Time to rethink our email use

"I'm sick and tired of receiving impersonal, insensitive, and clumsy emails (and no, I've not been perfect either). It's my wish that we think hard about our communication habits and end this situation where we are constantly letting each other down."

http://gubbinsexperiment.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/lets-use-email-appropriately.html

Unsubscribe From Unwanted Email Subscriptions with Unroll.me

"If necessity is the mother of invention, then a service like Unroll.me fits that bill to the 'T'. Email overload is an epidemic in itself and a virtual industry for the many apps that have come about because of it."

http://www.guidingtech.com/12204/unsubscribe-from-unwanted-email-subscriptions-unroll-me/

Send Whenever - Schedule Gmail messages

"Schedule emails to send to anyone at any time."

http://sendwhenever.com/

Time Cave

Future email scheduling and reminders

"The idea is simple: drop an email message into Time Cave and tell it when to come out. It'll stay there for as long as you'd like, within reason. (We wouldn't want stalactites to dissolve it.) So for days, weeks, months, or even years, Time Cave will hold onto your message. Once the message's time comes, it's speedily sent on its way back toward you (or whomever you addressed it to)."

http://www.timecave.com/timecave/index.jsp

Send postal mail using electronic mail

"NetGram's E-mail Bridge®  turns e-mail into traditional paper mail delivered by the postal service."


http://www.netgram.com/

Nine guidelines for writing effective email messages

"Keep it brief: I never make it through a long email. I find myself scanning, and I miss important details. You’re not writing a book or a love letter, you’re sharing information. Share the information and move on. If you write more than two or three paragraphs, a face-to-face meeting or conference call might be better.

Include a succinct subject: Long subject lines are as bad as no subject at all. Pinpoint a few keywords that convey the email’s purpose. [...]"

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/msoffice/nine-guidelines-for-writing-effective-email-messages/5154

LetterMeLater

"LetterMeLater.com allows you to send emails to anyone you wish, with the ability to have them sent at any future date and time you choose.

A feature missing from every email service is the ability to schedule when an email gets sent - you must click the "send" button at the exact moment of delivery.

With this service, you can write emails with your existing email address, and they will get sent at the exact date, or dates that you specify - down to the minute. "

http://www.lettermelater.com/

"You can use LetterMeLater without even having to visit this website!
Here are the steps:

1. Create an email that you would like to be delivered at a later date (or dates) like you normally would. It can even be reply or a forward.
2. Address the email to
3. Put the recipients, and time to send at the top of the message. (This text will be removed from the email)
Here is what you need to include:

to: recipient(s)
cc: recipient(s)
bcc: recipient(s)
when: date(s) to send - semicolon delimited for recurring emails
options: any of these options: reminder, hidden, html

*(only to: and when: are required)

You will immediately receive a response, indicating whether is was done successfully or not. If it was, you will be able to see the email in your LetterMeLater account."

L-Mail - The easiest way to send a letter

"L-mail lets individuals and businesses send letters to any postal address via the Internet. We print and post letters from 29 worldwide locations and even lick the stamps for you! "

http://www.l-mail.com/

iMail

"imail is the UK’s leading hybrid mail solution that provides a complete solution for printing, producing and delivering your mail. By using imail you could significantly reduce the costs associated with mail services. imail removes the need for franking machines and stationery providing cost savings of up to 65%."

https://www.ukmail.com/imail/index.html

Integrate Facebook, Twitter and Buzz into Your Gmail

“The key was using Gmail Labs feature at the bottom of the list called ‘Add any gadget by URL’. This allowed me to add these 3 features to my Gmail sidebar.”

http://mashable.com/2010/02/12/facebook-twitter-buzz-gmail/

Gravatar - Globally recognised avatar

"Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?"

http://gravatar.com/

Gist - Social CRM

"Gist removes the noise from individual email alerts, eliminates the hassle of going to multiple services to get news and updates about contacts, and automates the delivery and presentation of the most important information about the contacts in your professional network. By spanning the most on-line contact and content sources, Gist users are better informed with insights and actionable information about clients, prospects, and contacts. "

http://gist.com/

Deferred Sender

"Deferred Sender is a free service that allows you to schedule emails from any email application or website to be sent in the future. Send reminders, notifications and more! "

http://www.deferredsender.com/

The Email Game

"Meet The Email Game - a new way to read and respond to email.

* Get through your inbox faster and develop good email habits."

http://emailga.me/

7 emails you should never send

"Emails that are longer than one screen

Email is popular because it fills the need for quick communication. Subscribers' attention spans are short, and their inboxes are full. An email needs to grab them immediately. So why then do marketers insist on sending emails that ask subscribers to scroll and scroll and scroll? Marketers make the mistake of trying to convert a four-page paper newsletter into an email format, without learning what makes email unique: the ability to make subscribers act.

To make your email stand out, design it so the copy is on a single screen above the fold. Have a strong call to action in the email subject line that also is included in the content. Use hyperlinks to continue stories, link to information, direct people to surveys, show videos, etc. Including three to five hyperlinks within the body of each email keeps the message concise and provides multiple tracking mechanisms to determine how engaged the audience really is."

http://www.imediaconnection.com/printpage/printpage.aspx?id=27230

PC2Paper - Send and receive real letters and cards online

"Sign up for a free PC2Paper account and start sending and receiving real letters from the Internet today! That's right, send a real letter or card from the Internet anywhere in the world to anyone with a postal address whether you are a personal or business user.

When you sign up you have access to a free address book where you can easily store the addresses of friends or loved ones if you are abroad and want to send them a letter. PC2Paper also enables you to receive and read real postal letters with our Real Letterbox service, you get a postal address and any mail that arrives for you gets scanned for you to read online."

http://www.pc2paper.co.uk/mainpage.asp

"TinyLetter is the easiest way to start writing your own email newsletter.

Just tell people to subscribe. Then write whatever you want, whenever you want, and we'll send it out."

http://tinyletter.com/

Email to Postal Mail

"There are three reasons why you may want to send emails as paper letters using snail mail:

1. Some of your relatives live in remote villages where they don't have computers let alone access to Internet.

2. Your grandparents know computers but they'll probably feel more happy if you could send them emails and photographs in paper form that they can read in the lawn outside.

3. You are trying to reach someone who already gets a few hundred email messages per day. Your email may get lost in the clutter but if you take the snail mail approach, chances are high that he or she will at least read your message if not respond to it."

Read about different services here:

http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/send-postal-letters-on-internet-via-email/7097/

Three Sentences

"three.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be three sentences or less. It’s that simple."

http://three.sentenc.es/

Shortmail: "Twitter For Email" Has 500 Character Limit, Forces Conciseness

"Shortmail.com, which launches publicly on Wednesday from private beta, is designed to create a digestible inbox. By limiting messages to 500 characters, Shortmail is "stressing conciseness," according to 410 Labs. Like Twitter, Shortmail features a character counter which tracks each letter typed--reach the max, and Shortmail will not allow you to send the message."

http://www.fastcompany.com/1763820/shortmail-twitter-for-email-has-500-character-limit-forces-conciseness


http://shortmail.com/