Boy, I must be really new to the Internet! Everyone keeps
talking about all the canned meat they're getting and I'm
hardly getting fed over here.
I do get some, but I'm sure not getting fat on it. I
receive a couple of hundred or so emails a day so I'm not
surprised that I get a few offers for credit cards I don't
need and junk I'm not going to buy.
Although I probably average only a dozen or so letters a day
in the big metal box at the end of the drive,some days more
that half of that mail is junkmail.
While I find basically none of this junkmail useful to me,
the electronic spam is much easier to deal with. I'm
brand new to email and I still know at least three ways to
hit delete! And, if need be, I can let my ISP gobble it up.
Since I live in the country and I no longer have to pay the
garbage man to haul away the paper junkmail, I don't even
resent that as I once did. In fact, I hear that I have a
neighbor who actually solicits the stuff as he heats his
house with it. An idea, I suppose?
I can almost hear you saying "Wait a minute! You said you
get hundreds of emails a day." Yes, indeed I do. I would
say that 96% of them are from ezines that I've subcribed to,
offers I asked for more information about or email courses I
wanted.
In my 3 months on the Internet, I've subscribed to over 400
ezines. Am I nuts, as an ezine editor friend of mine
implied? No, I'm out here to get information. The only way
to do that is to go to where the source is. Many ezines are
wonderful sources of a wide variety of information.
Unfortunately, I've found that not all ezines are
entertaining or informative. Do I read them all?
Yes, I do, to a point. I use an automatic 'shelving' system
in Outlook Express for my ezines.
I have a folder named 'Ezines' and inside that I have many
subfolders.
When I read my first issue of an ezine, if I am instantly
totally impressed, I set up a subfolder for that ezine and
a message rule that puts every issue in that folder. I
generally eagerly read them as soon as I see I have unopened
mail in that folder. If I find later that I am not enjoying
that ezine as much, I move the whole folder to another
catagory or I unsubscribe and delete the folder.
I also have a subfolder called 'Checking Out'. If I am not
totally enamored with the ezine, it goes into a subfolder in
that file. I have these labeled: 'Daily's", 'Weekly's' and
'Monthly's. I add the from address to the appropriate
message rule and those ezines go to their folders.
I read the 'Checking Out' ezines as time allows. Very often,
by the second or third issue, the ezine has graduated it its
own folder. I sort by name and read the 'Daily's' more
often that the others but I do at least scan them all.
If I have received 5 or 6 issues of an ezine and it still
remains in my just looking folder, I am not very interested
in that ezine. I unsubscribe. Ezine editors might want to
note that, when they send me 4 or more 'solos' in a day, I
am probably only seeing one real issue of their ezine when
I'm trying to decide if I want to remain subscribed.
I have to admit that I've recently added a new subfolder
called 'Free Ad Subs'. Yep, you guessed it, stuff I don't
read unless have extra time or I need an ad code. I will
stay subscribed though until I figure out a better way to
market.
I don't know, maybe I'm just too new out here to know what
canned meat is.
If you'd like some helpful hints on how to manage 400+
ezines in your mailbox, send for my free helpful article
"Manage Your E-mail" mailto:wonderclass1@GetResponse.com.
About the Author
Wonder Wyant is a retired carny and the editor of "Geeks,
Freaks and Bamboozles" a new ezine about both the carnival
she retired from and the one she retired to. To get in
prelaunch, mailto:wonderwyant@hotmail.com. You can check out
her newest 'teddybear' at http://100PercentProfit.cjb.net.