Emails - Free Or Not So Free

I personally think it's more professional to have a domain email. It also, at least to me, gives the impression of stability and commitment to the enterprise. As if you aren't sure the business is going to make it, so you haven't yet invested in a domain name.

My opinion only, though....

I didn't think of it that way but yes, it may show hesitation.

I think domain names are highly important but again this is imo only

I think it looks more professional if a business has a domain email.

I agree, I have a hard time taking a yahoo or gmail email serious.

Unfortunately, yahoo now has such a bad name that many of us have banned anyone joining our sites with that domain at all. Shame but they seem to do nothing to combat their spammers

I agree with David.

I have a Gmail account and have had no issues. I see the points made against that, but it works for me for now.

it's personal choice. gmail doesn't seem to have the same stigma as yahoo because the latter has been abused so much, having been around longer. to be honest just because someone pays $2.99 to register a domain with email forwarding doesn't make them any more legitimate. JMHO.

if its personal stuff, then any box will do.

if your trying to make a name for yourself, if your running a company, if you want to appear professional, then you should have a real domain email. if you have your own webpage, they all have email abilities, i set mine up there.

if there is a person contacting me, trying to convince me they are real, and they have a fly by night gmail or yahoo account, then its a red flag. either they are fake, or they are clueless. and if i do a search for that address and it comes up to no where, then its bad.

the other reason a real address is better - without typing a link, people can find your page.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

One thing some may not know is, if you have pointed your domain to your premium account, you can still use the email on it. Just contact your domain host for details

I've never had any issues with gmail, but I don't use it for professional purposes either. I had a BUSINESS account with Yahoo (in the name of the business - not with a Yahoo ending through my work) and it got hacked. Sent spam to all my translators and a few clients. On the very rare occasion that I use that email address, I immediately delete the address I'm sending to so nothing is stored in there. I don't trust Yahoo mail any farther than I can throw it. And Abbie's right about spam. I get hardly any spam through Gmail, but Yahoo is ridiculous. Even if you keep shuffling things over to the "spam" folder, their software never learns what you consider spam. The only reason I still have that address is my ex-boss kept the business address for himself and didn't delete me. If he ever discontinues the account, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

I would love to have an address -- frankjcasella @ pixels.com !!

With that said here is my thread on the subject: http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1619133

I believe as artists we have the advantage to brand our name and for low cost or free. Many artists use a free email domain or one from their ISP ( ATT.net / Comcast.net, etc. ) and in fact Comcast here made a big business convincing business owners their email domain is for business use ... such at TedsRoofing @ comcast.net. I say YUK!!

Short of the long, the smart thing to do is have a public address and a private address. About a year ago I started using Mail.com .... they are one of the top ( five or ten I forget ) free email providers, however, they offer over 200 domains and offer unmistakeable professional email domains for free. We here might choose photographer.net or artlover.com Plus, their email platform is very secure and savvy. I think it really is the best of both worlds.

Once I am contacted via my public address I can decide to move the conversation to my private address .... this keeps spam off my private address among several other reasons.

Here is the link: http://www.mail.com/email/#.2068504-header-subnav1-11

Asking customers this question would be useful....after all, they are the one's buying.
I have 3 personal, 2 gmails and one professional......clients use all of them

Use your own domain.
Getting your own domain name something everyone should do immediately.
You want a permanent, portable web presence.
This is the front door and the storefront of your internet presence.
Spiffing it up with your own name or business name is important.

Don't develop youjr business and then discover that the obvious domain name is already taken, and then have to re-brand yourself in order to upgrade your internet identity.
I own GregScott.com.
If you can still get your own name, you're very, very lucky, and should do so IMMEDIATELY.

I've had both.

Currently, I have a domain and can be contacted through it and nobody sees my gmail email, mail is forwarded. My opinion is I really think buyers/clients/customers/ do not care if your email has a gmail extension as long as they can reach you.

Artists and Photogs are essentially sole -proprietors not big corporations, expectations are really not the same, imo. I do not see it as being 'less professional'. Call me cheap if you want but I saw no reason to pay a monthly fee to have a .com email again...at least for now...if not forever.

If you consider yourself a business you should absolutely use your own domain.

You can link it to you Gmail account and sent and receive as a different email through your gmail.

