If you’d like to break away from using Outlook, try setting up your Gmail account to retrieve up to five existing email accounts and drop them into your Gmail inbox.

Simply go to the Accounts and Import tab and enter your account details.

You’ll need to set up the “Import Mail and Contacts” and “Send Mail As:” settings if you want to make it appear to be sending your domain emails with your Gmail email address appearing on all outgoing emails ( e.g.  “sent via xxxx@gmail.com”).

If you’d like to send an email from your domain email address and make it appear like yourname@yourcompany.com without the gmail.com account attached to your outgoing messages, you’ll need to set up the POP3 settings (”Send Mail As:” settings) to do so.

Click on SEND MAIL FROM ANOTHER ADDRESS and a window will pop up and guide you through the process.

You’ll see this pop up window.

When you’ve properly set up both “Import emails and contacts” and “Send mail as:” settings, you’ll be able to send and receive emails without the hint of it coming from your Gmail account.

You’ll be able to pull down a menu bar and select which account you’d like to send an email from before sending the email out.

I’ve been meaning to create a directory of Virtual Assistants (VAs) and their skill sets for a while. I saw @Minervity tweet this link out this morning and it gave me the gentle nudge I needed to get the ball rolling.

I consult with a lot of potential clients (PCs) and when they aren’t the right fit for me, I want to send them in a direction that will help them find their ideal VA.

The concept hasn’t been fully realized yet. There are a few directions I can head into: a RFP center, a membership/forum site where I make all of my templates available… your suggestions are welcomed.

What I do know is that there will never be a cost associated with simply listing your VA business in this directory.

At this stage in the game, if you’d like to be included, all you have to do is provide the following information in a comment.

I will keep you posted on what/when/how, but in the meantime, I’ll be able to reference the VAs on the list so that when a PC doesn’t work with me, they have another resource in their quest to find a VA.

• Full Name
• Website
• Contact Info
• Target Market – (if you have one)
• Skills – (Software)
• Short story about yourself
• Link to a photo of yourself

Thanks for taking the time to submit your information.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR COMMENTS FOR THIS PARTICULAR BLOG POST WILL NOT BE MADE PUBLIC FOR NOW. Rest assured, I continue to receive each each and every one of them and appreciate your participation.

What a nice surprise I had this morning when I checked my Twitter stream to see this wonderful #FollowFriday shout out from my fellow Twitterer, Peter Mello.

The highlighted link took me to his blog where I found the following:

First and foremost, I have to say a big THANK YOU to you, Peter. I appreciate the generous acknowledgment.

I love how you blogged about it and then tweeted it out accordingly. At times, #FollowFriday can lose it’s appeal and the meaning behind the gesture can get easily skewed for marketing and spamming purposes. You’ve rekindled my hope in the #ff movement. So thank you kindly. All of your efforts are great appreciated.

And just for the record, I’ve only tweeted 7,000+ updates. Seems Twitter’s Glitch of the Week is Update Counts Gone Wild. Okay, okay…7,000 is still excessive, but not quite as manic as 24k. *smiles*

Andrew Ran Wong of Web Studio 13 (@WebStudio13) created this great blog post about working with the versatile WordPress theme, Thesis.

If you’re interested in blogging, you’ll have many choices to make. WordPress makes the process much easier and the theme, Thesis, allows users many advantages. This article will highlight the following:

1. Save you time if you haven’t made up your mind what theme to install on your Wordpress blog. It’s really a no-brainer;
2. Illustrate how versatile and convenient Thesis tool is;
3. Demonstrate what a supportive community Thesis users have come to form.

Check it out >> 71 Best Tutorials for Thesis WordPress Theme Users

We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent’s research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.