How to Best Manage Email When Traveling

It’s always amazing to me how much I can travel and still stay connected. I can answer emails on a flight to France, I can chat with family while on a Tour in Thailand, or even (quietly) shoot off a message while meditating in Mumbai – It’s great how much we can accomplish and how “in the loop” we can be when we are away from the home or office. But, any experienced travelers will tell you it’s not always easy. Especially when I travel abroad, there are many times I wish I had known better on how to avoid the common mistakes that make it possible to miss calls, emails, and important news. If you are like me, you cannot stand the idea that you might miss something important or time sensitive. That’s why I am going to share with you some tips on how to travel and still be connected.

Make Sure You Will Be Able To Charge Up

Especially if you are new to global travel, you may not realize the myriad of different voltages and power-socket types there are out there. If you are planning to spend a decent amount of time in any one place, do yourself a favor and read up on the types of outlet and voltage commonly used there. You can order an adapter easily enough. However, if (like me) you plan on travelling a great deal, it might make more sense to go ahead and invest in a universal adapter. You should also look for an adapter that converts voltages. I prefer to forgo the single-plug adapters and use a power strip with a surge protector to be safe.

Email Clients Can Save Your Bacon

Webmail is great, but how are you going to refer to a booking reservation email when you can’t connect to the internet on your laptop? In fact, if you are not on a local provider, you may not even have a data connection on your cellphone. That’s why I always have an email client on my laptop. It’s not that you will always need offline access to your info. But, trust me, there is a perfect storm waiting for you out there if you keep all your vital travel information in the cloud. Need an email client? No problem – Mailbird is free and works awesome for Windows users

Let People Know You Are Travelling

I am always surprised how many people don’t use auto responders when travelling in their emails. Travelling can be unpredictable, and using a quick message letting people know you may not be able to get back to them immediately is the best way to prevent long delays or misunderstandings those times when you find yourself unable to respond. I suggest a short message letting the sender know you are travelling, and may not be able to respond to their email immediately. It’s also sometimes appropriate to include a cellphone number for emergencies.

Use Mobile “Tethering” or “hotspots”

Did you know that your mobile device and also share it’s data connection with your other devices? It’s true – most major mobile devices support what is commonly called “tethering” or “mobile hotspots”, allowing you to connect to the internet through your phone using your laptop or tablet. Just remember that this uses your devices data plan. If you have a limited plan, it’s best to use this feature sparingly. If you are worried, and want to avoid a shock in the form of a million-dollar cellphone bill, I suggest taking advantage of your device’s data warnings and limit settings. Most major devices include features allowing you to create usage alerts and limiters to prevent you from going over your rate limit, and incurring serious charges.

Give People Multiple Ways of Contacting You

Okay, this last tip isn’t really an email tip. But, speaking of cellphone numbers, it’s always a good idea to make sure people can reach you – regardless of internet or cellphone coverage. That’s why I always include both my cellphone number and either a Skype or google voice number. When travelling, you will probably find yourself without internet access or cellphone network coverage. However, it’s far less likely that you will find yourself without both at the same time. A VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone line like google voice or Skype ensures that when you have internet, you still have a way to make and receive calls.

Now That You Are All Set, Go See The World!

I suggest you take every opportunity and every advantage modern technology affords you (to stay connected) and head someplace you’ve never been. Just keep in mind these tips, and you never have to worry about missing something important as you do so.

Have An Awesome Tip of your own? Leave it below in the comments! We’d love to hear about how you stay connected while you travel.

The post The Secret To Managing Your Email While Traveling appeared first on Mailbird.

SXSW is almost upon us

If you haven’t heard of the annual South By Southwest festival (SXSW), then you may be surprised to learn that from March 11th to March 20th, almost 400,000 attendees will flock to Austin, Texas to take part in it’s Music, Film, and Interactive festivals.

If you are planning to take the trip to Austin to attend any, or all, of these festivals – we wanted to offer some sage advice from people who have attended the event and lived to tell about it.

We’ve got a ton more amazing tips from other “survivors” including many from speakers and presenters at the conference, so stay tuned.

In the meantime – if you have attended any of the festivals at South by Southwest: how did you survive? What tips would you offer first timers at SXSW?

The post SXSW Survival Tips [Infographic] appeared first on Mailbird.

“…this email client unifies your inbox with your apps by rolling your email and all your calendar, task, and messaging apps into an all-in-one interface. And it’s a simple user interface, which you can customize in different colors and layouts.” – Hubspot

The post The Best Email Client for Windows 10 appeared first on Mailbird.

Gmail is an amazing tool. But, chances are good you have only scratched the surface of how amazingly powerful a tool it can be.

In this guide, we are going to show you the very best Gmail tricks, hacks, and tips we’ve been able to scour from across dozens of top sources including Hubspot, Mashable, and more.

Want to turn your Gmail into a productivity powerhouse?

Maybe you need help managing your email leads?

Need to make sure your Gmail account is as secure as possible?

Are you trying to become more organized?

Do you want to make using your inbox faster?

We’ve got you covered:

Index – The Better than Ultimate Guide to Gmail

1. Create and link tasks with emails
2. Schedule meetings inside Gmail
3. Add Trello boards to your Gmail
4. Verify Authenticate Senders
5. Find out what Emails are being tracked
6. How to delete sent emails with Gmail
7. Find Out Who Gave Out Your Email Address
8. How to use Gmail offline
9. Turn Gmail group emails into chat conversations (mobile only until April 2016)
10. Turn Emails into chats with real people, and ignore other messages (mobile only)
11. Tinder-ize your Gmail inbox (mobile only)
12. How to preview any email without opening it
13. Share Gmail labels with other Gmail users
14. Canned Responses
15. Save Email attachments in Google Drive
16. Snooze Gmail messages and conversations for later
17. Get your contact’s social profiles, job titles, company details, and more
18. How to send emails from different addresses (even non-Gmail ones)
19. See details like your recipient’s Linkedin profile, Skype address, and website in Gmail
20. Know when someone opens your email and get reminders to follow up
21. Unsend any Email using Gmail
22. Make your own keyboard shortcuts
23. Paste in Gmail without source formatting
24. Search and send GIFs in Gmail
25. Share large files using Gmail
26. Speed up Gmail
27. Keep Gmail as the default email app
28. Gmail keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet
29. Mute conversations in Gmail
30. Find out if someone else has access to your Gmail account

The Better than Ultimate Guide to Gmail:

1. Create and link tasks with emails

Make tasks while reading any email that are linked back to the message

When reading any message, click the “more” button from the top menu and select “Add to tasks“. You can then edit the task to include a due-date, reminders, and more. Any task created in this way also notes any related messages which you can refer back to if needed.

2. Schedule meetings inside Gmail

Resolve meeting times by proposing available times, and allowing your attendees to indicate where within your indicated timeframe they are also available to meet.

Mixmax is a popular Chrome extension for Gmail that lets you schedule meetings using availability. You can propose a range of meeting times, and allow your recipients to select what works for them until you narrow down the ideal time to meet. Mixmax also includes a range of other options like in-email polls, tracking, and more.