Gregory and Thomas -- I used to believe as you do ... I had frankjcasella.com and frankcasella.com and dumbped them both. I use about.me as my homepage and put the domain fees back into my pockets. If you have a business name then get a domain, but to brand yourself - your name - to me its a waste of money. I once had nine domain names.

Here is my thread on about.me that explains in further http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2144651

Domains are such a cheap way to brand yourself.......

Gmail is fantastic and offers such powerful free services within their platform that a personalized domain email will be hard to match ... My business cards and ads have my personalized domain, so customers know I have my own ,com domain. the "Gmail" email address doesn't hurt at all ... They are smart enough to realize the value of a Gmail account and the way it integrates fluidly into android'Apple phone/tablets.

Besides, the whole idea that "a domain name shows you are real" is soooo outdated. Any idiot can get a domain name and build a fairly professional looking one very easily. Just do what makes you comfortable. Gmail (Google/Adroid) is so integrated into my life that I prefer it. Customers want faster responses. they really don;t care how they get in touch with you.

also, the probhlem with forwarding your domain email (myname@mydomain,com) to a gmail account is that, sometimes, in the course of responding to emails, you sometimes forget to change the "Sender" account and the customer receives an email from the GMAIL account instead of the email they sent (sometimes that confused them or scares them). Plus, even if you change it, the email history/track always shows the gmail account address that the email originated from. To me, why confuse things? Just us ea GMAIL account. it is so ubiquitous and respected that people will not care.

I bought my name with .com, .net and .org a few months ago. Still don't know what to do with them. I think I'm the only Mary Bedy in the US, so none of them were taken. I can imagine it would be a problem if your name was John Smith.

That said, my email address runs thorough my son's domain so it doesn't have the "gmail" on the end. And I agree with Melissa - I work with a lot of subcontractors who have gmail and aol addresses. I know they run their own businesses, so it's not an issue for me, since I know they are professionals, but they work on their own.. For a corporation, yes, you should have your own domain in there.

Hugo if you integrate it as I have you get all the benefits of gmail, and it will only send as my .com domain.

Business you need to have your own domain name. When you use a Yahoo or gmaill or any of the others, you are at the mercy of those companies. They in fact own you email, you do not. If the drop the service (I have had this happen two times on me) you are scrambling all around and trying too get your email back out there where it should. In the mean time, all of the people that have you saved and you don't even know who they are, are lost for ever.

I would never use a @Pixel.com or @FrineArtAmerica.com.

I am trying to get people go to MY gallery, FASGallery.com where I am the only seller there, not Pixels or FineArtAmerican where I get lost among 300,000 sellers and 2 million images. @Pixels.com promotes Pixels, @FASGallery.com promotes FASGallery.com.

If you had a brick and mortar gallery, you would not give out the address to the lamp store next door to get your mail.

The fact that even idiots see the value of having their own domain, should be telling you something Hugo. lol

Floyd,

I have one of the domain name companies now for some addresses, but who says they will out last Yahoo?

My main business is done through SBCGlobal.net. There is no mix up with other FAA artists etc.

I just dont think this matters that much. If someone were to see bridburg@dave.com they might throw it out even
faster, just kidding. It would be seen as more junk or not more junk either way.

Remember if you are pushing your stuff most of it is seen as junk.

If someone emails you and you email back with your regular email, yahoo or gmail etc, then that is them pulling. It is a totally
different thing. No one pulling cares about that detail.

Dave

Having your own domain name is an important link in your credibility chain.

"sometimes, in the course of responding to emails, you sometimes forget to change the "Sender" account"

As Thomas mentioned, gmail keeps all that straight for you. I have several domains and run all email for each of them through my gmail account. The correct "from" address is used when I hit "reply."

Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

IMO, if any person has their own domain... personal site or business site, they should have an email address that follows that domain. I find it unprofessional not too. And, it annoys the hell out of me. Of course the emails from that email address would pertain to the site in question.

Having an email address for personal emails is fine... yahoo, gmail, aol, mail. com etc..

Technically, since I have my own domain... www.crystalwightman.com, my email is crystal@crystalwightman.com. That is purely a business/important email address.
I also have a yahoo email, which I've had for years (since I left AOL in the mid 2000s) and I have a gmail. All email addresses are for certain reasons.

