snail mail

Although email has bullied snail mail, nothing compares to receiving a letter at home that's not a bill or junk mail. Ideal for wedding stationery, gifts, holidays, or business logos, personalized stamps spice up run-of-the-mill government-issued stamps. Thanks to resources like Photo Stamps and PictureItPostage, you can create custom postage using favorite photographs. It's as simple as snap, upload, and order!

Let's say you're planning a wedding, upload your engagement photos, and use the stamps to send out the save the dates. Prices vary, but on average, it costs around $20 per sheet, with 20 stamps on each sheet. And since it's all in the details, you can also choose the stamp's color and layout. We made a few with our favorite Instagram photos and are convinced this is the extra something special-occasion mail needs.

Gamefly has been my personal go-to source for game rentals by mail for a while now, but Blockbuster is attempting to woo some of Gamefly's customers by adding video games to its online rental service. Over 3,000 titles for your Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii consoles are available for rent at no extra charge with your Blockbuster by Mail subscription, while new customers can start renting games by mail for as little as $9 a month (along with access to the rest of Blockbuster's 95,000 film library) with an unlimited amount of titles in rotation.

Blockbuster has already been trying to compete with Netflix in the movie by mail rental market, but now with Netflix's new streaming partnerships, it seems that Blockbuster will need to attack from all angles to keep up.

With all the digital mail you send and receive on a daily basis, wouldn't it be nice to find an actual piece of paper mail in your inbox every now and again? This website, called Letterfu, makes it super easy to send letters, even without the help of an envelope. I'm all about reducing waste, and Letterfu helps my cause by printing a colorful address label on one side of a sheet of paper, while I write my note on the other. Follow the folding instructions, and voila! You have yourself a single-sheet envelope and letter to mail to friends and loved ones. Just affix a stamp, and that baby is on its way.

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If you're into sending a bit of snail mail every once in awhile, then check out MapEnvelope and toss those boring plain white envelopes aside. MapEnvelope allows you to print out a custom DIY envelope that's adorned on the inside with a map of your location (or anywhere Google Maps can go), along with a message to your recipient. Just cut it out, glue, and you're ready to stuff with a letter to your far off love. Me? I wish you were here.

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If I could pick up Google and give it a hug, I would, because as a token of their appreciation to all of their fans, the company is offering to mail a free holiday postcard to anyone in the U.S.. . . just for you. The Internet giant understands that not everyone is up with the techie times and there are those who still enjoy receiving cards via the old traditional snail mail method.

To get your card, just go to gmail.com/holidaycard, fill out the appropriate fields and Gmail will take care of the mailing and stamping part. Choose from designs including M-venlope in snow, Mittens, Rudolph, Snowflakes and Comic. Supplies are limited, so be sure to send one before they run out!

First, free Gmail Stickers and now free cards? I love you Google!

I love the idea of sitting down and writing a long letter with a fancy ballpoint pen, putting it in an envelope, and sending it off to its recipient. But the reality is, I type a heck of a lot faster than I can write (and by write, I mean making it lovely and legible), so I prefer to email because it's faster, easier, and I don't have to deal with white-out when I make mistakes.

If you want to write and mail off a note to someone, but you enjoy the simplicity of typing on a computer and clicking send without having to get out the stamps and envelopes, a website called SnailMailr makes it easy to send snail mail online.

This neat site, which I came across on makeuseof, provides all of the fields for you to fill in (like address, letter section, etc.) and it will print and send your letter to any US address for $1. More than four pages? You'll only need to pay an additional $0.10 per page.

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Poor snail mail. Since the advent of email, the free and convenient alternative, the amount of paper mail has obviously declined — and it's only getting worse for the postal service.

The Washington Post reports that the USPS is being forced to remove collection boxes around the country.

Last time I asked, over 30 percent of you sent more than 30 emails a day, and even postcard services have gone online.

But my high use of email makes me treasure paper snail mail even more — I thrill at the sight of cards (but not bills) in my mailbox, and embrace every opportunity to send paper invites. Still, I probably only send "real mail" once or twice a month.

How often are you sending snail mail?