Business blogging tips and news for professional bloggers

As of right now, my email inbox is empty.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (to borrow a sound from Jeremy Wright).  I can't tell you the relief I feel.  It's like a great weight has been lifted off of me.

Business bloggers often deal with email overload.  There's simply so much happening - posts to write, designs to revamp, comments to answer, people to network with - that we sometimes feel powerless against the daily email deluge.

Before my inbox fills up again, I want to offer a few reasons why a business blogger's inbox is almost never empty and a few quick solutions for uncluttering your inbox:

1. Google/Yahoo!/MSN/Other news alerts - These come automatically to warn you of the latest news on your favorite search phrases.  Try setting up a bunch of 'em - just be aware that you'll be reading 'em quickly, opening the links in them you like, and  then throwing 'em away left and right.  Once a day is probably enoughto sweep through and eliminate these.

2. Questions from other bloggers - In my case, this is one of the primary culprits for a full inbox.  As a Know More Media associate editor, I am responsible for helping each of our 50-plus authors in all things associated with their KMM blogs.  I love this responsibility, but I also find it imperative to read and respond llike lightning to the emails I get in this regard.  Otherwise they just pile up!  The faster you get back to a blogger in need, the better.  Try to always respond within 24 hours, even if only to say "I'm super busy, but I'll respond fully ASAP."  The sooner you respond satisfactorily, the sooner you can archive that conversation.

3. Congratulatory beta registration confimations - I register compulsively for almost every "Web 2.0" beta service I can - that way I can stay on top of the latest tools out there.  The downside to this is a rapidly growing list of usernames and passwords to remember, many of which I don't use after the first login because the service simply isn't interesting enough - and of course there's all those "thanks for signing up, have a cookie" emails.  I archive these almost instantly - right after I open up the service to try it out :).  BuzzShout, ProgrammableWeb and the Museum of Modern Betas will keep you busy for a while with breaking news on new beta services.

4. Blog comment/trackback notifications - I'm always thrilled to open these, and always disappointed if they turn out to be spam.  Lately a particularly nasty, Akismet-fooling spam variation has been plaguing me wherein some anonymous person tells me that their life has been bland lately and that they feel empty, shrug, cough cough, eh, whatever, etc.  Get a life, spammer!  Your spam doesn't work here anyway!  But I am ecstatic when a real person has added to the conversation at my blog.

Those are the main reasons I find it next to impossible to clear out my email inbox fully.  But I find the desire for cleanliness (emptiness?) motivates me to answer my emails promptly, which in turn makes me a better blogger.

What types of emails do you deal with on a daily basis and how do you respond to them quickly?