Even if the underlying reasoning might be flawed, the bias IN FAVOR of having an email marked with a personal domain name is so widespread that a person would be well advised to have such a domain-name-linked email address.

If most people think that bananas are bad for you, then, from a business standpoint, you are best to avoid trying to sell your wares in association with bananas.

Mass bias rules, sometimes in the face of clear evidence that contradicts it. Business practices tend to follow the masses, therefore, because here dollars are more important than logic.

But with my current setup, with my domain pointing to my FAA artist website, I really do not have to worry about this, because the "contact" the artist link does not display a destination email address. The message gets directed to me out of view of the sender, just by their filling in the blanks and hitting "send".

Once somebody gets to my website, a message to me is pretty simple. I do not use an email address on my business card, therefore, ... just the web address, which leads to a clear "contact" link.

If you own dave.com and you have it registered with Yahoo and Yahoo goes away, you still own dave.com and bridburg@dave.com, you just have to register it with a different service.

If you own bridburg@JoesEmailService.com and JoesEmailService.com goes under, you no longer own bridburg@JoesEmailService.com because JoesEmailService.com no longer exists and ICANN will not put it back out there for I don't how long it is that it has to sit dormant.

Like I said, I want to own everything myself as much as possible. I do not believe in renting key business assets.

I have had a domain name for 7 years. I never used it for email. I use Gmail. The people I do business with are not going to be put off by it. It keeps things personal. People want to buy from an artist not a company. Personal domains can look pretentious.

If you have a Gmail account with something like JOHNJDOE@gmail that is going to imply some stability. More so then a business account. Businesses and cheap domains come and go. Gmail is stable.

My income is not all from photography. I am a musician and an environmental consultant. I consult as an individual and when I consult as a company I do use a domain. But my key contacts have my gmail address. I don't want to confuse them with multiple email accounts.


As far as what the masses think I would say most of the people I do direct business with would trust my gmail account more then a company account.

As for Gmail going defunk consider that I still recieve inquiries on my AOL account for photos I posted in 1997 on web galleries

My father helped his clients lose million dollar corporate deals using HISNAME@cs.com for decades. Yes he was an anachronism but his clients wanted his knowledge. I never had a personal email address go defunct except JUNO and I didn't have that account for very long. Now all the companies I worked for had email addresses that dead ended after a few years. Those addresses are worthless in the long run. I will consider the points made but I say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Yeah, Bradford M., ... with YOUR name in a gmail email address, this looks more personal.

It's when you have names like "flippy5@gmail.com" or "flowergirl@gmail.com" ... that it becomes hard to take somebody seriously.

When do we expect google to go out of business anytime soon, taking gmail down the tubes with it? -- maybe when Western civilization falls, but not a day before. (^_^)

Still you have the PROFESSIONALS telling us in their PROFESSIONAL blogs and internet articles to avoid free emails, lest we not be taken seriously. With all this bias, it gives strategies like yours a bad name, forcing compliance via mythology.

Thanks for your response Robert. I edited my post in the meantime. Agree an email address that is somewhat anonymous like flippy5 is going to look very unprofessional. I merely use a version of my name and my easy to remember 321 zipcode. I care not what the bloggers say. Maybe it is better. What I do works fine now.

Let's consider how much difference it is when we put our home phone numbers out there.
Surely, an 800 number or a business number with a nice solid look ( 123-2400) looks more professional.....

my business card has my cell and my website.
My website has "CONTACT" button links, no e mail addies.

Emails & domain names are tools. Like any tool, there are advantages and disadvantages to using either tool in different situations.

I'm not sure I understand why a business would necessarily have to choose between an email address and a domain name. It could have both, or neither, depending on its needs.

What is the context for the question ... is this for FAA, for your (Abbie's) art business, or for art businesses in general?

I discovered when I did shows it was the personal connection to the artist that people liked. Nothing says impersonal more than an 800 phone number. And extra charges for "long distance" is an anachronism. No need to use the 800 numbers. And once again an 800 number is not as stable. When I see a number for an artist like 123-2400 I just think they have a small contracting business on the side. Now for a brick and mortar gallery I can see it.

