The Official ActiveRain Guide

How To Get Started on ActiveRain - A quick route to a successful Journey on ActiveRain.

The ActiveRain Staff,  along with our members and ambassadors, wish to welcome you to the ActiveRain community.  We know you have a choice, and we're glad you've chosen our network as a place to connect with others, support your local neighborhoods and communities, plus grow your business and relationships. 

Before you begin your journey here, there's a few areas we invite you to navigate first.  This will save you time and give you a better understanding of the Network.  We're confident that our site will bring value, benefits, and substantial rewards to you and your business.

    BEFORE YOU BEGIN
    These are REQUIRED and a MUST READ for ALL New Members - NO EXCEPTIONS!

•   What We Stand For - Weltenschauung
  Weltanschauung: The guiding principles and philosophy of an organization. A world view.

•   The ActiveRain Community Guidelines
  Please take these rules seriously.

•   Terms of Service
  Terms of Use are binding and we want you to feel comfortable with them.
  
  

   ACTIVERAIN UNIVERSITY
   Get live training weekly to make your blog the best it can be

• ActiveRain University Schedule - Classes every weekday
  Learn the ins and outs of ActiveRain and how to utilize it to the fullest with our live trainer.

• ActiveRain Orientation - A Live Webinar to get you acquainted
  Steve, our live trainer takes you through the basics on the site to get you familiar with ActiveRain

• ActiveRain University Suggestion Box
  Don't see a class you would like us to create? Make a suggestion to us for future classes.
  
  

    GETTING STARTED in 3 EASY STEPS
    Follow these next steps to get setup on ActiveRain.

•   How To Complete Your Profile - Part II
  Your profile has three areas that allow you maximize the page.  Learn How to use these sections.

•   How To Use Your "My Settings" Page
  Now you are ready to Customize your ActiveRain Settings.
  
  

    GETTING THE MOST OUT OF ACTIVERAIN
    Social Networking, Connecting and Blogging

• ActiveRain Member Success Stories
  Read what other industry professionals and members have to share.
  Here's A VIDEO version

• Understanding ActiveRain Points
  Learn about points and how they work on the network.

• The RainMaker Membership
  Becoming a RainMaker - The Value and The Benefit
  
  

    READY TO MAKE LIGHTNING, THUNDER AND RAIN
    Now that you're a member and RainMaker, put the power tools to work

• Top 10 Tools for New Members and RainMakers
  Take the time to review what this network has to offer.

• ActiveRain Custom Outside Blogs
  How To Create and Maximize Your Outside ActiveBlog.
  
  

    OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES TO HELP YOU
    Use these links to dive deeper in the "Rain" if you need more information

• The ActiveRainGuide
  A Tutorial Blog by Members for Members

• The ActiveRain Staff Blog
  The Official ActiveRain TEAM Blog

• Help/FAQ Group
  A network group created to help members

• An ActiveRain eBook Tutorial
  Find Almost Anything about ActiveRain here
  

• ActiveRain University
  Online Campus for Training and Support

• Real Estate RainCamp
  "Live" Local Conferences and Seminars
  
  
• My Blog, Your AR Resource
  Your One stop Shop for all AR Tutorials

DID YOU KNOW?
ActiveRain is the TOP Real Estate Social Network in the World (source: Google)

The ActiveRain Network hosts over 170,000 RE Industry members averaging 200-300 new members daily.  There are more than 1.5 million articles posted, with an average of 700-1000 new posts daily.  Two million+ visitors traffic the ActiveRain network each month, over 80% are consumers.  Only Rainmaker upgraded accounts receive Google traffic to their blogs and posts.  ActiveRain Member's Blog posts receive more than 500 views on average.  Activerain is the ONLY on-line Network that offers this wide variety of tools, diverse services, and proven solutions to the Real Estate Industry Professional and for consumers on the WEB.

Best of Luck and Enjoy!

