I have several tips and tricks relating to emails. With the daily fire-hose that comes into my inbox, I’ve come up with several strategies to manage the madness.
e-Newsletter Strategy
This is the newsletter management strategy that I use. I never use my ‘real’ email address to sign up for ANYTHING.
To get started, first you will need to have email catch-all setup. There are many ways to do this depending on your domain registrar and email host. I use GoDaddy Professional Email but another good one is Google Gmail for Business.
This will allow you to make up anyword@domain.com on the fly and it goes to your inbox.
WikiPedia says: For example: if moc.e1791354801lpmax1791354801e@tca1791354801tnoc1791354801 is configured to be the catch-all email address on example.com, then any email sent to an undefined @example.com email address will be forwarded to moc.e1791354801lpmax1791354801e@tca1791354801tnoc1791354801 instead of being rejected as an Undeliverable message or Unknown User error. Therefore, if the sender misspelled it “conttact” it would be automatically redirected to the correct address.
So when I signup for a enewsletter I use moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@yrog1791354801etac.1791354801n1791354801. If it’s about health, I use moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@htla1791354801eh.n1791354801, business-related – moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@zib.1791354801n1791354801 or about products – moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@stcu1791354801dorp.1791354801n1791354801 etc.
If you use Gmail you can do this to in a different way. When you add a plus sign any word after your name but before the @ sign, it will still reach you. So this would look like janesmith+moc.l1791354801iamg@1791354801yroge1791354801tac1791354801 . Read more about this on http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/how-to-use-the-infinite-number-of-email-addresses-gmail-1609458192.
Then I set up a rule in Outlook (its a filter in Gmail) for them to go into individual category folders/labels and bypass the inbox. When I’m ready to look at newsletters, I just look in the folders.
This has an added benefit over time. When I first started doing this, I used moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@yrog1791354801etac.1791354801rette1791354801lswen1791354801. After a couple of years, I started getting a bunch of spam to it. That’s when I switched to just using moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@yrog1791354801etac.1791354801n1791354801 (changing all of the subscriptions) and set up a forward for those email addresses to go to a moc.l1791354801iamg@1791354801xobni1791354801maps1791354801 to be completely removed from my mail system.
Another benefit example for this is; For a specific person/list, I use one unique email address moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@slai1791354801tinir1791354801ieht.1791354801n1791354801 and a couple years later started getting spam to it. I knew exactly who it was coming from and that their list had been compromised as I hadn’t used it for anyone else. I was able to change and forward that one.
I also want to mention that in your own email newsletters, to make sure that you have the option for your subscribers to ‘update’ their info in addition to ‘unsubscribe’. During this transition, I ended up leaving a lot of lists because they only had the ‘unsubscribe’ option and I didn’t want to go hunting down how to sign back up (many of them didn’t even have a link back to their main site).
WhoIs Domain Strategy
When you register a domain name, your contact details are listed publicly for anyone to look up by going to places like https://whois.icann.org or https://who.godaddy.com.
You can pay extra per year to make it private.
But if you don’t, you could get a rash of unwanted emails from “helpful web professions offering to help you with your new domain”.
So the idea came to me to make that email address different than your real one. I use moc.n1791354801iamod1791354801@tcat1791354801nocsi1791354801ohw1791354801.
This will let you know that they got your email from the WhoIs page and then filter those to a different folder.
Plus anyone viewing to details from the WhoIs lookups, will get that email and not your real one.
Email Naming Convention
It is highly recommended to purchase a domain and set up a profession email address rather than just use Gmail for your business. Every time you send an email from a domain-based address, you’re putting your domain name in front of customers and encouraging them to visit your website.
But once you do that, you have a decision to make of what will be the “local-part” or the characters before the @ symbol to be.
You want it to be memorable and easy to SAY and spell.
For business, I’ve used moc.e1791354801manzi1791354801b@ema1791354801ntsri1791354801fym1791354801, moc.e1791354801manzi1791354801b@eci1791354801vres1791354801 and moc.e1791354801manzi1791354801b@tro1791354801ppus1791354801.
For personal email addresses, doing moc.e1791354801mants1791354801altsr1791354801if@em1791354801antsr1791354801if1791354801 seems weird to me. So I’ve tried moc.e1791354801mants1791354801altsr1791354801if@li1791354801ame1791354801 (when verbally telling this one, people don’t get it – so don’t use it). Now I use moc.e1791354801mants1791354801altsr1791354801if@ol1791354801leh1791354801 & moc.e1791354801mants1791354801altsr1791354801if@tc1791354801atnoc1791354801.
Wrap Up
I’ve covered a lot of topics and hope that this has helped you. Let me know in the comments.
If you like the ideas I have but want technical help in implementing it, I’d love to help you.
Just head over to my Introductory Call page and schedule a time for us to chat.
While working on the design of my websites with Karissa, I mentioned my over flowing email inbox which had over 21,000 emails from the last 18 months. She said that she could help with that too and I jumped on that offer, as I wanted it done.
After 1 week of some online sessions and some work afterwards by myself and we had it cleared into folders or deleted into a manageable system that runs by itself.
Profoundly thankful for working with her and for this help. She works very hard for her clients and helps to really improve their strategies and marketing. Highly recommend working with Karissa.
Just Do it, it will help you get organized!