Just got off the phone with a very hyped guitar player often listed as a heavy metal legend. Gmail address and normal phone number. Yes he has all that other stuff. No one that knows him uses it.

I agree with Mike. And I think any business in this day and age that doesn't use the name of their company for e-mail doesn't look good. I use GMail and other domain names I own, but most of the time I want that chance that they will investigate the site in the e-mail and check out my photography.

bob@bobsphotography.com

Great, great example Marlene!! Until recently I've had a toll-free number for about twenty years. I just dumped it because nobody uses it anymore with cell phones that call worldwide without the need for a long distance connection as we had with land lines. I have just come to the opinion that technology is so advanced that the toll free number and custom domains for self branding - not for a business name - are old school. There is so much more we can do now low cost or for free.

Like Bradford just noted, I too see most of my established business contact me by my personal email and phone ... public is mostly the contact form on my websites, its just when I reply that they see my email address.

So, again, my public address to use as an example is frankjcasella@photographer.net and when I had a domain it was frank@frankjcasella.com. Now which does better branding of who I am and what I do? The first I hope you will say, and that is a free email from mail.com and is just like using an aol or gmail. I happen to pay for the premium service and that is so I can have more security and not lose the account .... however it is owned by 1and1.com which has pretty high ratings now for customer satisfaction and how it does business.

Sean recently said he was considering changing the domain for the artistwebsites ( or rather providing a forwarding address with a better name ) and I would be interested if that happens to see an email domain come with it. Unlike most here, it seems, I link people to pixels more than to my AW anyways.

Cheryl

It is just something that comes up often so I have brought it here for people to discuss

I have several Gmaill accounts but I do not use them for business. If I was going to use one of the freebies, Gmail is the one I would use.

Yahoo and AOL are the last two I would use. Too much Yahoo.com mail is identified as spam these days like Abbie mentioned about AOL and Comcast.

Domain names are now old fashioned? *Slaps forehead*

If you don't think your clients would mind if you have a yahoo email address instead of an email address from your own domain....then quite frankly you have the wrong clients.......

If you want to make money, market to money. If you want to market to money.....dot your T's, cross your I's, and act like a professional.

Just my opinion of course...stated rather strongly.

"If you don't think your clients would mind if you have a yahoo email address instead of an email address from your own domain....then quite frankly you have the wrong clients....... '

I provided a free option for a professional email domain. Branding today is about being on the top of the list when someone searches our art or our name. You know the cost of equipment and all to be in this business, and many, many here on FAA don't make the sales that you and I do, Thomas. Many here work on a shoe string budget and those are the people I'm speaking to .... those who don't have the confidence to comment here but not a week goes by when they send me an email to share that something I said spoke to them.

.... when you have a free option for a professional email domain then paying for a domain to 'brand' yourself in my opinion is just for vanity and ego.

"One thing some may not know is, if you have pointed your domain to your premium account, you can still use the email on it. Just contact your domain host for details"

Abbie, I did just that, and I was told that the email function is in the controls that the website host (i.e., AW) gave me. I'm taking that response to mean that they (the domain name host) can't provide email and that it's got to be done on the website hosting end. So I'm confused. Any other info you can provide?

If you want to work as a commercial artist like architects and sign companies and bronze casting foundries then there may be need for a "domain website".

Fine artists just need a simple email because they are not for hire.

Vic

When you put in the cname you had space for the email host. That should be the domain provider not us.

That host can be anyone but is linked to that domain.

If they are saying they do not do that then you are, what we Brits say, being short changed....ie they should.

I'm with fx domains and have iam @ isabellashores.com linked through them as the domain host and email provider (I pay a small amount extra) and the domain pointed to my aw

'it's personal choice. gmail doesn't seem to have the same stigma as yahoo ... '

I would not sign this. May be there are some advantages and a bit less spam BUT:
As I heard they are the only ones reading (not by humans of course) THE CONTENT of Your mails. Not only for advertising but also for their ambition to store any information about everyone they can get.

"If you want to work as a commercial artist like architects and sign companies and bronze casting foundries then there may be need for a "domain website". "

You might be right but, as Dan Turner keeps preaching, it's all about relationships. I mean, just because I have pictures on the walls in several Chicago skyscrapers doesn't mean I should have, or pay for, my name in a domain. Again, about.me was a big game changer for me, that is when I dumped my domains. I have been commissioned by several billionaires and all I have on my business cards is my free about.me URL. No phone number, no email address.

