How Does E-mail Work?

We take it for granted, email just works.

But how?

This is from MarketingProfs.com:

How Email Actually Gets From You to Your Subscriber

"Before I started my career in email delivery," writes Art Quanstrom at the Emma blog, "I imagined sending emails looked like some sort of Rube Goldberg Machine: a bowling ball rolling down a track, opening a door that pushes a knife into a string, releasing a mouse that takes the cheese off of a scale, which then unweights and causes a small explosion … to propel said email to the other side of the Internet."

We might chuckle at the low-tech visual, but Quanstrom says it's not a bad way to envision the actual complicated process of sending your offer or newsletter to a subscriber. He maps out the typical route:

• First, your email service provider (ESP) formats your message and sends it to a mailer (MTA). The MTA adds header information about the sender (RSVP address), the ESP (IP address) and the recipient (email address).
• Next, the MTA connects with the MX record for the DNS of the domain (e.g., gmail, or companyname) to which you're sending. "A domain's DNS is a one-stop location that other machines use to communicate with the domain's various servers, and the MX record is there to process any incoming mail," he notes.
• If no connection can be made, it might indicate a permanent issue (e.g., the domain doesn't exist) or a temporary issue (e.g., a bad connection).
• A successful connection triggers the four-step Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) process: 1) Identifying the sending and receiving servers; 2) Identifying your RSVP address; 3) Identifying the recipient's email address; and 4) Transferring the data.

Now, that's a strong argument for keeping your email lists clean.

The Po!nt: Consider the long and winding road. Sending a marketing message from Point A to Point B might take only a few seconds—but its journey is anything but simple.

Source: Emma.

Why 10 Days?

I was unsubscribing from email mailing lists that I have been in the habit of deleteing anyway, and after opting out of Marriot.com, this is what they said:

Email Sign Up Confirmation

Scott@MyEmail.com is subscribed to:

You have chosen not to receive email.

Please allow ten business days to process this request.

Excuse me, but unless you are doing this by hand, which you are not, this is irresponsible.

That's all.

36 ways to Stop Sending Annoying Emails

I quit my job because of the constant stream of CC: emails from my co-workers at the radio station.

Well, no, that's not why but they were guilty of it, as was I at times.

And click here for the real reason I quit: http://www.sclohosocialmediaadventure.com/2011/06/power-of-social-media-in-my-life.html

This is from Seth Godin last week:

Email checklist (maybe this time it'll work!)

Three years ago this week, I posted this checklist, in the naive hope that it would eliminate (or perhaps merely reduce) the ridiculous CC-to-all emails about the carpool, the fake-charity forwards, the ALL CAPS yelling and the stupid PR spam.

A guy can hope, can't he?

Feel free to send this to those that need to read it:

Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list, just to be sure:

1. Is it going to just one person? (If yes, jump to #10)
2. Since it's going to a group, have I thought about who is on my list?
3. Are they blind copied?
4. Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?
5. So that means that if I didn't send it to them, they'd complain about not getting it?
6. See #5. If they wouldn't complain, take them off!
7. That means, for example, that sending bulk email to a list of bloggers just cause they have blogs is not okay.
8. Aside: the definition of permission marketing: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages delivered to people who actually want to get them. Nowhere does it say anything about you and your needs as a sender. Probably none of my business, but I'm just letting you know how I feel. (And how your prospects feel).
9. Is the email from a real person? If it is, will hitting reply get a note back to that person? (if not, change it please).
10. Have I corresponded with this person before?
11. Really? They've written back? (if no, reconsider email).
12. If it is a cold-call email, and I'm sure it's welcome, and I'm sure it's not spam, then don't apologize. If I need to apologize, then yes, it's spam, and I'll get the brand-hurt I deserve.
13. Am I angry? (If so, save as draft and come back to the note in one hour).
14. Could I do this note better with a phone call?
15. Am I blind-ccing my boss? If so, what will happen if the recipient finds out?
16. Is there anything in this email I don't want the attorney general, the media or my boss seeing? (If so, hit delete).
17. Is any portion of the email in all caps? (If so, consider changing it.)
18. Is it in black type at a normal size?
19. Do I have my contact info at the bottom? (If not, consider adding it).
20. Have I included the line, "Please save the planet. Don't print this email"? (If so, please delete the line and consider a job as a forest ranger or flight attendant).
21. Could this email be shorter?
22. Is there anyone copied on this email who could be left off the list?
23. Have I attached any files that are very big? (If so, google something like 'send big files' and consider your options.)
24. Have I attached any files that would work better in PDF format?
25. Are there any :-) or other emoticons involved? (If so, reconsider).
26. Am I forwarding someone else's mail? (If so, will they be happy when they find out?)
27. Am I forwarding something about religion (mine or someone else's)? (If so, delete).
28. Am I forwarding something about a virus or worldwide charity effort or other potential hoax? (If so, visit snopes and check to see if it's 'actually true).
29. Did I hit 'reply all'? If so, am I glad I did? Does every person on the list need to see it?
30. Am I quoting back the original text in a helpful way? (Sending an email that says, in its entirety, "yes," is not helpful).
31. If this email is to someone like Seth, did I check to make sure I know the difference between its and it's? Just wondering.
32. If this is a press release, am I really sure that the recipient is going to be delighted to get it? Or am I taking advantage of the asymmetrical nature of email--free to send, expensive investment of time to read or delete?
33. Are there any little animated creatures in the footer of this email? Adorable kittens? Endangered species of any kind?
34. Bonus: Is there a long legal disclaimer at the bottom of my email? Why?
35. Bonus: Does the subject line make it easy to understand what's to come and likely it will get filed properly?
36. If I had to pay 42 cents to send this email, would I?

Chris Anderson has come up with his own list as well.

Tech Tip Tuesday

This week, an email tip.

At the radio stations I work for, it is too common a practice to send a note to lots of people, and then when individuals reply to it, they hit Reply All.

Sometimes that it is a good thing.

Usually not.

MarketingProfs.com sent an email on this subject, and then I'll have a couple of my own tips afterward.

