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This guide covers setup, formatting, shortcodes, images, user permissions, security recovery, self-hosted configuration, and the separate newsletter feature that often causes confusion.
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Post by Email is an inbound publishing workflow: WordPress receives an email and turns it into one blog post. WordPress.com describes it as a way to publish quickly from devices such as phones. The subject becomes the post title, and the body becomes the post content.
It is not the same as sending an announcement to subscribers. A post-by-email message creates content on your site; a newsletter system sends an already-published post outward to people who subscribed.
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Choose the correct setup path first
WordPress.com sites
WordPress.com provides a generated address for eligible sites. The documented flow is available to Business and Commerce sites. Free, Personal, and Premium sites need an upgrade to use that flow. On a site without plugins, the Writing settings show an Enable action. Business and Commerce sites use Create Address.
Self-hosted WordPress sites
A self-hosted installation does not use WordPress.com’s generated address. Its Settings → Writing screen asks WordPress to check a mailbox, using the mail server, port, login name, password, and default mail category that you provide. The site owner controls that mailbox and its credentials.
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Quick decision table
| Question | WordPress.com | Self-hosted WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Where do you configure it? | Dashboard Settings → Writing; use Enable or Create Address, depending on the site. | Dashboard Settings → Writing, with mail-retrieval fields. |
| How is the message authenticated? | A generated, secret address tied to the user and site context. | A mailbox account identified by server, port, login name, and password. |
| Plan or installation dependency | Business and Commerce sites have the documented flow; free, Personal, and Premium sites need an upgrade. | Depends on the self-hosted installation and its mail configuration. |
| Formatting and controls | Rich-text/HTML email, supported shortcodes, signature removal, and separate media-address instructions. | The mailbox is retrieved by the installation; behavior depends on that configuration. |
| Publication permissions | Contributor submissions are saved as pending; users can create their own address on a multiuser blog. | Controlled by the site’s configured mailbox and WordPress permissions. |
| Security recovery | Regenerate the secret address if exposed, or disable the feature. | Change or secure the mailbox credentials and mail-server settings. |
Set up Post by Email on WordPress.com
- Open your site dashboard.
- Go to Settings → Writing.
- Find the Post by Email section. On a site without plugins, click Enable. On an eligible Business or Commerce site using the newer flow, click Create Address.
- Copy the generated address and store it in a password manager or another protected location. WordPress.com warns: “Keep this address secret—anyone who knows it can publish to your blog.” Treat it as a publishing credential, not as a normal public contact address.
- Open your email client. Put the post title in the subject line and write the article in the message body.
- Send the message to the generated address. WordPress.com states that “The email subject becomes the post’s title” and “The body becomes the post’s content.”
- Wait for the notification containing the published-post details. The support instructions say this normally arrives a few minutes after sending.
Only send the address to people who are allowed to publish. If several people contribute to a multiuser blog, each user can create an address for their own account and site context rather than sharing one credential.
Compose the email correctly
Use the subject for the title
The entire subject is used as the post title. Write the final title there, including punctuation and capitalization. Do not put instructions, tags, or a phone signature in the subject unless you want them displayed as part of the title.
Use the body for the post
The message body becomes the content. Draft the complete post in the email before sending because one email creates only one blog post. If you need two separate posts, send two separate messages.
Preserve useful formatting without relying on complex HTML
Rich-text or HTML-capable email clients preserve as much formatting as WordPress.com can interpret. Unnecessary HTML may be stripped for display. Keep the message structure simple: use normal paragraphs, headings, links, and lists from the email editor, then check the resulting post after publication.
Formatting that depends on client-specific markup may not survive unchanged. A plain-text draft is the safest fallback when visual fidelity matters less than reliable text delivery.
Remove an automatic phone or mail signature
Many phone and email apps append a signature. To stop that text from becoming part of the post, insert [end] on its own line, with a blank line before it. Text after that marker is excluded according to the WordPress.com instructions.
Your final paragraph ends here.
[end]
Sent from my phoneSet tags, categories, or delayed publication with shortcodes
WordPress.com supports special lines in the message for common publishing controls. Put each shortcode where it can be recognized as its own line, and use the exact bracket syntax:
[tags announcement, WordPress]assigns the listed tags.[category WordPress]assigns the WordPress category.[delay +2 days]schedules publication for two days later.
These controls are part of the WordPress.com Post by Email feature. If a shortcode is mistyped or placed inside ordinary prose, it may not produce the intended result, so inspect the published post and its metadata.
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Attachments follow a separate documented pattern. Send media to an address in the form [email protected], replacing the placeholder with your secret address as instructed by WordPress.com. The media-address method is separate from the one-email/one-post rule; use the documented attachment workflow rather than assuming every file attached to a normal post email will be handled identically.
Publication permissions on a multiuser site
Administrators and users allowed to publish
The generated address belongs to the user and site context that created it. On a multiuser blog, users can create their own addresses, which avoids distributing one shared publishing credential.
