Proofreading

When sending emails to coworkers or clients it is very important to proofread your work.  Spelling errors can make you look unprofessional. 
Besides spelling errors it is also good to check to make sure you are using correct words, such as your, you're, there, their etc.  Make sure your sentences make sense and no words are missing or added by accident.
If it is an important email you may want to have someone take a look at it before sending.
It is also good to double check that your email does not send the wrong message.  It can be hard when reading an email to sense a persons tone.  Make sure to be clear about your message.
Once you've double checked and are confident it is all good, add your recipients and send away!

Spam and joke emails and work

Lots of people enjoy sending joke emails, or chain letter emails.  These are okay to send to friends or family, however in the work place it is definitely not ok.
In the work place you never know who may see these emails or who they may offend.  When at the work place it is best to keep all emails related to work and stay professional.

Beware of viruses

Viruses are horrible and can be very harmful to your computer, and possibly your friends or families computers as well.  They can corrupt portions of your hard drive, or even cause a complete failure of your computer.  Some viruses may even send out emails to your entire contact list and try to spread the virus to them.

Email is a very easy way to spread viruses around the internet.  There are many ways to try to avoid being a victim of a virus.

• Be sure to never open emails from unknown sources, if it doesn't look familiar to you, just delete it. 
• Also, never open attachments from unknown sources.  
• If an email from a friend or family member looks odd or suspicious, it's always best to contact them to make sure they sent it.
• Avoid forwarding email with attachments unless you know they are safe.
• If an attachment has an strange looking file extension it could be a virus.
• Don't click any weird looking links that maybe forward you to an unsafe website
• Last, but not least, always make sure to back up your computer once in a while just in case.

Beware of the scams

Now that email has been around for a while, it's pretty common to get all sorts of spam and scam emails.  In fact they are probably the bulk of your incoming emails now.
Here is a wikipedia list of a bunch of different email scams that have popped up.

Some common ones I've encountered are emails that appear to be from facebook or other known websites where you have a login and  password, and request you to use their link to input your email and password to log in.  Once you've done this, you've given them your information for them to hack your account and send spam to all your friends and family.   Best practice is to never open these types of emails unless you know it is in fact from the website.  However, if you do believe it is from the real source, and want to follow a link within an email, make sure to check the web address, and make sure it one you would normally log in to.

Other common scams have to do with money, jobs, bank accounts, dating sites or deals.
As my mother always told me, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Think before you send

At some point people have made mistakes with emails, whether it is forgetting to send attachments, sending to the wrong person, or even sending inappropriate emails.  These things happen, but can be avoided if you take your time.

One good rule to follow don't put any email addresses in until after you've written the entire email and added the attachments.  That way you can make sure everything you need is completed, then add all the email addresses you would like to send to.

Another good feature in gmail (I am not sure if other free email services have this) is the unsend feature. 
To enable this feature

• go to the gear at the top of your gmail
• select settings
• scroll down to undo send and click enable
• you can select cancellation periods in 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds

This allows you to have up to 30 seconds to cancel a sent email just in case you forgot something.  I find this feature can be very helpful, as it's usually right after I hit send that I realized I forgot something.  Unfortunately it won't help if you want to unsend after the 30 second mark, but at least if gives you a short window where you can fix something.

Passwords

Welcome to my little blog.  Over the next few months, I will be discussing different ways to email safely and smartly.  
Let's first start with a very important element of emails, your password.
It is very important to choose a password that is strong and no one can guess.  Make sure it is something you can remember as well.
It's also good practice to change your password once in while, especially if you have shared it in the past with anyone.
The more complicated the password the better.  If you can't think of something here are a few tips to a good password.

• use an acronym of your favourite line from a movie or song, using the first letters of each word.
• use numbers or symbols in place of letters for example p@ssw0rd.
• use some capital letters in there as well.

 Also, make sure if you are ever using a shared computer, or public computer you never allow the computer to remember your password.