Google Email Dance…
When something goes wrong with my regular email account (which does happen once in a while… especially when I’ve had my online business for a decade), I switch to my Gmail account. (Here’s where to sign up for an account)
Sometimes, it’s not even that something goes wrong with my email account, it may be that an email from my server doesn’t get through to the customer for whatever reason (over-zealous spam filters, spam blacklists). With a Gmail account, I can log in and try to get an email through to the customer a second way… and potentially get to the customer before they get concerned that I’ve “taken their money but not sent the product”.
I used my Gmail quite extensively after my server died. 
As soon as I got the domain up and running again I just forwarded all email going to “anything @ scamfreezone.com” to my Gmail account.
But, Gmail isn’t as good at filtering out spam as the Cloudmark Desktop plugin I had running in Outlook.
Hmmm, what to do?
Well, fortunately, Gmail allows you to access your email via POP (meaning you don’t have to actually log in to your Gmail account via your web-browser, you can login and manage your email from your desktop application such as Outlook or Outlook express).
So, I’ve just set my Gmail account to allow POP access, entered the details into Outlook and am now happily checking my email via my desktop.
And the best bit? Gmail filters the incoming email for spam, then lets me download it… at which point Cloudmark filters the incoming email. Bingo. Double spam filtration… and a lot less work for me clicking the delete button. 
April 27th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
You know what else is great about Gmail? The new mobile phone app they just released that lets me view my mail from the road without having to lug a laptop around. And, when I get back to the desk, I don’t have to re-delete anything I deleted while I was out!
April 27th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Neil, if you’re spam is still getting through GMail’s filtering then you must have some persistant spam! I’ve got over 50 domains forwarding into my Gmail account and the Bayesian filtration gets rid of over 99% of the rubbish (more like over 99.5%). The rest is a quick manual few seconds first thing in the morning.
The real joy of GMail though is the search. Try searching through 20,000+ emails in Outlook…
April 27th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Hi Chris,
Good point about the searching.
And yes, I was getting a lot of spam at Gmail. I was reporting it, and felt like I was working for them for free.
Perhaps it’s because I like to be connected to my email account most of the day… which means I’m first to see the newest spams.
Neil.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I use a pretty similar system as you Neil, although I really only use POP to download a backup copy of stuff now. Your spam getting through, I think might be a symptom of the nature of some of the mail that you are likely to tolerate from other marketers. I’ve found that if I allow in (mark as not spam) just one thing that Gmail thought was suspicious, it starts letting all sorts through for a while until it’s retrained. Consequently, I’ve unsubscribed from a LOT of email and replaced them with RSS subscriptions instead (where available) and I avoid using the “Not Spam” button. This has reduced the number of spam emails that arrive in my inbox to just 2-3 and only on bad days, which is not at all bad out of the hundreds I get.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hi Pamela,
Great tip, thanks.
I was getting several hundred spams per hour at Gmail… so even a fraction of 1% staying in my Inbox was too many.
For example… I probably emptied my spam folder a few days ago… now it’s… “Spam (20197)”
Neil.