Use Labels As Folders in Gmail

When I first started to use Gmail at least a couple years ago, I wasn’t very fond of the labels. I didn’t agree with it. Might as well call them tags, because they do the same thing. Everyone is so used to folders, so calling it labels and not removing the e-mail from the inbox just confused me!

This year I began to try out labels because I was getting tired of having to delete all of my e-mails just to keep a clean inbox, and finding a specific e-mail was getting harder to do. (You can’t use search if you don’t know what you’re searching for exactly.) I also like to be organized. I’m a mess if I’m not.

I started off with a few important labels and eventually those grew to more and more because I also added more accounts to my one Gmail account.

I’ve also never been fond of the archive either. Made it sound like it was hidden forever to never be seen again. But, when you start having hundreds and hundreds of e-mails piling up in the inbox, you have no choice.

Here is how I use labels as folders in Gmail:

1. Create a few basic labels. (e.g. Family, Work, Newsletters)
2. Create your filters to automatically send the e-mails to the correct labels. This may take some time if you have a lot of e-mail. But, once you get it done, you won’t have to do it again. (I started from the first e-mail in my inbox and went down the list until I had none left.)
3. When creating the filters, make sure to select the option for archiving so they do not show up in the inbox and also to apply the filter to all of the e-mails listed.
4. Do not select any of your filters to automatically add a star next to an e-mail. Why? I use the stars to show me what e-mails I need to come back to and either read or follow-up on.

Those are just ways that I stay organized in Gmail and it saves me a lot of time, unless Gmail switches to folders! If anyone else has some other ways of using Gmail and staying organized, please share.

Free WordPress Theme: The Forest

The Forest is a new free WordPress theme. This theme looks really great and allows you to keep the sidebar looking clutter-free. Check out the demo and click on each of the sections in the sidebar to display it. The only thing I think that should have been done with that is to change the cursor to display the hand, because at first I didn’t know to click on them, I just thought they were empty.

If you would like to change that, just add this to the style.css under the appropriate section (sidebar) so you can find it later:

.trigger {cursor: pointer;}

All this does is styles the trigger class in the sidebar to display a hand, instead of the I-beam. If you have any problems, please let me know!

Saving Money With Deal Locker

Whenever I purchase something online, before checking out, I always search the Internet for some coupons. Sometimes I find one, sometimes I don’t. The part I hate about saving is searching for the coupon itself. Deal Locker makes this process easier.

Deal Locker is a place for friends to help other friends save money with coupons and promo codes. It’s very easy to find a coupon or promo code that you might be looking for. After clicking on a store, it displays the available coupons and/or promo codes. By default, it only shows you ones that work. If you want to see all of them, click the tab that says All Coupons.

In my search for free cheap laptops, finding coupons first can be very helpful in selecting what store to buy one from. One place that I’m considering of purchasing from in the future is Dell. Dell usually has great prices. Deal Locker also lets me select the laptop category and see what stores are offering laptop coupons.

Gift cards and coupons that are for sale on eBay are also listed on Deal Locker. I don’t think I’ve been to any other coupon site that does this! This is a very nice feature, one that I might keep in mind for my future shopping.

Also, read the shopping tips and coupon blog for more. This includes tips for back to school shopping!

Sponsored by Deal Locker

Thank You Akismet

Although I don’t receive a lot of real comments from real people, I do receive a lot of spam. The ones that either place a whole bunch of links with keywords that would probably fill your entire screen or leave a comment that has nothing to do with the entry that was commented on.  And, most of these links point to a .info domain. Can’t we just do away with .info all together since the majority of the ones I’ve seen are spam? Or, at least get a plugin that doesn’t allow .info sites to be entered into comments! Anyone, is this possible?

If it wasn’t for Akismet, I would have a lot of spam to remove from the comments. Akismet does such a great job all on its own! Why anyone needs more than one anti-spam plugin, I have no idea. I’ve never needed anything else.

Thank you Akismet for catching spam and allowing real comments to be added!

Free Advertising Every Month

UPDATE: I am no longer offering free advertising every month due to not enough demand. But, every once in a while, I may offer subscribers free advertising.

Currently, in the sidebar underneath Sponsors, it’s kind of empty as Text-Link-Ads hasn’t given me much, yet. I would like to offer free advertising every month. Your link will be placed below Sponsors in its own section called Related Links.

If you have a website or blog that fits the content of Soft Tech Reviews (look in the topics if you’re unsure), then this offer is for you. Contact me with the required details:

Requirements

• Free Advertising for [Current Month Here]
• Your website’s/blog’s name
• Your website’s/blog’s URL
• Your name
• Maximum 5 word title
• Optional description for the link. (e.g. Title: Soft Tech Reviews, Description: Software, technology, reviews and more.) If you do not provide a description, the title will be used.

I am only offering four links to four lucky people every month. That’s right, only one link per person.

What’s the catch? I’m glad you asked! The catch is… okay, there isn’t a catch, I lied. But, I do hope that you’ll consider either mentioning Soft Tech Reviews and this offer or linking back on your own website/blog. Share this offer with a friend!

Rules

1. Do not contact about future months.
2. Do not contact if your website/blog is not related to Soft Tech Reviews’ content.
3. Do not contact if it says the offer is over.
4. Do not contact if all spots are taken.
5. Do not contact if you advertised in the past three months.

Comments have been disabled for this entry to prevent too many comments asking about the offer. If you see four links underneath Related Links, then you know that for the current month, those spots are taken. It will say when those spots will be available again, so check back often, or subscribe to the RSS Feed to know when the spots are available and when they are taken!

How Long Will This Last?

I don’t know. If I like the response I receive from this, then I will continue to do this until I am unable to do it anymore.

If you miss the current month, don’t worry, try again the next month.