Email

[Tay B]

I don't really think it matters.  Everyone has email accounts these days and I don't ever think anything like....yahoo, oh that's a free email.  I think it's just so common and there are soooooo many email addresses I wouldn't think twice about what it was more than what it is.  even my 6 year old has her own email addy.  Myself, I use my yahoo account for lots of stuff but I have my professional account that is linked to my website.  If I'm filling out "work related" things, I'll use that email....otherwise, I use yahoo.  

 

[Mrs. Shana]

If you have a web site it does matter - no point having a great web site name and then not having people being able to email [email protected]  Using a common free account like yahoo/hotmail does look cheap and unprofessional.  If it is a more obscure free account, or your ISP account, it's not nearly as bad, but it is not exactly professional.  It's all about image.  WOuld you deal with a bank that had their website as http://www.thebank.com and their email address as [email protected]?  Or would [email protected] seem more professional.  It's called branding.If you do have and email address to match your website forwarding to some other email address, make sure you reply to people as the proper email address. If you don't want to look professioanl, use geocities to host the web site and a yahoo email address.

 

[Jim B]

Email

I have yahoo right now as my email. But at this point I don't have a website. When I do get one I will have an email attached to that site. The sites I have looked into getting come with email accounts. I am not sure that just having a yahoo email on your biz card without a website looks unprofessional. People don't care what you use as long as you reply in a timely manner.

 

[Shiloh]

Email

Well, I would say if you have a website...of course it matters.  If you have a website, it comes with it's own email addresses that you can set up.  No doubt that you would use this email address for any kind of work that you do through your business.  I was just thinking that if you didn't have a website...why the heck would it really matter what your email address was?  Would [email protected] really look all that much more professional than [email protected]?I don't really think it would and you'd really have to do a great job of convincing me that it would make a difference to anyone else.  Now, keep in mind that I did state that if you've got a website.....of course it would look much better to use that website's address as your email.  But I'm talking about if you didn't.  yahoo, hotmail, aol, twmi.rr.com, wideopenwest, ticon, earthlink, juno, att, whatever else is out there.....I say...who cares...they're all the same.   I don't even think I could tell you of the ones listed above which are free and which ones people actually pay for.  Of course I know that if it's their company, corporation or personal name...that they paid for it but as for the others. ?  

 

[Lee]

Email

IMO, attaching it to a website is best. Having a free account doesn't seem that far off to me. The thing that DOES annoy me with emails is one that is super long or one that is NOT professional. having something like [email protected] is probably not good for a business. I have two emails. One represents a philosophy of my life and the other is simply my name. something like [email protected] (that's totally made up) would annoy me. How would you even put that on a business card, let alone remember it when you got to the computer?!

 

[theoneandonlycharlotte]

[quote author=terab link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#4 date=12/07/04 at 22:31:25]If you have a website, it comes with it's own email addresses that you can set up.[/quote] Not all do - it's the difference between the $3 per month and the $5 per month accounts.  Also a lot of the cheaper hosting options have email forwarding for you to make it look like you have a prper email address, and then the following happens...[quote author=terab link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#4 date=12/07/04 at 22:31:25]آ No doubt that you would use this email address for any kind of work that you do through your business.[/quote]I mentioned it, because in my experience MANY small businesses don't do that - they have a website with matching email address on their website.  You email them and they reply from their ISP email address, usually because they have everything going into something like Outlook and they don't bother setting up the "From:" option.  You reply to their ISP account, you end up with multiple email addresses for the company.  They change ISP and suddenly they no longer reply to emails sent to their old ISP email address. [quote author=terab link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#4 date=12/07/04 at 22:31:25] آ I was just thinking that if you didn't have a website...why the heck would it really matter what your email address was?Would [email protected] really look all that much more professional than [email protected]?[/quote]To a lot of people with some corporate structure behind them, yes.  If you have no interest in targeting that market, it doesn't matter.  Personally, I find a lot of my clients do come from an income bracket allowing them more disposable income than most.  Many work in jobs where they do notice such things, and I'd rather not alienate them with some dinky email address.  It obviously doesn't matter to you, but I can assure you it does look unprofessional to some people.  Maybe not enough to make them immediately think they wouldn't be interested in your services, but a couple more unprofessional marks combined with a yahoo email address and it may be enough. They may not be 100% sure about a twmi.rr.com  email address, and it wouldn't be such a negative. If you don't want to include people that make judgement calls on email addresses amongst your clients, your email address makes no difference. And please note I said "some" and "a lot of", not EVERYONE thinks the same way.  Rather than dismiss anyone that doesn't think the same way, you need to make allowances if you don't want to alienate them, some of them may make very good regular clients if you managed to reach them.Sadiedawn, you are sooo right about [email protected]  and [email protected]  

 