There is so much concern and “Buzz” about Google shutting down Picnik.com, I decided to provide you with some alternative tools for editing and customizing your graphics, photos, and images.   While Picnik.com will be shutting down in April 2012, here are some other options you have available immediately.

FotoFlexer – Create some dazzling photo and image effects in your browser for FREE.  Use Animations, resizing, coloring, contrast and more.  Take a look at These 5 Demo’s for a quick tour of what FotoFlexer has to offer, you’ll love some of these cool features.  Smart Scissor is a favorite feature.

Pixlr – and for Picnik users, try Pixlr Express.  You’ll love the Editor, the Pixlr-o-matic, the Pixlr Grabber for Firefox and Chrome browsers, and the Pixlr Imm.io hosting, all of which are very robust and user friendly cool features.

LunaPic – This site will rock your world!  Lunapic offers more choices and options for photo editing and custom effects than some of the paid software applications I’ve purchased and used in the past.  Use vignettes, color bars, animated imaging, picture frames, retro color, collages, custom text, reflection animations, slide shows, and a ton more.  One of the most feature rich FREE online editors available.  You’re gonna love this site.

FreeOnlinePhotoEditor – A really simple and easy to use photo and image editor for those “quick fix and gotta go” graphics.  Very basic but simple and fast.  Some of the other online photo and image tools include:  OnlinePhotoTool.com: Online photo editor,  Automatically resize your images when sending it by email,  Create an Image from your RSS feed,  Create Image from your Tweet and Twitter account, and Create, save and email screenshots.

BeFunky -  Be Funky lets you do some pretty amazing things with your photos and graphics.  Most of the features and tools are focused on creating cool, fun, and funky effects and artwork.  The site’s name says it.  Some of the effects available would take hours to create in Photoshop or other high end and costly photo/image editors.

Definitely worthy of a visit and tour.

Photoshop.com – That’s right, you can use Photoshop online and for FREE.  You’ll need to register, but I promise it will be worth it.  The Photoshop tools are powerful and very easy to use.  Be prepared to spend a little time here, you’ll be amazed at what they have to offer and allow you to do online for free.  I’m not going to lie, this is one of my favorites and my personal replacement for Picnik.com closing down.

GIMP – GIMP is very similar to Adobe Photoshop except that GIMP is FREE.  It does require you to download the software but one huge benefit to that is it will never be bought and shut down on you.  It is a very powerful and feature intense program so unless you’re really experienced with editing and graphic design, or you have more time than it takes to close a short sale, you may want to stick with one of the others.

I personally like to use GIMP for graphic design more than image or photo editing.

Combine all these together and you’ll have more FREE editing tools and features than you’ll ever need or use and absolutely FREE.  Take a few moments to review each site, bookmark them, then give each one a try to see which one(s) best meet your photo and image editing needs.  Enjoy! 

Many Facebook Business page owners want to automatically add their Blog posts to their pages.  While this can no longer be done on your Facebook personal profiles, it CAN BE DONE if you have a Facebook Business or Fan page.  NetworkedBlogs created a Facebook app that allows you to now add your Blog posts directly and automatically to the Facebook page(s) of your choice. 

The first step is to make sure you have a Facebook Fan or Business page.  If you don't have one, Create A Facebook Business Page or Fan Page here first. Once you have a page created, you can run through the following step-by-step instructions to add almost any blog content from any site to your Facebook selected pages. 

This should also work nicely with your ActiveRain blog content if you choose.

You'll want to visit http://Facebook.com/NetworkedBlogs to begin the process.  For detailed step-by-step instructions including the screen-shots that you'll need to do this, I've created a 12-Step Blog to Facebook Tutorial that will walk you through the entire process.

Some of you may not want your posts to appear on your Facebook pages and that's ok too. If that's the case, you might still find this tutorial helpful and useful to share with a friend or associate when they ask you how to do this?  This is what Bernadine Hunter from ActiveRain asked me, I hope this will help others too.

