bloggie blog

Today, a tip that can help when using Craigslist. Because CL posts expire after a week, they can disappear on you at the most inconvenient times.

The problem: You responded to a job offer a couple of days ago, you want to remind yourself of some detail that was posted on CL, and now it’s gone.

The solution: Get in the habit of using toread on every CL post that you respond to.

Sign up, install the toread bookmarklet in your browser, and click on the bookmarklet before responding to CL. Now you know that if you need it, you can re-read that important CL post later by finding it in your email long after it’s not available on Craigslist itself.

To make things smoother, you send the CL posts to an email account that allows for automatic filtering. For instance, you set up a Gmail filter to apply label ‘toread’ to all messages with [toread] in the subject line and to archive them, so they don’t bother you. Ta-da! They’re only there if you need them.

Hope this helps. Happy surfing!

Recently I sent out another email blast to my list. (Wanna sign up? Here. Wanna see past blasts? Here.) I got a lot of positive feedback on my most-recent email blast, including some inquiries on what service I use to get them done, so I thought I’d write a blog entry on the matter.

I use a service called Campaign Monitor. For myself or for work I’ve done for others, I’ve also used in the past Vertical Response, Dadamail and a couple of others. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but I simply like Campaign Monitor more. It is not free, but I don’t pay very much, and you can try it out for free. Whether you use them or not, I recommend using a service instead of doing it yourself!

The other service I use is called “me.” Meaning, I design my own website and my own email, and I design my email to more or less look like my website. Of course, all email services provide templates, but I prefer to roll my own. Designing email is tricky, and I see a lot of über-bad email design out there. (One common mistake is sending email that looks great for certain recipients but looks like garbage or like absolutely nothing for other recipients.) I’m good at design that looks good for all recipients. If you admire my email updates, Campaign Monitor and I are both available to work for you.

I wish you a wonderful year. I hope you can be happy, make nice progress on your goals, and always see things clearly throughout 2010 — and when you can’t do that, I hope it’s because you have something fabulous like a peacock feather blocking your vision.

I have had something blocking my vision for a while now. It’s half wonderful, half garbage, and it’s called my inbox. My email inboxes (are we all plural on that front nowadays?) are often full, but as of today, they are blissfully empty. It’s a new thing for a new year. So if you emailed me during 2009 and I didn’t respond, please accept my deepest apology and write back, because I ain’t looking back in my old messages unless I suddenly remember there’s money in there for me. Money or peacock feathers.