My e-mail

Not an April fool. Honest.

I wrote last week about my collection of domains. The post actually started off being about e-mail addresses.

I’ve loads of those too.

When I first setup Lime Training and Consultancy Ltd, I chose stuart@limeconsulting.com as my primary e-mail address.

I also have a google and apple addresses, and had aol, hotmail, ntl, btinternet, yahoo, virgin and heaven knows how many more. Then of course, there are kindle ones. Hell, some of my apps have email addresses.

Throw into that several more related to Neros Notes and Stuart Lennon, (not forgetting of course, the multiple aliases), and I have a LOT of email addresses.

Traditional thinking is that a custom domain is more professional. If people are talking to https://nerosnotes.co.uk, a web vendor, then they expect an email from something@nerosnotes.co.uk.

Therefore - I need to maintain custom email addresses for

Lime and associated domains.

Nero’s and associated domains.

Stuartlennon and associated domains.

Each of those needs to be hosted and paid for. Currently, I pay a combination of FastMail and Google.

Given my piece on Hey from a few weeks ago, you’ll know that I pay them too.

I have always accepted the traditional view. People writing to Lime, which offers advice on financial regulation, will surely be upset to get a reply from stuartlennon.com. Likewise - mail from Neros, should be from Neros. The voice is different, justifiably so.

Surely though, this doesn’t matter any more? Everyone’s OK with a simple gmail. Aren’t they?

I asked the 1857 Slack.

Turns out, people are a bit nervous of a gmail. Dealing with a company, the preference is email from the domain.

Damn it.

I now have several gmail addresses that I don’t need.

Fortunately, Marcus, Urban and Vanessa in the Slack all pointed me towards Gandi.net, a domain host that includes two mailboxes for no additional cost. Nero’s has moved - thus far with no mishaps. I could, today, shutdown the Google Suite accounts, but I suspect I’ll leave them running for this month and take my time in exporting out all of the archives etc.

Assuming that all continues to go well - next will be Lime and then finally SL. Overall savings will be £250+ a year, just on mail hosting charges. I’ll achieve those desired savings, without compromising the “customer experience”. People will still get email from the right domain. Perhaps most importantly, I’ll be able to maintain Mrs L’s chosen email addresses, rather than talk her into adopting a new, free one.

Two learning points.

1. Shop around.
2. I know smart people, kind enough to help me where they can.