So we set up two new folders for his countless ACDLA and Alacourt emails. In Gmail, under “manage labels” we created a new label – OIB ACDLA and OIB Alacourt.

I was sure to nest it under the OIB folder so Dad’s sidebar stays nice and neat!

Then we took a look at all the fluff. You know, the stuff my dad doesn’t care about but for some reason he just ignores when it comes in. Yep, it was time for the OIB Unsubscribe folder!

We unsubscribed my Dad from a newsletter he’s had in his inbox since 2007. He couldn’t believe it was so easy to get rid of. Now he can safely and easily unsubscribe from stuff anytime!

So we started with 15,000 emails in Dad’s inbox…  After Organizer? 200!

My Dad is very very pleased! And with his email straightened out, Mom is happy too – especially since Dad won’t be asking her “did you delete that email?” Mom is an highly organized individual. Dad?  Well, not so much… but now at least his gmail account can be!

This week, Email is alive and well!

This week Yahoo! announced the latest updates to their 284 million strong webmail product with our very own Organizer among the list of features! In Yahoo! Organizer is known as Automatic Organizer.

And what great timing! In about 10 days or so we will have surpassed our 1 millionth sign-up and don’t see any slow down in sight. People dig having their inbox organized, prioritized and summarized!

Why upgrade webmail?

Have you ever wondered why Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft’s Hotmail would continue to add services and updates to the webmail format while folks claim the end is nigh?

The fact of the matter is, email is a great entry point for content and a lead in for other service offerings. Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft Hotmail and, of course AOL, all benefit from having millions of people pass through their portals on the way to their messages.

Need proof? This April, Yahoo! Blogs delivered 506 MILLION page views. That’s more than any other blogging network including Huffington Post, Gawker, Word Press and Blogger. Huge!

Try out the new Yahoo! Mail!

So Yahoo users rejoice! Upgrade today, try it on and find your next email Nirvana! Our money’s on that it will include some automation…. Like Organizer!

So, while moms are totally worth FULL retail, sites such as Groupon, Living Social, Buy With Me and many, many others can help stretch your dollar. Now, Organizer is helping to bring the best deals right up top, front and center in your Daily Digest!

NOTE- Your mom might like Quizno’s but try just a bit harder…

If you are new here, every day OIB makes sure our Organizer users are kept up to date with their email inbox via our very helpful Daily Digest! These lucky-smart people use the Digest everyday to check in with their less than important messages; hacking their own email to do what they want to better fit their lifestyle.

Late last year, we started including ads within the digest and were glad to see people clicking on them, finding the things they needed and wanted!

Now, we are excited to offer some of the very best deals online via our “promoted offers”! Promoted offers will be set up right on top (as a coupon) and have a discrete “promoted” label so you know they were brought to you by us here at OtherInbox HQ.

How do we choose the promoted offers? We simply curate the BEST we can find on the web. A daily deal, a one time offer, the buy-one-get-one-frees of the web you always hear about but can never seem to get in on. If it is blowing up on twitter, facebook deals, a group buying site or even a big box, brick-n-mortar we will corral it and serve it to you via your Daily Digest!

With Organizer, you get a more manageable inbox AND you save money?! Now, won’t Mom be proud? =)

So, now it’s festival season and the next one in the lineup for me is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival!  Which means out with the old (SXSW) and in with the new (Jazzfest).

So how do I enable my inbox to keep me up to speed with my next adventure?

Well, we already looked at how keeping custom folders helps me stay on top of certain messages. Organizer is a lot easier than manually setting up filters in Gmail.

AHEM- Don’t get me wrong, I can set up filters just fine, Organizer just makes it so easy! =)

But if setting up folders helps you maintain where your messages go, the Unsubscribe Folder helps you maintain that they stay away when you do not need them anymore!

I simply move the SXSW newsletters I no longer want to receive into the Unsubscribe Folder and ta-da! Gone. I don’t think about them again, for it has gone far, far away from my inbox, making room for other things….. Like Jazzfest!

So how do I know I’ve been unsubbed? Well, on April 9th I put some of my SXSW newsletters in the Unsubscribe Folder and on April 11th I received a notification that I had been unsubscribed.  How’s that for a quick turn around?

So bye-bye Filter Magazine. I won’t need you again until next year.  Farewell Fader Fort, it was awesome while it lasted.  Hello Jazzfest and SuperflyPresents! I’ll see you all in my entertainment folder, soon!

Till next time, Ally.

Although we've had some bumps and bruises along the way, we recently fixed many of the problems our users reported on our support site and are confident the iPhone web app is working properly. We would love it if you would give it a try and let us know what you think!

Just point mobile Safari to my.otherinbox.com, log in with your OIB credentials, and you're all set. If a message is too large to view, tap the "Open message in new window" link above the message to view it full screen, complete with pinch-zooming and everything!

   

What do you think? How can we make the OIB iPhone web app even better? Would you rather read your OIB messages over IMAP or the web?

Over the last few months, OtherInbox has added several cool features, and I want to make sure you are getting the most out of it.  Whether you were one of the first beta testers or have just heard about it, there is probably something that will save you time in one of these videos. Click on the ones that are applicable to you, or watch them all!  We would appreciate it if you would share these videos with anyone you know who might need a little help with email overload.

