Fast and easy does not necessarily mean “good” or “better”. Many E-Mails are poorly written, confusing, and unnecessary. It may take you much longer to read and understand a badly written E-Mail than it took the sender to write the note! And while it's equally possible to write gibberish with a pencil or a typewriter, the ease and speed of writing an E-Mail can lead to lazy or sloppy work.

If you don't want your important messages to get lost in the shuffle or, worse still, read but misinterpreted, try these tips.

Have a purpose and a desired response

Many people quickly scan message headers or first sentences in order to decide if they need to read an E-Mail immediately. Your best bet for getting their attention is to clearly define the purpose of your E-Mail.

If you want the reader to make a decision, or support your action plan, make sure you tell them at the beginning of the message. If you need them to do some work, be clear about that! At the end of the message, ask them to respond or confirm that they understand what you want and that they'll do what you are asking.

Organize your thoughts

Organize your message before writing . Too many E-Mails wander from subject to subject for no apparent reason.

Like a good story, your E-Mail should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It should also have a clear purpose. If your message is too confusing, people might just ignore it or else do the wrong thing because they don't understand what you are saying.

Keep It Short and Sweet

Write the E-Mail using simple, but complete sentences. Omit unnecessary words, just like Strunk and White wrote many years ago.

Spelling and grammar count. I've seen far too many E-Mails with incorrect spelling and poor grammar, which looks sloppy and makes you question the competence of the writer. Don't just rely on your spell-checker, check the spelling yourself.

Write with your audience in mind

Generally speaking, you give fewer details to people at the upper levels of an organization than at lower levels. A company executive will want to understand the underlying logic of the message. People in different levels in the organizational hierarchy, by contrast, may need to see the details.

Try to give people exactly what they need and nothing unnecessary. Use technical terms, acronyms, or jargon sparingly and only when you know the entire reading audience will understand these terms.

One other warning: if you present something as being a fact, make sure you can prove it!

Predict how the message will be received and write accordingly

Do not commit personal attacks in your E-Mail. In addition to being poor etiquette, it's unfair and will generally create bad feelings.

Don't include personal information in your E-Mail unless absolutely necessary or you know that the reader won't mind. You shouldn't assume that co-workers want to know about your personal problems or your daily activities.

Use humor with care - we don't all share the same sense of humor. This is particularly important when communicating with people from different cultures.

Never write something in an E-Mail that you wouldn't want to see used as evidence in court. It happens.

Don't proofread on the screen; print out and proofread

The Millenials/Generation Y might be better at onscreen proofreading than I am, but I still recommend using paper. I cannot count the number of times that I've found mistakes on paper that my mind missed onscreen.

Yes, it can take longer to print, then read, but that's often a good thing. If your brain is still in the high speed communication mode that it was while you were writing, it helps to take a minute to switch gears for a more careful editing mode. It may help you to read the E-Mail out loud to see if the message makes sense. Better yet, get a trusted colleague to assist you in proofreading if the message is particularly important.

Ensure that you send the E-Mail correctly

Ensure names or E-Mail addresses are correct before sending: misspellings can cause E-Mails to be lost or sent to the wrong person, particular in an internal E-mail system where several people may share the last name.

Beware the "Reply All" function! Don't send a reply to a group of people unless it's necessary. Feel free to edit the number of people on the TO or CC lists if they don't need to see the information, including distribution lists. However, make sure that anyone who needs to see the E-Mail gets copied on the E-Mail.

Beware the "Forward" function! Someone else may forward your E-Mail to other readers. Take care to ensure your comments are clear, accurate, and well organized: you never know who might be reading them.

Finally, never send an E-Mail when angry or upset. You are more likely to make a mistake or upset the reader when you aren't thinking clearly. Take a breather if you need to before sending so you clearly understand what you're about to communicate. Better yet, wait until the next day, then proofread the E-Mail one more time before sending. You may prevent yourself from making serious mistakes.

E-Mail can still be quick, easy… and productive

Despite the warnings in this article, E-Mail can still live up to its purpose and it does on a daily basis. The tips in this article will give you an even better chance of getting the desired results from your E-Mail. Is it more work? Yes. Is it worthwhile? Definitely!

Get paid $25 to $150 by participating in out focus groups! You have seen this one, right? I have tried to participate in dozens of these focus groups only to be informed that I don’t qualify. I can only conclude that I am not Hispanic, 25 years old, with a few children under my wing. I mean no offense to the many single Hispanic mothers out there, which are the qualifications these focus groups are looking for.

There are many other reasons also. I am not the right gender. I don’t live in the right area. I don’t make the right amount of money. If I made enough money I wouldn’t even bother with the online focus groups.

There is only one reason for these focus groups. To acquire information on you to send to companies that want to sell you something. If you do happen to make any money it might just be enough to purchase so-called “sponsored” items.

Secret Shoppers

This is a good one. And I mean that in a negative way.

There are three reasons to stay away from this one

1. You have to pay them to become a member
2. You have to endure a mountain of offers, you know, the ones where you answer yes or no (usually have to accept 1 to 3)
3. If you didn’t accept any of their offers you either don’t qualify or you have to use your own money, and maybe you will get reimbursed.

So you see, you will end up spending time and money for a “job”, as they try to advertise this as being, and getting very little in return except aggravation.

Paid Surveys

If you want your e-mail flooded with “free” offers then go for this one. The fact is very few actually pay in cash. Most give you points that are redeemable on E-bay or Amazon.

To acquire enough points you would have to fill out surveys 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for maybe $20 to spend on one of the commercial sites. Does that sound like fun?

They try to make it sound official by telling you many companies need people like you to test or give your opinion on their products. This is just another huge advertising campaign to get your personal information so they can try to sell you something.

Conclusion

These are not jobs. They are scams for ignorant people like me, who have been trying to make money for 6 months now using these methods and have not seen one penny for my efforts.

There are a few, and I mean a very few who make extra money using these methods, but they are the ones who spent 100’s maybe 1,000’s of dollars on software and/or sponsored offers that give them a heads up over ordinary people like you or me.