Contributor submissions
An email sent by a user with the Contributor role is saved as a pending post instead of being published immediately. This gives an editor or administrator a review step before the content appears publicly. Do not interpret a pending result as a delivery failure; check the Posts area for the draft awaiting approval.
Protect, regenerate, or disable the WordPress.com address
Why the address is sensitive
Anyone who knows the generated address can send a message that publishes to the blog, subject to the account and role behavior described above. Do not place it on a public contact page, in a screenshot, or in an unprotected team document.
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If the address is forwarded to the wrong person, appears in a public log, or is otherwise exposed, regenerate it from the Post by Email settings. The old address should no longer be used for publishing once the replacement is created.
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Disable the feature when it is no longer needed
The support instructions also provide a disable option. Disabling removes the email-publishing route while leaving ordinary dashboard publishing available. Use it when the workflow is temporary or when no authorized sender needs it.
Configure Post by Email on self-hosted WordPress
Self-hosted WordPress follows a materially different process. Instead of receiving a unique WordPress.com address, the installation checks an email account that you configure.
- Sign in to the WordPress dashboard with site-owner or administrator access.
- Open Settings → Writing.
- Locate the mail-retrieval settings.
- Enter the mailbox’s Mail Server.
- Enter the server’s Port.
- Enter the mailbox Login Name.
- Enter the mailbox Password.
- Choose the Default Mail Category for posts retrieved from that account.
- Save the settings.
The site owner must create or designate the account that WordPress checks and protect its credentials. Because this setup depends on mailbox access rather than a generated WordPress.com address, recovery means securing or changing the mailbox credentials and updating the Writing settings, not regenerating a WordPress.com secret address.
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Authentication model
WordPress.com is simple to activate: the generated address itself authorizes an email-to-post action. That simplicity makes secrecy critical. Self-hosted WordPress centralizes control in a mailbox account, which gives the site owner direct responsibility for passwords, server details, and access to that inbox.
Eligibility and dependencies
On WordPress.com, plan eligibility matters. The documented guide identifies Business and Commerce sites for the current Create Address flow and says free, Personal, and Premium sites need an upgrade. On self-hosted WordPress, the relevant dependency is a working mail account and correctly saved retrieval settings.
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Review and permissions
WordPress.com’s Contributor behavior is explicit: the resulting post is pending. A self-hosted installation’s final behavior depends on the configured mailbox and the permissions associated with the account handling the post, so verify the result with a non-administrator test account before adopting it for a team.
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Troubleshoot a missing or incorrect post
No post appears after sending
- Confirm that the recipient is the current generated address, not an older address that was regenerated or disabled.
- Check the sender’s Sent folder for the exact message and recipient.
- Allow the few minutes described in the WordPress.com support instructions for the notification to arrive.
- On self-hosted WordPress, recheck the Mail Server, Port, Login Name, Password, and saved settings.
- Confirm that the sender is not relying on a Contributor account when immediate publication is expected; Contributor messages are pending.
The title or body is wrong
- Move the intended title into the subject line; the subject is not treated as ordinary body text.
- Keep the article itself in the body and remove accidental introductory text from the email.
- Inspect rich-text markup if formatting disappeared. WordPress.com may strip unnecessary HTML.
- Place
[end]on its own line, preceded by a blank line, if an unwanted mobile signature was included.
Tags, categories, or delay did not apply
- Check the spelling, brackets, spacing, and capitalization of the supported examples.
- Put the shortcode on a separate line rather than embedding it in a paragraph.
- Open the resulting post and verify its metadata or publication timing before sending another copy.
An attachment was not handled as expected
Use the documented media-address pattern for attachments instead of assuming a normal post email will process every file the same way. The standard post workflow creates one post per email; media handling is described separately.
Do not confuse Post by Email with a newsletter
Post by Email is inbound: an email creates a post on the site. WordPress.com Newsletter is outbound: publishing a post can notify subscribers. Newsletter defaults, content choices, and subscriber settings are managed under Jetpack → Newsletter.
Choose Post by Email when the goal is to publish from a phone or another email client. Choose Newsletter settings when the post already exists and the goal is to distribute it to subscribers. Enabling one does not replace the other.
Quick Recap
A safe operating checklist
- Verify whether the site is WordPress.com or self-hosted before changing settings.
- Confirm WordPress.com plan eligibility or, for self-hosted sites, the mailbox details required by the Writing screen.
- Store a WordPress.com generated address as a secret credential.
- Use the subject only for the title and the body for the post.
- Use simple rich text, and expect unnecessary HTML to be stripped.
- Add
[end]after a blank line to remove an automatic signature. - Use the documented tag, category, and delay shortcodes exactly.
- Send separate messages for separate posts.
- Use the documented media address for attachments.
- Test the workflow with the intended user role; Contributors produce pending posts.
- Regenerate or disable a WordPress.com address if it is exposed or no longer needed.
- Manage self-hosted mailbox credentials as carefully as the WordPress administrator password.
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