How and When to 'Reply All'

The "reply all" button can produce all kinds of headaches—from filling inboxes with unnecessary chatter to damaging a brand's reputation. "Unwitting or careless use of reply all spawns much mischief," writes Simon Glickman of Editorial Emergency, "from the accidental broadcasting of remarks intended for only select recipients to the dreaded 'e-storm,' whereby an innocent note to the wrong list unleashes wave after wave of indignant, 'helpful' and other replies."

So how do you balance "reply alls"' negative potential with the need to keep your colleagues in the loop? Consider this advice:

• Before hitting "reply all," take a few seconds to consider how your comment actually adds to the conversation. That witticism, zinger or praise—however clever or complimentary—might be irritating in the context of a public forum.
• If multiple recipients don't need to see everyone else's feedback, prevent a flurry of inbox-clogging responses with an explicit request not to reply all.
• Remove the temptation to "reply all"—hide addresses in the BCC field.

Most important, though, don't start flame wars by giving public smackdowns when others violate the etiquette you so carefully observe.

"I sometimes even draft such responses in high dudgeon, hammering out a few paragraphs of doctorly derision before the better angels of my nature touch down on the delete button," admits Glickman. "The impulse to burn someone publicly is sometimes overpowering, but I've never regretted resisting it."

The Po!nt: Avoid the pitfalls of "reply all" email conversations by keeping it professional and business-like; in the process, your colleagues might just get the clue.

Source: Editorial Emergency.

Me again.

If someone sends me an email with lots of other peoples emails that I might want for future reference, I sometimes use the reply all button with a simple "Thanks".

When I send that email, my email program saves all those emails addresses in my address book automatically, and I've just increased my list of contacts.

Emailing it in 2011?

Yes, email, one of the first forms of communication on the internet is still alive.

Check out these 5 tips from the DLM Blog:

5 Awesome Tips to Writing Emails That Won't Be Ignored

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:57 AM PDT

I'll confess before I begin - I still struggle a bit with keeping my emails short and sweet. Not that I don't know the merits of getting to the point right away in your email, it's just that I need to put in more conscious efforts to make them precise.

The other day I was reading Leo's post on disadvantages of long emails and that made me realize that I am not the only one who has this bad habit of (sometimes) writing long emails. In fact, it isn't just about the length of the email. There are various other ways to improve your email writing skills, and make sure that it gets opened and read even when it reaches someone who gets hundreds of emails each day.

The following five tips are something that I've learned over the past few months, and they have undoubtedly helped me a lot in improving my emailing skills. I am yet to perfect them though. Just a matter of time I believe.

Ditch Long Emails Except..
As Leo rightly mentioned in his post, long emails (mostly) don't work. Everyone's busy and just seeing a long email could cause a temporary shutdown of the senses, thereby causing an instant archival or deletion of that email. It's no joke, just ask people who deal with email fatigue on a daily basis. They'll hate you if you send them long emails.

So, keep your emails precise and to the point. Ditch the Hi and Hellos. Don't talk like a robot though. Keep in mind that there's a human reading your email at the other end. But keep it as short as possible.

Now, there are situations when long emails might be necessary. Like, emailing a new hire to give certain instructions..or the ones you send to your Mom. Well, I think, you are wise enough to decide who has the time to read your emails and who doesn't. So send them accordingly.

Write Better Subject Lines
What are the chances of you opening an email that has the subject line as "Hi" versus an email that says "Seeking Quick Advice On Site Optimization"? I think you are far more likely to open the second email. The first one doesn't convey anything about what the email contains.

Email subject lines matter. Hence you need to learn how to write them. Copyblogger has a nice post on how to write email subject lines that won't be ignored. Although the post focuses on email marketers, I think it has some tips which we could make use of in our everyday email activity too.

Be Creative
Creativity in email content can be of big help, especially when you are pitching your product or service in the email. An absolutely amazing example is this email that a startup sent to TechCrunch, the blog that probably gets hundreds of pitches by startups each day. As you will see in that post, they are creative and interesting which quickly got them TechCrunch's staff attention.

Be Personal
I touched upon this in the first point, where I mentioned that you should keep in mind that there's a human at the other end who'll read your email. Believe it or not, most of the businesses don't understand this. I get a huge number of emails each day which are not addressed to me and look like spam even though they aren't. Do you think I respond to them? Of course not!

There are a lot of things you could do to make your emails personal. Seth Godin has all of them neatly summed up in this brilliant post. He's right on target as usual.

Check Before Hitting Send
Last but by no means the least is the practice of going through your email before hitting the send button. This is probably the most important, and yet most ignored email writing tip. How many times have you sent an email to the wrong guy? or sent it without the attachment? or sent it when you were drunk? You know what I am talking about.

I think everyone using Gmail should enable the Undo Send feature which definitely is a Godsend. It lets you undo the email you just sent, and avoid embarrassment. You won't believe how many times you'll end up using this feature. So, make sure you enable that.

What else do you think one can implement in his emails so that they don't get ignored?

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 4/7/2010 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is a blogger and web publisher from India. He loves all things tech as long as it aids in productivity. He edits Guiding Tech, a blog that publishes useful guides, tutorials and tools. Check it out and subscribe to its feed if you like the site. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Mike Towber

Tech Tuesday Tip

Email.

Probably the most common use of the internet.

I have several email addresses, and you should have at least 2.

If you have an employer who gives you an email address for work, don't use it for personal stuff.

If your home internet service provider, (such as Comcast or Verizon) gives you an email address, don't use it.

One day you may switch jobs. You may switch internet services. And you really don't want to have to notify everyone of your new email address.

Use one of the free services from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo.

Actually the only one I still recommend is Gmail from Google. Click here to sign up.

What Does a Scam Really Look Like?

Yesterday, I wrote about how Craigslist didn't like my sense of humor and twice rejected my ads for free snowmen (assembly required). Click here to see what happened.

So what is a REAL Scam that people fall for?

Take a look at this email that arrived in my Spam folder:

Dear Lucky Winner, This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($900,000.00) for the YEAR 2011 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO! LOTTERY INC for the introduction of the new YAHOO! BETA MAIL which all YAHOO! users are required to switch onto. YAHOO! & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, arrange and gather all the e-mail addresses of the people that are active online around the world, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and other Company's E-mails ID, we only select NINE (9) candidates per annually as our winners through Electronic Balloting System (EBS) without the candidate applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected. PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM We are sorry that your Payment Approval File was sent to United Kingdom due to we have 4 lucky winners in UK so that you can be cleared and paid simultaneously there. You are to contact our UK Location Claims Agent on or before your date of Claim. Yahoo Beta Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Note: Any prize not claimed within this period (14 days) will be forfeited. These are your identification numbers: Batch number......................

