1. Ensure the recipient is expecting the email or won’t mind receiving it.

2. Make sure your email client is set up to display your name and email address correctly. Use a meaningful name for yourself, e.g. “Patrick O’Conner” or “ABC Windows”. Do not use non-specific names or names which won’t mean anything to some people, e.g. “Buddy” or “The Girls”.

3. Always always include a subject line and make sure it tells the recipient what the email is about, e.g. “Our Meeting Agenda” or ” Sales Plans for Europe”.

4. Be clear and specific in your email, don’t waffle. Tell the person who you are and why you are contacting them. Don’t just send an attachment and hope they will figure it out for themselves.

5. Only send attachments if they are really necessary, e.g. don’t use a Word document to send text that could have been typed into the email instead.

6. If including attachments, make sure the recipient will have the correct software to open it, such as PDF (Portable Document Format). Check the file size and make sure it’s not too big. When sending photos or other images, optimise the file size first. Don’t send photos from the default scanner or digital camera settings with a default name. Correctly name before sending.

7. Resist using pretty stationery or unnecessary graphics. This annoys people and some email programs have trouble displaying them.

8. Never reply to spam or junk email.

9. Be very careful/restrained about forwarding jokes and other similar material. People receive too much of it already and never forward chain emails.

10. Lastly, make sure you use reliable anti-virus software and update it every day. If you don’t, then you are as much to blame for the spread of viruses as anyone. This is not negotiable – if you are connected to the internet then you must be protected or you are a danger to everyone else.