ISP email accounts are being given away by Internet Service Providers to new customers. If you opt in for an on site install a technician will even help you configure your desktop mail client to your new ISP email account. As a cautionary piece of advice, if you are serious about email we suggested you ditch your ISP email. If you’re going to use ISP email, you’re gonna have a bad time.
You would be surprised how frequently I run into ISP email users; many times when I’m helping a client set up a new device I notice that some people still use an email account from their internet service provider. With so many different free email accounts out there it’s amazing that people choose to use one that comes with their internet service.
I’d like to take a moment to talk about why an internet service provider email account hurts your business and why you should choose an email account from another provider like gmail with Google Apps.
So you’re probably wondering why. The problem I see come up time and time again is when someone moves or leaves their ISP service area. For example,
Time Warner services the Milwaukee area while Comcast services the Chicago area. Moving from one area to another means you lose your email address.
Another reason is it looks horrible. Try telling someone your email is MrBrewersFan@rr.wi.net. Having your personal email end in username@gmail.com is much easier and just looks cleaner. It doesn’t make sense to choose an email that ugly when you can make an email account for free.
I always recommend using another email account from a service such as gmail or Google Apps. No matter where you are or where you go your email address stays the same. Gmail is my favorite email client for personal use because it has free IMAP capabilities, a clean design, and a strong spam filtering system that competitors like Yahoo and Hotmail lack.
If your business has a domain with gmail, you get all of the services of Google Apps, like Google Docs, Calendar, Talk, and more. If you have your own domain, you can set up a custom email address with the format username@your_domain.com which looks more professional than username@gmail.com. If you don’t already have a domain, you can register one starting from $8 a year. You can choose between Google Apps Standard, for Business, or for Business with Vault depending on the size and dependency on email for your business.
Save the ISP email account for your junk account and have your personal email sent to a username@gmail.com address and have your business emails sent to a custom business address using your company domain with Google Apps. Live worry free knowing that if you ever have to move or change internet providers your email account info will remain the same.
What’d you think about this article? Would you switch to a username@gmail.com account or one with your own domain? Do you have a reason to keep your ISP email address that we missed? Let us know what you think and leave a comment below.
By Michael Ortega – November 7th 2012.
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