Web Hosting - Misc Web Tips

Only 7 Percent of E-Mails Are Worth Reading
By MaryEllen Tribby

I just returned from my family vacation. We rented a beautiful beach house on the ocean side of Fire Island,
New York. It was wonderful. No cars are permitted on the island; everyone bikes to and from town. We
played tennis daily and built sandcastles on the beach. And believe or not, for the first time in my career, I left
my laptop at home. (I call it my unplugged vacation.)

Knowing I was going to be out of touch for a while, I prepared everything I needed ahead of time. That
included setting up the following auto responder message for all the e-mails I would be receiving while I was
gone:

Hello and thank you for your e-mail.

I will be out of the office from June 12th - 24th. Due to the high volume of e-mails I receive, I will delete all
e-mails sent during this time period. If your e-mail still requires attention after the 24th, please resend it.

If you need immediate attention, please contact another member of the ETR team.

Cheers,
ME

Well, while I was away I received 979 e-mails. Only 68 were re-sent after my return, and three had been
forwarded to my assistant. That is barely over 7 percent of my e-mails that really needed attention.

Next time you go away on vacation, don't waste your time upon your return sorting through e-mails that have
either been taken care of or really did not require your attention to begin with. Set up an auto responder like
mine and delete 'em all. Then you can jump back in by taking care of tasks that actually make you money -
right when you are fresh and raring to go!

[Ed. Note: Accomplishing your goals won't happen unless you make the best use of your time. Simple
techniques - like MaryEllen's autoresponder e-mail - can not only help you be more productive, they can help
you reach your goals faster. Learn how you can get 365 days' worth of goal-setting strategies and advice right
here.]

It's Good to Know: A Quick and Easy E-Mail Backup System

You no doubt know that you should be backing up important files on your computer. But what if you don't
have access to your office's server, a flash memory drive, or another backup system? Well, if you have two
e-mail addresses (work and personal, for example), just e-mail a copy of the file to yourself. Because that file
will be stored on the provider's server, nothing that happens to your own computer will affect it.

Free Ad Space! Your E-Mail Signature
By Woody Longacre

You can promote your website or business using everything from Email marketing, PPC advertising, print
mailers or word of mouth. But don't overlook the free ad space opportunity that's at your finger tips everyday.

Consider adding a small promotional ad to the signature of your personal e-mail you send. Many successful
marketers report this to be a great way to supplement advertising efforts for free without spamming!

No matter what email program you use for sending Email, chances are you are able to set up a "signature file"
at the end of the mail.

Simply add a short promotional ad below your standard signature that advertises either your product, service
or website. Then, each time an email is sent your promotion will be sent as well. The nice thing about this is no
one will ever consider this spam, and it's free!

Collecting Email addresses on your site

If you are not collecting email addresses at your website, the traffic you bring there is being partially wasted.
By building an opt-in list, you can bring traffic back over and over again, and this is essential to online
businesses. Email addresses and first names should be collected with an opt-in page, or with subscribe boxes
located on every single page of your website! Why do this? Because those that opt-in are hard earned
potential customers that you can continue to market your products or services to.