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get your own and be you

Article 1.6 >> Your email address stinks!

Time to get your own

With almost seven billion people in the world, finding the elusive john@yahoo! email address is less likely than winning the mega-lottery five times in a row. *Stats approximated :-)

You could wait for the next trendy email provider to come along and take your chances or you can grab your own domain now while most people still haven’t figured it out.  The domain is the part AFTER the @ in an email address fyi.  john@webpostee.com has a much nicer ring to it.

 

Easier than you think

This is not new.  Most of us have known you could get your own domain name and maybe even how to register it, but then what?  The next steps were unclear and not easy for us regular folk.  As the web has matured and evolved, things have gotten much simpler.

Step 1>> Grab that domain

Its easy to search domain names at registrars and you can instantly find what’s available.  Your full name, your last name backwards, your pet’s name, your nickname, a made up word (i.e. google or pretty much i-anything), your favorite place, or any combination you can think of.  Once you find one you like, grab it and you’re set forever for less than the cost of a double blende low–fat wet mochachina with room.

You did notice the (s) next to ‘account’ earlier because most providers let you have unlimited (or really many) email addresses under your domain.  Set them up for you, your spouse, your partner, your kids, your grandparents, for junk mail, temporary ones, one for your pet, your R2D2, your stonewashed jeans, your book club, etc, etc, etc… and add/delete them as you wish.

Step 4>> Set up your devices

Set up your smart phone just like you did for your current email account, but using the new settings from your provider, and your email will come through to your device the same way.  You can also easily set up any email program like Outlook.  Of course, there is also web based access too using any browser.

 

What’s the BIG deal?

>>Your email is cooler.  Yes, its cooler.  Its also simpler, cleaner, easier to remember (for yourself and those you give it to), and looks a lot more professional on a resume or business card.

>>No Ads (Bold ‘cause its huge)

>>No tracking, logging, or profiling (Bold and underline ‘cause its massive).  Like it or not, those free email providers have ads that show up next to your emails and those targeted ads are just one result of the information that is collected from you.

>>Same if not better security and privacy

>>Unlimited email addresses, data, and storage through most providers

>>Its your domain and its portable—Keep your domain as long as you want and take it to any web hosting provider (or host it yourself when you’re ready)

>>Full control to change passwords, forward, block addresses, auto-reply, and a lot more

 

Is that it?

No.

You’ve got web hosting now so put up a page using the free tools through your provider or use those tools you’ve already got wasting space on your computer.  Post picks and videos, start a blog, share links, post updates, share documents, post calendars, create an event page , you name it (website wise that is.)  There’s no excuse not to start that small business or hobby website you’ve always wanted to do either.  Once you get going, you’ll be surprised how far you get.

Your web hosting service is also storage.  Once set up, moving files back and forth is as easy as dragging and dropping so no need for separate data clouds or server farms.

 

The fine print...

This is a little more involved than the basic free email provider you use now, but its still pretty easy and something everybody should know how to do nowadays.

Its not free, but neither is any ad-free email service and those won’t give you your own personal domain of choice PLUS you won’t have search engines tracking and logging your email activity and content.

Email hosting only is also an option now with most providers so you can do your own email now and save the website hosting for later.

Once you’ve got this down, you can move on and try to make a little money using the web like all those dotcom millionaires you always read about. (Million dollar results not common.  Boo.)

 

Check back for the Article 2 series on simple ecommerce coming soon…

 

 

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Step 2>> Get hosted

Web hosting is all you need and you don’t need to set up a website to get your email going.  Most domain name registrars also provide hosting too so you can use them or use any other web hosting provider.

Step 3>> Set it up

If you can use a computer and surf the web (I’m going out on a limb and saying yes), you can set up your own email account(s) right through your web hosting provider’s online tool.  The tools vary by provider, but we’ve tried a bunch that are all equally easy and intuitive plus most have live support included if you get stuck.