Instructions - How To Add Blogs To Facebook

Email has become an important part of our life.  It is so important but left untamed, it can also take over too much of our time.  If you are like me, and have multiple devices for checking email; smart phone, note book, netbook, desktop and iPad (whew!) just keeping all devices up-to-date can be a full time job!

Time management is important to me so I started looking for a solution.  I researched a simple, readily available option that is also FREE!  My solution was Gmail.  Over the past year Gmail has become my main email platform.  I no longer use Outlook and frankly can't believe it took me so long to convert!

Gmail offers personalized configuration options, multiple accounts can funnel into one dashboard, each account can be responded to by it's own address and you never have to delete anything!  Use the power of Google to search for keywords in mails you need.

In addition, once you have a Gmail account you have the passport to dozens of powerful Google applications, documents, photo sharing, calendar, Groups, maps and on and on!

To get started, here's a slide show of what you can do to begin organizing your life in the Google cloud.  

Kristal Kraft LOVES Google!  Here's Why...

Gmail Offers  passport to Many FREE Services

Google Has a Voice and I Love it!

Relocate to Gmail - A Step by Step Story

Funnel Your Email Address Through Gmail

Gmail, I Bet You Didn't Know It Did This!

Broker Associate, ABR, CRS, GRI, ePRO, PMN, PNG
The Berkshire Group, REALTORS
3801 E. Florida Ave., Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80210
720-279-4599 ~ direct     303-953-5362 ~ fax

Selling Colorado Since 1984, Serving the Following Areas:

Denver Home Search	Highlands Ranch Home Search	Parker Home Search	Englewood Home Search
Littleton Home Search	Search Denver Foreclosures	Greenwood Village Home Search	Relocation to Metro Denver

Even though ActiveRain is a powerful Real Estate Social Network and one of the greatest industry blogging platforms on the web, I wanted to share a few ideas on how many folks I know are using this network to grow their relationships and business. Everyone ultimately has to "find their own way" and use whatever sites and tools work best for them, but don't overlook the potential and opportunities right here. 

ONE:
Online Knowledge Library

ActiveRain serves as a fantastic resource to learn about the wide variety of real estate technologies out there and how to strategically apply them to your business.  Read and learn how to use many of the newest and most powerful tools and sites on the web.  Keeping up with all the new and exciting stuff online is easy when you follow the right bloggers on AR. 

Learn from those who willingly share how and what works for them.  You can filter through thousands of posts here and select specifically what will work best for you. Start here with the Top 100 Most Subscribed To Bloggers on ActiveRain.

TWO:
Relationships and Referrals

Connect with like minded individuals, build relationships, then give and get referrals. Using ActiveRain as your National Real Estate database makes the site instantly one of the largest databases for accessing and networking with other industry professionals.  Sharing ideas, asking questions, getting support from the many AR friends and family here is what makes up the unique AR culture and it's also what makes ActiveRain one of the most unique online real estate networks.

THREE:
Engage With Other Members

Commenting creates links back to your profile so use quality commenting, not quantity commenting.  Don't just leave comments for points, make points with your comments.  Every comment you leave in the rain is like a planted seed that can sprout at anytime.  They help build rapport and trust with other readers. Who reads your comments? More people than you think, and what they think matters and makes a huge difference in your reputation and growth here.

FOUR:
Deliver and Receive Amazing Content

Content is and always will be king. Share and give back as much as you learn and take from ActiveRain.  Those who give ALWAYS receive.  Content is blogging, commenting, interacting in groups and participating in channels.  Use and share a variety of your experience, wisdom, and knowledge about numerous topics, ideas, and discussions.  Amazing content will get you back-links, reblogs, and lots of comments.

FIVE:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Google Results

ActiveRain is well known for its SEO and has a reputation of landing members articles at the top of page #1 in the search engines.  Be sure to blog for clients, SEO, and for Google.  All three are your target audiences. ActiveRain has some of the best SEO to benefit Rainmaker members. Remember, hope is not a strategy, and page #2 of Google gets very few clicks.