YBM-EBS-390AF
Reff number.......................YBM-EBS-719AF
Winning number....................YBM-EBS-798AF


These numbers above fall within the UK agent's Location file, you are requested to contact him and send your Identification Numbers and Personal Information to him;

REV SILVERIO HENCO at his Current email:
E-mail : rev_silverio_henco51@propertybuyeragents.com
Phone: +447024074114

You are therefore advised to send the following information to him to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund with the appointed paying bank.

Send your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to him immediately:

Personal Information
1. Full name...................
2. Country.....................
3. Contact Address.............
4. Telephone Number............
5. Marital Status..............
6. Occupation..................
7. Age.........................
8. Sex.........................
9Means For Transfer Or Payment.
1 International Certified Bank Draft.
2 Account Transfer.
If Account Transfer write the name of bank and your account No.
Name of Bank...................
Account No.....................
Signature......................
Date...........................
Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,

NOTE: NO ONE WILL TOUCH YOUR MONEY FOR ANY REASON AND AN AFFIDAVIT OF CLAIM WILL BE PRESENTED TO THE BANK BY THE BRITISH CROWN COURT BEFORE THE BANK CAN RELEASE YOUR MONEY.

Unfortunately, there are enough people who are either too stupid, too gullible, or too desperate and they respond to this with the hope that they are really going to be able to quit their job etc.

Do your part and warn those that might fall for these scams...

(image from bookpalace.com)

Tech Tuesday Tip

E-mail.

It's probably the first introduction to the Internet anyone over 40 had.

I've noticed 3 common email practices and I'm going to suggest a 4th.

First, is to use a work email. The group of radio stations I work for gave me an email address when I started there 8 years ago. You probably have one too if using email is part of your job. This is fine and dandy unless you are also using the same email address for non-work activities and communication.

You do not own your work email. Your employer does. They have a right to read those emails. The email service is being paid for by your employer. Don't be stupid with your work email.

Next, if you have an internet connection at home, your internet service provider also gave you an email address. In Fort Wayne we have two main providers, Comcast and Frontier. Last year Frontier took over from Verizon and so everyone who had a Verizon email address, had to switch to a Frontier email address. I'm sure this was a hassle, even though they tried to make it as painless as possible.

Then of course there are people who regularly switch between Comcast and Frontier/Verizon which means notifying all your contacts what your new email address is.

There is a third way that a lot of folks have adopted over the years and that is to use a free account from Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google.

Microsoft has had a couple of versions of their free email service, including Hotmail and now windows live. I had a Yahoo email account and a Hotmail account. Google launched Gmail in 2004 by invite only and then open up the the general public in 2007.

I dropped my Hotmail account, and switched from Yahoo to Gmail a few years ago mostly because of the superior spam filtering Gmail had over Yahoo. The layout is different from what I was used to but I got used to it.

Gmail is the free email option I recommend to nearly everyone. Given the financial stability of Yahoo versus Google, I trust Google which has money to burn, while Yahoo continues to have their ups and downs. You can sign up for Gmail here.

Here's 10 more reasons to use Gmail.

Now the 4th option. This is my favorite. Get your own domain name, and create your own email address. My domain is ScLoHo.net. I also own ScLoHo.com and a few others.

I use Google Apps to manage my ScLoHo accounts including email and my websites. There is a free version that I use, so my only cost is the purchase of the domains which I did through GoDaddy.com.

If you are running a business, you need your own domain, you need your own email that is attached to your domain name.

Email Addiction?

from the DLM Blog:

Are You A Slave to Your Email?

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 09:41 AM PDT

When did you last check your email?

I'd bet it was within the last hour. Quite possibly within the last ten minutes. You might well have your inbox open right now, with message alerts jumping up at you.

Almost everyone I talk to feels that email takes up too much of their time. If you work for an employer, in a traditional office environment, you might have your email open from the moment you get into the office until the moment you shut down your computer at the end of the day.

(And you've probably checked email after hours or on the weekends, too.)

If you're self-employed or work from yourself, it's probably even worse. You might find yourself worrying about emails during dinner, or when you're supposed to be having some family time.

The problem isn't knowing what to do. You've read plenty of advice telling you to close the inbox, to avoid checking emails first thing in the day, and to get on with your key tasks first. But are you doing it?

If not, you're probably making one (or more) of the following excuses:

"Something urgent might come in"
This is the biggie. You tell yourself you need to check your emails just in case. What if that client gets back to you, and needs a response in a hurry? What if the server goes down? What if your kid's school needs to get in touch?

The truth is, if something is genuinely super-urgent, people will find another way to deal with it. They'll probably phone, or email someone else.

If you really, truly, have to respond to certain emails within minutes, then get set up with a service like Away Find – so that you can work in peace, knowing that you'll get a text (or other notification) if a particular person emails you.

"I use my email to store my to-do list"
Some folks keep their email inbox open constantly because their email forms their to-do list (with lots of emails-to-self), or because they need the calendar or the chat feature or some other function.

If your incoming emails are a constant distraction, find a different system for your to-do list. Alternatively, change your email settings so that new emails only arrive at occasional intervals – instead of checking for emails every 5 or 10 minutes, set this to every hour or two.

"How will I keep on top of my messages?"
If you get a lot of emails, you might resist the idea of dealing with them in a batch towards the end of the day. You're worried that there won't be time – because at the moment, it feels like you spend half your day (or more) just dealing with emails.

The truth is, the added efficiency from working through your emails in a focused, systematic way will save you a lot of time. Just think about how quickly you can get through a backlog when you're back at work after a vacation, compared with how long you can take over just a handful of emails on a typical day.

"I'm being really productive."
Although answering emails might feel productive – you get the quick win of watching that "unread" number go down – it probably isn't the best use of your time.

Instead of thinking about the amount you get done, consider the value. Wouldn't it be better to let some emails go unanswered, or send very brief replies, in order to get that big project done instead?

