I work for a school district, so I get a lot of odd questions. A client - err coworker - needed help with a mailing list and her organization’s @bellsouth.net account. Having worked there before, I knew that what she wanted was impossible. Their mail server ‘mail.bellsouth.net’ can handle emails in 200 round bursts. But it won’t happen. MBN will timeout every time. When you call tech support, the first thing they tell you is to send things in groups of 50.

Or they should. They would were I their supervisor.

One option is to buy your domain and pay for hosting.

Another option is to buy your domain from me and I’ll cut you a deal on the hosting in exchange for fee based maintenance. Here are the benefits of buying your domain and hosting your own email… (Or, you know, paying me to do it)

1. something@yourbiz.tld is just more professional than using your Teleco’s free webmail to run your business.
2. Free Telco webmail hampers your productivity with all kinda of restrictions. NO sending this. NO sending that. Eventually you wanna call the company and shout “Jeez, gimmie my @#!$%^ email and shut up already.”
3. Free Telco webmail ain’t got the feature you want. Hell, Bellsouth doesn’t even offer IMAP. This comes stock with hosting plans. GMAIL has the best web interface I’ve seen. When combined with all the other available add-ons and browser plugins available, you can pimp your email FOR FREE.
4. Free Telco webmail isn’t secure. At AT&T everyone kid in the call center has access to your email. Most times, we matched your email password to your main phone number and then pressured you never to change it. With a phonebook and a little Google magic, I could be shaking my buttocks in your credit card records in minutes. (Umm, pardon the mental image (unless you like that)).

You get the point, right? Hosting your own domain is cheap and easy and secure… well, more secure than letting my buddies at the call center into your inbox. I know what you’re all thinking:

Curt, of course you’d recommend hiring you to host our email.

Claro que si. Look - let’s be honest: we both know you’re gonna trap me in the break room and interrogate me. For Free. Free don’t get ya very far deez dayz, yo. I’m going to tell you to reboot and call The New AT&T. Free gets you referred back to tech support at Dell. 50 bucks gets you a domain, a year of hosting, and integrated Google Apps. This way, I get paid for supporting your small business and you get guaranteed and willing support from me.

It’s a win-win!