Further to my post about email etiquette I thought I’d do a follow-up highlighting some of the poor or bad email etiquette.

* Don’t reply to an email message when angry , as you may regret it later. Once the message has been sent, you will not be able to recover it.

* Don’t keep mail on your server longer than necessary, especially large attachments.

* Don’t copy out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of text such as “I agree”.

* Don’t type in CAPITALS as this is considered to be SHOUTING. This is one of the rudest things you can do.

* Don’t over-use punctuation such as exclamation marks (”!”) as these are meant to be for emphasis. In particular avoid more than one exclamation mark (”!!”), especially if your email is quite formal. Also, over-use of the full-stop (e.g. “….”) can make a message difficult to read.

* Don’t send irrelevant messages, especially to mailing lists or newsgroups.

* Don’t send large attachments without checking with the recipient first.

* Don’t send excessive multiple postings to people who have no interest. This is known as “spamming” and is considered to be ignorant, and may lead to serious trouble with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or IT department.

* Don’t send chain letters or “make money fast” messages. There are several hoaxes about to do with viruses - never pass these on without checking with your IT department first.

* Don’t criticize people’s spelling, it is considered petty. Many people have no way of running a spell check on their messages and will make typos. Not all nationalities spell words in the same way.

* Don’t conduct arguments in public, for example on a mailing list.

* Don’t “flame” people by sending them abusive email messages.

* Don’t make personal remarks about third parties. Email messages can come back to haunt you.

* Don’t send unsuitable email or attachments, especially anything of a sexual nature as they may well be found by a third party later.

* Don’t use an over-elaborate signature on your email message. Never, ever, use scanned images in a signature as these tend to be very large.

* Don’t mark things as urgent if they aren’t, because then when you really do have an urgent message it may not be treated in the way it deserves.

* Don’t post your email address on web sites and other public parts of the Internet unless you want to be deluged with spam.

One of my pet peeves when it comes to doing business online, is the terrible way people converse via email. Are there rules when it comes to sending emails? Lets discuss what’s acceptable..

* Do check to see what your organization’s email policy is. Many organizations have rules about the types of message that can be sent and also if your email is monitored or screened.

* Do try to think about the message content before you send it out. Good email etiquette

* Do make sure that the content is relevant to the recipients. Nobody likes to receive junk email.

* Do be polite. Terseness can be misinterpreted.

* Do trim any quoted message down as much as possible.

* Do try to use humor and irony sparingly. You can use smileys such as or to indicate facial expressions, but make sure that the recipient understands what they mean.

* Do ensure that you have a relevant “Subject” line.

* Do try to quote from the original message where relevant. You can break the quoted message down into paragraphs and comment on them individually to make it clearer.

* Do be patient, especially with inexperienced email users. Give people the benefit of the doubt - just because you are familiar with email etiquette, it doesn’t mean that they are.

* Do include a brief signature on your email messages to help the recipient understand who it is from, especially if you are dealing with someone you do not know very well.

* Do be careful when replying to mailing list messages, or to messages sent to many recipients. Are you sure you want to reply to the whole list?

* Do remember to delete anything that isn’t needed or is trivial.

* Do remember to tell people the format of any attachments you send if they’re anything other than basic Microsoft Office file types.

* Do tell your correspondent if you forward a message to somebody else to deal with, so they know who to expect a reply from.

* Do use emphasis where its useful to do so. If your email system doesn’t allow bold or italics then a common convention is to use a *star* either side of the word you want to stress.

* Do understand that languages such as English differ in spelling between different countries. “Organization” and “humor” are the correct spelling in British English, but in American English it would be “organization” and “humor”. Non-native speakers of English may use a variety of national spellings.

Care to add some to the list? Leave me a comment.

Seems my recent post about “How are people making money online” got a lot of buzz. I’ve received several emails now from readers who are trying to make a go at Affiliate Marketing. I guess the picture of the last cheque I got for the work I did with one of my fav affiliate network, really pushed the excitement meter up!

