Who Stays In Your Inbox?

Just recently I went through my inbox and was trying to get it more organized. I use Gmail for all of my email accounts and have many just forwarded and some are pop3. But I have like 10 different email accounts and it can get cluttered.

As an Internet Marketer I also subscribe to many other Internet Marketer’s email lists. I like to see what they are up to and always keep learning. This can lead to a very busy inbox. Many times a hundred or more emails a day from Internet Marketers.

I also follow many Bloggers and receive their emails. It’s one of the ways that I keep learning. But not all of the emails are all that helpful. In fact 90% of them are just selling something. Which is not always bad but some value mixed in is always good.

Then there are some who I always want to read because even if they are just selling something, they are very gifted at their email copy and so I learn just by reading what they write.

So to be successful at actually learning something here I have to filter it.

Filtering the Noise

In Gmail I use filters and labels a lot. For those who do not know, with Gmail I can take emails from a certain person and have it labeled “Internet Marketing” for example. Gmail will then label all emails from that person. This organizes my emails kind of like tags. If you are using outlook it’s like your folders.

Gmail also allows me to “skip the inbox”. Meaning that the email just goes straight to the label/folder and does not show in my inbox. But I can still see that I have a new message in “Internet Marketing” or “Blogging” etc…

This allows me to not get caught up in checking those emails all day and look at them later or tomorrow when I have more time. I can leave the inbox for only important messages.

But some of those Internet Marketers or Bloggers I want to see as they come in and don’t want them getting lost in the mix and possibly ignored for a few days.

The 2 ways to do that is have them starred automatically or have Gmail leave them in the inbox. So as I was setting up my filters I was taking notice of who I was leaving in the inbox and who I had skipping the inbox. I thought it says a lot about that person and how much I respect their emails. It was kind of an inadvertent way of seeing who gives me the best content.

Who Stays in My Inbox

So who stays in my inbox? (in no particular order)

Frank Kern – Frank is one of the most brilliant Internet Marketers I know. Not only does he send out good content but his emails are generally really good and I like to read them.

Darren Rowse – Darren was one of the first people I started learning from. Before I got into Internet Marketing it was blogging that got me interested in working online and that then lead to Internet Marketing. Darren’s newsletter is great and I am also subscribed to his ProBlogger Community.

David Risley – David was one of the early people I found as well and was pretty excited when I found out that not only does he live near me but he also runs a local meetup group every month. I have been going to that group for almost a year now. David has a great blog and puts out some good content in his emails. He is one of the few I know of that is combining Blogging with Internet Marketing and doing it really well.

Chris Brogan – Chris is constantly offering great content on his blog and also puts out some really good stuff in his newsletter. I would highly recommend signing up for that.

Jeremy Schoemaker aka Shoemoney – Jeremy is also one of the guys I started following early. His blog is pretty diverse but he is a genius when it comes to Local Affiliate Marketing which as a business consultant I have found great use of.

This list is not a list of the only people who I find worth following, it is just a list of the people I consider to give enough good content that I want to see their emails daily as they come in.

There are several other really good people out there who I love to keep up with but because of time, may not be able to do so every day.

This list is also not a list of the people who have influenced me the most, I am actually working on a post about that, that I will be posting soon.

So who stays in your inbox?

You may not even realize it but there are probably some people you follow that are providing more great content then others and you are already filtering them but don’t know it.  If you aren’t, make sure that you are. It is always good to surround your self with motivators and good influencers and then identify the ones that really help you and separate them.

Might even be a Twitter Group or List. Or using Gmail like I am.

So who stays in YOUR inbox?