6.4 Making Scheduled Emails Arrive on Time

Scheduled gift cards are sent by WordPress’s built-in task scheduler (WP-Cron), which checks for cards to send every 5 minutes.

WP-Cron only runs when someone visits your site. On a quiet site, a card scheduled for 9:00 might go out at 9:20 when the next visitor arrives.

For Exact Timing: Use a Real Cron Job

1. Add this line to your wp-config.php file, above “That’s all, stop editing!”:

define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true );

2. In your hosting control panel (for example cPanel > Cron Jobs), add a job that runs every 5 minutes:

*/5 * * * * curl -s https://yourstore.com/wp-cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Replace yourstore.com with your domain. Many hosts also have a one-click option for this. Ask your host’s support if you’re not sure.