Every company has a website these days, right? After all, websites are a relatively cheap way to extend your brand and make a lot of information available to potential customers.
And, of course, every website has a domain that goes along with it. Whether you're bobslandscaping.com or joesgarage.ca, having a memorable domain is just as important as the website itself.
I had a conversation on Twitter last week about how unprofessional it looks when a company doesn't use their domain for their email address. I'm always amazed when a company has invested the time and effort (not to mention the money) to create a website with a memorable domain yet they still continue to look like amateurs because they use a personal email address in their ads.
Image credit: Leo Reynolds
Furthermore, what happens if you decide to switch your internet hosting from TELUS to Rogers? Or if Yahoo! gets out of the email business? Your email address will change and you'll have to notify all of your contacts of the switch. If you use your domain for your email address, then you get to choose your email address and you get to keep it as long as you pay for your domain.
The easy solution here is to configure your domain to use Google for email. Google offers free hosted email as part of their Google Apps offering. Not only is it free, but it comes with lots of benefits that can help your business.
It's not difficult to point your existing domain at Google and get a free email address that actually uses your own domain. It's easy to administer and you can always repoint your domain somewhere else if you end up leaving Google for some reason. Google has hosted email for my domain for the past 4 years and I certainly haven't had any problems with it.
So, do you want to actually take advantage of your brand and the domain that you've already paid for? Good. Follow these (mostly) simple steps:
- Go to http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new
- Select "Administrator: I own or control this domain".
- Enter your existing domain name.
- Click the Get Started button.
- Fill in the required information contact information. Be sure to place a check next to "I understand that if I cannot alter DNS records for my domain, I may impact my organization's ability to use Google Apps".
- Click the Continue button.
- Enter the username and password for the administrator account. This can be used as your email account if you wish or you could set up a separate "admin@domain.com" account - it's up to you.
- Click the "I accept. Continue with set up" button.
- Congratulations! You're now registered with Google Apps and should be logged into your Google Apps Dashboard.
That wasn't so hard was it?
Now that you've registered with Google Apps, you need to prove to Google that you actually own your domain. After you've done that, you need to configure your domain to use Google for your email.
Here's where I can't help you much. The mechanics of managing your domain vary depending on how you bought your domain. You'll need access to changing the CNAME and MX records of your domain. If you have access to this then you can simply follow the instructions that Google provides for you in the Google Apps Dashboard. If you don't have access to configuring your domain, contact the company that you bought your domain from to get these configurations made. Most large companies like GoDaddy and EasyDNS give you access to your domain tools that make this configuration a cinch. If you need some help, feel free to contact me.
Registering your domain with Google Apps is a simple process that will allow you brand your email using the domain that you've already purchased. Take advantage of it and start looking professional!