The top twelve e-mail mistakes that can sabotage your career.(Credit Column)

You return to your office from an afternoon meeting and decide to check e-mail. An hour later, having downloaded your messages, selecting those you should read, deleting the ones that look like junk, crafting replies to the most important ones, filing others that you want to work on later, you wonder where your day went. It was like that when you arrived at work this morning, and tomorrow promises to be no different.

What is this e-mail explosion? Was there a point in time when people decided to use the Internet as their business communication tool of choice? Are there rules for managing messages and being a professional and polite user of electronic mail? There are, but not everyone has gotten the word.

Your e-mail is as much a part of your professional image as the clothes you wear, the postal letters you write (assuming you still do), the greeting on your voice mail and the handshake you offer. If you want to impress on every front and build positive business relationships, pay attention to your e-mail and steer clear of these top twelve e-mail mistakes:

1. Omitting the Subject Line. We are way past the time when we didn't realize the significance of the subject line. It makes no sense to send a message that reads "no subject" and seems to be about nothing. Given the huge volume of e-mail that each person receives, the subject header is essential if you want your message read any time soon. The subject line has become the bunk.

2. Not Making Your Subject Line Meaningful. Your header should be pertinent to your message, not just "Hi" or "Hello. "The recipient is going to decide the order in which he reads e-mail based on who sent it and what it is about.

3. Failing to Change the Header to Correspond with the Subject. For example, if you are writing your web publisher, your first header may be "Web site content." However, as your site develops and you send more information, label each message for what it is, "contact info," "graphics," or "home page?' Don't just hit "reply." That way your publisher can find a specific document in his message folder without having to read every one you sent. If you change the subject all together, start a new message.

4. Not Personalizing Your Message to the Recipient. E-mail is informal but it still needs a greeting. Begin with "Dear Mr. Broome," "Dear Jim," "Hello Jim," or just "Jim." Failure to put in the person's name can make you and your e-mall seem cold.