[Artemisc]

I think we could go on forever on this topic and alienation. آ So, I won't bother. آ I do use my business account.  That's one of the reasons I spent a lot of time and energy finding the right webhost...I want people to know that I take my work very serious and that I am a professional in my business.  Although I will say that most of my clients come from the corporate world and the "upper class" and I'd venture to say that most of these clients are the last ones to judge something like that. آ I don't think that someone judging your email address has much to do with income bracket or their job status. Just my opinion. آ 

 

[McSween]

I agree and disagree.I use mostly [email protected].  I could use [email protected].  They are both free, and abmp hosts my website.  I know someone that uses bjsgrandma@aol for her business account.  She's paying for it, aol isn't free, right?  If people judge me by my email address and provider, than I'm not so sure I want those people on my table, as they won't judge fairly or appropriately there, either.  mick

 

[Trevino]

Email

[quote author=StressSolutions link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#9 date=12/08/04 at 03:45:46] If people judge me by my email address and provider, than I'm not so sure I want those people on my table, as they won't judge fairly or appropriately there, either. [/quote]I'm with Mick. I never for an instant believed that my Hotmail business e-mail address would be a detriment to my otherwise very professional image. I could have used the e-mail address that came with my website, but the process of getting into my provider's site in order to check my mail was just not convenient enough for me. Hotmail is convenient, and easy to check. I have a matching accout at Yahoo that I use to sign up for stuff on sites where I'm not sure if I'll get spammed or not.I truly believe that the clients' biggest concern is that they *can* contact you and that you respond in a timely manner and behave professionally. The address they use to contact you is incidental (blatantly unprofessional names being the obvious exception).One more thing -- I can see where if you were running a larger business you would be more concerned about "branding", but for those of us who are self-employed.... I just don't believe it's that big a deal.

 

[O r e o]

Email

[quote author=terab link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#4 date=12/07/04 at 22:31:25]Would [email protected] really look all that much more professional than [email protected]?[/quote]I'd say yes, but I'm also a computer geek. I somewhat look for things like that. I would also not really like @twmi.rr.com, knowing it's the free service from Road Runner. If I had 2 business cards, one from an MT that had "[email protected]" and one at "[email protected]", I'd have to say I would go for the "[email protected]" based on the professionalism of their e-mail address AND that they have a website. They went out of their way to get a superior email service to make sure my email got to them and to make sure spam, virii, trojans, etc. does not get sent back in response. Imagine walking into a seminar and the speaker hands you a card that has his email address "[email protected]". I'd already feel like I wasted my money, just on the first impression.It's like the old business card discussion with vistaprint.com's free bus cards. Would you really want the card to say "This card was printed free from vistaprint.com" on it?

 

[Harvey]

Actually Seforum.xxx...that account that I describe is totally not free...it's our cable connection here so it costs quite a bit more than a ton of other addresses.  (I don't ever actually use the account that the cable email provides but used it as a reference. although my parents use it and i can't stand it because I can never remember what it is...I would MUCH more prefer if they used hotmail or yahoo or something else)   I thought about the comarisson with the business card discussion too but I'm not sure I agree that it's the same.  But maybe that's just me.  Maybe we should remember too, just because it's yahoo doesn't neccessarily mean they don't pay for it.  "Mail Plus" actually costs $19.95 a year.  

 

[libratiger924]

Email

Actually Seforum.xxx...that account that I describe is totally not free...it's our cable connection here so it costs quite a bit more than a ton of other addresses.

I also use Road Runner. My other email address is a @gt.rr.com. Same with the AOL, etc. It's free if you get their service. I personally don't like telling people my email address is '@gt.rr.com' because it just seems too complicated. I prefer to tell them it's "[email protected]"[quote author=ZenCMT link=board=bus;num=1102470780;start=0#13 date=12/08/04 at 09:00:15]Yahoo has a business account for $35/yr that gives you a customize email that is just forwarded to your yahoo account.I would hate to think that people picked me by the email I use or vice versa.[/quote]I have about 3 different e-mail accounts all set up on Outlook. Nobody would know if the e-mail were forwarded. I'm just noting that if I had 2 business cards, one of them had "[email protected]" and one said "[email protected]", I would probably choose the "[email protected]" because it has a more professional feel. If I had never met either one of you in person but had the two cards, I'd have to say I would go with which ever one had the more professional look to it.

 

[Pooperdooper]

You know I didn't really have an opinion on this topic which was strong enough to post but an email I received today changed my mind.  I think overall, yes a customized email address may unconsciously seem more professional but I think the "screen name" part of the address is even more important.  I just got a resume for a job with an email address like [email protected] and sometimes even worse than that.  These addresses are free so open one like [email protected].  Cute names are great for email to grandma but not job hunting.  The simplier the better! Joe E.