Fully Participating in Your Email Groups: How to Overcome the Overwhelming Volume of Messages

If you plan to make something out of your online business, no doubt you have signed up for a few email groups (If you haven't, try Yahoo! Groups & Topica for a large selection of groups). Once the email started rolling in, did you find yourself overwhelmed by the volume of messages coming in? You're certainly not alone, but there's good news...
You don't have to be a superhero to fully participate in your email groups.

Here's a few tips:

1. Choose groups that are moderated or at least groups that moderate new members. Unmoderated groups will likely produce the most number of ads and junk mail.

2. Choose groups that don't allow ads or limit them in some way (Of course, if you're just looking to post your ads, you don't want to follow this step and in that case, this article is not for you). There are some very effective groups that allow ad posts on specific days only or they have set up a separate list for members to place their ads.
 
3. Limit the number of groups you join. Start with one or two and see if they're groups you want to be a part of. Only add more groups as you get comfortable with the ones you are already part of. Otherwise, you may overwhelm yourself again.

4. Avoid using the "Digest" or "No Mail" settings (note: I'm using Yahoo! terminology here, just to make things simple). It may surprise you to hear that, but those settings will either result in your not participating or your wasting too much time checking messages.

With "Digest", you are constantly scrolling a long email message to see if there's anything interesting. This can be a time consuming task.

With "No Mail", you rely on going online to check messages. Let's face it, you're a busy person and you may never find the time.

The "Individual Messages" setting is a much more efficient way to go, but you have to set up your email inbox to handle this. If you set up special email folders just for your groups and have your email program automatically send messages to the folders, you'll find it much easier. Set up individual folders for each individual group and go check those folders when you have time.

That way, your inbox will remain uncluttered. When you open your group folder, you can easily scroll through the subjects to see what interests you. You can't do this with "Digest".

If you don't know how to set up these folders, check your email program's Help files or Outlook/Outlook Express user can click here for instructions

5. If you plan to receive a response to your email, be sure to make your subjects as descriptive as possible. Don't just write "Help" or "Does anyone know?" ~ People will be scrolling the subjects just like you will. If it's not descriptive, they may not read it.

If you follow these steps, it will be much easier to be an active member of your group and you'll better manage your time. Although, email groups are an invaluable source for receiving advice and networking, don't let them take control of your work day.