How Many Email Addresses Should I have?

I am kinda embarrassed to say how many email addresses I currently have because I have so many that I have forgotten the actual number. I started out like everyone else with one and that one happened to be created almost 15 years ago, does anyone remember the Internet service Prodigy? Well that was my very first email address. I then went on to get an email from this little upstart company some of you might have heard of called AOL. I no longer have an AOL address but my oldest current email address is about to celebrate its 10 year anniversary.

Ten years of having a Yahoo email address is not really that great but I would challenge you all to find out what is your oldest current email address and can you beat 10 years. If so please post how long you have had it and let me know if you have saved any emails from that address from so long ago. I have never deleted any of my emails from Yahoo and probably never will. Yes I KNOW I should delete the old ones but it really is a kick to see some of the emails I sent and received from people 10 years ago.

So at present count I think I have about 45+ email addresses both professional and personal and YES I do check them all. Some I don't check as frequent but I am very good and creating folders and setting up rules in Microsoft Outlook to keep most of them organized. My good friend Peggy Duncan who is a Professional Productivity Expert thinks I am crazy to have so many email addresses and even more crazy that I never delete any of the emails I get. Don't get me wrong I do delete most of the spam but the rest is archived and backed up on a regular bassist.

I am sure I don't hold the record for one person having so many email addresses. Who do you know that has more?

As a rule of thumb most small businesses should only have as many email addresses as they need to get their business done. If you are a soloprenuer like myself I would go with 3 professional email addresses to start. The first one you should have is your main email address Yourname@Yourcompany.com then I would go with info@yourcompany.com and sales@yourcompany.com I would then get 2 free personal email addresses from any of the free email services say gmail.com and yahoo.com. Use these email address for things you really don't want to come into your business email address or things you think you may get more spam then legitimate email. If you need more, I say GO FOR IT but only if you can keep track of them.
Don't lose any business because you forgot to check one of your many email addresses.

So, how many email addresses should you have? As many as you can keep track of and not have to hire someone to do it for you.

Tech.Ed in Sydney 2008

I just missed Tech.ED this past August but I am looking forward to next year's location, Sydney Australia. I have never been to Australia and have always wanted to go "down under" as they say over there. Tech.ED is what I would be going their for on business but I am so looking forward to going early and spending a couple days in some of the smaller cities of Australia. I have heard and read so much about cities like Perth and Adelaide. I don't want to just take in the bigger without visiting the smaller. Starting with the western side of the land and Perth.

I remember the Crocodile Dundee movies and seeing some of the beautiful countryside of the western part of Australia were it was mostly filmed. Perth comes to mind because I have read its one of the best places were you can see some of the most fantastic beaches and at the same time take in a safari. Technology has made it so easy that with a click of my mouse I can get an answer to my questions about any of the Perth Hotels via email or instant messaging.

Adelaide would then be my next stop where I would visit one of the cities another one of my favorite Sci-fi movies, The Matrix was filmed. Who can forget the leap Morpheus made from the top of one sky scraper to the next, only to see Neo not have enough confidence to make the same jump. My leap of faith is to use the internet and email to help me find a suitable hotel in Adelaide that would put me right in the middle of all the action. I've been told that most of the Adelaide Hotels are very accommodating and Adelaide is more know for its gardens and parks within and around the city. I also hope to see a professional cricket match in the famous Adelaide Oval.

Finally Sydney, the site where most of the finale of Mission Impossible II was filmed finishes my trek across Australia but begins my adventure of its most well known city. I hope to be in Sydney at least 2-3 days before Tech.ED starts so I can take in and enjoy all the Sydney accommodation Australia has to offer.

Yes, I am very excited about Tech.Ed as an IT Professional who looks to further his career with all the great workshops and certification specials. I just want to take advantage of such a once in a life time treat of getting both my Geek/Nerd and my vacation on. So I will see you in 2008 at the Sydney Convention Center, September 2-5th.

