The first thing I, and every other webmaster I know, starts his or her day with, is to check emails. You will also need to keep checking your emails several other times during the day.

Sorting and Managing Emails

Outlook Express

The first step you can take towards effectively managing your emails is to get yourself and email software like 'Outlook Express'. With Outlook Express, you will be check all your email accounts in one single place, set up folders for different emails, set rules for email messages etc. Outlook Express will be sure to make life much more easier for any webmaster.

Spam Filtering

You will notice that you receive tons of emails, of which very few are actually of use. Most emails, called 'SPAM' will try to sell you something or the other. How do these people get your email address? The answer is simple. Your email address is posted on your website, in the message forums where you are a registered member, your newsletter subscriptions and a whole lot of other places. Fighting spam is a difficult task but you can reduce the extent of spam by using Spam Filters. A spam filter blocks emails with offending words. A good spam filter is the Norton Antivirus Email Protection. Other Spam Filters are also available. In most cases your hosting account will also provide some sort of Spam Filter which you can activate to protect yourself from spam emails.

Spam Filters are not 100% effective. In addition to those, you can set up your own message rules in OE (Outlook Express). You can set up emails from a certain address or with certain words in their subject line to be deleted from the server.

OE Folders

You can organize your emails much better using a certain option in Outlook Express which allows you to create folders and setup message rules for them. You can create different folders for Ezines and Newsletters, Newsgroup postings, orders, queries, contest entries, passwords, payment details etc. You can automatically rules so that the emails are directly deposited in these folders. For e.g. you can create a rule that emails with the subject line 'Mom Tycoons Business Ezine' be delivered into a special folder that you have created for it. You can, of course, manually move emails to specific folders as well.

Writing/Replying to Emails

Responding to Emails

This will your most time-consuming, yet most important task every day. Sort emails in order of their priority. Respond to any new order or product enquiry first and foremost. Next, reply to any emails from past customers. Customer service is extremely essential in any type of business. Next comes any business proposals, joint ventures, website issues etc.

Once the business emails are done with, focus your attention on other emails. You may have several link exchange requests. Visit each website and decide for yourself if it is worth exchanging links with and respond accordingly.

There might be some emails with some feedback regarding your website, informal emails, general queries etc. They can be responded after all other emails have been sent.

Writing Emails

Replying to emails is not the only task when you open your Outlook Express. You will also be required to write emails for several purposes. For e.g. you may need to submit a new article via email. You might need support from your domain or hosting company, your hired designer or webmaster etc. You may need to approach people for link exchanges, joint ventures and the like. Perform this important task and make sure to add an email signature containing your website address to every email. OE has an option by which it can automatically add your signature to every email that you compose or reply. This will help in promoting your website url with every email that you send.

Autoresponders

Your hosting provider will also provide a certain number of autoresponders which you can use with your email accounts. An autoresponder is an automated email reply. For e.g. if you have a separate email for enquiries - enquiry@yoursite.com. You can setup an autoresponder for this address so that whenever anyone sends an enquiry at this email, an automated reply (which you can set up) like 'Thank You for your enquiry. We will get back to you within 24 hours' is sent back.

Autoresponders are also helpful when you are going out for a few days. You can setup autoresponders for all your emails so that all emails are replied with a 'Thank You for your email. I will not be able to reply to your email till Monday as I will be out of town.'