3. Add Trello boards to your Gmail

Organize your emails into boards just like cards in Trello to keep things organized or create a workflow

Source: sortd.com

Sortd is a smart skin for Gmail that turns your inbox into a board where you can drag and drop emails into columns following any workflow or sorting order you want. This works great for contact or email workflows for sales teams, as well as project management and planning.

4. Verify Authenticate Senders

Ensure emails from major retailers and brands are genuine with this Gmail labs feature

Go to settings, labs, and activate the “Authentication icon for verified senders” feature. After reloading, any major brands commonly targeted by spammers including Amazon, and Paypal will show up with a key symbol if they are from a legitimate address used by that company.

5. Find out what Emails are being tracked

Even before you open them, know what emails are being tracked by their sender.

Install Ugly Email, and anytime your email contains a tracking script it will appear with what the extension calls “The evil eye”. That way, you can always be sure when someone may be alerted that you opened their message – a valuable piece of information when you might not be able to get back to it right away.

6. How to delete sent emails with Gmail

Revoke anyone’s access to any email message using a gmail Chrome extension.

Dmail is a chrome extension that let’s you “delete” sent messages using Gmail. What it actually does is allow you to revoke access the the email. You can delete a sent message at any time. Or, you can choose to indicate a period of time before the message deletes itself. Best of all, your recipients don’t need to use it to read your emails.

7. Find Out Who Gave Out Your Email Address

Use Gmail’s account name rules to create unique email addresses that work with your Gmail account.

Did you know that punctuation is superfluous in Gmail email addresses? You can add “.” or “+” anywhere in your existing Gmail address and it will still appear in your inbox. So, anytime you are signing up for something, try a different variation “yo.ouremail@gmail.com” and make a note of it. Then, you can search or even set up a filter to catch when someone uses that email configuration to send you something.

8. How to use Gmail offline

How to access your messages even when you don’t have access to the internet on your laptop or PC.

Gmail Offline is a Chrome app that let’s you check your gmail accounts even if you aren’t online. Just make sure to at least activate it for each of the Gmail accounts you manage. Also, it’s a good idea to use it occasionally so it can grab all your most recent emails for offline use.

9. Turn Gmail group emails into chat conversations (mobile only until April 2016)

Turn back and forth emails between a group of recipients into a real-time chat where you can share videos, files, and collaborate on projects.

Unfortunately, Hop is only available on mobile. But, it is releasing a web extension in April this year. With Hop, you can turn any email conversation or group conversation into a chat just like any other chat client.

10. Turn Emails into chats with real people, and ignore other messages (mobile only)

Identify emails from real people, and engage with them in a chat-like interface. At the same time, ignore non-personal correspondence like newsletters and marketing emails until you get back to your computer

Mailburn is an iPhone application that let’s you turn Gmail emails from people into conversations like a chat program (think “Whatsapp”). What makes Mailburn different, however, is that it organizes anything not directly from a person into a newsletter feed, allowing you to manage emails from people more quickly and save the announcements, sales, notices, etc for later.

11. Tinder-ize your Gmail inbox (mobile only)

Swipe to keep or discard messages. take on messages one at a time.

Triage is a mobile-only email client that works with Gmail. If you have ever used Tinder, then the idea will be familiar to you. You get one message at a time. You can either choose to reply, archive, or keep it for later and it is shuffled back into your deck.

12. How to preview any email without opening it

Add a third column to your Gmail window with a preview of the selected message like in Mailbird, Outlook, and other Email clients.

Gmail doesn’t include a preview pane by default. However, you can activate it by going to settings>labs and activating it by scrolling down to “Preview Pane“, activating it, and scrolling to the bottom and clicking save.

13. Share Gmail labels with other Gmail users

Collaborate on building better workflows using shared labels in Gmail

Source: Hiverhq.com

Installing the Hiver extension for Gmail allows you to share your labels, contacts, and more with other Gmail users. This can be great for organizations or teams sharing a workflow or any other type of email management outside of a traditional CMS.

14. Canned Responses

Save and send often-used responses and messages to save time.

In the settings menu, go to Labs, and activate the “Canned Responses” setting. The next time you write a message, you will be able to write your first set of responses by selecting the down-arrow and clicking “canned responses“. From that point on, you can always inject your saved responses (including merge fields).

15. Save Email attachments in Google Drive

Automatically download any attachments sent to your inbox in your Google Drive so you never loose them.

Visit Zapier‘s Gmail to Google Doc zap page. If you have never used Zapier, you will need to create an account first. Next, you will need to follow the steps to grant Zapier permission to manage your Gmail account and your Google Drive accounts. Once set, your zap will deliver every attachment to your specified Google Drive folder.

16. Snooze Gmail messages and conversations for later

Remove messages from your inbox to address them in an hour, a day, a week, or more – letting you clear your inbox without missing anything.

Install the Boomerang extension for Chrome and reload your Gmail window. Now, anytime you get an email that you don’t want to take care of immediately, click the Boomerang button on the top menu bar and select a time when you would like it to appear back in your inbox.

17. Get your contact’s social profiles, job titles, company details, and more

See your recipient’s twitter profile, latest tweet, Facebook updates, linkedin profile, and demographics.

FullContact is a Chrome extension that brings every detail about your Gmail contacts into a side-pane alongside your messages from them. You can also make notes, apply labels, and add them via other social networks you may not have connected with them yet. An added bonus for sales people or HR is that it also pulls through details on your contacts company including it’s social profiles and activity.

18. How to send emails from different addresses (even non-Gmail ones)

Reply to emails from a different Email address than the one the original message was sent to.

Go to settings, Accounts & Import, and add your other email accounts in the “Send mail as” section. Once added, you will be able to click on your portrait in any quick-reply or pop-out message composer window to select which account you would like the message sent from. It will also apply any signatures you have set up.

19. See details like your recipient’s Linkedin profile, Skype address, and website in Gmail

Refer to details from Linkedin, your contact’s website, start Skype conversations, and more alongside your Gmail messages with them.

Install the Chrome extension Rapportive and follow it’s steps to allow it access to your Linkedin account. After reloading your Gmail, you will begin to see all your contact’s details show up alongside their emails. In addition, Rapportive will let you know when you are not connected with someone, giving you the perfect opportunity to grow your Linkedin network.

20. Know when someone opens your email and get reminders to follow up

Find out when, how many times, and which recipeient has opened your message. Also, get the option to auto-create followup reminders for them.

Install the Chrome extension FollowUp and sign in using whatever method you prefer. You will also need to grant the app permission to manage your Gmail. Once it’s installed, you will see new options in your Gmail compose window including the option to track that email, send it later, and more.

21. Unsend any Email using Gmail

Prevent any email sent using Gmail for a short period of time using this setting

Go to the settings menu in Gmail, and on the “General” tab scroll down to “Undo Send“. Here, you can activate the feature by clicking the radio button and indicating the period of time you would like to be able to undo sending any message. When activated, this feature holds the email in your outbox before sending, giving you time to unsend it.

22. Make your own keyboard shortcuts

Use this Gmail labs feature to create your own shortcut combinations for often-used functions.

