Why is it important to use a domain email address?
Before we explain why it is important to have a domain email address, let’s look at a case scenario. Imagine you are meeting a prospective client about a new business development project. The meeting goes fantastic and you realize you are about to close the deal with this client. The client asks you for your email address so he can send you the deal-closing contract.
- “Sure, it's johnsmith@yahoo.com”
- “Sure, it's johnsmith@jsmithcompany.com”
While both are valid email addresses, they elicit completely different responses. When you are tying to project a professional, serious image of yourself and/or your company, a Yahoo.com just doesn’t cut it.
A custom domain email address might not land you the job, but it doesn’t cause clients to lose confidence in you.
In other words, a domain email address gives you the extra credibility and trustworthiness that a Yahoo.com (or Gmail.com, etc.) email address fails to deliver.
What should go before the @?
When creating a domain email address, think of it the same way you would when creating a new website. You can use your first name, your last name, some combination of the two, generic words like “owner” or “support”, nicknames like “theboss”, or any other name you can think of.
If you want to be safe, go with your first name, last name or a combination of the two. Also, try not to use a nickname – it can be frustrating for your recipients to figure out who you really are and often people would not take you seriously. For example, wildprincess@yourdomain.com might have seemed like a good idea and it might work for your friends who get the joke, but for someone who doesn’t know you, it just doesn’t look professional.
Some people like to use a combination of words and numbers. For example, johnsmith123@johnsmith.com. While this is perfectly fine, it is undeniable that johnsmith@johnsmith.com looks neater. Neatness is a professional quality, too.
In other words, you should avoid using words (or numbers) that make you look unprofessional. When people see your email address, they should be able to associate it with you, preferably the professional-side of you.
Are domain email addresses case sensitive?
Yes, domain email addresses are case sensitive.
Every email address has three parts: the mailbox (the part the comes before the “@”), the “@” itself and the domain name (the part the follows the “@”).
The domain name part of an email address is case insensitive. For example, JSmith@YourDomain.com is the same as JSmith@YOURDOMAIN.com.
However, the mailbox part is case sensitive. For example, JSmith@YourDomain.com is different from jSmiTH@YourDomain.com.
To rule out any confusion and to minimize the risk of delivery failures due to case differences, you should always use lower case characters when create a new domain email address.
Are domain email addresses portable?
You might wonder since you can get a free email address from your ISP (Internet service provider) or from an email service provider like Gmail or Yahoo, why bother creating a domain email address.
A domain email address gives your advantages over a free email address, one of portability. You can change your hosting provider anytime you want without losing your domain email address. This is something you can’t do with Gmail, Yahoo or any of the free or ISP-provided email services. For example, if you want to switch from Gmail to Yahoo, you cant simply bring your @Gmail.com email address to Yahoo – you will need to signup for a new @Yahoo.com email address.
Email portability is possible because you own your domain name. Free emails typically fall under the control of the email service providers – if they shout down their service, your email messages will be gone from their servers. This creates a problem, especially if email is a key component of your business. By creating a domain email address with your own domain name, you take full ownership and control of your inbox at all times.
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