Just like in old-fashioned letters, there’s an etiquette to email. Here are some tips:

1. Spelling & Grammar! Let’s not forget everything we learned in school just because email is so quick and easy! A “Dear” and a “Sincerely” won’t kill you and neither will enabling the spell check!
2. Real abbreviations only. While “texting” is the latest thing for teenagers, it’s not going to work for most people. I’m betting that most people could care less what your BFF (best friend forever) has to say when they don’t have a clue what language you are actually speaking! Don’t substitute U for you and 2 for two, if it’s not a real word, it’s not going to give your recipient a very good impression of you.
3. A subject? Don’t send email with a blank subject line. SPAMmers do that and if your recipient doesn’t recognize your name or email address, your message will most likely just get deleted.
4. Reply Vs. Reply-All. Do reply-all when you are in a business conversation or when all parties in the To and CC fields need to be kept informed of what is being discussed. Do not reply-all when you just have to tell your friend how funny that joke she cc’d to you and 100 of her closest friends is. Trust me, some of them don’t know you and most of them could care less if you are ROTFLOL.
5. Don’t yell! In a world where tone of voice doesn’t exist to convey how you are feeling, PLEASE DON’T YELL UNLESS YOU REALLY MEAN TO! Make sure that your caps lock is off before typing an email.
6. Your reply on top please. When someone opens your reply, you want them to see what you have to say, not what they wrote to you last. Don’t make them scroll and search to find your words of wisdom. Type your reply to them above the copies of the previous emails.
7. Keep those emails together. This is especially important in business conversations - don’t kill the copy! Keep all previous messages in the email. Who knows, the person you are replying to may need a reminder of what the conversation is all about! This is especially important if your reply is simply “thanks, I think we should do that” … “Do what?” your recipient wonders!
8. Think before you forward. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Scams abound on the web. This isn’t news. Before you forward that email to everyone in your address book, check a site like Snopes.com which tells fact from fiction for internet rumor, email scams, and urban legends.
9. Think before you send. Don’t email angry! Think twice before you tell someone where to go in writing. It’s in writing for goodness sake! Never a good thing to do! Give the circuit breaker in your head a chance to trip!
10. Huge attachments. These are still a no-no! Just because a lot more people have broadband doesn’t mean that it’s now okay to email that 10mb file. Ask first!

There’s more, trust me, and I could probably go on and on but let’s end it there. These are some of the more important ones anyway.