Go to settings, click on the “Labs” tab, and click the radio button to activate Custom keyboard shortcuts. Then, click save at the bottom of the labs page to reload Gmail with Custom Keyboard Shortcuts activated. If you go to settings with the labs feature active, you will see a tab marked “Keyboard Shortcuts” where you can now change or add your own

23. Paste in Gmail without source formatting

Paste content in any gmail message without the source formatting so it matches your default font, color, size, and weight.

Go to settings, Labs, and activate the “Authentication icon for verified senders” feature. After reloading, any major brands commonly targeted by spammers including Amazon, and Paypal will show up with a key symbol if they are from a legitimate address used by that company

24. Search and send GIFs in Gmail

Search for, and inject animated GIFs directly into your email messages.

Source: Giphy.com

Giphy’s Chrome extension allows Gmail users the ability to search through it’s database of popular gifs, and include them in the body of their emails simply by clicking the icon in the formatting toolbar.

25. Share large files using Gmail

Send links along with your message with permission to access the file, allowing you to send large files without worrying about limits.

Dropbox has a great Chrome extension that allows you to include sharing links to your Dropbox files without having to open Dropbox and copy/paste it manually. Best of all, this method allows you share giant files in a jiffy.

26. Speed up Gmail

Find and delete large, old emails to speed up your Gmail

FindBigMail finds, sorts, and lets you delete big emails. This can have an amazing effect in speeding up your Gmail account. It can also make it much faster to check your Gmail account using email clients, since they need to download your messages.

27. Keep Gmail as the default email app

Force mailto: links and other applications to open using Gmail, and prevent them from opening with other email clients.

Send with Gmail not only adds a small button in your Chrome task bar that allows you to compose quick emails. It also forces any links or prompts to open your default email client to use Gmail. If you routinely find your system trying to open native email clients instead of your Gmail, then this extension is for you.

28. Gmail keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet

Access a quick overview of all the Gmail keyboard shortcuts and a detailed description of what each does.

To activate the keyboard shortcuts and get access to the cheatsheet, go to Settings > General > Keyboard shortcuts and select the radio button next to “Keyboard shortcuts on.” Save your settings before exiting. With the shortcuts activated, you can press Press Shift–? any time to display a complete cheatsheet with all the keyboard shortcuts.

29. Mute conversations in Gmail

Prevent further emails in the current conversation thread from showing in your inbox.

To prevent any further emails in a email thread from clogging up your inbox, click on “more” with the email conversation open. Then, click on Mute. No more emails in that thread will show up as new emails in your inbox.

30. Find out if someone else has access to your Gmail account

See if anyone else has used your email account by checking your Gmail recent activity logs.

If you are concerned your account has been hacked, you can check your Gmail activity logs by scrolling to the bottom of your Gmail window and clicking on “Details” (see screenshot). A new window will open with all your account activity including extension, app, and client access logs. When in doubt, it’s best to change your password anyway.

Is there a trick we missed?

Please, share it with us in the comments. We’d love to hear how you’ve found a better way to use your Gmail.

The post The Better Than Ultimate Guide To Gmail appeared first on Mailbird.

Google announced on Thursday that it has expanded it’s Safe Browsing alerts to inform Gmail users of the possibility their Gmail account may have been subject to suspicious government activity.

In 2012, Gmail began alerting users if there was a risk of state-sponsored attacks by including the information in a top-page banner.

However, users will now see a full-page alert with more detailed information and options to beef up their security if they feel they are, indeed, being targeted.

Unfortunately, Google admits there is a chance some alerts may be triggered incorrectly or may in fact be false alarms. However, Google is not releasing how these alerts are identifying malicious government-sponsored gmail security intrusions in order to protect their methods for identifying them.

Thankfully, Google has estimated that fewer than 0.1% of all Gmail accounts will be subject to these security alerts. Google ads that most of these users seem to be journalists, activists, and policy-makers.

The post New Gmail account security alert warns of Government attacks appeared first on Mailbird.

An Email client can be an amazingly powerful tool. But, like most tools, there is a right way and a wrong way to use it when managing your email.

That’s why we brought the most important of these email rules together into a handy little guide:

The 30 Email Commandments:

1. Thou Shalt Read Every Message In A Thread Before Replying

2. Thou Shalt Never Forward Chain Mail

3. Thou Shalt Always Review Emails Before Sending Them

4. Remove Or Shorten Thy Email Signature For Replies

5. Thou Shalt Only Use Reply-All Where Appropriate

6. Never Shall Thou Forget To Add Attachments

7. Never Shall Thou Addist The Wrong Attachments

8. Thou Shalt Not Reply To The Wrong Person

9. Thou Shalt Never Mix Up BCC’d And CC’d Recipients

10. Always Includist A Basic Greeting

11. Thou Shalt Never Email When Angry or Drunk

12. THOU SHALT NOT EMAIL IN ALL CAPS

13. Thou Shalt Not Be Overly-Formal

14. Thou Shalt Not Be Too Casual

15. Thou Shalt Not Send Canned Responses Without Replacing Thine Dynamic Fields

16. Thou Shalt Always Check Thine Spelling

17. Thou Shalt Try To Be Brief

18. Match Thine Recipient’s Tone

19. Thou Shalt Not Break Up With Someone With An Email

20. Thou Shalt Use Emoticons Sparingly

21. Be Friendly And Avoid Opening With “To Whom It May Concern”

22. Thou Shalt Use A Short, Simple Email Signature

23. Thou Shalt Double-Check Emails Before Sending

24. Thou Shalt Not Spend Too Much Time Managing Thine Email

25. Thou Shalt Use CC To Keep People In The Loop

26. Thou Shalt Let Recipients Know When No Reply Is Necessary

27. Be Specific With Thine Email Subject Line

28. Thou Shalt Always Use Inline Reply

29. Always Assume Thine Email Conversations Are Not Private

30. Always Include An Alternate Contact Method In Thine Vacation Auto Responders

The post The 30 Email Client Commandments appeared first on Mailbird.

Facebook is a tricky platform in a lot of ways.

The moment you think you are getting the whole thing down, they go and change a key element that you were exploiting as your primary social strategy. What is worst is that they have a policy of straight up not caring about the average opinion of their users; everything is done to further pushing profit and ad revenue.

A fairly recent change that was a blatant attempt to squeeze more out of Facebook ads was promotional post reach. Under the guise of “better content for users”, they have made it virtually impossible to share anything that directly promotes a brand. They even stunt the reach of posts that aren’t directly promotional, using a shaky algorithm that doesn’t always know the difference.

This has caused a lot of trouble for smaller brands, which have a limited budget and can’t compensate with hundreds or thousands of dollars per day on ads. But given how this has boosted Facebook’s net worth, it is doubtful that it will change any time soon.

Getting creative and trying new things is your only real way forward. These experiments in photo and video sharing can help you to optimize your efforts again.

License: Creative Commons Link: https://pixabay.com/en/hands-smartphone-facebook-1167615/

Experiment #1 – Emotional Triggers For Viral Video Status

UK brand John Lewis is well known for their annual Christmas tear jerk ads. In 2015, they really outdid themselves. The ad, titled Man On The Moon, told the story of a little girl with a telescope who sees a lonely old man living on the moon. She does everything possible to share the Christmas spirit with him.

