The Irvine Animal Shelter
I adopted a cat from the Irvine Animal Shelter several years ago and now I’m on their mailing list for their once a year (or is it twice a year? not sure) direct mail fundraising campaign which I just received in the mail. READ MORE

1. Actually create a Financial Accountability section on your website

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1. Send out a postcard to your entire mailing list asking them up update their contact info so you can obtain email addresses that you don’t already have;

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1. DON’T Make your enewsletter wider than 600 pixels - otherwise it may be too big for people to view in their email program without having to scroll left and right and it will chop off part of your message:

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Email Etiquette Reminders
I’m not the queen of etiquette by any stretch of the imagination; I tend to speak my mind without always running my thoughts through a filter or if I’m super-busy my communications turn very matter-of-fact..

 and can come across as rude. So this entry is just as much about reminding me, as much as anything. This whole topic is actually prompted by emailing a colleague, who had expressed an interest in talking to me through another colleague.

When I emailed her, I received an autoresponder stating that the email recipient receives too much spam and that she no longer accepts emails from people not on “œthe list”; the autoresponder then states that it “œapologizes for the inconvenience” but could I please fill out a form identifying myself and my purpose. EXCUSE ME? Does this not sound exactly like “œI am a VERY important person; you must APPLY for the privilege of corresponding with me by email. If I deem you worthy, I will let you know.”??? Some additional thoughts:

1. I get about 6 spam emails per day. Why? Because I have spam filters that I activate through my various email service providers and through outlook – I am also careful about what forms I fill out online that require my email address.2. It’s not a huge effort on my part to check the spam folders each month in the web-based email applications and to check daily in my Outlook spam folder; it sure beats missing out on communicating with people who just don’t want to “œapply” to communicate with me. I’ve even had some great company solicitations that I couldn’t really say if I was technically on their email list but I hired them and loved their work!!

3. I also have extra code within my website to protect my email address – it’s not hard to have your IT person do this for you.

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