Buy a Domain for Email or at Least a Gmail Account

February 29, 2008 · Comments

mailbox Several friends of mine recently left their job all at once (the company had a mass layoff). I checked in LinkedIN, and it looks like I’m now missing a way to directly contact at least 70 of them, because they used their business email address as their primary point of contact. My goal in writing this is to get you to consider one of two options: either buy a domain to use as your email address, or at least get a gmail account.

Why NOT to use your ISP’s email address

Say you make your home email address your primary point of contact. If your home address is yourname@comcast.net, what happens when you shift from Comcast to Verizon? You’ve just lost a bunch of folks who only knew how to reach you the other way.

Why NOT to use your business’s email address

Times change. People move. That’s one reason, but the other is this: sometimes, your company doesn’t want your company being represented by the places you visit and use that email. For example, we had a CTO who pointed out that anyone in our company contributing to security forums online using their work email address would be terminated. Why? Because every time someone from my company’s security team asked a question on such a forum, it signaled to hackers (who read the same forums) our company’s vulnerabilities.

Buying a Domain for email is easy

There are plenty of providers. I use 1&1, though I don’t give them the highest marks. Lots of people use GoDaddy, and if you use them, check around with your favorite podcasters, because some have deals with GoDaddy that save you money and give the podcaster a few bucks, too. The cost for a domain, especially if all you’re going to use it for is email, is around $6US a year right now (yes, you can find cheaper, or more costly).

Or Gmail

I recommend gmail because it’s easy. It’s web-based. It’s flexible. You can use it with a mail application on your desktop, with a BlackBerry, and in lots of other ways. It has powerful search, and is widely accepted as a good import gateway for most social networking sites, meaning you can make your friends portable.

Equipping YOU

The basic idea, in case I wasn’t clear, is that by making an email presence that points directly to YOU, people will know how to reach you, no matter what the circumstances of your employment or your choice of ISP on a given day. It’s about maintaining connectivity.

What do you think?

Photo credit, Joe Shiabotnik

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  • This is exactly what I did recently. I got a domain name specially for email and I'm forwarding it to my Gmail. It was mostly so I could get an easier to remember address, but also if Gmail ever goes down (hey, you never know...) I'm covered.
  • We at the Wrestling Mayhem Show happen to have one of those podcasting hosting magical deals. Anyone interested let me know at 8bit.hero37 at gmaildot com. Ill see what we can do for you
  • I agree 100%. It took me a while but I finally got most of my family to switch from using their ISP email to Gmail. The trigger that finally caused it was this: my mother moved in with my grandparents so she signed them up with cable internet. My grandparents were using their dial-up ISP email address and I had to explain that they couldn't use that anymore.

    So I set them up with outlook looking exactly the same but now with a Gmail account. Soon my grandparents discovered they could check their email at mail.google.com and fell in love with the interface. I had to teach my grandpa how to use outlook and it took a while; but he picked up the Gmail web interface without any help. Now they even use Gmail chat!

    Then my mother saw how much better it was and realized that if we stopped using our ISP she'd be stuck in the same situation so she switched to Gmail. And now the world is a better place :)

    I don't really recommend people use their own domain only because it's one more thing to worry about; Gmail just works.
  • There is another reason to use gmail: you can hook it up with pop3, access it from mobil and with impa, it has an unintrusive interface - i would say therefor it is also accepted as a 'normal mail address'.

    Where in comparison hotmail and co is like stating your myspace page is your homepage. ;)
  • I meant to say that Nico inspired this post. So there. He caught me.
  • I agree 100%. In fact, I just had personal business cards made for social networking events and this post is one of the reasons. The new biz cards will have my personal email info so I don't lose contact with people if times change.
  • @Nicole - I agree with all your points. You're right about hotmail and myspace. Weird how that changed, eh?
  • Just a little note to those with 1and1 web hosting services, if you are planning on canceling them, transfer your domains to another provider first. You can't edit them at all once you cancel your package (that the domains were ADDITIONS to). I didn't do this, and now I have no control over my domains (thankfully my main one is through another provider, though). I can't transfer them, change DNS settings, oh, and 1and1 was good enough to REMOVE the private registration on them. Thanks 1and1.

    So, if you have web service, BE SURE to transfer the domains before cancelling your service. :)
  • With Gmail you can set your own email domain address to sit on top of it - in fact you can set several email domains on top of it. It means you can manage your various business/ personal identities in one place via webmail access if required - very important if you have a portfolio career with different business email addresses.
  • I've been recommended Google Apps to people (http://google.com/a). You get a lot of nice things out of it:

    - a you@yourdomain.com Gmail account
    - a you@yourdomain.com Jabber account
    - Google docs
    - Google calendar
    - limited Web hosting

    It's totally free, and you can actually hook it up to existing domains you own after twiddling with DNS.
  • I had that exact problem when I left my last job.