There are many other great ways to grow business on ActiveRain, these were just the first 5 that came to mind when I was asked this question at RainCamp in Seattle. 

You will get out of it more than you put into it and the relationships you can potentially build here are more powerful than any other tool or feature the site can offer in my opinion.

The following archived articles are from a series I began a while back entitled "Blog Tips for Rain Drips" and were designed to provide needed instruction in the finer points of blogging/social media, and to help our members derive the most benefits/value from their involvement here on ActiveRain.

"The Road to Remarkable"

"Rants, Rights, and Reputations - Lessons in Online Behavior"

"Embracing Change in the Rain"

"Jing adds Bling to Your Digital Conversations"

"Roost Media Toolkit for Facebook"

"Referrals in the Rain"

"Conquesting Creative Constipation" or "Overcoming Blogger's Block"

"Social Media Sushi - Developing a Social Media Strategy, Part IV"

"Taking AIM - Developing a Social Media Strategy Part III"

"The 'Why' of Social Media - Developing a Social Media Strategy Part II"

"New Series: Developing a Social Media Strategy"

"Hello? McFly! It's called 'Social' Media for a Reason!"

"Learning the Balancing Act of Social Media"

"Perception vs. Reality"

"Don't Waste Your Time on ActiveRain!"

"Attracting Great Clients thru Blogging"

"Overwhelmed by the Technology Learning Curve?"

"Your Blog Stimulus Package"

"Taking the Hype out of Hyper-Local Blogging"

"And the Password is!".....

"When I Search My Name, Nothing Comes Up!"

"Don't Turn Your Blog into a Refrigerator Magnet!"

"Would You like a Side of SPAM with those Comments?"

"How to Balance Your Blog"

"When in Doubt, Read the Instructions!"

"Rain-Vitations: Your Ticket to a Higher Score"

"Bring Back that Loving Feeling: Building Community"

"How to Kreate Kwality Kontent"

"How to Engage Your Blog Readers"

"Forgive me, Father, it's been 3 weeks since my last blog post!"

"Is Your Blog a Brick Wall?"

"When is Your Blog like a Toxic Waste Dump?"

"The 3 Powerful 'P's' of Posting"

"What is Comment Junk Mail SPAM?"

"How to Sabotage Your Own Blog"

"But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express"

"Roxanne, Glamor Shots, and Casper the Ghost"

"Is it possible to be TOO Transparent?"

"Monsters in the Blogosphere"

"What is a Straffing Run Blogger?"

"Playing Fair in the Blogging SandBox"

"Are You Feeling a 'Draft' in Here?"

"How to Write Good Hyper Local Content"

~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

Rich Jacobson is a licensed professional real estate broker providing Relentless Representation and Knowledgeable Empowerment for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, HomesByHarbors.com, SoundBiteBlog, Everyday CK, @KitsapAgent and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

Youtube's NEW Online Video Editing Tools and Features

I've been waiting since the launch of Youtube for them to do this.  Now that it's finally in place, I can only imagine that it's just going to get better and become an even more powerful module for Youtube video users.  The new Video editing features are awesome.  Let me show you some things you can do with that raw video from your mobile device, your flip or Kodak video camera, or even that HD $2000 video camera you just got for your birthday.

In order to use this new Youtube feature, you will have to have a Youtube account which you can get here. 

