Pass-Along Cards in email signature

[bdalton]

As a ward mission leader I am intrigued by the electronic pass-along cards available on mormon.org. I wonder if the same concept could be integrated into an email system so every time I send an email message the recipient would receive an e-pass-along card at the bottom with a link to Mormon.org and/or a phone number to call to receive a free Book of Mormon or video. I have done this by turning on the signature in Outlook Express, but can the same thing be done in such a way that it is essentially invisible to me? With all the email systems I have tried (gmail, yahoo mail, etc) my e-signature shows up in the editor screen instead of being added at the bottom when I send the message. However, I notice some emails I receive seem to have an advertisement for AOL or some such thing appended at the end. I would like a pass-along card appended at the end.

As a related thought, could we establish an email system on lds.org or mormon.org like gmail or hotmail to give me a myname@mormon.org address and when I create mail from that site it could automatically add an electronic pass-along card at the bottom when the message is sent?

By the way, thanks for putting up this great site. I stumbled across it by accident while I was trying to find information about setting up our ward web site. This has been very helpful!

- BDalton
The truth about life's great questions is now restored! Learn more at http://www.mormon.org

[WelchTC]

I'm not sure about setting up an email system for general member use but certainly we have talked about how we can leverage membership to spread the word through various web 2.0 technologies. Great ideas and I'll pass them along!

Tom

BTW, there is an email system that missionaries use currently. It is only available to missionaries and is used in communicating to their families.

[JamesAnderson]

All the freemails like Yahoo and GMail have a customization feature where you can add a signature, then when you are using that freemail service at the top or bottom there may be a checkbox that says 'Use my signature', because you may not want to use any given signature you have with certain mail.

After the signature, the ad the freemail service inserts in the mail itself would appear.

If you are not sure where to find the feature where you can add a signature, email your provider or look it up in the help pages of the freemail's site. I'm pretty sure all the big ones, and most of the thousands of smaller ones, have a way to insert a signature between your message in the freemail's ad footer.

[thedqs]

Interesting idea. As James said you can add a signiture into you messages and most allow just about anything to go into you signiture. If you can format it with HTML then you could insert an img tag that is linked to the mormon.org site witht he picture of the card.

[russellhltn]

If you can format it with HTML then you could insert an img tag that is linked to the mormon.org site witht he picture of the card.

Assuming the recipient's email program doesn't hide it as both Outlook and gmail do by default.

[scion-p40]

It seems to me that some folks would opt to send entirely inappropriate email with a "Mormon" card giving the appearance of affiliation with the church.

[thedqs]

It seems to me that some folks would opt to send entirely inappropriate email with a "Mormon" card giving the appearance of affiliation with the church.

Hmm, that is true. Especially if they get a worm that propagates itself through their mail. I guess just a saying like "Families can be together forever - see www.mormon.org" would probably be better and that wouldn't be blocked by gmail or outlook.