I am sharing few points which I have learned in e-mail communication so far.

– Take your time to compose e-mail, don’t write in a hurry.
– Do a spell check.
– Know when to use ‘Reply-all’ and when absolutely not.
– Avoid using fancy fonts; stick with basic fonts like Arial/Calibri.
– If you are checking your emails after few days then first read all emails and then reply to the e-mail which requires a reply. Do not reply as you read because you might have receive further e-mail for the same communication or someone from the CC list might already have replied.
– Read and re-read before replying an e-mail. Have you answered all underlying questions/concerns raised by the sender?
– If an attachment is to be sent then compose your email after adding the attachment, followed by adding recipients.
– Do not forget the attachment (use attachment reminder script in Outlook or download this software) In Gmail, activate the attachment reminder.
– Do a spell check.
– Do not reply an email when you are angry. ( Instead do this: compose the email, save it but don’t send it. Read that email again after a while and chances are you will change the e-mail completely or do not send that at all .)
– Avoid using ‘but’, it’s somewhat negative, instead use ‘however’
– Do not use fancy signature with animated images, it distracts and annoys the reader. ( and won’t animate in Outlook 2007 )
– Turn the automatic spell check on.
– Be precise and to the point, help your e-mail recipient save time.
– Ask yourself a question, how much would it take for me to answer this email? less than 2 mins? Reply now.
– Do a spell check and grammar check.
– Do not use authoritative language in your e-mails even if you are writing to your subordinate. Nobody likes to receive orders. Would you like if you receive such an email? Re-read your email after composing and sense the tone of your e-mail?
– Don’t forget the out-of-office Auto reply when you are not reading your e-mails.
– Always mention the alternate person who should be contacted in your absence if there is any.
– ‘Please see the attachment’ is a better phrase then ‘Please finds the attachment’ (if your attachment is not a treasure? ).
– Do not forget/misspell recipients’ Name. It might turn him/her off.
– Avoid using CAPS and bold.
– Know when to use Hello/Hi/Dear.
– Received an email from an irated customer/client? Empathize him/her in your reply first and then explain your situation.
– If you are sending a screen-shot in e-mail then make sure you saved the image as JPG and not BMP in Paint. Sending a BMP image would unnecessarily make your e-mail heavy.
– Do not forward those useless e-mails for your pleasure, and block office bandwidth .
– Be a responsible e-mail forwarder, verify the authenticity of an e-mail forward before being a victim of these forwards.
– Have an e-mail signature which has all your required contact information.
– In personal e-mails, make an email signature which has links to your website, blog, social networking profile like Orkut/Twitter.
– Do a spell check.
– Read your email one last time before hitting the send button.

These are few points which I believe would help you in better email communication. What do you practice in your email communication? Do you have any tip? Please do share.

Be Googleable: As they say Google is God and if God doesn’t know you then you are in trouble . I will go to extent of saying that in today’s Internet age if you are not in Google search results you do not exist. If your prospect employer searches for you on Google what results appear for your name? Have you ever Googled your name? Go give it a shot and see what are the results for your name?

Get yourself a website: Start your own website. Write about your achievements, aspirations, knowledge and experiences. This will also help you your brand (read you) search engine friendly, you will be googleable. In today’s time it’s doesn’t cost a fortune to get a website. You can get a domain name in Rs. 400/- and hosting starts as low as Rs. 1000/-. To create a website you don’t need to know HTML, there are plenty of free website templates available with which you can create your own website and with CMS like WordPress, you can configure your dynamic website/blog in few clicks.

Bonus Tip: If you want your personalized website, you just need to buy yourself a domain and I can get your website hosted for nominal fee or free.

Get a personalized e-mail: After you have a personalized website then do get a personalized email. mail@yourname.com is far better than yourname_cool_1980@gmail.com. This e-mail address would be easy to remember for others and tells about your brand name. With help of Google apps, you can get as many as 50 e-mail address for your domain for free.

Be visible on forums: Participate in forums of your technology domain. Ask questions, seek advice and share knowledge with others. This would increase your visibility and adds credit to your expertise.

