Two hundred email a day, not counting the twitter, facebook and other social media notifications.  Some days I am completely overwhelmed.  And yet, even as I am madly skimming, deleting, and unsubscribing, I still use email for my marketing, and for some of my small business clients.  Why?  Because the right message works!

And so in this era of mass messaging and information overload one important question: Is there still room for the genuine, personal email?  I think so and in a recent post Seth Godin talks about “how to send a personal email”  Seth outlines 14 rules worth considering.  While I don’t always agree with everything he says it is always worth the read!

My favorite?

Be short. The purpose of an email is not to sell the person on anything other than writing back. If you don’t have a personal, interesting way to start a conversation, don’t write.

I think this is a pretty good rule for blog posts too!