Why you ask? Two Words:

Google Rules

So I’ve got 10 reasons you should use Gmail and a long list of tips and tricks to make your Gmail seem like a dream.

1. All your emails are online which means that you access your emails from anywhere, not just one computer.
2. Gmail spam filters block 99% of the spam that usually makes it to your inbox.  This isn’t a SPAM filter you constantly have to add things to, this a smart filter that is both accurate and thorough.  I rarely have to mark things SPAM and I’ve only found a good email in SPAM once.
3. You can chat via Gmail and even do video conferencing.
4. You can create Word docs, PDF’s and spread sheets with Gmail via the use of GoogleDocs.
5. Gmail allows you to schedule events with the Google Calendar that will notify you by email and/or by text message to remind you of an appointment or meeting. You can also send meeting/event invites via Google Calendar, and send a reminder to the person or persons that you will be meeting with.
6. Gmail allows you to tag emails you find important, with a star. You can actually do a search for ‘Starred‘ emails and they all pop up, and as quick as a normal google search!
7. Your emails are tabbed into a thread, which means you no longer have to look for old emails… it is more like a conversation window.
8. You can archive old emails or whole conversations so that you can keep your Inbox clear.
9. You can set up filters and labels to to automatically manage incoming mail, and keep your Inbox organized and clutter free.
10. It has a fast, easy search function which means you will never lose an email again. The search is as fast a normal google search which is speedy.
11. With Gmail… you will never have to delete an email again, you have unlimited storage space.
    

If that doesn’t do it for you…maybe this will

watch?v=uBbmiQhuAhU

Articles & Advice

Step By Step Instructions to Set up Your Gmail

20 ways to Use Gmail Filters

Video Tutorials

Below are some great videos to get you started with Gmail. If you have a website and an email related with your website you should be using Google Apps to set up your Gmail Account… the videos below will explain.

Using Gmail - Part 1 (5m 38s)- Learn about the basic features of gmail in this video.

Using Gmail - Part 2 (7m 50s)- Learn about how to retrieve other (ie. your old email address) email into Gmail, setup labels and filters, explain the Archive function and Gmail conversation.

Using Gmail - Part 3 (4m 39s)- Explore the more advanced settings options and some of the features coming out of Google Labs

Tips to make your Gmail better

Did you know the periods in your gmail address don’t mean a thing? That’s right, if you signed up as my.name@gmail.com, you’d still get emails sent to myname@gmail.com. You’ll even get emails sent to m.y.n.a.m.e@gmail.com, isn’t that special. Ooh, and anything sent to “googlemail” instead of “gmail.”

Another useful tip, you can add a plus sign to the end of your address, and then you can set up folders in your email that coordinate with that. For instance, say you open an online account with your bank, like IBC Bank. When you sign up, give your email address as “myname+banking@gmail.com”, then in Settings, set up a filter. In the From box, add in your bank (IBC Bank) , in the To box, put in your newly-created myname+banking@gmail.com address, and the set the filter to put in a folder titled “banking.” You can also use this technique when you sign up for something and send their emails to you directly to the trash!

You can also search for mails that have specific filetypes as attachments, like this: has:attachment filename:doc.  To look for messages to or from people, use the to: or from: modifiers. For example, to find emails from someone called Jake, add from:Amie to your search query. By default, search only looks in your Inbox. To look for mail in other places, use the modifier in: For example, to search your Spam folder, add in:spam to your query.