On YouTube, which is only one of many places to see the ad, it was viewed more than 23 million times. That single source of the video was shared on Facebook more than 600,000 times. That doesn’t tally other links on YouTube, other video sharing sites, or John Lewis’ website itself.

Emotional triggers are a simple and effective way of getting a video shared on Facebook in particular. The same can work for photos, with context providing a intense feeling in the people who see and share it.

Experiment #2 – Increase The Number Of Photos Per Post

Studies across the board have shown that posting more than one image (between two and four) on a single post is more effective by far than posting one. Now, that doesn’t mean you should spam just anything. The images have to be directly related, possess the same general look, and follow by the same rules of image sharing as a single photo.

The burden of quality is much heavier with these types of multi-photo posts because they end up telling a story. The order and message has to be right, or you are going to confuse your audience.

If you want to know just how effective this can be, Jon Loomer presented a statistic that someone he knew saw a 262% increase in reach using this method. That doesn’t even factor in the insane post click increases the same guy saw (seriously, check the article out, you’ll be shocked).

So this isn’t a weak suggestion. Uploading more photos per post, and doing it in a way that gives a message or tells a story, is going to give you a massive boost in results. Try fiddling around with the idea to see what works best for your particular audience.

Experiment #3 – Employ Varied Calls To Action

Calls to action that are actually effective can be hard these days. People are used to ignoring them, and while they still provide a way to direct people to do what you want them to, the effectiveness can wane. Which is why you need to do some AB testing in order to find what works for your own audience.

Trying multiple forms of CTA’s and then measuring results against one another will give you a solid call that bring results. That includes the Facebook CTA button, which they have hyped up like crazy in the last few months. For many brands, post CTA’s are going to prove a more effective route to success.

Experiment #4 – Take Advantage Of Existing Viral Trends

Finally, we have the trickiest of all of the experiments: existing viral trends. Cracked did this video about the most embarrassing attempts to cash in on viral trends, and it is definitely cringeworthy. It shows how this tactic can backfire spectacularly.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it work. USA Today recently used the Back To The Future Day meme to their benefit. They posted the cover that Marty reads in the film as their cover on the day. It remains sold out months later.

Do you have a tip for a Facebook experiment? Let us know in the comments!

By Jessy Troy

Jessy Troy is the blog writer and editor, stay at home mom and hopefully a new book author!

The post Facebook Photo And Video Sharing Experiments To Try appeared first on Mailbird.

Real talk: I have thirteen tabs open right now on my Chrome browser.

That probably disqualifies me in most people’s minds as anyone who could offer assistance with organizing web habits for more efficient browsing. But, believe it or not, 13 tabs is quite a significant improvement from where I was at before.

For years, I have been one of those habitual tabbers. I would open and pin a tab for everything. Paused videos, newspaper articles, blog posts, funny pictures of cats and/or overused memes…if it was on the web, it was pinned in my browser.

I wouldn’t even close them; the same pins could sit there untouched for months. Then one day I would get fed up and start going through them, rediscovering those hidden gems I had forgotten existed. Or, if I was really frustrated, just right-click and closing without ever knowing what I had deemed important enough. I usually reached that point when it was taking minutes at a time to load up my web browser.

A Modern Epidemic Of Bad Habits

If I said that I would regularly have two or three dozen tabs open at any given time, most of the people reading this would probably be shocked. But there is a sliver of readers who are scoffing at my amateur status.

The point is, the majority of us are guilty of being inefficient and disorganized with our browsing. That could mean a number of things, so I will address three specific issues:

1. Tab Abuse
2. Bookmark Overload
3. Productivity Killers

We can all agree that at least one of these issues can be a problem in modern life for each of us. Thankfully, they are also super easy to fix with a couple of carefully chosen tools.

Tab Abuse

I used to be like that: Clicking a link, discovering that’s something worthwhile or interesting, realizing I don’t have time for that right now, keeping a tab open for when I have time.

This was a mess.

My own solution to that was setting a new tab the way it has all important links as well as my “to read” list.

I am using Cyfe to easily set up everything under one dashboard.

License: Image author owned

My Cyfe working dashboard consists of:

• My to-do list
• My most important RSS feeds
• My blogging and web developer tools including:
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  • Google Analytics
  • My Pingdom reports
  • HTTP status checker (iFramed)
  • Site speed report (iFramed)
  • My calendar
• My Gmail
• My book shelf. Currently:
  • Guide on creating and monetizing your blog (free)
  • 10,000+ Subscribers (free)
  • Content marketing eBook (free)

Bookmark Overload

All of the above tools can be used in place of bookmarks. But sometimes you just want that quick access, and so I wouldn’t say bookmarks are obsolete just yet. Maybe they never will be.

Using a content collection app is a good way to reduce your bookmarks. From there, you can start organize them for efficient use.

Start by going through your list and beginning to delete the ones you have not visited recently, or don’t need. You know that most of your links will fall into that category. If you forgot it was there, you don’t need it.

Next, create a series of folders on your toolbar. Each one should represent an overall category. Inside, make subcategories to further break down your links.

For example, you could create Health, with the subcategories Fitness, Diet, Skin Care. Every time you save a bookmark, make sure it goes into the right folder and sub-folder.

The most important tip is to ask yourself in the future if you need any of the bookmarks you are collecting. Is it something you will genuinely look at again? Could it be better suited in a content aggregator, like Pinterest or Evernote?

Productivity Helpers

This is an issue that I am affects everyone at regular intervals of the day.

There are several options at your disposal.

• LeechBlock –  Firefox users can use Leechblock, a simple add-on that allows you to create multiple times that certain websites are allowed and when they are not. You can also select an option to lock down websites after a certain time limit has been spent there. So say you don’t want to spend more than fifteen minutes a day on Facebook, LeechBlock can make that happen.
• StayFocusd – Very similar to LeechBlock, StayFocusd is for Chrome users. But it has a specific feature that makes it an excellent choice: a nuclear option. Select it to completely block all banned sites on your list for hours at a time, so you can work. Turn on a feature that keeps you from accessing settings during that time so it can’t be turned off.

License: Image author owned

• Cold Turkey – One of the more popular and newer tools, Cold Turkey will block applications and browsers across the whole computer in order to allow you to focus. You select the websites you are most likely to visit, and when they should be blocked. That includes manual blocks and scheduled ones. Create different blocks for different times.
• FocusMe– Another multi-browser lock-down tool, there is an additional tool that makes this a great option. It provides a reminder system to taking breaks, something that many of us forget to do. Stay healthier by getting away from your computer, while remaining well focused and getting through your work.
• FocalFilter – A quick and dirty little tool that lets you put in the websites to block, how long to block them, and nothing else. If even customizing block apps is too much of a distraction, this could be the one for you.

Conclusion

Organized web browsing is totally possible. But it can often be more than just a matter of breaking habits, and you may need a little help. Get it from the tools and tips above, and stop wasting so much time and energy. Let’s get productive!

By Jessy Troy

Jessy Troy is the blog writer and editor, stay at home mom and hopefully a new book author!

The post How To Get Organized With Your Web Browsing appeared first on Mailbird.

