Managing multiple email addresses with Gmail

Especially when you start running multiple addresses for business and personal use, you’ll love Gmail’s options for email forwarding and straightforward POP3 access so you can manage all your correspondence from one place. If you were to funnel info@yourbusiness.com, orders@yourbusiness.com, and a few other business and personal addresses into the same Gmail account, you’d be able to quickly see in your inbox what messages you’re receiving at which addresses. In your settings, you’ll also be able to designate the default response address for each kind of incoming message. Sweet deal. You’ll want to start by having Gmail fetch mail from your other accounts.

If you’re trying to setup a new email address with your domain name in it, you’ll need to work with either the hosting provider or domain registrar who offers email addresses as a service. There are usually good instructions on how to do this in a FAQ section or in an email account setup area of the company’s help section. As you set up your email address, keep track of the following information for every email address you create:

• Account Name / login ID / username (Google calls any of these a username)
• Password

When you have completed the process, the company will provide you with their:

• Incoming mail (POP3) server
• Outgoing mail (SMTP) server

To connect the new address(es) to your Gmail account, log in to Gmail, click the Settings link on the top right of your screen, then select the Accounts tab. From there, click the link titled Add another email address and answer the questions to complete the setup. Gmail will prompt you through the remainder of the process.

Once you have confirmed the setup as instructed, you can select an option under the Account tab that allows you to reply from the same address the message was sent to in your Gmail account. Keep in mind that if you decide to reply from the email address at your domain, Outlook users will still be able to see your Gmail name, although it will remain hidden from most other customers. So, it will be a good idea not to use a personal name in your main Gmail address if you’re worried about that as a security issue.

The joys of Gmail

It’s time folks. If you haven’t joined the Gmail bandwagon, you have no excuse for complaining about AOL, MSN, Hotmail, or any other frustrating email program for that matter. I feel your pain. After nine years of loyalty to the same address, I took charge of my email accountability and put an end to emails being lost or delayed or never having enough storage. You too can sign up for a free Gmail account . . . today. Believe me, your stress load may be relieved considerably!

One stop shop

Not only does Gmail offer tons of free storage space (2.8 + GB and counting), you’ll always be able to sort your archived mail quickly (one of the first in the game to let you do this!). Gmail also will facilitate sending/receiving larger files (20 MB) than the competition so you’re not as limited when it comes to updating friends and family with your latest photos.

The chat function is another excellent attribute that allows you to chat (or group chat) with anyone who has a Gmail account. That’s starting to include most of America, minus the people to whom you should send a link to read this blog J Plus, the excellent part about Gmail chats is that they’re archived so you can easily search for them along side your emails. You can even respond to an email via chat if you see your friend is online, to speed delivery while keeping everything recorded in that message’s thread.

If chat doesn’t make you accessible enough, you’ll love Google Talk, which lets people leave voicemail messages for you that you can open up as sound files in Gmail! Seriously, Google created a whole new ball game with Gmail.

Plus, with Google Documents you don’t even have to download files to view them. This is great as a preview option to ensure you don’t put junk on your computer, but it’s also nice if you’re working on a public computer at a library or at work.

And, if you’re looking for a better way to manage and edit your photos, you’ll love the Google-integrated program, Picasa. You can quickly create a slideshow or set incoming photos as your screen saver. Plus, you can make them brighter, in another color tone (like sepia, etc), and play around with a plethora of other free tools.

Once you realize how great Gmail is, and all the cool products connected to it, you’ll find it easy to get lost in Google’s almost endless array of helpful free products.  I even text message GOOGLE (466453) to find addresses and phone numbers for companies when I’m out and about.  And that’s just a glance at the tip of the iceberg . . . If you ever have a problem, most likely Google can both find an answer, and provide a solution.