If you hate waiting at the post office, your days of having to do so may finally be over. There are so many reasons online postal solutions have progressed to the point where visiting the post office is no longer necessary. Learn how to incorporate these tools into your home or office routine, saving you time and [/i]money.How to Print Your Postage Online
Learning to print postage and prepare shipments online is an easy task. You simply need a cocintosh and PC (Windows), and others that only allow one or the other. Therefore, check before choosing a service. From here, all you need to do is create your online account with the postage service you select. With some services, you can pay for postage as you go. With others, you may need to “preload” your account with a certain amount of funds. Once you have set up your account according to the provider’s specifications, you can then print as little or as much postage as necessary to mail letters or packages.
Other Online Postal Services
In addition to making it easy for anyone to print their postage and avoid stressful post-office lines, today’s self-service postal software has several other options for customers’ personal and business needs.
· Print customized stamps. If you are getting married, welcoming a new baby or launching a new product or brand, you can do it in style with personalized stamps. You can feature your face, your logo or any other image you’d like.
· Print certified-mail postage. If you regularly send certified mail, you can now print the required codes right onto your forms. These services also support bulk mail and database integration. This means you do not have to re-enter each address before you print postage and schedule shipping.
· Automatically update changed addresses in your database. You can now purchase a service that allows you to compare all of the addresses in your database against the National Change of Address (NCOA) registry to make sure your mail still goes right to your database contacts.
· Presort mail services. Presorted mail means less work for the post office, so you can get a discount on postage costs. Many online software for postage and shipping software supports presorted bulk direct mail campaigns. This saves you money on marketing your products and services.
· DYMO Stamps®. DYMO is a specific type of printer and label system that allows you to print single (or multiple) stamps right from your home computer. If you do not print a lot of postage, a DYMO-based system may be the cheapest and most efficient way to automate your postage needs.
What Else Can You Do Online?
In addition to these specialized online postal and shipping services, you may want to consider some of the other advantages of using online-based software — rather than scheduling a trip to the post office.
· Supports postal insurance. If you are mailing a valuable item, most online postal and shipping software allows you to calculate and purchase insurance to go along with your package.
· Scale integration. If you are not sure how much postage to buy, you can use a scale and enter in the weight. This is one of the major reasons people still visit the post office when they could be managing their postal needs online.
· International mail services. If you need to fill out and print customs forms, calculate international postage to countries you’ve never heard of, receive email confirmation of overseas shipments and other international mail services, today’s online software can handle these tasks.
With all of these tools at your disposal, if you have a few extra minutes to select a service and set up an account, you can count on hundreds of hours saved by managing your postage and shipping needs online.
About the Author: Harvey Spensch runs an Internet business that ships products all over the world. His company uses online postage tools for all their shipping needs.