Blogging Tips

One of the main things I dislike about Gmail is the fact that I cannot add links or HTML to my email signature; even Yahoo Mail allows that. Well, WiseStamp changes all of that by letting you customize your Gmail signature with HTML as well as share blog posts, social profiles, images and more all right in your signature. To do so, you’ll need an extension; there’s currently extensions for Firefox, Google Chrome, Flock and Thunderbird.

I personally use Google Chrome as my default browser, so I decided to give the Chrome extension a test drive. Once installed, you’ll get an icon on your toolbar that when clicked brings up the WiseStamp configuration box. As you can see below, there’s much you can do to edit your signature. Also, you can click on the arrow in the top right corner (seen below) to pop the box out into its own little window, which will make it easier to work with.

WiseStamp gives you the option to create both a personal and business signature. Just choose one or the other from the dropdown menu. You can also choose which one to use as your default signature. By default, the signature is set to be automatically inserted into your email message. This can easily be undone by simply unchecking the box (seen below).

As you can see, there’s a rich editor that lets you do all kinds of things like format your text, add images, insert tables, insert HTML and more. This really gives you a chance to be creative and is also a great opportunity for promoting your blogs and personal websites. There’s also a place to add URLs to your social profiles, IM usernames and even RSS feeds. Unfortunately, the RSS feed feature is not yet available in Chrome but it is coming soon. In Firefox, however, this gives the chance to display your latest blog post, latest tweet and more.

Although there are only spots for Facebook. LinkedIn, Flickr and Twitter by default, you can change these and even add more. Each box is a drop-down menu that will let you choose from various different social sites; you can pick which one goes where and add as many as you like. The same goes for IM services plus, you can even add your Google Wave account email under IMs. Even though there is a tab for RSS feeds (that’s not available yet in Chrome), you can choose “Blog RSS” from the social profiles dropdown list and insert the link there.

Once you’re done you can preview how your signature will look before clicking apply and ok. If you already have Gmail open, you will need to refresh it in order to get your new signature to show. If you have chosen not to automatically insert the signature, you can manually insert it via the new icon on your email editing toolbar. You’ll notice in the image below that there is a new button that will let you choose which signature to insert.

I love WiseStamp and having the chance to create such a unique signature; the possibilities are endless. I’m sure you’re bound to get lots of new comments about your new signature. It’s no secret, everyone will want to know how you were able to do that in Gmail. Well, now you know – It’s simple, just download WiseStamp and fill in the blanks.