New Kid on the Block of Email Marketing Services

The space of web based email marketing services has been dominated by a very small group of companies. The most popular of them all has been one I have been affiliated with for almost 6 years. Constant Contact by Roving Software is by far one of the most easy to use and cost effective email marketing services on the market. I have seen many try and fail at coming close to what Constant Contact has to offer. One such company iContact.com formally known as Intellicontact.com has probably come the closest when it comes to features and pricing plans.

Today I was informed of another company that looks like it has a shot at playing with the big boys. Viper Logic Corp., a company out of Palms Springs, California has developed their own email marketing services called "Vipermailer". Vipermailer.com has a very simple website but from the looks of things, a very powerful presentation of features and mailer templates.

As of this writing I have only seen emailed examples of their templates and read about their dynamic features and pricing. I will do a follow up blog when I have been given the chance to try their service free, for 30 days.

Speaking of pricing, I really do think Vipermailer.com has an advantage with their service plans where cost is based on the number of subscribers they have to send email marketing message too and not how many individual emails are sent per campaign. Both Constantcontact.com and iContact.com share this type of pricing strategy.

So for I am very impressed with Vipermailer.com and I look forward to sending out my first test campaign to my subscriber base and see what they think of this new email marketing kid on the block.

Yourchildsname.com

I read an article in today's Yahoo.com News about a couple who had a birth certificate in one had and a domain name in the other for their new born child.

I had at one time thought about doing the same for my two children many years before they were born as well but never did. I at one time did own my own name but I let it go and never renewed it. As a result of this article on domain names for children my wife looked up our family's chances of domaindum and we went 3-4. My son's name was the only one not available. I did get a domain name for my daughter's dedication but I am still debating on acquiring her given name sake.

I have always seen domain names as a great way to promote one's business or brand. I have even written about how one should use their email address that includes their domain name "Use Email Address to Promote and Market Your Business" but I never really thought that domain names were meant for children. I do understand how sports figures or movie stars should try and acquire their children's name for the sake of their future. I mean where would the world be if Paris Hilton could not get her own domain name.

So for now I will just consider getting both my name and my wife's name registered in the near future and let my kids make the choice for themselves if they want their own domain name.
But if you are so inclined to step out on faith and purchase a slice of the internet for your child please try http://www.proemailaddress.com/

You've Got High Tech Mail

You've Got High Tech Email to be more precise. This was the starting sentence of a Wall Street Journal article I read today saying that email marketing is getting another look from the heavy hitting marketers like IBM and Cisco Systems. These are the two of the many companies who shyed away from email marketing after the spamming wars of the late nineties. Their is a new company that is giving these fortune five hundred marketers a reason to send email again. Eyetools, a San Francisco software company has developed a technology called "heatmapping." This technology can tell marketers what parts of the their emails get the most attention. Heatmapping uses cameras attached to a computer that track a person's eye movements to figure out what part of the screen is being viewed. The results are displayed in vivid colors on what is called a "heatmap" that makes clear where on the screen people's eyes focus.

Eyetools has two email services. The first one discovers whether your key message is getting through and is tested in an email client. The second one is for email campaign optimization of landing pages. That way you can see how your offer performs from email open to landing page. Their pricing ranges by a per person cost to a ten person group study cost. Most of their clients want data collected as a group of people open their email and see what they click on as well as see what they are drawn to once the do reach their landing page. What say you. Would you use or encourage your company to use such a services before you sent out your next email marketing campaign? Let me know your thoughts.

Blackberry Email in Jeopardy

I have a client of mine that is very concerned that his Blackberry phone will not have the feature that he purchase the phone for in the first place. This whole patent infringement with the company NTP, Inc.

According to Gartner Dataquest's Todd Kort and various documents associated with the Research In Motion Ltd. case, the patent in question relates to work that NTP Inc.'s founder, Thomas Campana, did in the late 1980s as a subcontractor for AT&T Corp. AT&T wanted to add wireless e-mail features to its new Safari laptop computer, which it had acquired as a part of its purchase of computer maker NCR.