Almost 23,ooo people search for www.gmail.com on google to get access to their Gmail account every day

Given that a good “average” speed for typing on the computer is around 330 characters per minute (or CPM), that means that people spend around 15 hours a day typing www.gmail.com into their browser to access their webmail – And that’s not including the redundancy and varying page load times for the 2-3 pages they need to navigate (the google search prompt page, the search results, and the Gmail landing page).

Monthly Google search volume for www.gmail.com

Regardless if you are new to Gmail, webmail in general, or if you are a newcomer to the web – we are going to show you 4 ways to drastically cut down (and even remove completely) the need for you to type www.gmail.com into your computer and still access your Gmail.

All these ways are safe, secure, and provide you direct access to manage your Gmail account the same as if you manually entered www.gmail.com and clicked the link.

what you see when you enter www.gmail.com as a search in google

Before we get to the best ways to access Gmail, let’s first address the issue behind:

Why typing out www.gmail.com into your search engine is not the best way to go about doing things

It’s a waste of time

Sure, you may not be wasting 15 hours yourself. But, you are a busy person with things to do. If there is a way to get to where you need without having to type in all those “www’s” and so on, shouldn’t you take it?

It needlessly exposes you to ads

This is a Google search ad related to gmail

Search results have ads. Every time you perform a search in Google you are opening yourself up to ads targeted at exactly what you are looking for. You just want to check your mail, so why open yourself up to possible distractions?

Lastly, it can effect your browsing experience

Google remembers what you search for. Furthermore, it will usually try to auto suggest/fill possible related search terms given what you regularly type in Google.

Since chances are good gmail is not the only website you write out including the “www” in search results, you may notice that you are constantly presented with all your most commonly searched websites every time you begin to type in the search bar, requiring you to type 4+ characters before your suggested searches are even close to relevant to what you are intending.

Google suggests relevant searches while you type

Why do so many people search for www.gmail.com?

There are likely many many reasons why. However, the most likely reason for most people is that they misunderstand the difference between the search bar/field/box and the address bar/field/box.

search bar vs address bar

The Search Bar is always inside the frame of your browser and it’s where you input text to perform a search.

These include Google, Bing, yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, and a myriad of others. These search engines are applications that exist online and not a part of your computer or your browser, though most browsers have integrations or preferences towards one or more search engines. For example, Google Chrome (a popular browser) defaults to Google.com for it’s search engine. However, you can easily use one or more other search engines within Chrome.

In addition to searching, different search engines include varying behaviors including the ability to open websites directly from searches, and more advanced commands. Here are some resources you can use to become more familiar with the other things you can enter into today’s more popular search engines:

Google Search Operators

Bing Search Operators

Yahoo Search Operators

The Address Bar is a part of your browser window, and can perform a few different functions depending on what you type in.

Generally, if there is no “www.” or “http://” preceding your inputted text, the browser will treat your input as a search using your chosen default search engine. Your default search engine is almost always managed in the browser settings. You can perform a quick search on “*your browser* default search engine” to easily find out how to change it (no matter what search engine it is currently set to use by default).

If you input a website, such as gmail.com, into the address bar – you will be redirected directly to the site. Sounds like a better way, right? Well sure, but we can do even better than that:

Here are the 4 best methods for accessing Gmail (without searching for it in Google)

Method 1: Enter Gmail.com in the address bar

That’s right. Especially if you are new to the internet, you may be surprised to learn that you (usually) don’t need to include that pesky “www.” when entering websites.

The vast majority of websites online today include both a www, and non-www variant in their address. Usually, this is the case because website owners redirect from one to a preferred version. That’s why you might notice that sometimes a site you type in with “www” lands you on a page without one.

This doesn’t mean that you’ve gone to the wrong site, or that there is anything wrong. The website simply is set to redirect users to one or the other – www, or non-www. There is no difference.

https secure connection for www.gmail.com

It’s also worth pointing out that many websites are beginning to use a more secured protocol in order to protect their sites and users. This protocol is indicated by an “https”. This means that the network connection between you and the website is secured, and is no cause for alarm. Quite the contrary, in fact – you should always be cautious of entering or providing any details or logging into any account on a site without a https, or secure connection.

Method 2: Bookmark www.gmail.com

Arguably the most popular method for quick access to Gmail, bookmarks are a great way to get one-click access for any popular sites you visit online. These bookmarks live in your browser, and can even sync across all your devices where you use the same browser and browser account.

You can bookmark your gmail inbox by logging into your gmail and bookmarking the inbox page. You can also bookmark individual messages if you need to refer to them later.

Adding a single email as a bookmark in Chrome. Image Source: Techf5.com

For more information on how to bookmark websites, here is a great resource from ehow on how to Bookmark pages from any browser

Method 3: Browser “Apps”

Chrome, in particular, has a myriad of popular apps including one for Gmail. Just like a smartphone, these apps enable you to quickly and easily get to managing your gmail account “outside” the browser.

For the official Gmail app, this acts as little more than a bookmark. However, having it as an app does allow you to add some default settings such as opening it in a new browser window, or as a fullscreen window.

Chrome Browser Apps

For more information on apps, click on the settings or options menu in your browser. You should be able to find them. Otherwise, you can search for information using any search engine.

Method 4: Email Clients

If you are going to be checking your email often, or if you are not as familiar with webmail clients, Email clients are a great alternative. Instead of having to open a browser, typing in gmail.com, clicking on the link, and waiting for gmail to load – Email clients check for you.

In addition to bringing your gmail account offline to your computer, they often include a wide range of other features that can enhance your productivity and use of email.

Mailbird email client

For instance, our email client Mailbird allows users to manage multiple gmail accounts from one window – something you cannot do with www.gmail.com.

In addition, email clients usually do not require a constant or reliable internet connection for you to check your email. They accomplish this by periodically “syncing” with your account. In other words, the client uses your stored credentials or access “token” (a stored security string of numbers used to verify your identity and granting your application access to the webmail program, allowing it to manage your email) to access your email provider’s server, grab any new email, and send off any mail you send in the email client.

That’s not all

There are a few other ways people use to check their gmail accounts, including browser extensions (you can read more about browser extensions). However, the above methods represent the most popular (and better than typing in www.gmail.com) ways people access them.

We hope this post helped you!

Do you have a better way to check Gmail that we missed?

We’d love to hear it! Please share your preferred method with us in the comments below.

The post www.gmail.com – 4 free methods to access your Gmail faster appeared first on Mailbird.

Did we forget anything? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Email Management appeared first on Mailbird.

While popular email clients like Mailbird include the ability to add individual account inboxes to a “unified” inbox – many, like Microsoft Outlook, do not make this easy.

If you manage multiple email accounts, then you know how tedious it can be to be forced to switch from inbox to inbox in order to check each one.

To help out, we’ve gathered a couple of the best ways MS Outlook users can set up a unified inbox – or as close to one as Outlook will allow.

Outlook Unified Inbox Method 1: Search Folders

Skill Level – Beginner

The simplest method for getting a unified inbox in your Microsoft Outlook client is by using it’s search. Although this method is easy, there is unfortunately no way to save your search – requiring you to perform a search every time you need it. If you check your recent searches from the “Search” menu, you may be able to select it. However, if you are searching alot you may not be able to find it every time.

