No, I’m not a stalker! I mean your EMAIL Address. What does it say about you, your business and your professional image?

I noticed when compiling my mailing list that there are surprisingly many @xtra, @gmail, @hotmail etc. addresses being used as the primary contact, in fact almost a third of all businesses listed are using one of these addresses!

What does it matter?

Using the EMail address of your ISP or a public mail provider makes you look like a small and unprofessional business, possibly untrustworthy as many spammers use a Gmail, Hotmail or similar account. Additionally you are missing out on another place to get your business name mentioned while further adding to your readers’ memory retention, and their opinion of your professional standing.

What can I do?

To have your own email address you need to own a “Domain Name” this is the part of the email address that appears after the @ symbol (in my case: processit.co.nz). Domains Names can be purchased online, most for under $40 per year. But before you rush out and buy yours, you need to think about what is your ideal Domain Name, as this will likely also be your websites Domain Name too. Try to pick a name relevant to your primary business focus as this may well help rank your site better in searches. Then check if the name you want is available –Here is one I have used. Then the extension you choose will indicate more about your business: .com –Global; .co.nz –New Zealand Company; .org.nz –usually a Club or Non-profit. I recommend that you discuss your plan with an industry professional before purchase.

Once you have your domain, you can set up your new email address. Exactly how depends on your domain registrar, your ISP or EMail service provider. Often this can be as simple as logging in and entering your new domain name and address. This can vary considerably and is usually straight forward but is beyond the scope of this newsletter.

Got my domain based email address-What’s Next?

Use it!!! You need a database to manage your Customers, Contacts and Leads. ProcessIT can help here too. A recent integration project for a client saw almost instant financial returns from enabling EMail throughout their system. Start your own EMail campaign to stay in touch or promote your products. Save time by avoiding letter folding and envelope stuffing. It’s even good for the environment as paper usage can drop dramatically. Call me now to discuss your options.

Tech Tip

I recently had a laptop stolen. Fortunately everything critical was backed up elsewhere and only a few personal photos and random notes were lost. Thankfully I kept no critical Customer information on this device.

Having purchased a replacement the first thing I did was install “Prey” new anti-theft software –well actually it’s post-theft software! How does post-theft software help you ask? Yes, the device is gone but Prey will help get it back or find the thief! Prey is clever. It loads at boot up and runs silently in the background, occasionally checking the Prey website to see if you have reported the device (PC, Laptop or Phone) as stolen. If it finds you have, Prey suddenly becomes active. It will take screen shots of the thief’s activity and so you may see a letter with their name, their EMail or even their Facebook page. It will enable a web camera and take photos of the thief and will try to determine location b
y using network information or even GPS if available. Prey can very quickly provide solid leads for the Police. Read a hilarious recovery story and see the thief picking their nose!

Check out and download Prey Here. It supports most devices and Operating Systems and has a completely FREE version.