Five Ways to Prevent Email Overload

One sure sign that your blog is getting more successful arises when you find yourself barraged with email from readers. The down-side to this attention is that it can take a very long time to answer individual requests for help. Bogged down in too much email? Here are some suggestions for helping you find your way to a clear inbox sooner rather than later. 1. It's all about the FAQ. If you get asked the same questions over and over again, it's a good idea to include it—along with any other common queries—in a comprehensive, well-written FAQ page. You can direct people to the FAQ in your contact page, cut and paste from your own FAQ as needed or, if you use Gmail, use your FAQ to take advantage of the tool's canned responses feature. 2. Keep it short and sweet. Who says a good email response has to be a novel? Seth Godin, who I'm sure gets more email than most of us could ever imagine, does a great job of responding to everyone who writes to him—often in a sentence or two. Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing fame took this a step further. "If this message is brief, it's because I care," his sig file reads, along with a link to a blog post explaining just that. Timely and concise emails may be just the trick you need to plow through that inbox. 3. Give answers for the masses. Find a way to answer common questions publicly. Whether you schedule a free introductory conference call, have regular "open office" hours or twitterchats, answer questions in a podcast or video, or use reader questions as blogging or newsletter fodder, use techniques that allow you to spend time crafting an answer that reaches more of your audience. Others may well have the same question. 4. I have an ebook about that. Develop or promote a product that will help answer your readers' questions. This could be an ebook, paid consultation offer, or any of a number of products that will allow your readers to explore their questions in depth—and get the help they need. Don't hesitate to mention the product if you think it would be helpful. 5. Make a referral. If you're too slammed to do consulting, you're getting asked questions outside of your area of expertise, or you otherwise don't have the type of product or service available that would really help your readers, be sure to pass them along to someone else who can help them. Your reader—and the person you refer them to—will likely be grateful for your recommendation. What email management techniques have worked best for you and your blog?

Win a BlogWorld Expo Pass Here Today! Do you want to win a pass to Blog World Expo this year? I have two – just for ProBlogger readers that the team at BWE have kindly offered. One even comes with a voucher to go towards your flights to BWE with South West Airlines!!! Please read the following carefully to make sure you're eligible and able to attend – we want these passes to be used by people who need them. The prizes There are two prizes as follows: A full access pass to the whole of Blog World Expo (worth $1195) – that's Thursday, Friday and Saturday's sessions, the exhibit floor, all the parties and the social media business summit. This one also comes with a voucher to go towards your flights to BWE flying with South West Airlines ($300 value). A Weekend Pass to Blog World Expo (worth $495) – this one gives you access to the sessions on Friday and Saturday as well as all three parties and the exhibit floor. Important Notes: BWE is on from 14-16 October – please only enter this if you're able to attend! in both prizes you'll need to arrange your own accommodation. with prize #2 you'll need to arrange your own travel. the competition is open to people around the world but to international readers you'll need to make sure you can get there under your own steam. please note that these prizes are for those who have not already got tickets. We're not able to organise refunds on previously purchased tickets but this is to get a couple of extra ProBlogger readers along. You can enter both competitions but only once per competition. How to Enter I'm going to effectively run two competitions here. One for each prize. I'll draw the winners in 36 hours time so this is a quick competition. You can enter both competitions but only once per competition. Competition #1 – to be in the running to win prize #1(full access pass with the travel voucher) you need to tweet out your desire to win a ticket. The tweet needs to include a shout out to @blogworld and @southwestair as well as the hashtag #PbBWEPass. I'll randomly choose someone tweeting that and notify them via Twitter (so please make sure you follow @problogger so I can DM you). Competition #2 – to be in the running to win prize #2 (the weekend pass) simply leave a comment below. Please include the word 'blogworld' so I make sure none of your comments get caught in my spam filter. I'll notify the winner by the email address that they leave with their comment. Prizes will be drawn 36 hours after this post goes live to enable winners to make their travel arrangements. That's 4pm Melbourne time on Sunday 3rd October.