    I gave out that address too frequently as it was so simple (marie@...) but now that I'm gone I wonder how many people are looking for me.

    With the way we change careers more often than we change socks, having our own domains or handing out the gmail accounts just makes sense.
  • Totally agree, I have been using a Bigfoot forwarding address since 1997 and people I have not spoken to for 10 years can still get in touch with me on the same address. It is only recently that I have started actually giving out my GMail address and that's mostly because the levels of spam on the Bigfoot account take it past the free daily usage allowance. I will probably transition to a custom domain soon.
  • Hey Chris and everyone - great ideas and it sounds like I have a few more things to consider around establishing a personal domain. I did one thing right when I started working from my home office - opted for a gmail account!

    The other thing I did was get a phone number from Skype along with voice mail. This is turning out to be very handy since that number appears on my business cards. Now that we are moving across the state, at least gmail and the phone will make the trip with no interruptions. If only the rest would be that easy!
  • After suffering through the ownership changes of major ISP's, Media One, AT&T, Comcast during a job search I learned first hand how much sense this advise makes.

    I bought my own domain name.

    Think about it. A year ago, who what have thought that there could possibly be a change regarding Yahoo. Not saying there will be, but even the most solid looking things do change.

    I use a Google account for storage of file backups that are emailed to me each week. The email is forwarded to my day-to-day email account so that I see that it succeeded. Then I just delete it from my day-to-day account, leaving the first email w/ the b/u sitting in the Google account.

    On a separate note, Google has some of the best email spam protection.

    I have just preferred to advertise my own business with every email that I send, rather than someone else's business. Fundamental marketing. Now they offer the domain masking.

    Some day, I may go all Google, especially as my desire to go more mobile intensifies.

    I guess as a former sys admin, I will have to get over the desire to have my mail stored locally, where is it "safe" - well sort of.

    There are not a lot of arguments against GMail that hold much water. I guess the privacy concerns or ads are personal, rather than technical reasons.
  • Jim - You can store your gmail locally. I do it all the time. I configure a pop3 client on Thunderbird, let it suck up all my archived messages, and then zip the archive on my local disk and distribute it here and there.

    There's my multi-email backup plan.
  • Hello, I registered my domain (akinamarina.com) all email forwarding to my Gmail address, but it's not working. I sent mail both from Yahoo and Gmail but to no avail, the emails bounced. According to your own help material, if Dynadot Parking is used, email forwarding should work. I also queried the MX record for my domain but none was registered. Good Domain
  • Tim Chemacki
    Yes! Yes! Yes! I've been trying to spread this message as well, for two reasons - the first you mentioned. The other is a lesson I learned by using an ISP-provided email address for a web site login a number of years ago. Of course I forgot to change the email address in that account before I changed ISPs and was then unable to recover my forgotten password months later when I tried to login.
  • I'm firmly in the "do both" camp.

    I have my own domain(s) for identity/reputation purposes.

    They forward to GMail because it's the best solution I've found for all-round usability.

    The other way round - all mail is sent through Gmail, but goes out with my domain on it. (GMail has a great "send as").

    And anyone smart enough to work out that I'm using GMail for a domain probably knows how good a solution it is :-)
  • Good point. It's one of the reasons why I've been a member of Plaxo for so many years. It has always kept me and those contacts of mine that also use plaxo in sync whenever we change our contact information. The problem is that most people don't use plaxo, yet. I think google will be offering a similar address book auto sync feature soon. Everything will be centered around your OpenID and OpenSocial profile which updates your contact info with all your contacts. When will this happen? Maybe when the gPhone appears and monkeys fly out of my ... well, you know.
    I know it will happen just don't know when.
  • Ian
    I've been using DirectNIC for my domains for a long time. Even though there are now cheaper options, I choose to stay with them for familiarity and ease of use.

    However, the most important reason I haven't switched providers is because they are based in New Orleans. Therefore, every time I spend $15 on a domain, I know i'm contributing something to the rebuilding effort.
  • A while back I started using Google's Business services (well, the free ones anyway!) Now anytime I start up a new domain for myself or someone I know, here's the process I go through:
    1. I register at GoDaddy (inexpensive, all domains in one account, etc.)
    2. I prefer having a separate DNS provider from my domain host (and I prefer separating my registrar for the same reason: distribute the services so a single point of failure doesn't completely kill you off. Not that one couldn't ;) )

    Started using EveryDNS a long time ago, and with very minimal outage, they have been great. Key with them is to make the donation and gain control of your TTL. This allows me to get domains up and running from registration to live in minutes, not hours or days.

