way around them without digging into the code.

Switched to Letterman, which is much less feature-rich, but everything in it seems to work well.

This is a featureful newsletter system, so as any other complex system may require a bit more experience to implement. But once it is installed properly, it provides a lot more functionality for the frontend users which is a main requirement in my operation.

The only problem is that it has been stocked in beta version for a long time. But I love using it.

Keep up the good work.

JD