"People expect a quick response."
If you're used to responding to emails within an hour or two, you might worry that people will object if they don't hear back for a day or more. The truth is, most people won't be at all bothered. They'll get used to the fact that it takes you a day to get back to them, and they won't email expecting an instant reply.

"But if I'm not doing emails ... what will I do?"
Although not many of us would say this out loud, it's often lurking in our minds. When we're feeling stuck at work, not sure what to do next, it's easy to turn to emails. There's almost always something in our inbox that requires action – and it's often easy to see what action is needed.

Don't use emails as an excuse not to clarify your thinking on something. Instead, take a few minutes to brainstorm or write out a list that helps you move forwards.

Got another tip to add? Or another really, really good excuse to stay a slave to your email? Let us know in the comments...

Written on 10/22/2010 by Ali Hale. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: liewcfJoe M500

Tech Tuesday Tip

For the non-techie, this weeks idea:

Subject is E-mail.

We used to depend on the Mailman.

Then fax machines and overnight delivery services like Fed Ex.

Email used to be manageable until we got bombarded with Spam.

My spam is manageable due to using Google's G-Mail to filter out the crap. Currently I get an average of 11 spam messages an hour 24/7.

Then smartphones including Blackberry's came along so you can't escape being connected.

But you can manage it.

And one way is to manage expectations.

Check out this idea from a blog I read:

Be Like Mike: Managing Your Email Inbox

Posted: 21 Oct 2010 03:30 AM PDT

Yesterday, my partner Michael Drew (the entrepreneurial genius behind Promote-A-Book and several other successful adventures) emailed me a congratulations for something that had gone well.

When I emailed him a quick reply of thanks, this immediately came back.

Mike's Auto-Responder Establishing Expectations

Genius. It immediately sets up my expectations without sounding off-putting. Well played, Michael.

I’m a big fan of closing up email when working, but this takes it to another level. Notice how he gives alternatives should someone consider the need to reach Mike an emergency?

Please consider this stolen, Michael. And thanks.

Tech Tuesday Tip

Everyone seems to be changing and improving their "stuff".

Twitter, Facebook, and this week I found a guide to Google's latest upgrade to their email service, Gmail from the Mashable website:

Jennifer Van Grove

Gmail Priority Inbox: 5 Tips for Better Productivity

With the launch of Priority Inbox, a radical new way to sort mail, Google has hugely changed the way you can process and manage email. As Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman says, “Once you go priority, you never go back.”

The set-it-and-forget-it solution has actually existed in various states of completion for years, dating all the way back to pre-release versions of Gmail (). The feature was picked up again 18 months ago, and today we can finally experience it for ourselves.

At its core, Priority Inbox is an algorithmic solution to email overload. Gmail attempts to automatically process your email by factoring in variable such as who the email was sent by, how many people it was sent to and the keywords included in the subject and body of the message.

You can use Priority Inbox with its out-of-the-box default settings, or you can tweak it to your liking by using the plus and minus symbols atop the inbox to “teach” Gmail which emails are important.

We’ve also identified a few more complex tips for those of you looking to maximize productivity and use some of the less obvious features of Priority Inbox.

---

1. Prioritize Filters

---

With Priority Inbox, Google () has also enhanced the functionality of filters. This means you can define whether or not your filters are important and tell Gmail how to automatically process them in your new inbox.

When creating or editing a filter, you now have two new options: “Always mark it as important” or “Never mark it as important.” The former option will ensure that email messages meeting the criteria of your filter will always show up as important and hence in the “Important and unread” section. The latter option will ensure the opposite; it’s a perfect way to create and manage your own rules for less-than-important messages you’d rather not waste the time of teaching Gmail to ignore.

---

2. Customize Sections

---

Priority Inbox presents you with three default sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else.” These are great starting points for working with the new view of Gmail, but you can also tweak what each of the sections show. There’s even a hidden fourth section that you can create and define, if you so choose.

Next to each section title is an arrow. Click it to view a drop down menu of available options for that section. Here you can adjust your preferences for each section. Should you wish to view all “Important” messages instead of just the unread ones, you can specify that here.

You can click “More options…” to use the section to view messages with a particular label. You can also reconfigure the Starred section to show all Starred conversations, and not just the ones still in your inbox, from the “More options…” menu. Further, you can specify how many messages to show per section: 5, 10, 25 or 50 for each section.

To display the hidden fourth section, navigate to settings and select “Priority Inbox.” Here you’ll notice that the number three section is marked empty. Click the “Add section” arrow to create a fourth section for your Priority Inbox.

---

3. Start With a Clean Slate

---

Gmail designed Priority Inbox to be a better system for processing emails. In order to reap the full rewards, you’ll want to leverage the “Starred” section as an area for emails that require next actions. Whether you choose to leave the section as is (in inbox and starred), or customize it to show all starred messages (i.e., to include those that have been archived), the best way to start is with a clean slate.

To do so, click “View Starred” to the right of the Starred section, or type “is:starred” in the search field. Then use the checkbox drop down menu and select “All.” That action will select all the conversations shown on the page, but to grab all the messages you’ve ever Starred, you’ll want to click the “Select all conversations” option. From there, select “More actions” and hit “Remove star.”

It’s a drastic maneuver that will eliminate all starred conversations, but it could prove incredibly handy in helping you better mange your email via Priority Inbox.

---

4. Use Your “Inbox” for Folders

---

Just because you’ve switched to Priority Inbox doesn’t mean you have to completely ignore the traditional inbox. In fact, avid users of Multiple Inboxes, a nifty Google Labs () feature, can still employ their inbox-filtering skills to better sift through and organize email.

For these users, we suggest you try using the Priority Inbox as your main work center and using Multiple Inboxes in your regular Inbox to highlight action items or semi-important emails in a folder-like fashion. The goal would be to configure Multiple Inboxes to compliment your use of Priority Inbox so you can still keep an eye on messages based on their labels or level of importance.

For this approach, enable the Multiple Inboxes feature in Labs, and set up the alternate panes to appear above the inbox. Treat each of the five panes as folders for emails of varying significance. In each pane enter the search query to pull the appropriate emails. “Label:xxxx” or “is:xxxx” is an easy to way to create a pane or inbox for messages with particular labels or status. “Is:unread,” for instance, will show all emails that are unread.

