Your domain name presents your business

How many times have you seen a business e-mail address on the back of a great looking van, well-designed business card, or glossy poster which has Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com or some other webmail provider in the name? Yahoo and Microsoft Hotmail are good email services, but they are personal services.

"Exclusive Access to Half Million Pound Homes before they get to market: email us at HalfMillionPoundHomes@SomeOneElse.com".

Spoils the effect doesn't it. They've gone to all that time and expense to create a certain image but they don't have their own domain name. It does not conjure up the right image of a huge team researching thousands of properties in that price bracket.

Even if there is more than one person working there, and you are starting to doubt it, it seems that you can't write to anyone directly. Hmm!

Domain name providers

There seem to be two types of domain name providers:

• the first redirects any mail sent to your new domain through to your existing personal account.

  Great! Anyone can write to your company at you@HalfMillionPoundHomes.eu, or whatever, and it ends up in the usual personal webmail account. BUT, even if you change the reply-to option in Yahoo, say, the secret is revealed: your personal e-mail address shows up when you reply to their pre-sales enquiry. It may even be deleted as spam because they were expecting the plush new domain to respond. Hmmm! That is perhaps worse than the original set-up.

• the second provides everything from your own company web-mail interface to other growth options, like push e-mail for your Blackberry, to make business life easier as your business grows.

You are astute enough to realise which is which, right?

Support the businesses in your area: help them see themselves with your eyes and with your growth potential. Tell them they can have a ".uk"  domain name without any cost or obligation for a year.