Never change your E-Mail address again
Has this ever happened to you? Two years ago you signed up for internet access with Comcast, and you set up your email address as you@comcast.net. You let all your friends, family and colleagues know what your new email address is, and everything is fine.
But now, you just switched from Comcast to AT&T’s new U-Verse service. Now you have to let all of those people know that your you@comcast.net address no longer works, and that your new address is you@sbcglobal.net. Plus there are all those web sites and newsgroups that you get email from. You could spend a couple hours just letting everyone know that your email address has changed.
You could get up a free email address with Gmail or Yahoo and that might be fine for some people, but honestly, it doesn’t look very professional for your business contacts.
If your name is Steve Morse, and you are an Accountant, an email address like Steve@MorseAccounting.com looks much better than SMorse4895@Yahoo.com doesn’t it? Even if Morse Accounting is currently operating out of your spare bedroom. You don’t even have to be a professional to see the advantage of having your own email domain. If you are a stay at home mom, you could have a family domain like MorseFamily.com, with an email address of Angie@MorseFamily.com. Then you could give everyone else in your family their own name@morsefamily.com.
Most people think you have to have a big, professional web site in order to get mail at your own .com email address. That is not the case. Registering your own domain name takes about five minutes and costs about $10.00 per year to register. You don’t even need a web site! You can just register your chosen domain name with GoDaddy.com, enter your credit card number, and you are done. That is your only cost to set this up. If you register at 1and1.com they will even throw in a free, simple web site for about the same price. The free site would work just fine as a family web site to post your family photos and keep distant family members up to date on what is going on with your family.
Once you have your domain name registered, we could have your custom email address set up in under an hour, and you would send and receive email the same way you always have. Once Steve and Angie have their email addresses set up, they can change from Comcast to AT&T, or even move across the country and their email addresses will never have to change.
There are more benefits to having your own domain name other than never having to change your email address. It also makes you look more professional, gives you the ability to add new email addresses at will, and enables you to check your email from anywhere.
If you are at home or at work, you can check your email with Outlook or Outlook Express, and if you are traveling you can check your email from your laptop, or online from a public computer. You can even check this new email address from you iPhone or BlackBerry.
For the convenience, portability and added professionalism, you owe it to yourself to invest an hour in setting up your own .com email domain.