Next you'll need to be logged in to Youtube and then follow these 3 simple instructions:

1. Click on your account name in the upper right corner which opens a pull-down box and select "Account"

2. Across the "Menu Options" bar, there's a NEW link called "Video Editor" click on it

3. Select any (previously uploaded) video you want to edit, and let the fun and simple editing begin:
(simply drag and drop the video of choice into the empty box below to begin your video editing)

Some of the features in the new editor include:

• Color, brightness and contrast correction and adjustments

• Video stabilization which works great and is helpful for those "bumpy" recordings

• A variety of music and audio files available including instrumentals and background tracks
  (note: an ad may show up in video if you use one of the free tracks provided in the editor)

• There are some cool transitions and effects that can be added to smooth out your video

• An easy to use cropping/trimming tool lets you get rid of the unwanted portions of video
  

It may be a little easier to demonstrate all this using a video.  I'll show you some of the features and how it works.  I think you're going to like the Youtube video editor, it's easy to use all the features, it could help increase the quality and enhance your videos, and since it's all online and a simple editor, there's no learning curve or any real challenges incorporating some of the tricks I'm about to show you.  Enjoy!

Gmail has so many time-saving features.  The more I study it the more I like it!   Here's a quick list, read it over and let me know if you knew Gmail could do:

• UnDoSend ~ After composing and sending an email, you realize you shouldn't have sent it?  Or are you famous for sending an attachment, but forgetting to attach the attachment? Well now you can "unsend" an email that was sent.  You must turn this feature on.  You will find it in Google Labs>Settings>Undo Send
• Canned Responses ~ We all have repetious messages we send, answering the same old question.  For me it's typically a rental inquest.  To speed up this process I have created a "rental response" canned message, which makes the whole process easy to complete in a few seconds.  This to, must be turned on in Google Labs>Settings>Canned Responses, click Enable box.
• Nested Labels ~ Used when you want to Nest (or tier) a label under a Heading.  i.e.  Closings then have all your closing client files under it.  It would look like this:
  Closing
       Client Name
       Client Name
  Step 1. This needs to be set up in Google Labs>Settings>Nested Labels
  step 2.  IN Gmail>Settings>Labels
  Step 3.  Create Head label "Closing"  Then "Closing/Client Name1" repeat for each Client Name
  
  At first it might seem as though the "Closing/Client name1" will be too long, but the system drops the txt in front of the "/"  so it will look like this:
                  Closing
                       Client Name
• Google Docs Preview in Gmail ~ For those who are using Google Docs, this app is a speedy way to get to your Google Docs right from your Gmail.  Turn it on in Labs.
• Google Calendar Gadget ~ just like the Docs Preveiw, this priview will allow you to see your Google Calendar in a smaller format right in your Gmail screen.  Turn it on in Labs.
• 
  

Other posts about the joys of Google.

Gmail Offers a Passport to Many FREE Services

Google has a Voice and I Love It!

Relocate to Gmail - A Step by Step Story

Funnel Your Email Address Through Gmail

Broker Associate, ABR, CRS, GRI, ePRO, PMN, PNG
The Berkshire Group, REALTORS
3801 E. Florida Ave., Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80210
720-279-4599 ~ direct     303-953-5362 ~ fax

Selling Colorado Since 1984, Serving the Following Areas:

Denver Home Search	Highlands Ranch Home Search	Parker Home Search	Englewood Home Search
Littleton Home Search	Search Denver Foreclosures	Greenwood Village Home Search	Relocation to Metro Denver

Gmail is brought to us by Google, with it is a packed-full warehouse of goodies in the form of apps.  In my continuing saga of touting the benefits of working in The Cloud and at the same time minimizing expenses, I've now written this step by step tutorial on how to make the move.

In a previous post Funnel Your Email Address Through Gmail I spoke of how to send all your email accounts to Gmail, thus consolidating them in one handy IN THE CLOUD spot.  I repeat for those who didn't catch the point, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LOSE (or stop using) YOUR OLD EMAIL ADDRESS when using Gmail.

So, the answer is YES! You can route all your email addresses to Gmail and no one will know the difference (just you!).  Of course if you want to eventually simplify your life you can first migrate your addresses to Gmail and then later on close out other accounts.  Either way, the choose is yours, you decide what to do.

Which comes first the Chicken or the Egg?  Or how to I migrate to Gmail without losing my brand email...Step by Step read on.

For those who are Gmail newbies, or have a Gmail account but it's sitting dormant, this tutorial should help get you started.