---

5. Test Priority with Multiple Inboxes

---

If you want to test the Priority Inbox waters without fully committing to the new view of your Gmail, you’ll still want to start by enabling the feature and then configuring your regular Inbox to display “Important” messages. The idea here is to create a workaround to uncover priority messages in your standard inbox.

For this trick, you’ll need to enable the Google Labs Multiple Inboxes feature in your settings. Once that’s enabled, navigate to your Multiple Inboxes settings panel and create a pane to highlight just the messages that Gmail deems important. Enter “is:important” in the search query field and title the section. The end result is an alternate inbox inside your main inbox designed to filter just the important emails.

The only caveat with this method of testing out Gmail’s priority algorithm is that you’ll still need to use Priority Inbox to train Gmail to better distinguish between important and unimportant email messages.

Do you have other tips for using Priority Inbox? Be sure to share them with us in the comments!

Tech Tuesday Tip

Tech Tips for the non-techie:

Last week I was watching as the news broke about how Gmail was going to release a new Priority Inbox feature.

(Gmail is the free, almost never ending, email service that Google provides.)

I have a Gmail account, but I also have a Google Apps Account that I use to manage most of my ScLoHo Marketing Solutions business with. Friday, my Google Apps Gmail account gave me the option of adding the priority feature.

Of course I said yes, and here's the email they sent me:

Priority Inbox^Beta

Welcome to Priority Inbox! By automatically separating out your most important messages, Priority Inbox makes it easy for you to read and respond to the messages that matter.

Get through your email faster

Try reading and replying to the messages in the "Important and Unread" section first. Mark anything that requires follow-up with a star, then go through the "Everything Else" section. If you leave Priority Inbox, you can return to it by clicking the link next to Inbox on the side navigation of Gmail. How it works Gmail's servers look at several types of information to identify the email that's important to you, including who you email and chat with most, how often you email with these people, and which keywords appear frequently in the emails you read.

Train Priority Inbox

If Priority Inbox makes a mistake, you can use the buttons to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important, and Priority Inbox will quickly learn what you care about most.

And more...

• Customize Priority Inbox: You can change what type of email you see in each section (like switching the "Important and Unread" section to just "Important"). Just click on the section headers or visit the Priority Inbox tab under Settings and choose to "customize inbox groups."
• Use filters to guarantee importance: If you want to be absolutely sure that some messages are always marked as important (like email from your boss), you can set up a filter and choose "Always mark it as important."
• Search by importance: If you want to see all the messages that have been marked as important, both read and unread, do a Gmail search for "is:important."
• Switching back to your old inbox: If Priority Inbox isn't for you, you can easily switch back to your normal inbox by clicking "Inbox" on the left or hide Priority Inbox altogether from Gmail Settings.

To learn more about managing your email with Priority Inbox, check out the Gmail Help Center.

- The Gmail Team

Google, Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

For quite awhile, I've been urging friends and family to switch to Gmail. I switched from Yahoo and Hotmail to Gmail due to Gmail's spam filtering was so far superior. I now recieve about 300 spam messages a day and over the course of a week, maybe one or two (out of 2000) aren't caught by Gmail.

For the past 8 years, I've worked for a group of radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana and have used Microsoft Outlook to manage that particular email account.

Well a couple of years ago, I set up my Gmail so my radio station email would also show up in my Gmail account. This gives me multiple ways to check, respond and organize email, which is still a necessity these days.

Tech Tuesday Tip

This week the subject I'm going to tackle is E-mail.

Recently Verizon sold off portions of its business to Frontier.

In my hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana, the transition is occurring this summer.

Instead of Verizon providing landline phone service and FIOS Internet and Television services, Frontier is taking over.

Unlike the other recent name change with Comcast rebranding some of their services as XFinity which was an internal change, the Verizon/Frontier change is an actual change in companies.

Verizon Wireless is unaffected.

What is affected is people's email accounts if you use Verizon as your email provider. You are going to have to change to a Frontier account which means a new email address for all of your contacts to switch in their address books.

There is another option.

One I consider to be better too.

Odds are you'll never, ever have to change your email address if...

you switch to an independent email provider.

What's that you ask and how much does it cost?

Gmail is from Google. Before Gmail was available I used Hotmail and Yahoo mail. But Gmail has supprior spam filtering.

Gmail is my favorite. Absolutely free. You can set up as many account with Gmail as you want.

You can have your other emails forwarded automatically. And there are many, many other advantages too.

Gmail is from Google. Before Gmail was available I used Hotmail and Yahoo mail. But Gmail has superior spam filtering.

Go here to check it out yourself.

Tech Tuesday Tip

This tip may only apply to a small percentage of you, but it was really bugging me and then I found out others were having the same problem with email.

I use my laptop for everything. Business, pleasure, side business, everything!

I work for a group of radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana that has a domain, servers and all the regular stuff that I really don't try and understand the technical side of. So please forgive me, (and correct me too) if I don't quite use the proper terms.

Most of us read our Radio Station Email by using Microsoft Outlook.

Last year we switched our company wireless to a Verizon FIOS connection instead of Comcast.

Many people in Fort Wayne switched their internet connections to Verizon at home and work last year.

But I discovered a problem with our email service and Verizon FIOS. Whenever I have my laptop at a coffee shop, or place of business that has Verizon FIOS, I can receive my new emails, but I can't send them.

As a work-around, I have my SummitCityradio.com email forwarded to a Gmail account automatically, and there is free service that you can log onto http://mail2web.com/ that allows you to check for and respond to emails that are still on the server.

But this is a pain and not a real solution.

Yesterday I found a solution. It was right on the Verizon website:

Your Attention Needed: Re-configure Your Email Settings to Send Email

If you are having trouble sending or receiving email using your email software (Windows Vista Mail, Outlook, or Outlook Express), you might try switching your outbound port to 587.

Most common email viruses are sent using port 25 to infect computers. Often times the user never knows their computer has been infected. In order to protect our customers, Verizon has turned off the ability to send email using port 25 for all users other than those using a @verizon.net email address.

If you want immediate step-by-step instructions, visit change my port settings to 587 now.

Go here for the Verizon web page: http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/highspeed/general+support/top+questions/questionsone/124274.htm


I forwarded this info to our business manager who is looking into this so perhaps we can get this problem solved once and for all!