As always, thank you for your support!

(To view videos full size click on each screencast)

Connect OIB to your Gmail in 3 simple steps!

Connect OIB to your Yahoo! email

Go premium!

How OIB helps me with my job

I’ve had many superusers tell me that OIB has helped them with their careers.  Several professionals, from hairdressers to leasing agents, have reported ways that giving on the fly email addresses and having organized mailboxes have made them more efficient and organized.  As the Community Manager of OtherInbox, I use on the fly email addresses to help me with networking, partnership activities, user feedback, and volunteer organizations that we work with every quarter.  I give each group their own email address, where they are all nicely organized and easy to access in one place, my OtherInbox account. 

My own personal encyclopedia of knowledge

I, like many people, have a lot of things I wish I knew how to do.  Being a full time employee of an awesome startup and a full time parent does not give me a lot of extra time to take classes and lessons.  However, in the last year I have managed to learn how to start my first garden, enhance my cooking skills, and stay up to date on the newest social media trends!  How did I find the time to do all that?  I signed up for the latest newsletters, blogs, and social groups like Ning and had them all go to my OtherInbox!  It’s like customizing your own virtual newspaper and reading it when you want to without it EVER overwhelming your primary inbox.

My pond

Coupons and other money saving tips

We all love a good bargain but not at the expense of giving out our email address.  It is not worth overpopulating your inbox with spam and risking it being sold to other companies.  My absolute favorite part of having an OtherInbox is the ability to be fearless with my email address.  I use an on the fly email to sign up for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I want.  It has become an obsession.  I sign up for all of my favorite stores' newsletters, contests, and everything else I can.  As a result, I get a ton of free stuff.  Free food, free books, and coupons to all my favorite stores.  I still have not won anything, but I check my OtherInbox daily to make sure.  It is kind of like playing the internet lottery - for free!  Now, as you can imagine, I get spammed all the time, but I don’t stress about it because I have the power to keep spammers from ever emailing me again with just one click.  I have also learned who leaks my email address out and will never spend another dime in their stores or online with them.

All this money saving has made me want a vacation

Although I have not yet saved thousands with OtherInbox, I still use it to sign up for travel sites and possible vacation destinations.  My OtherInbox notifies me of flight deals, discount vacation packages, and much more.  When it is time to pack up the family and head out of Dodge for a week or two, I know just where to go to get the most bang for my buck!

What do you do with your OtherInbox?

While I hope some of this information was helpful, I am always amazed by the creative ways other people use OIB to their advantage.  Share your story with us, and email me at myoib[at]peeps.oib.com…oh look, I used it again .

For example, while I was at SXSWi, I found a lot of cool prize giveaways, newsletters, and blogs to sign up for.  Before OtherInbox, I would have passed on most of these, if not all of them, for fear of filling up my email.  OtherInbox allows me to be fearless with my email addresses, so I can sign up for all of the above and never have it touch my main email.  For every prize giveaway, I signed up with the address prize@myname.oib.com, and for all the cool companies I signed up with, I used something like opera@myname.oib.com.  When these companies email me, the email goes to a specialized mailbox under the company name to help me remember who each email is from. If I win one of those prizes (keep your fingers crossed), it will show up under my mailbox labeled “prize”.

Another cool thing about creating email addresses on the fly is that you can use them for networking.  Going back to my SXSWi example, I gave everybody I met that was interested in partnership opportunities the email address partnership@myname.oib.com.  Several potential job candidates came by, and I gave them jobs@myname.oib.com.  It’s not that I don’t think these people are important enough to go into my “real” inbox, but this helps me remember where we met and how I can best help them.  When you are at a conference or other event where you meet hundreds of people, this is a great tool for remembering and organizing contacts.

A good friend of mine is an artist who likes to sell paintings in public places like coffee shops.  In the past, giving out her real email has been a hassle.  With OtherInbox, not only can she be fearless in giving out her email to total strangers, but she can use the tricks above to find out where she is getting the most response from possible buyers.  She sets up email addresses using the names of the shops where she is displaying her work to help her track the “hot spots” for her business.  I have another friend who cuts hair for extra cash while she is getting back to full-time work.  She gives out one email for booking@hername.oib.com, one for cancellations@hername.oib.com, and another for anything else she wants organized.

Another cool thing about creating addresses on the fly is that you can easily block them if someone is spamming you.  All you have to do is hit the block button in your OtherInbox.

There are countless ways you can use OtherInbox to control email.  We love to share unique stories from our users. If you have a story you would like to share, please send it to myoib@peeps.oib.com.

One last thing, if you ever want a good chuckle, you can watch someone’s expression when you give your email address as theirname@yourname.oib.com.  It always raises an eyebrow or two!

Send messages to your OtherInbox from your main email account

delete@YOURNAME.otherinbox.com
save@YOURNAME.otherinbox.com
block@YOURNAME.otherinbox.com

Automatic mailbox creation

Deleting messages

Saving messages for later

Permanently blocking addresses

block@YOURNAME.otherinbox.com