Small business email address

[Saratoga_Mike]

I'm in the process of launching a small business. In a few months, I will be hiring an IT consultant to help me with a website, systems set-up, etc. In the interim, I'd like to start to use a custom business email address. Currently I have just a Yahoo! account, and I don't want to send out or have to give out my personal email address to business partners. What's the best way to set up a personalized business email address (i.e., so the email reads something like "mike@nameofmybusiness.com")? Again, I just need this as an interim solution, for a few months, until I get my office set up and work with an IT professional on the matter. Thanks.

[chickenhead]

you'll probably get other advice, but one option I am a huge fan of is Google Apps for Small business, which includes email hosting using whatever domain name you want (and own, of course), as well as many other useful productivity tools.

See http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

[wilderness]

I would ONLY suggest using any temporary or FREE email providers during this interim and ONLY of they offer email forwarding at later date. (Note some free email services charge fees for add-ons).

Later on, and with forwarding you could simply forward the email to an email or email-form on your yet to be created website. Eventually shedding the interim email entirely.

[JustRalph]

buy a domain name that you want to use.....

In fact, if you are smart, contact that I.T. guy now (dig deep into these guys, only hire those with very good history etc.....ask other busin. owners) and discuss what may be in the future. Any I.T. guy with hair on his b@lls will be able to handle this process for you very quickly and cheaply. It's a no brainer. But I recommend you let them do it with an eye toward the future work you two are going to be doing together. It can make a difference.

The flip side of the coin is you can buy a domain at one of many places online and own it in ten minutes. Most of the big places will offer you a package for email to go with the site for a fee.

So, You buy www.saratogamikesladiesofthenight.com and many of the same places you just bought your domain name from will also give you 25 email addresses to go with it all going to an address of your choosing like:
whatevername@saratogamikesladiesofthenight.com , for a fee of course.

When you do finally get ready for launch and hire the I.T. guy he can move those email addresses for you, to whatever server you want etc. If you do this right and buy from the right people. Make sure you know that you can move them later. Sometimes you can't. That's why I recommend an I.T. guy to start out with. But if you are sharp and can read through the muck of these agreements you can do it yourself.

One thing, make sure you plan way out in front and give that I.T guy plenty of time to plan before launch.

This is who I use. check out their front page it even offers a domain and email for 12 bucks a month. A temp site etc for now would work.

http://www.register.com/

also look at this page

http://www.register.com/product/businessemailsolutions.rcmx

This place is a little more pricey than many, but there is a reason. There are places on the web that will sell you a domain and when you get right down to it, in the agreement they may actually have some residual rights to your domain and there have been lawsuits over some of these things. I would recommend you read the agreements very closely. There is a very famous race car driver gal who works for one of those troublesome sites.......... :lol: btw, don't buy all the extra's they offer when you check out. Let your I.T. guy decide what you need, based on your business needs. He can always add things later.

As a host, I use these guys www.squarespace.com and love them. I fired my old hosting company after 5 years or more.......and moved to these guys

Good luck........

[CBedo]

As annoying as the ads are, Go Daddy's service and pricing are top notch (think it's like 12 bucks a year for a domain and a couple bucks a month for email).

The only issue I had with them in the past had to do with subdomains, and it wasn't a financial issue, just some confusion in the setup (they straightened it out quickly).

[Saratoga_Mike]

Thank you to everyone for the answers. I went with networksolutions for the email address. I already had a domain name with them, so I thought that would be the easiest thing to do for a non-technophile like myself. It's probably too early to make this judgement, given I've only had their email service for less than a day, but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't get much capacity and it's slow and cumbersome.

[JPinMaryland]

excellent post from Ralph. I seriously dislike network solutions, not based on experience, just dont like how they came into being.

Ralph you have me sold on the registrar you recommend, the host looks a little pricey at $12/month are decent hosts available at lower cost? thx.

[bigmack]

It's probably too early to make this judgement, given I've only had their email service for less than a day, but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't get much capacity and it's slow and cumbersome.i
You can scoot it over to outlook or http://www.mail2web.com/

[Saratoga_Mike]

i
You can scoot it over to outlook or http://www.mail2web.com/

Is this website affliated with networksolutions? If not, how does it recognize my password to log into my email? Thanks.

[JustRalph]

excellent post from Ralph. I seriously dislike network solutions, not based on experience, just dont like how they came into being.

Ralph you have me sold on the registrar you recommend, the host looks a little pricey at $12/month are decent hosts available at lower cost? thx.

I used to use these guys

http://www.kwsonline.com/soho.htm

they are cheaper, but it's nothing but the basics.........fyi

[wilderness]

Is this website affliated with networksolutions? If not, how does it recognize my password to log into my email? Thanks.


First, I'm without any knowledge of affiliation between the two.

Second,
Many servers offer access via "POP", to their mail servers.
One only needs an email software (Outlook Express has been free on Windows for years), to both send and receive email from one point (OE or similar software) and without visiting a website.

Some free email providers, offer POP access within their FREE service, while others only offer POP via premium services.

I've had as many as ten different emails functioning simultaneously on multiple servers (hosts), with all sending and receiving accomplished via Outlook Express.

The following provided courtesy of MS.
How to Set Up Outlook Express (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/oe/setup.mspx#E6D), none of which requires the use of a web browser.

[CBedo]

If you're going to access your email from a third party program (highly recommended), then do yourself a favor and check out Thunderbird instead of Outlook. The user experience and customization options are top notch (from Mozilla, makers of Firefox).

[wilderness]

There are MULTITUDES of hosts and hosting packages available.

"shared hosting" (http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=%22shared+hosting%22&aq=f&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=%22shared+hosting%22&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=499faa430ac3503f) provides more than 10-million results.

"Reliable" hosting these days (hard drive costs (reduced) and capacities (Increased) have progressed in recent years) may be found (absent of any real support) for between $3-$5 monthly, and with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth (these terms are easily abused by both hosts and customers; read the fine print). Most require payment of a year or two in advance for the lower pricing (sometimes hard to swallow for a vendor a webmaster doesn't have any previous dealings with).
Most of these hosts (under these lesser prices) offer a full shelf of FREE add-on via their control panel (CP).


I would suggest CAUTION to anybody in accepting a free-domain-name registration as part of a hosting package. In the instances, the hosts actually owns the domain name.

Register the domain name on your own and then select a host later. This option allows you to move that domain hosting at any time you may desire, as opposed to having your domain name under another's control.

Some feel the need for hi-tech support and heavy-duty telephone support and are willing to pay premium and unnecessary dollars to many hosts.

[wilderness]

If you're going to access your email from a third party program (highly recommended), then do yourself a favor and check out Thunderbird instead of Outlook. The user experience and customization options are top notch (from Mozilla, makers of Firefox).

I agree and almost entirely ;)
Although I loaded up Thunderbird for about five minutes and removed it.

OE offers some very simple and quite restrictive filtering options.
It's my understanding that Thunderbird (and other email softwares) allow filtering on IP ranges and other filter options.

I use a pre-header checker for all me email prior to OE. Most people won't wish to jump through this many hoops, however and at one point and between two websites, I was getting approximately 250 spams per day. Over time and via submission forms I eliminated the spam and those email addresses.