Create Email Addresses On the Fly

April 2 2009, 2:51pm

While OIB focuses on helping you control email overload, OIB offers several other cool things that most of our early beta testers enjoy.  One of my personal favorites is being able to make up an email address on the fly when I sign up for something new that I don’t want to go to my personal email. 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@LChaney.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!