Tech Tuesday Tip

This comes from an email I get in my Gmail, (you have a Gmail account, right?!?).

The source is Windows Secrets:

Little-known beta apps enhance Gmail's usability

By Lincoln Spector

While there's much to like about Gmail, there's also much that's missing — such as multiple signatures, hierarchical tags, and the ability to embed pictures as part of your mail.

You might be surprised to learn that Gmail actually does support those features, and about 50 more, in a beta program called Gmail Labs.

Each lab adds something to Gmail, and some are truly worthwhile. Installing preproduction software is usually a bit dicey, but using Web-based beta products doesn't carry much risk. A Gmail lab might break, but it won't damage your PC.

The labs are browser-neutral; I've used the same ones in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome without any problems. Start Labs by going to your Gmail settings and clicking the Labs tab. On the Labs Settings page, enable the individual apps you want to try. Once you have saved the changes, a small green beaker will appear in the upper-right bar on your Gmail screen. (See Figure 1.) Click it from any Gmail window to add or disable Labs.


Figure 1. The Gmail Labs page, accessed by clicking the little green beaker (circled in yellow), is where you enable and disable Gmail's new beta e-mail tools.

Here are my five favorite labs, add-ons I now consider as essential parts of my Gmail experience. I'll finish with a wished-for sixth lab — it doesn't exist, but it should.

Avoid repetitive typing with Canned Responses

We all have strings of text that we enter into e-mails over and over again. They might include your mailing address, a common introductory paragraph, and two or three signatures. Enable Canned Responses, and you'll have to type each of these strings only one more time.

First, type something you'll want to use again; highlight the text; then select the Canned responses link below the subject field. Select New canned response and give your new response a name. (See Figure 2.)


Figure 2. With Gmail's Canned Response lab, you can enter frequently used text and quickly insert it into future mail.

The next time you want to insert those words into an outgoing message, select it from the same Canned responses pull-down menu.

I do have one complaint about Canned Responses: You can't organize your responses or even sort them. It would, for example, be nice to pull several signatures together, collect them into one group, and arrange them in a convenient order. However, they remain listed in the order in which you created them.

Embed photos and illustrations in your e-mail

It's almost pathetic that Inserting Images has to exist as a Lab. It should have been part of Gmail's default features from the beginning. After all, photos and illustrations have been a standard part of e-mail for a very long time. I'm not talking about attached images — I'm referring to images, such as a company logo, that are embedded in the body text.

Before Inserting Images was added to Labs, people had to resort to all sorts of tricks to place a photo inside a Gmail message. A method I used was to create a Google Docs document with text and an embedded image, then copy and paste it into a message.

Once you've enabled the Inserting Images lab, that problem is over. You'll find an image icon in the Gmail editing toolbar. Click that, and you can insert a picture from a local file or from the Internet.

Organize Gmail labels with the Nested Labels lab

The creators of Gmail had a brilliant idea when they replaced the folders metaphor used in most other e-mail programs with labels. But you need the Nested Labels lab to turn those labels into a real organizing tool.

Labels behave much like folders — they are a convenient way to group related e-mails. Click on a label, and you'll see a list of all the messages you assigned to that label, just as you would with a folder in most other e-mail programs.

Labels have one big advantage over folders: you can assign multiple labels to any single message. In most e-mail clients, a message discussing two different projects can be placed into only one folder. In Gmail, you can give it both labels.

As originally conceived, labels also have a big disadvantage. You can't, for example, put a label inside another label, as you can with folders. Think how unruly your hard drive would become if every single folder — My Documents, Windows, System32, Microsoft Office, and thousands of others — all sat directly in the root directory.

This is where Nested Labels becomes essential. With this lab, labels can live inside other labels. (See Figure 3.) If you name one label Projects and another Projects/Conquer World, your Conquer World label will appear nested inside Projects in Gmail's left panel. (It's the slash that tells Gmail what goes in what.)


Figure 3. Use Nested Labels to place one label inside another, as you would folders.

It's not a perfect solution. You can't put one label inside another with a simple drag-and-drop. And the Move to and Labels pull-down menus don't show the nesting. But it's a big step in the right direction.

Mouse around more quickly within Gmail

The Mouse Gestures lab gives you yet another way to navigate around Gmail. It's not a full navigation system, but it nicely augments the basic technique of clicking the appropriate links and icons as well as the keyboard shortcuts.

Finished reading one message and want to go to the next one? With Mouse Gestures enabled, simply hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse slightly to the left. (Moving it to the right brings you to the previous message.) Move it up, and you leave the message and get back to the inbox, where mouse gestures no longer work.

That's it — just those three gestures. But hey, it's free and you don't even have to install anything. And once you're used to them, you won't want to give them up.

Organize e-mail priority with colorful stars

The Superstars lab is an easy way to organize your top-priority messages.

Normally, Gmail displays a little white star outline next to every e-mail. Click it, and it turns bright yellow — a convenient way to make high-priority items stand out. You can even click the Starred link near the top of the left panel to see all your starred items.

With the Superstars lab enabled, clicking that white star will still turn it yellow. But click it again, and it turns blue; click a third time, and you get a green circle with a check mark; a fourth click produces a red circle with an exclamation point. The fifth click starts the cycle over again. (See Figure 4.)


Figure 4. Superstars lets you add both color and organization to your Gmail inbox.

The different icons don't actually change any Gmail behavior — you can't, for example, filter your messages to show only those with a red circle. But they do help you categorize and prioritize e-mail conversations. For instance, you could use the green icon for financial issues, and the red one for top priorities. The result not only gives you more information at a glance, it also makes your screen more colorful.

A lab is needed for managing Gmail conversations

Gmail Labs offers a whole lot more than the five I've described. You can customize keyboard shortcuts, display appointments from Google Calendar, and stop a message seconds after you sent it. You can even put the old Beta notice back into the Gmail icon.

I really like Gmail's conversation metaphor (an enhanced type of e-mail thread); it's one major reason I switched to Gmail in the first place. By keeping each original message and all its replies together as a single unit, Gmail shortened the inbox list and logically connected your various mail discussions. The result made managing e-mail much, much easier.