In one email I received, Leisa asked “Do you ever mentor people?” At this point I simply don’t have the time, but this fall when I take a bit of a break I plan on working on a mentoring course. Don’t be scared off by “course”. It will be 100% free, but limited to serious people ONLY. I’d hate to know that someone was wasting my time and preventing someone with actual drive and ambisson from getting my personal attention. Look for this in early winter or sooner. It all depends on how many people are interested and how much time I can dedicate to this.

Gene also asked “how to get started” in affiliate marketing or telecommuting I assume. Getting started is very easy, but having the determination and patience to really make this work is what prevents many from achieving success. As far as working from home goes, luck plays a great part. There are thousands and thousands of people just like you who are trying their best to land a work from home job. Therefore you must be persistent in your approach. Your jobsearch cannot be a part time thing. It must be adopted as part of your daily routine, so you’re always applying for the jobs as they become available. Start by visiting Genuinejobs.com and WFHMarket.com on a daily basis to see the latest vacant jobs.

For those of you interested in Affiliate Marketing and making it  real success, here are a few links to blogs that I try to read. TIP - Read the comments people leave after each post when you go to these blogs. You’ll find that the open discussion in some of them is very educational.

http://uberaffiliate.com/

http://www.superaffiliatemindset.com/

http://courtneytuttle.com/

http://zacjohnson.com/

These should keep you busy for the next little while. Leave me a comment if you’d like to learn more about the blogs I read and why you should.

Looking at the stats for our latest work from home website - http://www.wfhmarket.com we can come to one conclusion. More people are hoping to land a telecommuting job than ever. I think we officially launched WFHMarket.com a little under 30 days ago and we already have over 980 registered users. A registered user (free) is someone who’s asked for a password and user name to access the vacant jobs that’s posted on a daily basis. All work from home type jobs.

I recall back in the days when Genuinejobs.com was in it’s infancy, we could count the number of new users who accessed the site daily, on our fingers. This is not the case any longer. We now see thousands of new and returning visitors every single day. Even when most website owners complain that the summer months are terrible for website traffic, we’ve seen no significant drop. We were bold enough to launch WFHMarket.com during the summer so we could handle any minor issues. After-all we know that summertime usually means less traffic. I guess we’re in for a hectic spell when the summer makes way for the cooler months of the Fall. This is usually when website traffic usually peaks. People are no longer enjoying the outdoors and they on the computer longer.

Not only did registered users cross the 980 mark over the weekend, we’ve also seen a lot of buzz in both the work from home blog and work from home forums. Just in the forums we’ve already have 117 topics posted with more than 200 people replying to these topics. Yes, not only are people looking for employment, they’re willing to share ideas and ask for advice.

Are you looking for a work from home job? I suggest you get cracking now as competition is increasing every second you delay.

As you know, one of the downsides to working form home in front of a computer all day is the potential to get lazy and watch the lbs attach to you like Velcro.

Does Working at Home Contribute to Weight Gain?

Working from home may have benefits, but it comes with a downside when the refrigerator calls your name. Maybe you are lonely or bored working at home which may trigger emotional eating. Some of you might be workaholics and you just don’t stop to eat a balanced meal, which might translate into eating too much later on. Here’s what you can do.

Going to the gym is a nice break I take when I feel the need to get away from this monitor and keyboard. But it does have a price. If you don’t have a gym membership it can be expensive with all the stuff they try to “tell” you, you need when you go to register. Plus if you’re like me and found a way (my big mouth at work) to beat all these sign-up charges, you’re still stuck with the monthly fee.

Lately, with the amazing summer we’re having (except for all the thunder storms) I’ve been riding as if I was training for the Tour de France. Well, not really. But what a great way to not only enjoy the outdoors, but get some exercise at the same time. Caron and I just came back from doing an 11K ride along the shores of lake Ontario and it feels great.

TIPS…

- make use of the outdoors (walk, bike, hike, run - no need for expensive health club memberships.

- take a camera along with you.

- be sure to pack water and keep a basic first-aid kit in your car on your person.

- get your family involved with you. It’s better than Nintendo Wii when it comes to interaction and role playing 

Some pics I captured this week from our biking escapades…