Here is 55 more tips to help you master your Gmail account

Gmail Beta: First Impressions
How I ‘Imported’ archived email into Gmail
Gmail Tip #1: All About Labels
Gmail Tip #2: ‘Check’ Your Messages
Gmail Tip #3: How to Maintain ‘Notes’
Gmail Tip #4: Formatting Your Name
Gmail Tip #5: The ‘Plus’ Side of Gmail
Gmail Tip #6: Define a Signature!
Gmail Tip #7: Quickly Addressing a Message
Gmail Tip #8: Working With Lots of Email
Gmail Tip #9: New Mail Notification!
Gmail Tip #10: Some Tips About Conversations
Gmail Tip #11: Connecting Securely
Gmail Tip #12: ‘Archiving’ Explained
Gmail Tip #13: Some More About Conversations
Gmail Tip #14: What Happens To Sent Messages?
Gmail Tip #15: New feature! Highlighting on/off!
Gmail Tip #16: New feature! View or Download for attached images
Gmail Tip #17: Advanced Search - View Multiple Labels
Gmail Tip #18: Some Forwarding Idiosyncracies
Gmail Tip #19: Advanced Search - ‘Query Words’
Gmail Tip #20: Why some attachments bounce
Gmail Tip #21: ‘Official’ Features and Bugs Status Page
Gmail Tip #22: Advanced Search - Multi-Labeled and Un-Labeled Messages
Gmail Tip #23: Cleaning Your Contacts
Gmail Tip #24: New feature! Import Contacts
Gmail Tip #25: Find Your Unread Messages
Gmail Tip #26: Creating a Pseudo Address Group!
Gmail Tip #27: Adding Hotmail Contacts to Gmail
Gmail Tip #28: ‘Gmail Notifier’ released to beta!
Gmail Tip #29: A Small Quirk With Gmail Notify’s ‘mailto:’ Handler
Gmail Tip #30: Removing a Label
Gmail Tip #31: Improved and New Contacts Features!
Gmail Tip #32: Drafts!
Gmail Tip #33: Auto-forward received Gmail!
Gmail Tip #34: Gmail on your Palm!
Gmail Tip #35: Gmail on your Palm! - Part 2
Gmail Tip #36: Some Email Management Tips
Gmail Tip #37: New Feature! Image Attachment Thumbnails
Gmail Tip #38: Google Gmail Minibrowser
Gmail Tip #39: New Feature! Gmail From Most Any Browser!
Gmail Tip #40: New Feature! Rich formatting!
Gmail Tip #41: How Much Space Do I Have?
Gmail Tip #42: A More Worldly View
Gmail Tip #43: Notes in Just Two Clicks!
Gmail Tip #44: Using An Email Client
Gmail Tip #45: Backing Up Your Gmail Account
Gmail Tip #46: Creating a Map Repository
Gmail Tip #47: Gmail Adds Chat!
Gmail Tip #48: Reply Without Scrolling
Gmail Tip #49: Moving the Chat Quick Contacts Box
Gmail Tip #50: Changing Subject Text When Replying or Forwarding
Gmail Tip #51: Keyboard Shortcuts
Gmail Tip #52: Can I “Delete all” Spam?
Gmail Tip #53: How Can I View Outlook Stationery In Gmail?
Gmail Tip #54: New Feature! Select ALL conversations
Gmail Tip #55: Excluding Chat from Search Results

Did I miss something?

The following are books that I have, for whatever reason, taken the time to buy and read. These books have enriched my life and are good enough that I like to share them with others.

Here are my recommendations of books you should take the time to read:

Blogs which are updated regularly and have real (not fabricated or duplicated) content, whether business or personal - can be monetized ($make money$).  If you’re like me…you spend quite a bit of time thinking and pondering and reading and discovering…why not share it with others?

I highly recommend using Wordpress for your blog, and I would recommend buying your own domain name since they are less than $10.00 per year.  Wordpress blogs are as easy to use as Microsoft Word.  There are a million (or more) themes, tools, and plugins that can easily make your blog do and look just about any way you want in a matter of minutes.

Do you need step by step instructions on how to set up your wordpress blog or someone to do it for you?  No worries…we’ve got that covered.

What are you waiting for?  Need more info? post a comment and I’ll come to your rescue

What is viral video marketing?

It is marketing in such a way that your video (or the ad being promoted) gets forwarded from viewer to viewer simply because they like the video and want their friends to see it.There is nothing forced upon the viewers to forward it to their friends, but they want to on their own terms and do anyway.

If you have a website that offers information or products, you need a viral video to help brand your site and send traffic.  I have searched and read and found the best viral video tips and listed the links below.

Best Articles

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos

8 tips to make your YouTube video go viral

Best Tips

1.  Optimize your title & thumbnail

2.  Tag your video with highly targeted words

3. Tell a compelling story (avoid a sales pitch)

4. Your video should be short - 3 minutes tops!