In a previous post, I talked about “Personal Branding and Securing Your Space in the Online Arena”, and today (and in this podcast) I want to talk about “Emails and Getting a Custom Email Account”.   I can’t overemphasize the importance of having a custom email account.  And by “Custom Email Account”, I mean something that’s similar to “you@yourdomain.com”.

One of the biggest things that screams “unprofessional” when I encounter a business owner is someone with a Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, or Gmail, or any other “free” account.  Even if you pay for an email account and it ends in “comcast.net” or “bellsouth.net” or “att.net” or “verizon.com” or whatever, it still says to me “this person is small time”, and more importantly, this person isn’t really serious about their business, because they’re still conducting it on a free or non-customized email account. 

One of the reasons I think this is because I know how cheap a customized email account is.  You can get one for less than $10/year, and I’m going to tell you how.

In a previous post, I talked about purchasing a domain from GoDaddy, and one of the reasons I recommend this is because when you purchase a domain from GoDaddy, it comes with a free email account!  This is also one of the reasons that I tell people NOT to add extras to their shopping cart when they purchase their domains, because a lot of the stuff you either don’t need at the time or you just don’t need altogether.

The great thing about doing this is that you don’t have to incur another expense since you’ve already paid for this email address when you purchased your domain through GoDaddy.

Another great thing about having a GoDaddy email account is that if you truly LOVE your Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail account, you can send copies of the emails you receive on your GoDaddy email to that email account, and you can usually set up your free account so that you can respond to emails from it, using your custom GoDaddy email address.  So, from the perspective of the person who sent you an email and receives your response, it will always look professional, because it will all come from your custom email account.

So to summarize: If your name or your company’s name is available as a domain name: BUY IT! (along with any extensions that you can afford) and when you do buy it, buy it from GoDaddy because it comes with a free email account.

By the way, since we’re not spending any money on setting up this custom email address, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34.

Check out this YouTube tutorial showing you how to set up your Custom GoDaddy Email Account after you’ve purchased your domain:

Don’t forget to check out the other YouTube videos that have already been uploaded to my Youtube Channel which can be found at YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.  Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that’s 615-592-6687).

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)

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