1. Type the following in the search box: folder: (Inbox) received: (this week)
2. Press Ctr+Alt+A to or click All Mailboxes button (Outlook 2013) or All Mail Folders (Outlook 2010).
3. Hit enter and you should see your Unified inbox for all mails received this week.

You may notice a “Search Folder” option in the “Folder” pane. However, this only lets you create search folders using data from individual accounts – Not something we can use to make a full Outlook unified inbox with.

Outlook Unified Inbox Method 2: Rules

Skill Level – Intermediate

First, we will create a folder for your Unified Inbox (don’t worry where, or in which account you create it).

image source: scrubly

Right-click on the account you will use and select New Folder.

Next, name the folder “Unified Inbox.” Next, we create the rules for the folder.

THE RULES

• On the Home tab of the Outlook Ribbon, click the Rules drop down and select Manage Rules and Alerts.

image source: scrubly

• This will bring up the Rules and Alerts menu. Click the New Rule button to begin creating a rule on your first account.

image source: scrubly

The next few steps get a little complicated.

Outlook has alot of options for creating rules and things can get confusing if you are new to them.

• In the first step of the Microsoft Outlook Rules Wizard, select Apply rule on messages I receive from the Start a blank rule section.
• Click Next to continue.

image source: scrubly

• The next screen has a bunch of options, but don’t worry. All we need to do here is indicate you want this rule to trigger for any message through the account.
• In the Step 1 box, check ONLY the box next to through the specified account.

image source: scrubly

• In the Step 2 box, click the blue underlined specified item.

image source: scrubly

• You will be presented with a drop down. These are your email accounts. To make things as clear as possible, select the one you created the Unified Inbox folder in. It’s possible this will select the account you created the Unified Inbox folder in by default. That’s fine.
• Click OK after highlighting the account, and then click Next.

image source: scrubly

• On the next page, you will indicate what to do with any (all) messages that match the criteria you set in step 1. Only check the move it to the specified folder item.
• Clicking this box will give you another specified item to fill in. Click the link and select your newly-created Unified Inbox folder.
• Once you’ve selected the Unified Inbox folder, click OK

image source: scrubly

• Next, select the assign it to the category item. Go down to Step 2 and click the category link. We will be assigning a different category to each email account in Microsoft Outlook so you can easily tell them apart in your Unified Inbox.
• Once you’ve selected a category (or created a new one), click OK.
• Then, click Finish

image source: scrubly

• After clicking Finish, a warning should appear letting you know that this rule will only run when Outlook 2013 is running. Click OK.

image source: scrubly

Repeat steps 3-11 for each account you want included in your Unified Inbox in Outlook.

The reason being is you need to create a new rule for each account to send it’s messages (with it’s account category applied) to your new Unified Inbox folder.

ADD INBOX TO FAVORITES

To add the Unified Inbox folder to the Favorites section of Outlook, click and drag the folder from the account you created it in into the Favorites section above the accounts pane.

image source: scrubly

A Quick Note on Rules

You may have to adjust any existing rules or copy them to your new folder. If you want a rule to run before the message is sent to your unified inbox folder:

• Click File
• Select the account who’s rules you want to manage from the dropdown
• Click Rules and Alerts
• Highlight the rule/s you want to run before sending messages to the Unified Inbox
• Use the arrow keys from the menu ribbon to move the rule/s above the one moving messages to the Unified Inbox
• Repeat for any other account that has rules you wish to change.

Outlook Unified Inbox Method 3: Visual Basic Macro

Skill Level – Advanced

If you are a bit more advanced, you can Microsoft’s Visual Basic scripting language within Outlook to create something similar to a Unified Inbox.

In fact, all this macro does is run the search from Method 1 outlined above – in one click.

The downside is that it still needs to be run every time you open the client.

The upside is that it offers unique customization options including the ability to choose exactly what you want included in the Unified Inbox view by adjusting and adding more queries.

Before setting the macro up:

1. Select “File” > “Options“.
2. Select “Trust Center” on the left pane, then select the “Trust Center Settings…” button.
3. Select “Macro Settings” on the left pane, then the desired setting. …
4. Click “OK“, then close and re-open Outlook for the setting to take effect.

Once your Outlook has restarted, continue setting up your new Macro:

1. Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor
2. Expand Project1
3. Expand Microsoft Outlook Objects
4. Doubleclick “ThisOutlookSession”
5. Paste the following code into the window:

The code for a UNIFIED INBOX:

Sub UnifiedInbox()
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
txtSearch = "folder:Inbox received: (this week)"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
Set myOlApp = Nothing
End Sub

The code for a UNIFIED SENT BOX:

Sub UnifiedSentbox()
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
txtSearch = "folder: (Sent Mail) sent: (this week)"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
Set myOlApp = Nothing
End Sub

You can also change the scope of the Macro by using these search scopes:

Note: In Outlook 2007, you are limited to olSearchScopeAllFolders andolSearchScopeCurrentFolder

The post Unified Inbox in Outlook: The Complete Guide appeared first on Mailbird.

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Want to try Mailbird Po but don’t have a lot to spend? We think you’ll like this

Starting today, any user can invite their friends, colleges, or contacts to try Mailbird and if 5 or more of them try Mailbird themselves – you get a lifetime of Mailbird Pro 100% free.

Update: We have made it even more easy for you to earn Mailbird Pro. Check out our new referral Window in the sidebar.

The “old” Mailbird referral sidebar

Introducing the simplified Mailbird referral sidebar.

Simplified Mailbird referral sidebar

How to invite your friends to Mailbird to get Mailbird Pro for free.

Inviting friends has never been easier.

• Open Mailbird
• Click the menu icon
• Click Invite Friends
• The invite sidebar will expand on the right of your Mailbird client.
• Search and select the friends you’d like to send an invitation to

That’s it. Invite as many as you like, and invite as often as you wish.

Invitation confirmation – It’s that simple

You can easily track your progress towards reaching your goal of 5 accepted invites in the “sent” tab.

Still not sure if Mailbird is the right email client for you? Check out our latest mention on Forbes by Antony Leather on why Mailbird is his pick as the best alternative to Windows Live Mail.

The post A New Way To Get Mailbird Pro Free, For Life! appeared first on Mailbird.

Email has been here for over 50 years, and the question remains:

What’s the next evolution for email?

In this digital age, mobile apps are all the rage, especially when it comes to messaging and task management. Yet, most companies rely on email for their first choice corporate communication method. Also, private email users are convinced despite all their aversions towards email – Email won’t die.

That’s why I am going to look at how to best combine messaging apps (Slack example) and email.

Why using messaging apps such as Slack?

Nowadays, most corporate teams prefer Slack for collaborative communication, especially in projects. In fact,  The Verge and New York Times touted Slack as the ultimate email killer. 2.3 Million people are using Slack every day to be exact.

Slack

It allows channel members to communicate more quickly, share documents, and has dozens of amazing bots to automate a score of things that email just can’t. For example, Slack gives a super option of sharing code through snippets – my personal favourite.

Although it can cut down on email between team members, Slack cannot completely replace it.

Email won’t die

Forbes writer Maureen Henderson (@GenerationMeh) hit the nail on the head: 

“Email is your brain’s cloud storage, easily divided into folders. Need a link your boss sent you last week? Search your inbox. Have to double check your flight time out of Newark? Pull up that confirmation email from Delta.”

