Despite all of the buzz about social media, I’m still convinced that e-mail is the most effective way to communicate with people online. Unfortunately, e-mail can become a headache very quickly. I probably get somewhere between 50 and 100 messages a day, and I sometimes find it overwhelming (but feel free to add to it if you have a question – willy@onedayonejob.com). I don’t know how people who get way more e-mail than I do are able to deal with it. There are lots of e-mail productivity tools, but most of them don’t work for me. I was starting to get desperate for a better way to manage relationships through e-mail, and then I came across Etacts. They’re a really young startup based in San Francisco, CA, and they built an e-mail tool that is exactly what I always wanted. I even went through the hassle of moving all of my accounts to Gmail just so that I could use Etacts. Their web-based software goes into your e-mail archive and pulls out a ton of data, then it gives you a simple interface where you can see things like who your top contacts are, how many messages you’ve traded with them, how long it’s been since you contacted them, and a few more simple features. You can even tie in your AT&T phone bill, although I haven’t figured out how to make that functionality work yet.
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