The year of SnapPages 2.0 is about to begin. We're had at work on the new Blog app and we are going to need some beta testers to make sure it's all working before we launch it for everyone. If you are interested in testing it out please leave us a comment below and we'll add you to the list of beta testers and send you an email whenever the beta goes live.

If you sign up please keep in mind that the point of the beta is we need your feedback! I can't emphasis this enough. Without your feedback telling us what's working and what's not working there isn't much point to doing a beta test. Also keep in mind that in the future we might start doing smaller beta tests and you'll have a much better chance getting into those if you send us feedback on these ones.

This year is going to be the biggest year for SnapPages since we launched back in 2008. We've spent the last 4 years listening and learning from our users. Seeing what works, what doesn't, and what we can do better. We've made some additions and updates based on all this feedback and observation and it has helped improve the overall experience. However nothing we've done in the past comes close to what is coming this year.

The updates are so big and drastic that I'm referring to it as SnapPages 2.0. Almost all of our main apps are going to be reworked from the ground up and built in HTML5. I don't want to oversell it, but it will literally blow anything you've seen out of the water. I'm just warning you now, that your head might explode when you see the updates. If this concerns you, please stop using SnapPages now. If this excites you, then please keep reading.

If you've used the new Emailer app then you've gotten a small taste at what is in store since it's the first app to use our initial version of the new HTML5 editor. The first real full 2.0 app will be the new Blog app. I'll post more news on this as it progresses but if you have anything on your wishlist for new blogging features now is the time to let us know about it!

That's all I can tell you for now, but hopefully you guys will be as excited as I am to see what's in store for 2012! For now I'll leave you with a preview of the new Blog app:

Blog 2.0 Preview

Creating Emails
You can create beautiful html emails just as easily as you create web pages. This is because the editor for the Emailer app is almost identical to the Web Pages app except for one major difference. This editor is built completely in HTML5 and not in flash! This will bring a lot of improvements to the editor. There are now more text formatting options, improved language support, true WYSIWYG (google it) editing and a whole lot more. We will slowly be rolling this editor out into our other apps as well as we convert them to HTML5, but more on that at another time.

Sending and Tracking Emails
After an email is created you can send it out to a list of email subscribers. We've partnered with VerticalResponse to help ensure that your emails have a high delivery rate and to help track the results of your email campaigns. Once an email is launched you'll be able to see how many people opened it and other stats to help you gauge effectiveness.

Getting Subscribers
Creating emails is great but you need to have people to send them to. With the Emailer app you create Lists of email subscribers. After you create a list there are three ways to add subscribers to them:

1. You can manually enter in new members to lists.
2. You can import existing mailing lists from CSV files.
3. Visitors to your website can subscribe directly to lists from a form.

You can add a subscription form to any page on your website. If you are in the page editor, you will find a new block in the "widgets" section called "Subscribe Form". Just drop this on any page and point it to a mailing list and your done!

Here's a video created by one of our SnapPages users that does a great job of showing how anyone can build a website in SnapPages.

If you have created a tutorial or video on building a SnapPages website or how to add features to your website in SnapPages, let us know - we would love to share it!

And, be sure to tell us what training videos or tutorials you would find helpful. Watch for more of these coming very soon!