Rancho Mondo Rants & Raves

Handling Your Email

A few folks have asked me how I handle my email.  I am no expert, but I will share with you how I keep my Inbox under control  (well -- at least it gives me the illusion that it is under control  ;-)  These methods work for me, and with modifications for your own personal and unique situation, can work for you.

In most instances I will just use my own setup as an example.  You will most certainly have different needs, and a different idea about what your email management folders should be.  Feel free to create your own folder structure to suit your requirements.

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Before we dive into the main discussion, I'd like to address briefly  (because it demands it's own topic, and much more thorough coverage) the topic of Spam -- the scourge of the Internet.  It is conservatively estimated that 80% of all email traffic is Spam!  This is an astounding figure.  Spam costs all of us -- not only in actual dollars, but also in lost time, inefficiencies of the email system, clogged bandwidth, and on and on.

Your ISP should be your first line of defense against Spam arriving in your Inbox.  Many, if not most, ISPs nowadays have in self-defense installed Anti-Spam filters on their email servers.  Who can blame them?  If you think you hate Spam -- how do you think the ISPs like handling mail where 8 out of 10 pieces is junk that nobody wants, and does not appreciate getting.  It's a Lose-Lose situation for them.

The problem comes when you examine more closely the details of how your mail is filtered.  There is a wide variance in the performance of Anti-Spam measures that any individual ISP might employ.  Some of them are so broad and heavy-handed that there is a likelihood that you are NOT receiving some mail that you wish you were.  This is a common problem with email newsletters that you may subscribe to.  Still, with vigilance  (and often after a few emails to support and perhaps configuration setting changes) you can have a large amount of Spam stopped in it's tracks by your ISP.  You'll never see it.

But even the best Spam filters are going to miss some.  Spam will still show up in your Inbox.  Many of the modern email clients have their own Spam filters, or you can install any of a large number of 3rd.-party Spam filters.  I use a freeware Spam filter called K9 which I find very effective.  It is what is known as a Bayesian filter, and uses advanced logic to determine what is Spam and what is not.  You train it, continually improving it's results.  After using it for awhile and indicating to it what is Spam, it gets smarter and smarter and makes fewer mistakes.

With your ISP filtering the majority of your Spam, and your own Spam filtering catching most of what gets through -- you will have very little actual Spam messages arriving in your Inbox to deal with.  And it will be a quick and easy matter to delete those.  As we will see in a moment -- deletion is one of the only 4 things you will do with every piece of mail -- and for me, the first and easiest and most satisfying!

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We're almost ready to talk about handling your email -- but we need to make one more short diversion.  The methods I will be discussing all involve the management of your email by placing each message in various organizational folders that you create.  I will not explain how to make those folders and sub-folders in your email program, but it is necessary for you to know how to do so.  Consult the documentation for your specific email application.  Every single one of them allows the creation of mail folders  (and sub-folders) to manage your email.

The creation of a logical folder structure -- one with an organization and logic that suits your needs -- is critical.  What we will be doing is moving email messages from your Inbox to various other folders.  Some of these folders will just be temporary holding places, as we process them according to their urgency.  Others will be the final repositories of the message -- at least until we back it up onto a CD, and can then clear that folder.

This is something that you will want to do on a regular basis, as every single email application will eventually start giving you problems if you let your stored messages grow too large.  The solution is to archive those messages somewhere else  (and a removable CD is just perfect) -- then clear the old messages out, providing an empty folder to start filling up again.

OK -- we're finally ready to discuss my email handling procedure.  Key to the whole process is keeping your Inbox empty.  Like many of you, my previous crude method was to not remove an email from my Inbox until I had taken care of it in some manner.  This way, I figured, everything important would not get lost if I placed it somewhere else, and my memory failed  (hey -- it happens  ;-)  Plus, it would always be there to remind me that action was required.

This is all fine and well, but in the process, my Inbox was continually growing, often with non-critical items -- and having to continually sift through it was a chore.  One of the really great advantages of my method is that you keep a clean Inbox.  It is hard to express the great feeling that gives you.  At the same time, you establish a logical method for sorting and handling your email in a timely manner that gives you a sense of control.