Be Social, join Social Networks: Join social networking sites like Facebook, twitter and most importantly Linkedin. These sites help you connect with like-minded people and expand your network. In terms of visibility, Orkut is not the right social networking site because Orkut profiles are not indexed in Google while Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin profiles do appear in Google results.

Expand your Linkedin Network: Join Linkedin if you haven’t already. You need to expand your network on Linkedin, add your peers, your ex-colleague, colleage’s colleague. Don’t just join Linkedin for the heck of it, be an active member on Linkedin. Give an identity to your profile, add your picture, your accomplishments, and your detailed profile, recommend persons in your network and ask for recommendations and participate in discussions on Linkedin.

E-mail Signature: Don’t waste the real estate of your e-mail signature. Add your Website URL, your Linked profile link in your e-mail signature.

These pointers are about building your online brand, however, apart from this you need to create your brand offline as well. For your offline brand identity, I can suggest that be nice to people, help others and communicate well.

These are the points which I think enhance your brand value. Do you have more suggestions? Please share it with me.

Here are the lyrics :

yaara… yaara.. o yaara
yeh kis pyaari hifaazat main ho befikri ki haalat hai
yaaroo…..
badi mazboot baahon main ho sooraj ki hararat hai
tumhare waaste toofan sah len, muskarao tum
jiyo har lamha tumko zindagi peene ki aadat hai

I don’t know if I would buy a policy from Bajaj Allianz after watching this ad, however, this song is going to be my mobile ring tone for sure .

Update: Because of several request of this mp3 download, I have uploaded the mp3 of this ad. To download please click here

Some key points are:

What form do you need to fill?

ITR-1: Income from salary, pension and interest earned in a financial year

ITR-2: Capital gains, income/loss from house property and income from any other source

Checklist

• Enter all the details in CAPITAL letters
• Ensure that name, address and other personal details are entered correctly
• Double-check PAN number, bank account details and the MICR code you write
• Store the acknowledgment safely property and income from any other source.

You can file your income tax return online, however, you still have to visit income tax office for acknowledgment if you don’t have digital signature. You can get your own digital signature which starts from Rs. 800/- for two years.

You can also avail third party services like Taxsmile and Taxshax to file your Income tax return, the service starts from as low as Rs. 181 on Taxshax and Rs. 250 on Taxsmile.

Cartoon by Satish Acharya

* No three pin power sockets (had to buy a new Nokia charger)
* Right hand drive (will take time to get used to it)
* A seprate lane for cycles.. cool ( now, I can cycle to work)
* Generally, People are very friendly and although, native language is Dutch most of the people know English.
* Here Sunday means Sunday. You will not find any shop open, very very less traffic on roads, almost deserted. I believe people love to spend quality time with their family.

Rest will be update later…

I have a Vodafone connection from last 2 years and I admit they provide a good service. However, the problem is with their bill (not that they charge more). They send you a hard copy of your mobile bill. You can subscribe for email bill but there is absolutely no way you don’t get this paper bill.

I have tried convincing the customer care representative several times that I do not wish to get the paper bill and they have given me n number of reasons (including a TRAI order.. though I suspect this) to send the paper bill. If they have not sent me the paper bills in last so many months then I might have contributed to save a few branches of a tree if not a tree.

Few years back I had Airtel postpaid connection and they encouraged subscribing for e-bill and after subscribing for e-bill, you will not get the paper bill until specially instructed.

On second thought, you don’t have a Ctrl+F feature in paper bill

Update on 08th March: After visiting the Vodafone store and giving application to stop sending the paper bill. I am assured by Vodafone that I would no more receive a paper bill.

Before making payment I wanted to make sure that I clicked on the correct flight and I am paying for the right flight. But, I had to go back and double check that I have clicked the right departure time flight. MMT, are you listening? Please correct this.. don’t latka dijo

This happend because somebody pulled the chain and train stopped between a neutral zone. The overhead cable has neutral zones between two sub-stations and power supply is not available at such points. Trains pass such small areas without any difficulty thanks to their momentum.

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