If you work for a company and have a company email account, then
you should only use this for company business. Your employer will
probably have an email policy (you should check) that will lay out
the do's and don't of this account. In any event, avoid using this
for personal business. Most company policies claim ownership of the
account and you may have no right of privacy (Human Resources policies
vary, but you should assume the worse). Of course, if you are a contractor,
or change jobs frequently, then you will eventually lose this account.
The ISP Account
Most people end up sticking with the email account supplied by their
Internet Service Provider (ISP). So you might have an account called
or .
Using this account as your main email address isn't a bad idea, unless
you plan to change service provider, in which case, you can wave your
mailbox and address goodbye.
The Free Email Account
There are now a number of good, free email accounts out there. Examples include Google's Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL's Aim and many more. They all provide a reliable service together with plenty of space, spam filtering and the ability to access their accounts via a web interface or an email client such as Outlook Express. One big advantage they all have is that they are not tied to an ISP.
Using Your Domain Name
I was working with a small business owner in New York who ran into problems with her ISP. Jenny runs
a successful event planning business and acquires most of her leads
via her website and ultimately email. Now despite having her own
domain name (the part of the address after the @ symbol) Jenny, at the time, only used her ISP account
on all her promotions. So when her ISP inadvertently cancelled her
account (an unfortunate mistake) her mailbox and address disappeared
along with her marketing dollars spent on promoting her email address.
Despite owning a domain name, many business owners fail to associate
their email address with that name. I see this mistake all the time
on both sides of the pond. Scan the ads in your local business pages
and see for yourself. How many email addresses can you spot that end
in @yahoo.com or @some-isp.com?
You'll be surprised! If you wish to promote a credible online presence
then you need to associate your email address with your domain name.
The two are intimately linked with one another. You should then include
your domain name and the associated email address on all of your promotional
material and business correspondence. It is also good email etiquette
to include this information as part of your email signature. For more
on email etiquette, download
the Tetsou whitepaper - 7 Deadly Sins of Email.
Using Your Hosting Account
If you have a domain name linked to a hosting account - that is,
you have a website - then you should use this as your primary email
account. So your website would be www.yourwebsite.com
and all your email addresses would be .
The advantage is that while your email account stays with your hosting
provider, your email address stays with your domain name. Should you
have to change your hosting provider, you simply point your existing
domain name to the new host. Your email addresses stay the same thus
protecting your marketing dollars and any promotional material associated
with them. If you wish to simplify things further, you can forward
all email to a single email account. This could be one of the free
accounts mentioned above, as this will be independent of either your
ISP or your hosting provider.
Don't Have A Website?
Now here's the thing. Even if you don't have a website, you can still register a domain name. It's cheap and simple to do online and only takes a few minutes. If you have a business - not just an online business - you should always try to register a name that is associated with your business name: yourbizname.com or yourbizname.co.uk to protect your brand. I always recommend both types of domain for a business if possible.
Most registrars provide you with 'control panels' to manage your
accounts including the ability to forward any mail directed at a particular
domain name (you'll need to check that your domain registrar provides
email forwarding as products vary). But, please take note: being able
to forward email, is not the same as being able to store and retrieve
email. For this you still need some form of mailbox on a server and
client software to retrieve the email. This is not a problem as you
can forward mail to one of the free email services, such as Yahoo
Mail or Gmail.
Keeping Things Simple
Even if you don't use all your accounts, you need to check them periodically.
You can do this in one of two ways: forward all email from these accounts
to a single, primary account, or use a single account to access all
other accounts. My preference is to forward multiple email accounts
to a single account and sort them accordingly.
Summary
Don't use your work email for private use. It may not be private.
Choose an email account independent of your ISP. A free email account from
one of the big providers is a good bet.
If you’re in business or operate as an independent contractor establish
a domain name and use this as your primary email address. Owning
a domain name gives you the ultimate portable address and protects
your marketing dollars.
If you have a website, ensure your email addresses and accounts are linked
to the same domain name. It will enhance your credibility and promote your
brand.