First off, you need to make a top-level folder called "Temp".  When I say top-level, I mean a folder on the same level as your "Inbox", "Outbox", and "Deleted" folders.  You might also have folders on this level such as "Sent", "Drafts", or others.  You will then create 3 sub-folders under the "Temp" folder.  These will be "Now", "Soon", and "Readme".

To complete my top-level folders, in my own setup I have one more top-level folder called "Archived" where all of my filed messages are stored.  There are further sub-divisions of this "Archived" folder  (such as "Internet", "People", "Website Clients", etc.) sometimes several levels deep, that organize all of my email.  Having this one "Archived" folder makes it very easy to periodically back up my email -- a discussion of which will be presented in another entry.  Email is so important to most of us, especially if it is business-related -- that multiple backups should be made.  Few things are more frustrating than to have your email unavailable due to an application error.  It happens all the time.  Backup today!

As you have probably realized from the names we have given these new folders we created -- one of the ways we are going to start organizing our email is temporally -- by time -- and more specifically, by how urgent it is to respond to the message.  After you have made your new "Temp" folder with it's sub-folders, you can immediately move everything from your Inbox into the Temp folder.  We will process these initial emails from the Temp folder, but in the future you will be using the procedure we will be discussing for processing all of your mail as you receive it in your Inbox  (The Temp folder itself will see little use at that time -- but the sub-folders will be busy!)

Take a moment to enjoy the feeling of a totally empty Inbox!

Now -- let's discuss how you are to process your email -- this first batch, as we wade through all of that mail you dumped into the Temp folder -- thereafter, as you process newly arriving mail from your Inbox.  This is sort of a "triage for email".

Key to understanding this email management process is that when email comes in there are ONLY 4 things that you will do with each message.  Simplified  (I will expand on each option in a moment) these 4 things are:  Read it, Take action, File it, or Delete it.

1. Read it:  If it takes you less than 15-30 seconds, and does not require action or storage, you are going to read it and then delete it.
2. Take action:  In 15 seconds you should be able to scan who sent it, the Subject, and the first sentence of each paragraph  (or, read the first paragraph), and know if it requires action  (a longer reading, a reply with comments, delegation to someone else, or the creation of a task).
3. File it:  If you know you will need to save it for future reference, or retrieval later on.
4. Delete it:  If it is Spam that slipped through, you are going to delete it immediately without reading it.

So -- let's try this out on the mail you placed in your Temp folder.  Go through your entire Temp folder using the rules.  Try not to spend more than 15 seconds or so on each message.

• If you can read it and delete it in 15 seconds -- do it.
• If it requires a reply or action on your part, make it a task.  Tasks generally have a deadline and a priority indicating how urgent or important the task is to you.  I have found that the 3 sub-folders we created under Temp are adequate to handle my tasked email:
• "Now" is for that mail which I deem is urgent and important -- that I need to act on in some manner "Now"  (or, as soon as I can get to it)
• "Soon" is for that mail, which requires action, but can wait until I get around to it.  Often it is important, just not urgent.  I used to include another folder called "Whenever", but found that "Soon" worked for them both.  Essentially this is all email that is not deemed urgent, or that goes into the "Readme" folder.
• If it's a newsletter or professional reading, do NOT stop and read it now  (no matter how interesting).  Place it in the "Readme" folder.  You can then block out an hour at a time, at your convenience, to read through all the stuff in your Readme folder.
• If you scan it and it looks like something you may need to refer to later, or find, then file it in one of your "Archived" folders  (And you will be best able to determine what those folders might be, from past experience.  And you can always create new sub-folders for new categories.)
• If it requires an appointment -- schedule it.
• If it is Spam -- delete it.

All done?  All of your messages should now be organized according to your priorities.  You will have filed important information.  You will have set up appointments, with reminders.  And you will probably have plenty to read -- when it is convenient for you.

Block off an hour of time to process messages in your "Now" folder -- those deemed "urgent and important" by you.  If you can't get through them in an hour, don't fret -- but also, don't move on to your "Soon" folder until your "Now" folder is empty.  Handle your "Readme" folder as discussed -- block off a convenient hour and read through them, archiving as appropriate.