    3. Like you Chris, I use 1&1, but not for registration or DNS. I rent a complete box from them and run all my sites on that hosted box. Clearly, this will be outside the scope for most people, but if you're at this level, it's the best way to go (IMO). Once the domain is set up with a website directory, I have the live site accessible.

    4. Now I head over to Google and sign up for their business services. Oh, forgot to mention that when I set up the DNS records I just pump out all of the Google business service records as well, for that new domain. So by the time I get to the Google set up, DNS has propagated.

    From that point, I now have most of the yummy goodness that gmail users have with that new domain, and am able to access my mail anywhere by hitting http://mail.newDomain.com.

    Really works out nicely, actually. I'd be happy to help anyone that really wanted to learn more about this process (and needs the help!) Drop me a line.
  • Jez
    lot of google love here! @James @Mark @Jim @Josh @Yang @Ben @Nico.. and now me!! All of us using gmail or google apps for your domain to manage your online identity!

    Had mine set up for some time, and its pretty important to go and register your identity, be it .com .co.uk .info or name, quick. In fact if you haven't go and DO IT RIGHT NOW!

    I have been waiting for GAFYD to set up Jot and also blogspot for some time, so I can go and manage everything in one spot! I want a homepage.. a blog .. a public calendar.. and my public photos all stored at one place. My friends and family know thats me.. and it always will be!

    So Google did jot the other day but it still needs some blog love! I know its getting tested, as the recent author of 'The Google Apps Administrators Guide' has been testing it for over a year now..

    come on google!!
  • I've used email addresses at domains I purchased for at least a decade. Until about a year ago, I checked them in Outlook, but now I just forward them all to a single Gmail account. I don't really use the Gmail address itself very much, but it's more convenient than Outlook ever was.
  • I completely agree with this post, Chris! To be honest, it surprises me that there are people who would only have a work email address without a personal one, even if it is an ISP.

    What I like to do is give out my personal Gmail address to people at work after I leave a job so they can continue to get in touch with me--but only after, mostly. Why? Because due to auto-fill, if people have my Gmail I start getting work email in my personal Gmail account. :-)

    I would also agree with what many other commenters already said here, which is to route a domain email address through Gmail--Gmail is like cheese, it just makes everything better! I've become so used to the interface and logic of Gmail that I can't stand using anything else for email! I created a new Gmail account for work and route my work email through that. That way I also have separate Google docs, calendar and the like just for work.

    Google Apps really is a great solution for using Gmail/Google Accounts for work or a custom domain, also.
  • PG
    I had, and still have, patglennon.net for coming up on 8 years now I think. I have recently started giving out my gmail address instead though because my host had major issues a few times in recent months and my email was not getting to me.
  • Hey Chris,

    Splendid article - once again!

    I have my own domain (and many others). I also register my name/email address with all popular services JIC anyone ever looks for me somewhere. I should go through one day and see how many accounts I have scattered through cyberspace.

    I also create a few specific email accounts for specific purposes which help identify phishing attempts.

    While I do have gmail/yahoo/aol/aim/hotmail/etc accounts, I prefer my own domain based email b/c I rent a dedicated box for a server. This way I don't have to worry about third party TOS/Privacy/etc as I know who has access to what whenever.

    Along with this - I've registered several domains along the same lines as my name. I have .com, .net, .tv, and more and even a domain with my first name as it is commonly misspelled.
  • Just adding my second thoughts a bit late here :). I registered a domain at register.com because for some reason its who I use. I wanted to use a domain that no matter what would always get to me. Basically two steps for me and you don't really need someone to host the mail:

    1) register the domain at a registrar.
    2) use a custom DNS service that allows email forwarding like www.easydns.com. You simply create an MX record, change the DNS for your site on the registrar and wait a bit. By a bit, we are talking a few hours at the most.
    3) enter the address you wish to have email forwarded to so now when someone emails you at the address the DNS and MX mix at easydns.com grabs that email and sends it off to the so-called "mailmap" you wrote.

    I chose gmail and then I purchased more disk space. You could also find a hosting service that offers more like fastmail.fm or a real hosting company. I have a new deal with lunarpages.com that was gonna hold my mail; but it became too complex to have all those steps and stops.

    In the end, you want something that you can manage and have it adapt and adopt to your life style. Gmail may become bad. Easy to change.
  • i would like an email address Ali@mraffiq.com
  • venkat2009
    Buying Domain name With Email,Gmail Vey Usefule For me..I was Bought the Domain With Complete mail,Blog UsiNg the Domain name Registration site http://www.tucktail.com/
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