Subject: Basic Computer Skills
Lesson #2

Hello again, and welcome back!

It's impossible for me to know the level of your computer skills, so I am going to pass on some really basic information that you may or may not already know. Just skim thru this lesson and use what you like.

Please note - make sure your know how to create a Sig or Signature file for all your out going e-mails. You will be surprised at how effective this simple step will be in bringing you traffic and subscribers.

Getting : SET UP
Creating : A SIGNATURE FOR YOUR E-MAIL
How to : CREATE HTML E-MAILS
How to : USE THE BCC E-MAIL FUNCTION
How a : SUBSCRIBE BOX WORKS

List Building is mainly about using e-mail to it's fullest potential. I will show you these basic skills. How you proceed from there will determine the nature and extent of your success. I would recommend you use a computer based e-mail program such as Outlook Express.

First, you must be able to manage your e-mail...delete it or sort it to it's proper place until you need it. It's helps if you have a management system set up on your computer.

Getting: SET UP

First thing you should do - create folders to put all your e-mails. This will make it easy to organize and save your e-mail messages.

Here's the easiest way to create folders in Outlook Express:

-right-click the folder where you want to place the new folder (i.e. Inbox or Outlook Express), I would suggest Inbox and then click New Folder.

-type in a name for this new folder, then press ENTER.

Here are some suggested folders you can create.

WELCOMES: When anyone joins your program(s) - have your handy welcome messages saved here so you can send them quickly.

REPLY TO: Have this folder for messages that you want to reply to.

DOWNLINE EMAILS: Very Important - Save all those Congratulations Messages here so you know who is in your downline. If you join or promote a lot of f'ree programs this list can get quite long. Make sure you save all contact info.

REMOVES: Guess what goes here.

BUSINESS: Save copies of your business transactions here. Such as Paypal Subscriptions, receipts, Sales you make, etc.

ADS: It's a good Idea to Save copies of your ads here.

Next you will need to know how to move messages to a folder:

Highlight with your cursor the message you want to move - right click it. - select Move to Folder - select the folder you want to move it to - click OK.

New messages you compose can be automatically saved in your drafts folder. From there you can move them anywhere. That is as messages come in you can move them to their folders or delete them.

Here's some tips for sorting your incoming e-mail messages:

No doubt if you're network marketing - you will get plenty of e-mail messages - this can become a problem if you don't have some way of automatically sorting your incoming messages.

Thankfully, most e-mail handlers like Outlook Express has an Inbox Assistant or Message Rules to automatically send your messages to different folders that you specify.

In addition, you can also have messages coming from a specific e-mail address or with a certain subject line automatically deleted or blocked from reaching your inbox.

If you want to setup a 'sorting management system' here's what you have to do:

Using Outlook Express

- go to the Tools menu

- click Inbox Assistant or Message Rules

- click Add.

Give your criteria or rules you want to sort messages. For example, to sort messages with a particular subject line, specify that subject in the Subject box. Do the same for all messages from a certain person - place that address in the 'From' box.

Next tell what should happen to these messages - move them to a particular folder, click Move To, and then specify that folder.

To set up multiple rules for sorting incoming messages, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Inbox Assistant or Message Rules dialog box.

CREATING A SIGNATURE FOR YOUR E-MAIL:

"How to Create Signature or Sig Files"

Before you start you have to compose your signature file in wordpad or a New Mail. Then Copy it.

Outlook Express Users:

- on the menu bar, click "Tools" then "Options".

- when the Options window opens you will see two rows or "tabs" across the top.

- click the tab marked "Signatures".

- click the button labeled "New"

- place your cursor in the "Edit Signature" box and delete any previous signature.

- with your mouse pointer (cursor) pointing to the "Edit Signature" box, single click the RIGHT mouse button. A small pop-up menu will appear.

- point your mouse pointer to the "Paste" option and single click the LEFT mouse button. The ad that you copied earlier will appear in the box.

- check the "Add signatures to all outgoing messages" box.

Then click the OK button.

That's it - Congratulations! - you're done. Make sure you send yourself a letter to check how your new Signature displays.

** AOL Users ** Instructions are based on AOL Version 7.0, adjust the instructions if you are using an older version or download version 7.0 from AOL.

- near the top of the AOL Screen, place cursor over the blue button labeled "Mail".

- it should change to a brighter blue and the word "more" will appear

- click "more" with your LEFT mouse button.

- after the menu appears, point to "Mail Signatures" and LEFT click.

First, if the Signatures box has anything in it, click the item and click the Delete button below the window. Do this until the box is empty.

- click the Create button below the Signatures Window.

- with your cursor pointing to the "Signature" box, click the LEFT mouse button, then click the RIGHT mouse button a single click.

- a small pop-up menu will appear.

- one of the options will be "Paste".

Point your mouse pointer to the "Paste" option then single LEFT click. Your ad should appear in the box.

Click the OK Button. Click the small X button in the upper right corner to close the setup window.

That's it - Congratulations! - you're done. Make sure you send yourself a letter to check how your new Signature displays.

How to: CREATE HTML E-MAILS

- on your web site create a new directory called /htmlmail

i.e. https://www.mywebsite.com/htmlmail where /htmlmail is the new directory for all your HTML e-mail files and graphics.

- next open your favorite HTML editor (FrontPage, etc.) to create your HTML e-mail

- design a simple HTML e-mail; name it newsletter.htm and upload it and your graphics to your new directory (i.e. http: //www.mywebsite.com/htmlmail/htmlmail/newsletter.htm) Be sure not to use javascript, flash, or nested tables. Use quickly loading graphics.

- use absolute URLS for your graphics and links. Simple tip: just consider all your graphics as banners - left click on any graphics, click properties and the absolute url will be displayed. This image url has to be placed in your HTML e-mails.

- lastly, open your E-mail Program (Outlook Express) then go to create mail click insert/click text from file/ scroll to your saved HTML document and paste it into your new mail.

- test it on yourself first and make sure everything works.

It maybe a good idea to save your HTML page or newsletter as a template, then when you're ready to send another e-mail most of the work will already be done.