Have you heard the joke?

I was at a party the other night and someone asked me what I did for a living. I said “I’m a web designer”.

“Oh, how interesting!” they replied. Then: “Actually, you might be able to help me – I’ve been having trouble with my email …. ”

It’s no joke – it happens all the time. Why is it that anyone who works anywhere near the internet is automatically an expert in email? Well, the answer is quite simple – there are no experts in email.

Email is actually the scourge of the internet. It’s hopelessly unreliable, it’s insecure, about 95% of all email is spam using up huge resources in person-hours, dollars and carbon … And those of us who work in web-related businesses are obliged to write off hours every month either fixing our own email, that of our clients, or that of various friends and colleagues. That’s if we can fix it.

I reverted to sending invoices by snail mail a few months back because too much was going missing. I soon got sick of it, of course, and by coincidence none’s gone AWOL in recent times – that I know of, anyway. But if I’ve learned anything over the last year or so it’s that email is not to be trusted or taken for granted on any level. I know I have frustrated clients, and I do my best to keep their email running, but it’s not a set-and-forget thing – like most things in this world, a little maintenance is required to keep it ticking along. And the cost in hours of that maintenance – either my hours or my client’s – is growing by the month. Somehow we’re going to have to share the pain.

Email? It’s no joke. It’s a pain in the proverbial.