But you can't separate a message from a Gmail conversation, nor can you put one in. Gmail is only a program, after all, and occasionally it links a message to the wrong conversation. Gmail doesn't offer any way to correct these errors. When a message lands in the wrong conversation, there's nothing you can do about it.

So this is the lab I want to see: Remove from/Add to Conversation. I hope someone at Google is reading this.

Tech Tuesday Tip

This weeks tip is what I consider "old school".

7 years ago, when I started working for my group of radio stations, I had a desktop computer and we used Microsoft Outlook for our company email.

If I was away from my desk, on the other side of town, or at home, and I wanted to check for new email messages, I was out of luck.

If this is your situation, then this tip is for you.

Mail2Web.com allows you to log in to your company email account (in most circumstances) and check for new messages. You can also send messages from Mail2Web.com.

The cost? Free.

The reason I said this is old school is because 6 1/2 years ago, I bought my first laptop and so now I have all of my work email with me everywhere I go. And with Blackberries and smartphones, many folks can check their email without a computer.

Here's the link: http://mail2web.com/

Information Overload?

Let's face it. We have access to more information from more sources, than ever before.

How do you manage it? Some ideas from the DLM Blog:

How to Take Action on What You Read: Filtering and Using Information

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 07:35 AM PST

You spend a lot of time reading. Whether it’s blogs, magazines, journals, Twitter streams, newspapers or good old fashioned books, you’ve got a huge amount of information at your fingertips. Every day, you take in tons of ideas for overhauling your life: whether it’s shaking up your fitness regime, working more effectively, or having stronger relationships.

The problem is, it’s easy to get caught up in this sea of information. You might feel inspired when you read a particular blog article, or you might get a great idea from a journal... but all too often, that thought barely gets started before the next piece of information rushes in.

So how can you make sure that you’re not just passively reading through pages of information – you’re actually taking steps to make serious improvements in your life?

Avoiding Information Overload
First off, I’d say that it’s better to read a dozen articles and really make use of them, rather than skim a hundred. If you currently have a lot of magazine and journal subscriptions, or you have loads of blogs and email newsletters that you keep track of, consider whether it’s time to cut down.

If, like many of us, you use your email and your RSS reader for business purposes and for entertainment, then try dividing up your mail and feeds into sensible categories. I have a category in my RSS reader labeled “personal development”, and keeping these in one places means that when it’s time to read them, I’m ready to make notes and take actions as necessary. If you use Google Reader, try The 10 Most Useful Google Reader Productivity Tips to make sure you’re using it as effectively as possible.

Using a Notebook (Paper or Electronic)
First, you need a way to capture those ideas. Trying to hold them all in your head just won’t work and you know it! Whenever you’re reading for information (rather than for entertainment), keep a notebook on your desk or a document open on your computer. Jot down anything that comes up: it might be a reference that you want to look up, a particular tip you want to implement in your life, or a reminder to yourself.

Simply writing something down doesn’t get it done though. We’ve all written down lists of ideas and then forgotten about them for weeks. I have a couple of ways of avoiding that: which of these would work for your projects?

1. Transferring Notebook Items to a Task List, Calendar, or Diary
   Every day, or every couple of days, go through the list of items in your notebook (or document) and decide how to fit them into your task list. This might mean scheduling some time in your calendar, or it might simply mean adding them to a “to-do” list.


2. Use a Separate Notebook For Each Project
   When your notebook jottings relate to long term projects (such as improving your company’s website or decorating your house), keep them in one document. When you come to a day or an afternoon which you’ve earmarked for that project, simply open up your document and all your ideas will be in one place.

Using Online Tools
There are loads of online tools or pieces of software which can be used to capture, track and manage tasks and pieces of information. By all means use these but make sure you’re actually using them. By that I mean that there’s no benefit in bookmarking dozens of websites if you don’t ever go back and read them or put their advice into action! For some great advice on using bookmarks effectively in Firefox, read 9 Power Tips To Utilize Your Firefox Bookmarks.

I personally like Delicious for keeping track of web pages that I want to come back to or which I think might be useful to me. Often though, I simply keep URL links in the file which relates to that particular project.

It’s very easy to end up spending a lot of time tagging, filing and organizing online materials without really taking any action. Be strict with yourself and if a particular tool is becoming a time-waster, don’t be afraid to ditch it.

Finally ... Don’t Try to Take In Everything
There is far, far more information available than any of us ever have time to read. Much of this is great, authoritative, even life-changing stuff. However, if we all tried to keep up with everything, we’d never be able to actually take any actions. (Check out Six Smart Ways To Beat Information Overload if you’re struggling to stem the tide of information.)

Don’t worry about missing out: if there’s a truly life-changing idea out there for you, you’ll come across it one way or another. Ultimately, books, blogs, magazines and journals may well change the direction of your career or even your life ... but only because you make the time to take conscious action.

Written on 11/03/2009 by Ali Hale. Ali is a professional writer and blogger, and a part-time postgraduate student of creative writing. If you need a hand with any sort of written project, drop her a line (ali@aliventures.com) or check out her website at Aliventures.

Photo Credit: dylanroscover

Gmail Tips

Before I share with you the article I found last month on the DLM Blog, I'll share with you why I made the switch a few years ago.

When I first became active online, Gmail wasn't around. And then it was by invite only!

So I had free email accounts with Yahoo and Microsoft (HotMail).

When I set up my first customized domain name it was also with Yahoo. I was a strong advocate of Yahoo products.

Then, the longer I had an email address, the more cluttered with spam it became. Today estimates are that over 90% of email is spam. And Yahoo couldn't handle it. The Yahoo spam filters were catching some, but not all of the spam.

When it became overwhelming to clean out my Yahoo email every day, I began using a gmail account that I reserved and at first simply used it as a spam filter. Now with the added features that Google has added to their email program, I can send all my email into my Gmail account and all of it gets filtered!

Read more:

6 Smart Gmail Tricks To Help You Get The Most Out Of It

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 04:51 AM PDT

I'm sure most of you would agree that Gmail has revolutionized the way we communicate and manage information via email. If you doubt it then it means that you are yet to exploit the extraordinary features of this email app to the fullest.

This article explores some of the outstanding Gmail features and tricks which make this tool a must have for anyone using email to communicate. The features discussed here will also help long time Gmail users to dig deeper and get the most out of this amazing service.

