Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

My second challenge as a work at home mom is my out of control email. People look to me for advice on working from home, blogging and freelance writing. I don’t mind this, but it’s difficult to find time to answer a couple of hundred emails each day. Here are the steps I’m taking to make email more manageable:

AutoResponders – I don’t like autoresponders. They’re like calling the telephone company only to be directed to a canned message. They’re impersonal and keep people waiting. At this point, however, I don’t think I have much choice. I’m creating autoresopnders for certain email accounts to let people know I received their emails, and will do my best to answer in a timely matter. It’s better than having them wait in silence.

Different email accounts – I think it’s also a good idea to set up a bunch of different email accounts. For instance one account for inquiries, one for advertising and one for guest bloggers. This would at least sort the email into various categories.

Folders – I’m also creating folders within each account. These will have to do with my taking a specific action. For instance, one folder for issues to deal with right away, one for things that can wait a couple of days and one for invoices.

Schedule – I’m rearranging my schedule to include answering email, at least so I can address the most important inquiries. Then I’m also going to set aside a couple of hours on my least busy day to answer all the week’s emails.

Finally, I’m going to turn many of the most popular email inquiries into blog posts. My emails tell me what my readers want. If they can’t already find the answers on one of my blogs, I’ll make it so they can.