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As email use becomes more
widespread, learning to use it effectively becomes more important. Take a
moment to "dress up" your emails, to create the best possible impression.
It's courteous, and it's good business.
Good Email Habits Create Good
Impressions
Just as your business cards, brochures, and (hopefully) your
web site all present your business in a professional light,
email is a powerful presentation tool that is often ignored. Following
some basic rules of email usage, will insure your messages are read and
impressions are positive.
1. Be cautious about sending unsolicited email, especially commercial
messages. This is known as SPAMMING, and can result in loss of services if
you are reported. Be sure the intended recipient WANTS to receive what
you’re sending. How? Next time you send a joke or forward an
inspirational message, include a note such as: "I hope you enjoy this as
much as I did. If you'd like me to keep sending more like this one, please
let me know." If you don't hear back from the person, don't keep
sending those jokes or inspirational messages.
2. Never place multiple names in the “To:” line or the “Cc:” line unless
you are sending to a group that is related to one another. Instead, find
and USE the “Bcc:” feature on your email messages to ensure the privacy
of your friends, clients and business associates.
“Bcc:” stands for Blind Carbon Copy. To use this feature you must type a
recipient address in the “To:” line. Use your own address.
3. Use a descriptive Subject to let the recipient know what to expect. If
you are sending a joke, make note of it in the Subject. When your email
subjects accurately describe the contents, the recipient can quickly
determine the importance of your message.
4. Strip out extra headers when forwarding email: Select the message text,
Copy it to the clipboard (Control C), Create a new message, Paste the text
you copied from the clipboard (Control V). All those extra headers from
forwarded email contain other people's email addresses and in some cases
their names too. I would like to suggest that you make it a rule to
rarely, if ever, forward email. But sometimes you must forward a message.
If it is important enough (or just wonderful enough) to forward in the
first place, take a few minutes to do it right.
5. Know your recipient’s email and ISP limitations, and respect them.
Instead of sending a large file as an attachment, consider sending a link
to the web page where you found it. Sending a large file, such as a
picture, or an HTML file, can fill a recipient's email box over quota, or
take a long time to download if they are using a modem connection.
Email usage is becoming a topic
for many businesses, who train their employees about the do's and don'ts.
Use common sense and your personal and small business emails will reflect
your care and consideration.
Do you have a suggestion for email
usage? Drop us a note at
resources@westcoast-technologies.com
From time to time every web site
owner will receive email solicitations from companies offering to
"increase visitors to your web site" by submitting your site to "over
300,300+ search engines".
Other solicitations claim to
"improve your search-engine rankings - guaranteed."
Remember the following:
Search engine rankings do not
generate business. Neither does driving up the hit counter on your site.
On many of the major search engines you can pay to have your site appear
at
the top (or near the top) of the list.
AltaVista, and Yahoo both sell
rankings now.
So the first question for you to answer is: "For what search word or words
would you like your site to appear in the top rankings?" If you can decide
on which words you want to focus, you can then contact the major search
engines and find out if you can buy a listing and how much it will
cost.
One of the newest and very popular search engines is
www.google.com. Visit Google,
and type in your name. Unless you have a very common name, your web site
will probably show up at or near the top of the page. If you've written an
article or two that have been picked up by other web sites, you'll see all
the places your name shows up on those sites too!
West Coast Technologies does not specialize in search engine
ranking because we simply don't have time. Search engine ranking requires
you to spend time every day working on site
submission and checking on your competition to see what they are doing.
Programs are written that will analyze your web site content and make
suggestions for you to improve your rankings. To find a good one, go to
your favorite search engine and type in "Search Engine Rankings" or
"Search Engine Tools". Be wary
of paying to submit your web site to multiple thousands of search engines.
Unless you have the proper Key Words and page content in place, submitting
your site will not be effective, and can even be detrimental if a bulk
submission tool is used. (Some search engines will ban your site if you
use bulk submission because they consider it 'spamming'.)
We work with our clients to get
the important tools in place to be easily navigated and ranked by the
search engines for the words our clients choose to concentrate on.
Every new client receives "Homework for New Web Site Owners" which
introduces the concepts of Key Words, Descriptions, and Content and how to
write for higher search engine rankings.
West Coast Technologies works
to support our clients' purpose by providing effective navigation on an
attractive web site, offering the visitor an easy way to find what he or
she is looking for, subscribe to a newsletter, or make a purchase.
There is no better way to achieve your web site goals than to Do Your
Homework. Define your customer/visitor, make it easy for the visitor
to navigate your site and offer what your visitor is looking for.
More Questions? email
resources@westcoast-technologies.com |
