I’ve had the same personal email address for the last 10 years, and never gave much thought that I should establish a new work at home email account. I’ve also had the same home phone number and cell phone number for years, why change my email? Well simply, organization and professionalism.
A separate work at home email account can offer free advertising and brand recognition of your website, blog, or business. For the first few months, I utilized my personal yahoo email address for www.thepassivedad.com, and learned the lessons the hard way. I wanted to respond to blog comments and join social networks, but lost business continuity by not using The Passive Dad name. Sure I was able to respond to emails, but I was not being effective and smart with it. If someone saw my email, they wouldn’t necessary make the connection between my yahoo account and my blog. Utilizing thepassivedad at gmail dot com has allowed me to strengthen the blog name and effectively advertise through comments and social networks.
I’ve come across some wonderful blogs and wonder why some people still use personal email addresses for blogs. I can understand the organization aspect, but you are also missing out on branding your blog through email.
If you have a free blogger or wordpress account, you can utilize gmail or any of the popular free email accounts for your site. I prefer gmail, but if you are more comfortable with hotmail or yahoo, go for it.
When I read comments on my blog, I will visit your blog or website and can easily recognize branded sites. Some of the bloggers doing it right are Todd at Harvesting Dollars and Kevin at No Debt Plan have branded blog email accounts. It’s very easy to identify Todd and Kevin as the email blog address matches the blog. This makes life so much easier! I would encourage you to establish free work at home email account for your blog or website.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
I’ve actually thought about buying the e-mail add-on for my domain and getting something like kevin [at] nodebtplan [dot] net, but I think the gmail account works just as well. I think most people understand that I can access Gmail from anywhere and thus it is a superior option.