First you will need a Gmail account.  Go to Google.com and get one.  Look for the Create an account link.

You will be asked your name and desired Login name.  When picking your login name, this is the part that will appear before the "@" in your new gmail address.

If you are lucky you might get your name, or you can use a "." (dot)  a number (1-9) or location in conjunction with it.

Mine is Kristal.Kraft@gmail.com, I got lucky, first there aren't too many Kristal Krafts and I also joined in the beginning when they first opened the beta.  I also have KraftyKristal@gmail.com an address that I don't use often but is fun.

Once you have chosen a name you like and one you won't mind having to type again and again, finish answering the questions and submit.  Google will create your gmail account.

Visit your account.  You will probably have a few welcome and how-to emails from Gmail.  It's a good idea to take a few moments and read them just incase my instructions differ from theirs!

The first thing you will want to do is import your mail and contacts from your existing accounts.  Look in the top upper right of your screen.  You will see a navigation bar that looks like this:

Click on the SETTINGS and then once again search on the navigation bar for ACCOUNTS and IMPORT, click on it and you will see a screen that resembles this:

Most people will have an email account with one of these; Yahoo!, Htomail, AOL, or other webmail or POP3 accounts.  Click on the Import mail and contacts button if you do.  (See above arrow)

You will need to know your other email addresses and the passwords.  Once that is inputted, Google will present a box for you to check the options you would like.  It looks like this:

In this instance I see no need to leave messages on the server. You may find it wise to do so until you are fully committed to using Gmail.  I add the LABEL of my other email address as it will show up on all my messages.  Now I can easily determine where the message came from.

The Archive box is a good thing to use if you want to ARCHIVE ALL your messages from this email.  In some cases I do that, but not in this one.  Where I do archive all messages from one email is in the event of using a particular email like my Secretary of Lone Tree Photo Club email. 

When everything looks good, click START IMPORT.  The next box you see might be a little puzzling...here it is:

I've never noticed it taking up to 2 days for my email to be imported but I guess if they say it is so it must be!

Now that you've begun the process to import your email the next steps are to create filters and to import and categorized your contacts.

Before we leave this screen, remember you can add MULTIPLE email accounts by using the SEND MAIL As:  Just click on that button and add information about your other email address.  Each time you do this you configure that email address to reply either from your gmail address or whatever address it is.  (I have 6 email addresses funneled through my gmail account! It's so nice to have them all in one place.)

So now you have created a central location to store and read your email on Gmail.  You still have your other email active so you can check to see if Gmail is pulling all your mail before you cut it off.  Now, by cutting it off I mean changing where you go to SEE your email and SEND it.

Now instead of going to OUTLOOK on your computer you will log on to Google, click on Gmail and there you will find your email.  If you are like me, this habit maybe hard to break.  It will take some patience, persistence and probably practice before you are totally 100% a Gmail person!

Next time I will write a tutorial on using Filters to organize.

Previous posts about Google:

Funnel Your Email Addresses Through Gmail

Gmail Offers a Passport to Many FREE Services

Google Has a Voice and I Love It!

Broker Associate, ABR, CRS, GRI, ePRO, PMN, PNG
The Berkshire Group, REALTORS
3801 E. Florida Ave., Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80210
720-279-4599 ~ direct     303-953-5362 ~ fax

Selling Colorado Since 1984, Serving the Following Areas:

Denver Home Search	Highlands Ranch Home Search	Parker Home Search	Englewood Home Search
Littleton Home Search	Search Denver Foreclosures	Greenwood Village Home Search	Relocation to Metro Denver

Recently I wrote a post about how much I like using Gmail.  Like many people in the real estate business I've had an email address for a long time.  In fact my original email address attached to my domain of Denver Real Estate and Relocation had to be "retired" because I was getting so much spam from it all I did all day long was delete and delete some  more.

I was so sad to lose my original "branded email" but the work involved with keeping it just was worth it anymore.

