Its an old, old saying, but its true: you only have one chance to make a good first impression. And in email, the first impression is always visual -- a consumer LOOKS/SEES before he/she READS.

Imagine walking by a grotesquely garish storefront with all kinds of things hanging off the front porch, every floor painted a different color, and odd music playing through loudspeakers. Would you want to walk in the front door? No way! You`d assume that the owner is a kook, at best, or a deranged axe murderer, at worst.

Did you ever have an ugly looking email land in your mailbox? You know what Im talking about: an orange background and yellow borders, multi-colored text in all sizes from gigantic to microscopic, a message that looks like it was created by a crazed six-year-old? If you did, I bet you didnt feel the urge to read it. You probably just wanted to delete it as quickly as possible.

=> PUT OUT THE WELCOME MAT You want your email message to be friendly and inviting, not bizarre and scary. The suggestions below -- and theyre just suggestions, not hard and fast rules -- will go a long way towards making recipients eyes say "come on in!" to your message.

=> DOs and DONTs FOR ATTRACTIVE EMAILS

-DON`T use COLOR fonts in your message. (Leave that to junior high girls who want to write about Britney and Justin)

-DO use BLACK TEXT ON A WHITE BACKGROUND. (When you`re "speaking" in black-and-white, people will give their full attention to your message without being distracted by your color scheme.)

-DONT use UNCOMMON FONTS. (If someones system doesnt recognize the font youve selected, they could see gibberish instead of your brilliant message).

-DO use the email marketers` FAVORITE FONTS: Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New

And please.

-DONT use flashing buttons or banners in your email! (Your prospects have undoubtedly gotten their fill of "bells and whistles" when theyve surfed the Internet. They don`t need more from you.)

=> GET HYPER" WITH EMAIL HYPERLINKS

An "email hyperlink" is just techno-talk for a link in your email to a website, or email address. Sounds simple enough, and it is -- unless you try to contact a prospect on AOL who may not be able to receive "clickable" links.

Dont worry. Theres a "fix" for this: simply type mailto: in front of your email address (no space in between, and include the : )

For a link to a web page, you need to write your link this way: http://www.anycompany.com . (And tell your recipient they can copy and paste this link into their browser if it`s not highlighted.)

=> ALWAYS USE SIGNATURE TAGS

Today, it`s common practice on the Internet to tell people about your product or service with a SIGNATURE TAG, which is 3-6 lines of text (usually) that is automatically added to every message you send.

If you`d like to add a tag to your messages, simply open your email program. Find the SIGNATURES TAB (located in the TOOLS/OPTIONS menu in Outlook Express). Follow the (simple) instructions for creating a sig file. Easy as pie...and the results will amaze you.