If e-mail were a country, its 1.4 billion users would make it the largest in the world -- bigger than China, bigger than the populations of the United States and European Union combined.
Yahoo! Mail leads the way as the most popular free e-mail provider, followed by Hotmail (now known as Windows Live), Google's Gmail and AOL. While some say e-mail is impersonal, there are ways to make your e-mail messages more personal and more effective.
It's useful to include information in your signature in case anyone might want to know other ways to reach you.
Most e-mail programs allow you to set up a signature that can be added automatically, and include the basics like your name, address, e-mail address and phone number. But don't stop there.
Like carefully selected stationery and distinctive handwriting, digital flourishes can make your messages unique.
Rich text signatures
To go beyond plain text in an e-mail, turn on rich text. You'll know the rich text option is on if you see a Rich Text Editor toolbar that includes font choices, an emoticon button and a link icon.
In Yahoo! Mail, select "Options," "More Options" and then "Signature." In AOL, select "Settings" in the upper right corner of the mail page, choose "Compose" from the left navigation bar and check the "Use Rich Text/HTML Editing" box.
Hotmail/Windows Live works in a similar way. A recent update to Gmail brought rich text signatures.
Once you've created your basic signature, save it -- and in the future, the signature will be automatically added to each e-mail. Signatures can be turned off and on for different recipients or you can simply delete your signature from the body of the e-mail.
Most free e-mail services can accommodate only a single signature. Microsoft's Outlook, part of its office products suite, allows users to create multiple signatures that can be used for different types of recipients, but just because you don't use Outlook, doesn't mean you can't use several signatures.
Multiple e-mail accounts
Consider using multiple e-mail accounts. For instance, you might use AOL for family correspondence and Windows Live for newsletters and other alerts you've subscribed to. This is a good security strategy, particularly if you want the freedom to sign up for special offers, newsletters and other alerts that can pose a risk to your account. With two e-mail accounts, your personal contacts are kept separate from companies you do not know.
The signature for correspondence to family and friends might contain a link to your photo-sharing site with pictures from a recent trip, while the signature for the e-mail account assigned to product trials and other Web information might contain only the closing and your name.
Add a link
You can add a link to a website in your signature. This could be your Flickr page to share new photos, your blog, your Facebook page, your company's homepage, or news from your organization.
Here's how: Open a new window or tab in your browser and to the page you'd like to include in your e-mail signature. Place your cursor immediately before or after the page address in the address bar at the top of your screen and click to select the address. Copy by holding down the Control key and then typing "C". The address is now on your computer's clipboard.
Go to your e-mail service and open the box to create your signature. Type an explanatory phrase like "See our Cancun photos on Flickr" and then go back and select the phrase. It is now highlighted. Click on the rich text link button that looks like a link or two of chain over a picture of the Earth. A box will open showing the text you've selected. Paste the Web address where specified by holding down the Control key and then typing "V". Click OK. Your text will now appear as a hyperlink.
Ready to get fancy?
Most e-mail programs won't yet allow users to add images to signatures. If you'd like to do this, you can save an image to a .jpg file on your computer and insert it either before or after the signature.
If you are active on Facebook or Twitter, you might also like to show social media icons below your signature and have them link to your pages on these sites. Try WiseStamp, a free browser add-on for both Firefox and Chrome with a Safari version in the works. WiseStamp works with AOL, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail/Windows Live and Gmail signatures. Just remember to download and use it from Firefox, Chrome or Safari; it will not work from Internet Explorer.
Once you've downloaded WiseStamp, look for the rubber stamp icon in the lower right corner of your browser window. It's easy to set up and add one or more signatures to any e-mail service. It can add rotating quotes, your latest blog post, newest Flickr photo, Tweet, or almost anything that can be accessed from an RSS feed.
Ogden-based TopTenREVIEWS.com guides consumers by comparing products in the world of technology, including electronics, software and Web services. Have a question for TopTenREVIEWS? E-mail Leslie Meredith at leslie@toptenreviews.com.
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