Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

I'd keep a personal e-mail account for people you know personally and any e-mail address's for certain blogs/projects setup and autoreply saying you get tons of e-mail and if you can only respond to comments posted on a particular blog post/article and those questions must be asked on the specific post/article. E-mail will be the bain of our existence. I personally hate it!!!

-Jeff O'Hara
http://blog.zemote.com

After struggling with the same issues, I took a modified approach to email bankruptcy by archiving all of my existing mail. Then I set up all new labels (I filter everything through GMail). Now when something comes in, I either respond immediately (if time allows) or I star it for later. On weekend mornings, I batch process all my starred items for the week. It's a delayed reponse, but it's better than no response. :)

Good luck!

I tend to agree. One email for personal stuff, one email for blog requests/comments that has an automated "I can't answer every email" reply. Also might help to create a couple of "canned" replies to frequently asked questions that you can make as signatures. For example, say a common question is "How do I get started?" Create a canned reply that says, "Here are some resources that may help. To find out about the basics of query letters and submissions, visit X website. To learn about the writing life, check out X website. If you'd like to network and connect with other writers, X website is a great place to start." Something like that. And then, whenever you get a common question, sending a reply is simply a matter of inserting a signature or cutting/pasting.

Perhaps there is an opportunity in the madness. Turn a few of those canned "here's a list of resources/tips/ideas to get you started" emails into an automated course that people pay for or that promotes your business.

Templates and filters are a great way to manage email. I have worked on "email projects" for the Freedom Writers Foundation and without template responses I would have gone crazy. Keep a store of them for the most frequently asked questions and even some not so frequently asked ones; you will run into some of the same questions over and over. An auto-reply is also a good idea, that way you don't have to worry about people thinking you are just ignoring them...Oh and Dani is right, Gmail is great for those filters and labels and you don't need to be invited anymore.

Maybe people consider you an expert because you are a guide to weblogs on About.com and have a website about how to find freelance writing jobs? Everyone here has great advice about how to deal with your mountains of email, but with advice-giving blogs like the ones you run (and get paid for), did you not expect for the pleas for help to roll in?

Thanks to everyone who offered great advice! I think it's going to take a re-working of my schedule. In addition to various folders, I'm thinking I'm going to have to set aside a chunk of a specific day.

@Anonymous - Honestly, I never expect the volume of mail I receive.