E-mail is the lifeblood of every successful online real estate professional.  However, as your online business continues to grow, it can quickly turn into "too much of a good thing" —if you don't take steps to organize and control it.  Fortunately, today's professional-level e-mail software programs typically offer ways to take control, avoid overwhelm, and leverage all that business-generating e-mail traffic so you don't have to work so hard.

In particular, there are two powerful features within these e-mail programs, called "Folders" and "Rules" that will help you do just that...

(NOTE: for the remainder of this article, we will be referring to Outlook 2000 with respect to specific examples shown, however the principles covered are typically the same for the latest versions of most professional e-mail software)

Get Organized!

The easiest way to manage your e-mail messages is with the use of hierarchical "Folders".  Essentially your e-mail program's folders are a filing system where you can conveniently store and group related messages in a meaningful way and easy to find way.  The example below (as a partial screen-shot from an Outlook 2000 window) illustrates a possible way to organize your incoming messages according to the type of business or prospect:

There are two basic ways to get your incoming e-mail messages into the appropriate folder.  The most straightforward is to just drag it in from the list of messages within your Inbox.  There is way to automate this process however, or just about any other having to do with receiving e-mail —if you know the "rules"...

Take Control!

Some professional e-mail software programs give you the ability to create "rules" that determine how a message is handled once it is received.  There are typically two parts to rules, conditions and actions:

• Conditions - determine which circumstances (i.e. who the message is from, specific key words within the subject line or message body, etc.) will trigger the specified actions;

• Actions - one or more automated steps the program will take, usually upon a specific message) once certain conditions are met.

In essence, "rules" are a way to program your e-mail software to automate just about anything you want with respect to handling messages.  And you can create as many as you want.  They are often used in conjunction with folders to comprehensively manage the flow of incoming of e-mail.  You create rules in Outlook 2000 using the "Rules Wizard" found under the "Tools" menu.  This will help you step-by-step to set up the conditions and actions you want to be applied to specific messages.

For example, you can create a "rule" that will take all messages coming from a specific seller and then a) put it in the appropriate listing folder, b) alert you immediately once any message meeting those conditions arrives.  By doing this you have effectively automated the organization of your e-mail messages and the prioritization of your response.  The result being you save time and look good!  The screen shoot below shows you what this rule looks like:

(CLICK HERE for screen shot)

The scope of what you can automate with "rules" within your e-mail software is quite large.  Keep in mind that this is something your assistant (virtual or otherwise) can do for you as well.  Used together with organizing "folders", you should never have to worry about your e-mail becoming "too much of a good thing" ever again!