The recent report by Radicati group supports that statement. It shows that we are sending 215.3 Billion emails every day in 2016. Taken the current trend this will go up by 4.6% in 2017 and the following years.

So why do people still rely on email? “Research has shown we find real value in being able to refer back to written records of our quotidian lives, even if we dismiss recording such minutiae as tedious in the moment.” Henderson quoted. “It also gives us the feeling to be connected to the rest of the team and to be involved in the company happenings. Right there at one click.”

Also, despite many security concerns, newsletters, system notifications and formal business communication (such as memos and contracts) will still largely be sent over email. Messaging apps are just not suitable for that, especially within cooperate set ups.

So how to best combine them?

Given that we still have non-millennials in the workforce who aren’t about to leave their structured world with memos and emails and with the rise of the millennial workforce at the same time, it is necessary for many companies to find the best way to combine both email and modern messaging Apps such as Slack. Today’s users are well known for Shadow IT. These are IT systems and solutions built and used inside organizations without explicit organizational approval.

Integrating apps with mail seems to be the most logical way.

I was intrigued when I came across an interesting email client called Mailbird.  It allows you to integrate with over 30 apps (including Slack, Asana, WhatsApp, and Facebook among others) with the current app in use appearing on a right side pane of the email client. Loading any app is one click away and I found its versatility in choosing apps very friendly at the top of the pane.

Slack was my first app to activate in Mailbird. I used it to set up channels for communicating the hot topics of projects we are currently working on. Similar to Twitter, the channels are hashtagged and there are also options for direct messages and mentions.

Slack in email client Mailbird

So I am constantly in touch with what’s going on around any project, event or person in the company, while still keeping tabs on my emails without having to switch applications.

This, for me, is the most useful innovation from Mailbird as it saves me time while making it convenient to use the features of Slack which can’t be found in any email application.

For our team, this integration of messaging apps with my email client of choice has actually reduced the amount of email I receive. With messaging apps and email now under one roof, we can reference between the two making our communications even more effective.

Mailbird delivers the best of both worlds, and I like the fact that you can have your messaging app in a focused pane next to your emails. This means that it is easy to switch to whatever is your main focus at the time, whether its email or messaging app, the other can stay hidden.

The ease and speed of access means I don’t have to leave my email application, then switch to a browser for my business communication. Mailbird takes care of it for me.

How do you combine your messaging apps and email? Let me know in the comments section below.

 Joseph N. is a  Certified Process Professional with ISO9001 and ITIL experience. Next to being a passionate technical writer he is working as Process Governance manager, overseeing change management, problem management, and continuous service improvement

The post How to Best Combine Email with Messaging Apps like Slack appeared first on Mailbird.

If you run a virtual business (or if you’re self-employed), you know all too well how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the countless emails you receive each day. Waking up to a huge pile of emails is no fun, but staying on top of it is crucial to keeping your business running and effectively processing the work at hand.

You can’t cut down on the mountain of emails… it just can’t be helped. But what you can do is optimize the productivity of your communication with strategic solutions. Mailbird is an effective email management solution for virtual businesses and self-employed workers because it fosters work relationships. Below are some of Mailbird’s best features that can be applied to this context.

Integration with other apps

Email management software should go beyond the inbox. If you need to coordinate work with a group of people who are not physically present, two things are crucial: the ease of sharing and accessing information and effective communication. Mailbird makes this possible by allowing you to integrate useful apps into your email interface.

How does it work?

Let’s say you want to conduct an online meeting. With mailbird, you can use video calling apps like Appear.in and Veeting Room to set up a call or message thread with your workers or your clients.

Mailbird also lets you send and retrieve large files with its cloud storage app integrations like Dropbox, Degoo or Google Docs – the most popular platforms for sharing and accessing information online.

Finally, if you or your business use popular task management apps like Asana, Wunderlist, Moo.do or Todoist, Mailbird will integrate them into the email interface, importing personalized to-do lists, individual and shared calendars and scheduled meetings and events.

 Retrieve information quickly

 Need to find an email or a file that was previously sent? Want your email organized your way? We get time is of the essence and that everyone has their own preferences. That’s why Mailbird has created easy ways to retrieve information from your inbox like:

Search by Attachment – This feature distinguishes us from the rest. Need to quickly find the source of a particular file or photo? Find the source email in seconds!

Profile Picture Search – If you want to see all of your email correspondence history with a particular person, you can drag your cursor over their profile picture under the search function and all emails with this person will appear. This is a neat way to find the information you need as quickly as possible.

LinkedIn Look Up Feature – Did you receive an email from a prospective employee, customer or client? Easily look up their name on LinkedIn by right clicking on their name in the email header and clicking on the LinkedIn Look Up Feature. This will bring you to a list of LinkedIn profiles that can be matched to their name to learn more about them!

In terms of personalization, Mailbird offers…

Unified Inbox Plus – Do you work off a few different email addresses? Mailbird will let you combine all your different accounts into one simple and manageable inbox with distinguishable headings. Archive emails for later, prioritize and easily sort emails to keep your inbox clean and organized.

Customized Themes – Choose your own layout, colour scheme, sound and notification settings, themes and more to create an inbox that is pleasing to you.

Mailbird is a clean, minimalist and effective solution for virtual companies and self-employed individuals. It integrates some the best communication, cloud storage and task management apps into one easy-to-use interface. Ready to try it out? Get Mailbird for free today.

The post Email Management for Remote Work: How Mailbird can Help appeared first on Mailbird.

Recently users have been reporting sudden issues with their Outlook, Livemail, MSN and Hotmail account in Mailbird.

These accounts simply stopped working, it can’t receive or send email anymore. Attempts to add new accounts may also fail.

It turns out, this issue is caused by Microsoft’s upgrade process. They are migrating to a new Outlook.com, which may cause issues for some users.

Microsoft has listed more details on these problems here.  

The workaround that we suggest for now is to create an application specific password for your account following this link.

After that simply remove the account and add it again in Mailbird, but this time, use the new application specific password that you have generated.

If this does not work, we will have to wait for Microsoft’s to release their suggestions on fixing the error.

If you have any questions about the issue itself or how to generate the application specific password, please drop us a line in the comment section or simply send us an email.

The post Current Issues with Microsoft Outlook, Livemail, MSN, Hotmail and how to fix them appeared first on Mailbird.

We are super happy to let you know that we just launched our long weekend sale.

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, Mailbird Pro Lifetime is available for 55% off.

Totally productive. Totally awesome. Amazing value.

Get it before it’s gone at midnight on Monday, November 28th, 2016 and tell your friends!

The post Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deal 2016 – 55% off Mailbird Pro Lifetime appeared first on Mailbird.

Technology has no doubt, metamorphosed every industry in this 21st century. Especially the communication sector, almost every single thing has changed. Be that as it may, one thing has remained torpid, email addresses.

As a matter of fact, many businesses are groping their ways on how to find email addresses, to heighten their work. Still, you might want to write to your friend and by mistake, you deleted his/her email address. What will you do? Try the mindless Googling?

Here are some great websites to help you search for any email addresses.

