The internet has been called the great equalizer because, with a little help, anyone can look good on the web. A well-designed website can make even the smallest entrepreneur look as professional and respectable as the biggest box store.

There are many factors to consider when building your professional image. One of the most basic is the domain name of your email address. (Domain name is the words after the @ sign in an email address, for example @yahoo.com, @aol.com, @gmail.com.)

The examples above are the domains of companies that offer free email service, but if you already have a website, such as mybusinessname.com, then you should have an email address that matches your domain, such as [email protected]

To a web savvy user, an email address using your business domain looks more professional and can positively affect their initial impression. And consider this: every time you send an email, you’re giving the recipient the domain name of your website and encouraging them to visit. That’s free advertising.

If you already own a domain name, you may not have realized it but you can create an email address using your domain name at no additional cost to you. There are plenty of ways to make this happen. The one we recommend is Gmail. Gmail is free and effective, and it comes with some additional business tools that can help you be more organized and productive.

The exact procedure for registering your new email address using your domain name depends on your domain provider and whether or not you already have a Google account.

If you don’t already have an account with Google, start by registering with Google Apps for Business.

If you already have a Google account, here is a link to the instructions that Google provides:

If you’d like to use Gmail with your own domain name but you’d prefer to have someone else handle the registration, just give us a call at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.