1. Consolidate multiple email accounts into one Gmail account
   This is probably the most important reason why one should make the switch if he is using a different email service. With Gmail you don't have to worry about checking your different email accounts. You can consolidate all the multiple inboxes into one Gmail account.
   
   While the option to combine other email accounts into Gmail was always there, recently Gmail made the process a cakewalk by introducing the import option in the settings. It's super easy now to use Gmail as your one stop email service.


2. Learn to use filters and labels effectively
   No other email service lets you filter and organize emails the way Gmail does. Using "Filters" and "Labels" in Gmail, you could always keep unimportant emails out of your inbox and be much more efficient in email management.
   
   Here is an old but still useful article from Lifehack on ways to use Gmail filters. If you are looking to learn more about labels then this article on about.com regarding Gmail labels should help you.


3. Make use of multiple Gmail addresses you get with one account
   This is a gem. And if you didn't know about this, here's the surprise - with Gmail you actually get an unlimited number of different email addresses. Yes, unlimited! How? Well abc@gmail.com is same as a.bc@gmail.com and abc+def@gmail.com. More on this here.
   
   Oh, and abc@gmail.com is also same as abc@googlemail.com. Awesome feature, isn't it? This feature could be used in so many ways. Like in this article, the Digital Inspiration blog points out how you could use one email for multiple twitter accounts. That's just one use. There could be many more such tricks. Get the picture?


4. Use Gmail Labs
   In my opinion, the next best thing the Gmail team has done after launching Gmail is introducing Gmail Labs. I wasn't gung-ho about it initially but when the different labs add-ons started rolling out, I was completely speechless. Gmail became more amazing each day.
   
   There are a number of Labs tools you could enable. Here are my favorite picks.


5. Use Browser add-ons
   If Firefox is your primary browser (it should be if it isn't), then you could also install certain add-ons which add more functionality to Gmail. Here is an article which talks about some of the best add-ons for Gmail available.


6. Make Gmail your information center
   If you were to ask me the name of one person who has exploited Gmail more than anyone else, I would instantly say Steve Rubel. The man has written some great articles on how he uses the various features of Gmail to organize information efficiently. One such article is about how he transformed Gmail into his personal nerve center. It's an excellent read.

Hope you like the tricks. If you know of some other cool ways to use Gmail, do share them in the comments.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 9/11/2009 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is an internet entrepreneur who loves writing about tech, productivity, blogging & making money online. Catch him at Jeet Blog and also subscribe to his weekly newsletter.

Photo Credit: Gubatron

Managing Email

I got this in my Email from the DLM Blog.

My method is to have all my email forwarded to a gmail based account, with labels. Check out the other tips:

How to Consolidate Multiple Inboxes into One

Posted: 14 Jul 2009 05:47 AM PDT

Fairly recently here at Dumb Little Man, I wrote a post which shared my tips on clearing a massively crowded inbox. At the time, I had 5 email accounts and they all had thousands of emails into them. From the advice on that post, I showed how anyone in a similar situation can get the size of their inbox down, quickly and efficiently.

What I didn't touch upon in that article is how I managed to merge all of my inboxes together. I went from 4 that I would check daily, and 1 that I would check weekly, to only using one now every single day. With more and more people moving online each day, there are new services coming out to handle our needs and multiple solutions that people use.

My first email account was with my school, and then I moved to Lycos, and then to Hotmail (which was purchased by Microsoft). These days, as a webmaster, I use Google Apps to give me an email address that not only includes my domain name, but gives me all the features of Gmail.

In this article I want to share my tips on consolidating your inboxes into just one in order to make life a little easier.

Organise Each Account Before You Move Anything
Before you forward all emails to the one account you have chosen or import them anywhere, tidy it up first. You can find most of my tips on this here, but as a summary:

• Un-subscribe from email lists you no longer care about
  
• Turn-off unnecessary communications from social networks, forums and the like
  
• Search for phrases which you know will only show junk messages and remove them all at once
  
• Make sure you save your password and registration type emails before removing anything

Once you have your inbox clear, you can then look at consolidation.

Import All Necessary Emails
Now that things are tidy, you will want to move all important emails from each account into their final home. The process on how to do this will vary greatly depending on what type of email set-up you are using.

Some great guides for some of the most common moves can be found on the following sites:

• Moving from Hotmail to Gmail - Here
  
• Moving from Outlook to Gmail - Here
  
• Moving from Outlook to Thunderbird - Here
  

If you are using some other service or moving your emails in a different direction, a quick Google search will usually help you with your specific needs.

Forward Future Emails from Each Account
Now that all your emails are in one place, you still don't want to go back to other services to check for new emails. Before 'leaving' each account for good, you need to make sure that future emails each receives will all go to the same account.

You can do this in Gmail by going to Settings; Forwarding; Then enter your email address

You are also given the option to choose whether you want to keep incoming emails in this newly redundant account or simply forward to your new account and then delete in the old.

To forward Outlook emails somewhere else you can go to Tools; Rules and Alerts; Then create a new forwarding rule

Update Friends & Websites With Your Email Address
The solution of forwarding isn't very useful if you still have to open Outlook or Thunderbird everyday for emails to be forwarded to your final account. For this reason, make sure you tell your friends, co-workers and family about your change of address.

It might be best to do this by sending out a mass email.

Similarly, it's a good idea to update your email address on websites you use or lists you subscribe to so that you can guarantee proper delivery of your emails. Examples of this include your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or online forum accounts.

Choose Your Email Signature Carefully
Some people have multiple email accounts because one is for business and one is for personal use. If that is the case, I recommend you keep things that way unless otherwise necessary. In my situation, I had multiple personal accounts that didn't really need to be separate.

I run a lot of websites and each have their own contact form, so I had to be especially careful about the email signature I choose. If people are emailing you about one thing and your signature is related to something completely different, it's likely that they will be confused.

See if there is an option in whatever client you are using to be able to switch between multiple signatures either manually or based on certain words that the email contains. This way you won't be sending out any confusing messages.

Have you had the pleasure of consolidating multiple inboxes? How did it go?

Written on 7/14/2009 by Glen Allsop. Glen writes on the subject of Personal Development at PluginID. His site's main aim is to help people Plug into their Identity, be who they want to be and live the life they want to live.

Photo Credit: idogcow