Continue blocking off 1 hour chunks of time as you are able, until you work your way through all of your folders in Temp.  Don't feel bad if it takes some time.  I urge you to give this email management system a try.  I guarantee that at the minimum, it will give you a much greater sense of control over the increasing amounts of email that you are receiving.  (And you're gonna love that empty Inbox  ;-)

Typical SEO / SEM / Site Development Services

Preparation

• Evaluate the current site and search engine situation
• Plan a strategy to address deficiencies (and exploit opportunities)
• Prioritize and set a rough schedule

Basic Research

• Keyword research
• Competition research
• Learn about the business as much as feasible

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) (on the page)

• Page titles
• Meta description
• Meta keywords
• Alt text for images
• Headings
• Bold, italics, bullets
• On-the-page text
• Keyword rich copy writing

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) (off the page)

• PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising (if warranted)
• AdWords (primarily)
• Overture (and/or additional if desired)
• DMOZ submission
• Submissions to specialized and/or industry specific directories
• Froogle (if qualify)
• Google catalog (if qualify)
• Pay for inclusion directories (if warranted)

Links

• Develop a links strategy and policy
• Reciprocal links?
• Links page (directories/resources?)
• Seek high quality inbound links
• Site linking structure
• Anchor text (int./ext.)
• Submit to directories (especially industry specific)
• PR

Site Development

• Check and optimize all images and graphics
• Scripts to external files (.js .css)
• Check and validate code
• Cloak email addresses
• CSS refinements
• Favicon
• Robots.txt
• Custom 404
• Privacy statement
• 301 redirect (if required)
• Logo (if necessary)
• Eliminate identified problems (Flash, JavaScript reliance, image maps, etc.)

On-going

• Collect data and analyze
• Site stats (analyze metrics and suggest content)
• PPC stats (analyze and manage)
• Additional misc.
• Numerous reports and supporting documents prepared

There is a continuing study, research, and updating of my knowledge of the SEO/SEM field.
This includes:

• Frequent visits to search related web sites
• Subscriptions to (and lots of reading of) numerous search and webmaster newsletters (prime among these is a subscription to the members-only section of Search Engine Watch, the premier search-related site and info source, with a bi-weekly search news newsletter)
• Frequent (almost daily) visits to major search related forums (the very best place to get the pulse of the industry).

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There are a host of immediate SEO chores and site development/enhancements which are done.  Then there are a host of on-going and continuous SEM efforts  (such as PPC management, links management, stats analyses, and site content development).  The priority of any particular item varies according to site -- every site is different and has varying needs.

Mainly, when I am hired to do SEO/SEM work for your site  (at whatever level of participation), I am endeavoring to do everything I can to make your site a success.  There are innumerable things that can be done to promote and develop a site, and together we decide which ones are appropriate for your site and will benefit you the most -- then we start chipping away at a long list of things-to-do.  It is a continuous process, and a certain amount of faith and persistence is required, as very few efforts have an immediate payoff.

Additional Content Here are a few suggestions for additional content for a site (if not already present):

• Testimonials
• Organized/categorized specialized link directories (or resource pages)
• News / Specials
• Site map
• Privacy statement
• Links policy

If a site remodel is done, attention is paid to the site navigation and internal linking structure, and the naming of images, files, link titles, etc., to provide keyword-rich text.

the essence of SEO

I recently stumbled across what for me was a new way of looking at SEO. The main thrust was that SEO is mainly about removing obstacles that keep a search engine spider from doing it's job.

Instead of trying to manipulate the SERPs with various "white hat / black hat" SEO techniques -- just remove anything that would hinder a SE spider from traversing your pages. Most of SEO is junk removal. Remove the junk that is interfering with those spiders.

Of course, you need to have good content (and plenty of it). SE spiders just want to identify and grade the content of your site so they can extract the essence of what each page is about. The better they can do that -- the better they can match up a search query with your content, and the happier you, the searcher, and the SEs will be. Provide lots of relevant content (to the query made), and you will match well, and rank well for that query.

All of this relates to how well you address the quality of the user exerience through understanding your visitors' needs -- and this is best gained through an analysis of the search queries as found in your server logs. Mine and analyze that data. Then provide the content those queries demand. And make it easy for spiders to find and index that content.

Basic and simple really -- but an eye-opener for me. Once a site is SE friendly, 90% of the site-side of the work is done.