But now I have a solution.  Gmail.

Gmail has been around for quite awhile now.  At first one only got an account via personal invitation.  Now anyone can have an account (or more) just for the asking!

Gmail has improved  from the beginning.  If you haven't taken a look at it lately perhaps you should! After my last post on this topic, many were concerned about "giving up" their long loved email addresses.  This is nothing further from the truth!

Gmail settings allow for multiple email accounts to be processed through gmail, and one never has to even give out their gmail address.  You can continue using your old address but enjoy the benefits, features and power of gmail!

Here's how you can set up mulitple accounts to go through gmail.  Go to the gmail dashboard>Settings (found in the top navigation bar)>Accounts and Import>Send mail as:>

At this point all you need to do is add your current email accounts.  It is necessary to know your passwords for each account.

Be sure to check the box "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" under the heading "When receiving a message:"

By doing this you never have to worry about which account you are receiving mail, it will automatically respond with your correct email address.

It gets better.

Now you can create a different email signoff for each account.  For instance, I'm currently the secretary of the Lone Tree Photography Club.  Email for the club comes directly to my gmail account.  I can respond to it and have the proper email signature attach to the club emails.  Next year when I am no longer the secretary, this email account can be assumed by the new secretary without having to notify members of an email address change.  It's all very organized and professional.

Grasp a new concept - don't delete!

How many of us delete email all day long?  Not me, at least not anymore.  Now with gmail I ARCHIVE my email.  Why?  Because with gmail I have tons of storage space.  It's not necessary to delete an email that maybe I will want to find in a week or two! 

Ah you say, But the inbox swells to thousands...

No, it won't not if you create filters to organize important emails.  Filters are like "Creating a rule" in Outlook.  Filters will allow you to have files where your emails are filed rather than letting them pile up in your inbox.  For instance I like to create a file for each of my clients.  I create a filter that sends any email directed from them to me into this file.  I know I have an email from them because there will be a number next to the filter on the left column.

To organized like filters together, I begin them with a1-ClientsName  a1-Client2  a1-client3 etc.  Of course I use real names. 

The second tier is my lead management filters.  b1-leadActivity b1-NewLead b1-ReloRequest

The third tier consists of people I communicate with daily, my assistant, broker, daughter who's in the business with me.  Basically tier 3 are the ones whos communications are directing me with items I need to act upon.

Why the tiers?  Well after first creating filters that would list in the sidebar in alpha order, I realized I wanted  more "order" to the sidebar, thus I created the tier concept.  Now when I look at my email I can glance down the sidebar to see who's sent me an email.  Clients, Prospects, Office, are my order of importance.

Yes, I have many more filters, newsletters, social media catagories, receipts, etc.  These all follow the tiers at the bottom of the sidebar.  These are filters I look at when I have the time.

If an email ends up in my box that needs to be associated with a filter, it's easy to "Move to" that filter and file the email in the appropriate place.  Now I have everything nice and neat where it belongs.

For a FREE program Gmail is very robust.  I'm strong on it of late because so much of our work is now in the cloud.  I can access my mail from any computer, not just the one sitting on my desk.

Once you start working with gmail you will see the convenience of not having to delete on multiple devices as I did for so long.  Now I do things once and I'm done with it!

Convenience and freedom are a great combination.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Other posts about the joys of Google.

Gmail Offers a Passport to Many FREE Services

Google has a Voice and I Love It!

Relocate to Gmail - A Step by Step Story

Broker Associate, ABR, CRS, GRI, ePRO, PMN, PNG
The Berkshire Group, REALTORS
3801 E. Florida Ave., Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80210
720-279-4599 ~ direct     303-953-5362 ~ fax

Selling Colorado Since 1984, Serving the Following Areas:

Denver Home Search	Highlands Ranch Home Search	Parker Home Search	Englewood Home Search
Littleton Home Search	Search Denver Foreclosures	Greenwood Village Home Search	Relocation to Metro Denver