Elink.io: 19 Things You Need to Know Before You Buy

Hindsight is 20/20.

As with most software subscriptions, I’m eternally optimistic when I click the “buy” or “subscribe” or “sign up” button.

I naively think it will solve all my problems.

Some software nearly does or it at least provides me 10x what it costs in value to me.

Other software is a bust and ends up a waste of one month’s cost and my time trying it out.

Elink.io is one of those software platforms that you don’t have to have but it makes your life easier if you publish certain types of email newsletters.

I’ve now used Elink.io on and off for years.  I’m currently using it again for niche email newsletters.  It does exactly what I need it to do and that ultimately saves me a huge pile of time.

If you’re considering Elink.io, it’s a good thing you came here to get the skinny on it.

What is Elink.io?

It’s SaaS software that helps automate or at the very least, dramatically speed up email newsletter creation.  If you run email newsletters, you know how much of a time-suck they can be.

Elink.io is a platform geared toward creating nicer-looking emails and save you time.

In a nutshell, with Elink.io you can create stylish content grids very quickly (or automatically if you use RSS) for your email newsletters.

For example, if your newsletter merely lists out or links out to your recent posts or select articles on your site, Elink.io speeds up the creation of those grids.

Here’s my list of 20 things you need to know about it.

1. Saves a ton of time preparing email newsletters

You can create a beautiful email newsletter in the amount of time it takes you to copy and paste URLs.

If you go the automated route, using your RSS, you can create email newsletters on autopilot.

How do you make an email newsletter with Elink.io?

It couldn’t be easier. Watch me create an email newsletter in ONE minute!

 

2. It’s not just for email

When you create a grid, you have the option to also embed it on your website.  Check it out:

3. But embedded content on your site is NOT indexed

Just so you know, if you embed the grids on your website, it’s not indexed. Google won’t see it.  If you don’t care if Google sees it or not, then it’s a good solution.  If you want it to rank in Google, don’t use Elink.io for website content.

4. You can curate at the speed of RSS

While I focus on only linking out to my own sites, there’s merit in curating content for your readers from many sites. Elink.io does this on steroids.  You can track all kinds of sites’ RSS feeds and then cherry-pick articles to insert in your email newsletter grids.

If you’re a real cowboy, you can set the entire thing on autopilot via RSS so that you create newsletters automatically.  If synced up with your email autoresponder software, you can even have them sent out on autopilot.  I don’t do any of this automatic stuff but it could be a big timesaver.

To do this, you set up your RSS feeds and then when you create a post, you opt for a “Power Post”.

5. The Chrome extension makes curating a breeze

With Elink.io’s Chrome extension, you can bookmark content on the fly which you can insert into newsletters down the road with a click of the mouse.

6. Create stylish email newsletters… FAST (no design skills needed)

These are just a few of the email layouts you can choose from with Elink.io.

This is one of the main reasons I ponied up for Elink.io.  I love the template grid styles. They look great and make for great-looking email newsletters.

7. Not just post grids

You can add text above and below the post grids you create for a fully customized email newsletter.  All you do is add content in the Header Body and/or Footer Body in the Headers screen as follows:

8. Clone posts for even faster deployment

If you’ve created your ultimate template with the settings you want, you can clone your grids (called posts in Elink.io) for even faster deployment.  If you haven’t guessed by now, speed is the name of the game.

9. Organize everything with folders

Once you have dozens or hundreds of post grids in your account it gets messy. Fortunately, Elink.io now offers folders to organize everything. I create a folder for each email sequence created in ConvertKit for each niche site.  I also number each post I create so I know what order they’ll go out in the automated sequences.

10. Customize posts on the fly

You can get rid of or change descriptions, change the images that populate, change titles (make them clickbaity) customize the button text (and color) and so much more for each grid so that it’s perfect.

In the Settings tab, you can customize colors, button text and more.  Check it:

11.  But you can’t remove the website URL

Sometimes I don’t want to have the website name displayed for the grid item but there’s no way to remove it.

12. Bulk add URLs for even faster email creation

You can add up to 25 urls instantaneously to create post grids with 25 links.  I tend to restrict my grids to 10 or so links so IMO 25 is more than enough.

Don’t worry, you can change the order of the posts in the grid.

13. You can even use affiliate links

This is awesome.  You can insert affiliate links to pull up products into the grid. I do this all the time. When email readers click the grid, it triggers your affiliate cookie and you earn commissions if they buy.

Just don’t do this with Amazon because you can’t promote Amazon in email newsletters.  You can, however, create Amazon product grids that you embed on your site.

14. Make more money selling ad spots in the grid

You can sell grid spots as ads for merchants in your niche.  This can be a great way to put a few (or a lot) more bucks into your pocket. Because the grid is automatically created, you literally can create the ad in seconds.  It’s much better than messing around doing it manually in an email autoresponder’s visual editor.

15. It doesn’t play YouTube videos in the email message (too bad)

It sure would be nice if you could embed YouTube videos that would play inside the email message, but sadly Elink.io can’t do that.  You can insert YouTube URLs and it’ll populate the thumbnail, title and description but it links out to YouTube.

16. Looks great on mobile devices

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect more people read emails on their phone than a desktop.  I guess it depends on the niche. Work stuff I read on a desktop but all leisure stuff I read on my phone with feet up on the sofa.

The point is, the grids look great on mobile devices as well as desktop.

17. You get more clicks with Elink.io

Whether you’re promoting products, selling ads or just sending your readers back to your site, Elink.io can help you get more clicks just because it’s so darn easy to click the button or image.  And when it comes to emails or anything in this biz, it’s the click that matters.

18. Elink.io makes delegating email newsletters a breeze

Once you have your template set up, you can easily delegate email newsletter creation to your team.  You really can’t mess it up.  Copy URL. Paste URL.  Of course, if you tweak titles and descriptions, you might still want to do it.

If you prefer spending no time or money on newsletters, automate the entire thing with the RSS feed feature.  I don’t do this but it’s wicked awesome if it works for you.

19. Embed in any email that accepts HTML code

If your email autoresponder accepts HTML code, you can embed Elink.io. I use Convertkit which isn’t a listed integrated email software, but it works perfectly well via HTML.

Is Elink.io worth it?

If you publish an email newsletter and find you insert links to your or other sites’ articles, Elink.io is totally worth it.

If you write long-form emails mostly, it’s not necessary.

 

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