If you are planning on ramping up your email frequency for the holidays, know that sudden changes in your volume could lead ISPs to think you are a spammer and send more of your mail to the junk folder. The solution is IP Warming, or the gradual process (over a month or longer) of establishing a legitimate reputation in the eyes of the ISPs.  Read the full story at the Lyris blog. 

The laptop that belonged to President Bill Clinton and was used to exchange email with astronaut John Glenn while he was in outer space on board the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 is up for bid on eBay. The Toshiba laptop has a minimum bid of $125,000 and is in full working order, with both the original email from John Glenn and President Clinton's response stored on the hard disc. The reply from the President is also of historic significance in that it is the first email ever written and sent by a U.S. President. The laptop is the property …

An email sent from American Apparel to its subscribers in advance of Hurricane Sandy's landfall on the East Coast yesterday promoted a 20% discount over the next 36 hours for all customers in North Carlonia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts through the discount code "SANDYSALE". Subscribers voiced outrage via social media instantly, calling for a boycott of American Apparel stores and the head of its marketing director.

When a CEO realized that internal email comprised half to three-quarters of all traffic at his company, that his employees were spending an inordinate amount of time sifting through it, that it limited accountability, personal contact and productivity, and that it "facilitates lazy and thoughtless communication" he made the decsion to ban it for a week. The result is that the organization started paying more attention to what was important to the company, instead of what felt urgent in the inbox. Stress fell, productivity rose, and the CEO concluded that email was preventing the company from doing its best work.

Three people in Japan were arrested recently when emails containing death threats were sent from their email accounts. The very specific and highly targeted messages included the threat of mass murder, blowing up famous shrines, an email to an airline threatening to bomb commercial aircraft and warnings to a kindergarten that hosted a child from a royal family. The menacing emails were traced back to a malware infection named Backdoor.Rabasheeta. Once the malware was discovered, the three people arrested were released without charge.

Cirrus Insight is a Gmail plugin for CRM, which allows users to manage leads and contacts within the Gmail inbox. A new update brings CRM data from Salesforce into the inbox interface as well, and also integrates more cleanly with other Gmail plugins such as Rapportive. 

2012 is officially the year of mobile in email, and this week's launch of the iPad Mini will only further underscore the trend. Learn how design, price and precedent, app potential and screen resolution might play a role in your email marketing programs.  

Data on the engagement metrics of Daily Deals retailers analyzed by Return Path revealed that Wednesdays enjoy read rates at 12% higher, and also see 20% fewer messages ensared by spam filters. Monday is the least responsive day for Daily Deals emails. The study's surprising finding is that the word "Free" in subject lines not only did not increase spam rate, but it actually increased read rate by 12%. 

According to a new survey conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, 10% of consumers use a smartphone or a tablet as their primary device for checking email. 39% open email from trusted brands on their mobile devices, while 36% will save messages to read later on their desktop.

From strategies like inbox zero to tools ranging from priority inbox, filters and inbox management applications, consumers are increasingly organizing themselves around organizing their email. But the difficulty may lie more in consumers' brains than their inboxes. The psychology of reciprocity, law of effect, hyperbolic discounting and ownership/responsibility help explain why consumers just can't quit email.