What is your business email address?  Is it your_name@your_company_name.com or your_nickname_random_numbers@gmail.com?

A professional email address tells prospective clients that you are a true professional and that your business is not a fly-by-night operation.  Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes…would you want to do business with johndoe@extremewidgets.com or widgetmaster789@gmail.com?

If John Doe wants to change to a more professional email address, it’s fairly easy to do without having to give up his current email application and losing his email history.  Most hosting plans offer free email accounts that can be configured to automatically forward all email to another email address.  For example, John Doe can:

• log into his HostMonster account (this is just an example…it’s not an endorsement of HostMonster…I do not have an account with them)
• go to the control panel for the extremewidgets.com domain he owns
• create the email account johndoe
• configure forwarding of johndoe@extremewidgets.com to widgetmaster789@gmail.com

Now all email sent to johndoe@extremewidgets.com would also appear in John Doe’s widgetmaster789 Gmail Inbox.

But the setup is not yet complete because when John responds to an email in Gmail, it will look like it’s coming from The Widget Master.  To correct this, he’ll need to configure Gmail to make it look like he is sending email from his Host Monster account.  In Gmail (most other email services have similar functionality), John would need to:

• go to Mail Settings
• choose the Accounts and Import tab
• click the Send Mail form Another Address button
• in the pop-up window, John will need to enter:
  • John Doe
  • johndoe@extremewidgets.com and click the Next Step button
  • choose Send through Gmail click the Next Step button
  • click the Send Verification button (an email with a verification pin will be sent to johndoe@extremewidgets.com which then will get forwarded to widgetmaster789@gmail.com)
  • go to his Inbox by right-clicking on Inbox and choosing Open Link in New Window
  • open the email from the Gmail Team and copy the pin
  • enter the pin in the GMail pop-up window and click Verify…the pop-up window then disappears and John is taken back to the Accounts and Import tab of the Gmail settings page
• check the “Reply from the same address the message was sent to” option

That’s it! John Doe is now more professional (or at least appear to be)