1. Email Hunter

This fun software will find varied email addresses. Moreover, it will detail some derivations where it recouped the data. Above all, this is a polished app. Also, it’s a Chrome extension.

It has free and paid plans. The paid version starts at $49/month, $99/month all the way to $399/month.

Email Hunter

2. HeadReach

Using HeadReach, you can find the email by name, Company or website. Besides, you can set the advanced feature to search email addresses by job position. From here on, once you get your candidate; hit find the name email and social profile. The email will get added to your contacts. Finally, this tool has a log for undemanding access to all your searches.

HeadReach

3. Anymail Finder

The fun thing about this app is that it suggests emails using email patterns. All you need to do is click on the toolbar of the email address search from your Chrome browser. From here on, you find an email address either by the name or company website. Anymail Finder will then speculate the address and then lets you one-click replicate it.

Anymail Finder

But, there is something you need to know about this tool. It will be more challenging to use this email finder if you are looking for emails with a heterogeneous pattern.

4. Datanyze Insider

If your default browser is Chrome or Firefox, Datanyze Insider will get you emails wherever they become visible online. Also, it will single out their names. That’s not all; it further checks the presence of likely emails. It then gets that active email and will show a link to the exact address.

This email address search comes as a free version but, it has paid plans too.

Datanyze Insider

5. sellhack

Search up to 10 emails per month for free using this practical browser extension tool. It scrutinizes public sources available to find anyone’s email address. And just as stated, you can search for up to 10 emails per month. That is if you are on a free membership plan. This email finder runs on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

sellhack

6. Clearbit Connect

First, it’s a Gmail Chrome extension tool. Second, it’s an authentic software to search for any email address. Third, it will get you emails within seconds.

Clearbit Connect

All you need to do is to type in someone’s company tag with their job label or first name. Once it pinpoints an email address, you can one-click and draft an email to that person.

What tools have you used so far?

Let us know in the comment section below.

The post 6 Easy Ways To Find Email Addresses appeared first on Mailbird.

Do you know how to write an introduction email?

As Millennials, we thrive on emails. We live our daily lives around our virtual inboxes, and we experience most joyous news or harrowing announcements via email. As Adestra’s study indicates, 73% of Millennials showed a preference towards communication via email, with 44% of us staying glued to our smartphones to check these messages upon waking up. As a Millennial yourself, you probably use your email for all major communication, but do you know how to write a good introduction email?

We’ve all gotten that email that made us feel a twinge of sympathy for the sender.

Hi,

I’d like to talk about the position.

Jane

Did Jane do something wrong in her introduction email? She included a greeting, she listed her reason for sending the email, and she ended with her signature. On the surface it seems that she did everything right, but for those of us that hail from the days of Emily Post, we know that there is far more to email etiquette than a singular sentence.

Let’s break it down and go through it step by step.

1. The Subject Line

Going back to that news headline – what makes you read the story? What makes you care enough to click on an article or open up an email that lands in your inbox? The subject line, of course. For an introductory email that gets the attention of your desired recipient, you need to write a proper, professional subject line. If this email is your formal introduction, you don’t have to say that in the subject line. For example, while you could say “Hi, I’m Jane” in your subject line (but, please don’t do that), why not give a hint into the content of your email? Try something like “Open Marketing Position Inquiry”. It seems decidedly formal, but the reality is you are writing a professional email. You don’t want your subject line to read, “Hey, It’s Jane! Just Wanted To Introduce Myself!” Save the subtle informalities for the body.

Credit: business2community.com

2. The Greeting

As Millennials, we introduce ourselves to new people all the time – in real life, on social media, or through (you guessed it) emails. But we don’t actually know how to open an introduction email. Unfortunately, many of us skip the “introduction” part of the email altogether.

So, how do you pick a proper greeting? The first step is thinking about your recipient – Who is this person? Why am I writing to them? How formal or informal should I be?

This may seem counterintuitive because as we discussed, this is a professional email. But as all Millennials know, business is changing. We no longer pen formal, disconnected emails to each other – we treat each other with a level of cordiality.

Here are a few examples of greeting you might use for your specific recipient:

Dear John –> For a formal, professional business person, professor, etc.

Hello John –> For a less formal probably Millennial business person

John, –> Universal, the greeting for essentially every occasion

Starting with just the recipient’s name may seem too informal, but the reality is it is perfect. It is succinct and gets right to the point of who you are addressing.

3. The Body

So this is your introductory email, the email that will define your future correspondence (or lack thereof) with this person. What do you want to say? Well, to properly introduce yourself in an email, you need to have a few key points mentioned.

1. Who are you? Don’t wait until the end of the email to sign off with your name. Start with an introductory sentence, “My name is Jane, junior copywriter for XYZ corporation.”

2. How do you have this person’s email? Don’t be creepy. If you are applying for a job, it may be self-explanatory how you received John’s email address, but it never hurts to clarify. “I noticed your email address on the open marketing position posting on Indeed.”

3. Do you already know this person? If you don’t, exclude this section. If you do, explain how. “We met at the Inbound Marketing Conference last month.”

4. Why are you writing? This is the most important part of the email. Why are you writing an email in the first place? Be clear and concise. “I wanted to get in contact with you to learn more about the position and find out how I may apply.”

4. The Sign Off

In your email introduction, the sign off is as important as the actual email introduction. Don’t end your email with “Talk to you later, Jane” or something more ridiculous like “Lates, Jane”. Try picking something similar to the greeting – very formal or just formal enough depending on your audience.

A few sign off examples:

Best,

Regards,

Sincerely,

Thank you,

I look forward to speaking with you,

Introductory Emails: Not As Tough As You Think

Now you know how to write an introduction email. Contrary to popular belief, composing a proper email is not difficult – which means that you have no excuse for composing a poorly written one.

So what about our introductory email sample sender, Jane? Well, following the steps above, Jane’s completed email would look something like this:

John,

My name is Jane, junior copywriter for XYZ corporation. I noticed your email address on the open marketing position posting on Indeed. I wanted to get in contact with you to learn more about the position and find out how I may apply.

Regards,

Jane

And there you have it. Simple, to the point, and sure to impress Emily Post.

What is the worst introduction email that you have ever received or even written? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post How To Introduce Yourself In An Email and What Not To Say appeared first on Mailbird.

Gift Wrap Your Email Accounts and get into the Christmas mood!

Remember our fun wrapping feature we have implemented? Well, now is the best time to apply the Christmas patterns or upload a background image that sets you and your email accounts into the right mood for the festive days.

If you’d like to try “wrapping” your Mailbird, here is what you do:

1. Open Mailbird
2. Click the Menu Symbol in the upper left hand of the sidebar
3. Select “Settings”
4. In the “Appearance” section, you should see all the patterns you can choose from
5. Select any pattern to immediately apply it to your Mailbird or upload your own Christmas image
6. If you want to remove the pattern, either select another, or scroll to the first “none” option, and it will revert to your color.
7. You can also select the color of all the other elements to match your pattern.
8. Play around with it, have fun.

We will be adding more patterns, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Can’t get the patterns to show? Or the Background image won’t load? Shoot us an email or let us know in the comment section.We will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.

What Christmas Image are you using? Share them it in the comment section below.

The post Customize Your Email Accounts For Christmas appeared first on Mailbird.