Frank;

You have the talent and it shows. No need to advertise.

I used to use the email accounts that came with my ISP, but I found myself needing to constantly notify various businesses and individuals every time I changed ISPs -- which was every time the promotional rate expired... I found Gmail accounts to be the most convenient since I don't have to remember who I need to notify whenever I change my ISP... Gmail stays with me while I rotate ISP's every year.

I never thought about creating a domain just for an email address

The best advertising is word of mouth and that comes from social networks which are as well closely aligned with business networks.

However I have found that the "Most Wanted" are rather illusive and not so easily available.

Vincent -- your last two posts, well said. This domain thing, I'm sure you can tell by now, goes right through me. Thank you very much for your kindness. From you that means a lot to me.

EDIT: I don't normally talk this way, so I'm sincerely sorry for my behavior.

Abbie -- sorry for taking over this thread.

Floyd,

I am kind of saying things wrong. I mentioned Yahoo as an example, but SBCGlobal.net is the old ATT.

Now in Connecticut ATT has sold to Frontier. I still have SBCGlobal.net. The thing about SBCGlobal was it was
one of the first major DSL players. So it has a little upside. Of course cable is better speed wise, but that is all
bull. The speeds now have more to do with when the server will send the packets. The speeds of 30 MB/S are
plenty. I know cable is much faster, but not when you are waiting for the server....all the time.....

Dave

Frank you keep speaking of the cost and shoestring budget.....

.com domain registry is $10 a year through most registrars...thats less than $1 a month. Point it at your Gmail for free using your domain controls and you have branded email for less than $1 a month.

I understand shoestring budget....but that is dirt cheap!

I also can understand you have found a home and something you enjoy with about.me, however I am not sold on it as a service as of yet.....mostly because nobody I know is on it or uses it. Its been bought and sold and spun off a few times already, but it currently does have a great deal of venture capital funding. Time will tell. Putting the entire way to contact me in the hands of someone else scares me a bit, especially when links to your profiles, pages, emails, and ultimately you are so very valuable when you are talking online sales. I prefer to be in complete control of my own domains.

I can see where you are coming from though, just disagree, which is ok. Disagreement on threads is healthy as there is no one right answer for anything :).

Thank you very much, Thomas, agreed. Great thread, isn't it!!

Great idea Abbie!

Thank you all for sharing your views on this topic

Bluehost less than $45/year three year commitment
Wordpress.org free, first time users need time to learn it
domain name ~$12/year depending on how you buy it

DSL/HDTV together $52/month folded into my Condo fees. My condo
association made arrangements for all of us in the complex,
~1100 units. @SBCGlobal.net is free in that mix.

Adobe PS and LR $10/month

Dave

I have a bellsouth,net (att) email address that I have and use now, I setup a mail,com address but never used it, If I decide to start using it will it be necessary for me to host the domain or can I use it "as is"!?

Use it as is, Judy, as the domain is in your email address only ... no reason to host it as you wont be using it for a website. You have Pixels or your AW for that.

Be sure to add it to your email marketing as well, as this article shares:

3 Reasons Your Prospecting Emails Keep Getting Deleted

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-reasons-your-prospecting-emails-keep-getting-deleted-jeb-blount?trk=hp-feed-article-title

EDIT: You can also use the Mail Collector feature in Mail.com to pull in your ATT email and others, and use just one email platform for all your accounts.

Thanks Frank,,You're the best!

Isabella to quote you " Unfortunately, yahoo now has such a bad name that many of us have banned anyone joining our sites with that domain at all. Shame but they seem to do nothing to combat their spammers"
I have not been getting email notifications from FAA lately and I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that my domain is a legacy att/bellsouth,net account that is hosted by yahoo,
Is there a connection?

I use att for my FAA address as I was told by an att tech that those domains are read more like a business paid domain than a yahoo or aol free domain. I also use it for here mostly because with my email marketing it doesn't have the outbound spam coding issues from the yahoo server that many of the free email providers are moving to. If I find that thread I'll post it back here. But to answer your question, Judy, I have not issues with my att domain.

Here you go, copy and paste this http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1990792