Campana had developed and patented a method of sending e-mail messages to wireless pagers, and it was a natural fit for AT&T. However, at the last minute, Kort said, AT&T decided not to use Campana's technology, and he lost a considerable amount of money as a result.

"So Campana and his guys sat on the [patents] for years," said Kort, until his holding company, NTP, contacted RIM in January 2000 regarding the patents. However, RIM claims that NTP "did not readily demonstrate any support for potential patent infringement." NTP filed suit against RIM in 2001.

"It's a little bit distasteful," Kort said of NTP's patent crusade, which he said is likely to extend beyond RIM to other companies with similar technology.

"What's happening is NTP is going back in time, asking people who have theoretically been violating their patents to pay up."

Even though my client does not have backup plan just yet I am going ask all who read this to make comments and suggestions on what the current blackberry users should do just in case this battle with NTP does not go their way.

Check out this article by Eric B. Parizo the editor of searchmobilecomputing.com to get additional information on this topic.

Personal vs Professional Life Email - Don't Squander Your First Internet Impression

Summary: They say first impressions are everything these days. So why are you turning business away by sending a free email address to your potential customer? Better yet, why are you giving away a perfect opportunity to promote your business?

My first email address was with compuserve.com back when you could only have numbers for an email address. They then allowed us to have letters as well on prodigy so I switched internet service providers or internet content providers as they are better known to us geeks. My next stop was with the number one provider AOL and my name became an extension of my love for jazz music and I have had that email address ever since. I also have a yahoo.com email address that I use strictly for its Spam filter and free virus protection software that is built into the website. Free email addresses are great and I suggest you take advantage of their many no cost features. But I only use them for personal reasons. The main reason I don't use them for business is because I refuse to give the free email services anymore free publicity and not get anything in return.

The use of email addresses that promote anything but your business is a waste of great branding potential. Every time you send and email to a potential client or customer you have a perfect opportunity to promote your business. Yahoo and MSN will gladly give you a free email address because you help market their business with every click of the send button.

Earthlink and AOL get you to pay them every month to promote their service. I ask you, what are the chances of wemakewidgets@aol.com winning a ten million dollar contract over yourname@wemakewidgets.com Who do you think will be taken more seriously? Don'’t get me wrong I am sure there are many multi million dollar deals done using these services. But how many of them keep using it to create a more corporate and professional image.
Why not go to a website like Proemailaddress.com and register your own little piece of electronic marketing. This can be done for as little as $9.95` for a years worth of keeping your businesses name moving back and forth through cyber space. And get this; yourname@yourcompanyname.com makes a much bigger impression on those you look to do business with in the future.
I can't tell you how many business cards I have received with yahoo, msn, hotmail and especially aol.com email addresses on them and thought do I really want to do business with this person. Are they just a fly by night business? Can I trust a person who can'’t take the time and effort most legitimate businesses use to make sure they are recognized and respected industry leaders?

At one time just having an email address on a business card was impressive because not everyone had an email address let alone knew how to use it as a marketing tool. Gone are those days and in their place one has to step up their game and make more of a first impression. Using a professional email address does just that and more. Not only does a professional email address bring more promise and prestige to your company but it is one of the most inexpensive forms of mass marketing there is today. You are able to market your business to many potential clients while at the same time keeping customers informed and up to date through correspondence.
So in reading this article if you only get one thing that you can use please see to getting a professional email address and give your business the optimum chance to show its true worth.

E-mail: Could you live without it?

I never considered myself a writer even still to this day of writing one of my first blogs but I do find myself realizing how very important writing e-mail messages has become in this world. My quest is to find out just how important e-mail or email is to people. There are some who say they wouldn't miss a beat if they didn't even have and email account. But most would say they could not live, let alone do business without it. Some need it and rely on it so much there is not a day or in some cases and hour that does not go by when they are not checking it. I am going to try and interview as many people as I can find who will share their e-mail story with me. I would like to know if they still remember the first time they received on email message. How did it make them feel then and how does it make them feel now so many months or years later about e-mail.