Being able to send attachments together with an email message is very helpful especially when you need to send important documents. The limit on the file size you can attach depends on the limit that your email service provider imposes on your email account as well as the limitation on the email account storage size that the recipient has. While it is now possible to send several MP3 files as email attachments because of the general increase in email account storage sizes, sending larger sized files like videos and movies may cause you to encounter problems unless you and the recipient have a paid email account which gives you several gigabytes of storage space.



In any event, sending video files through email may force you to compress and split the file into two portions in order for it to be accepted by the recipients email account. Then too, you will probably have to wait for the recipient to remove the first portion from their email account before you can send the next.

This is a problem for people involved in internet marketing as they know that videos are the most effective advertising tool in the world. Never let it be said that they have no creativity though, because, they managed to find a way around the system.

One way to circumvent this problem is to attach a capture image from the video file onto the email message. This capture image will serve as a preview of the video and embedded in the file will be a link to the video itself. Of course, you have to bear in mind that you are asking a person to view an advertisement. I wouldn’t do it, and most won’t either. You will need to give the customer an incentive to click on that link.

Webpage designing programs and utilities now allow for viewing multiple pictures in a single webpage. This picture cascade is similar to an automatic slide show presentation. You can capture several images from the video itself, compile them and send your message through.

If the customer does click on the image or slideshow, you have to options of how to let him view your video. The first one is already mentioned above. When the customer clicks the image, a new browser window opens and your video loads onto it. The second option is to use streaming video where, the video is stored in your storage device and the link on your email newsletter activates the video stream. In this manner, the customer is not displaced from his/her current browser, thereby causing you to avoid annoying your customer.

A few years ago, we saw the megabyte standard hard drive replaced by the gigabyte hard drive. In 2 to 10 years, the terabyte may become the standard storage size for a personal computer’s hard drive. How big is it? One letter or character including spaces and punctuations is equal to 8 bits. 8 bits equals 1 byte, 1,000 bytes equals a kilobyte, 1,000 kilobytes equals 1 megabyte, and so on and so forth. With this potential for increased storage capacity, email service providers may decide to increase account storage capacities again. This next increase will definitely accommodate an entire video file as an attachment to email messages.

In the meantime, creativity needs to take over where technology has deficiencies. To be able to send the best in quality video to your customers, you will need to go about it the most efficient way.

The terabyte hard drive has just been invented. Get ready for better video availability in e-mail.