Free web based emails like Yahoo and Gmail are a good tool for communication but there is need to re- think if you are going to do business with that kind of email. Yahoo it self offers customized emails but it will give you the option of a free service and when you feel it is time to upgrade, you then get an email tagged to your business if at all it is still available BUT at a fee.

If you are a business out there and you have no email tagged to your business, one of the resolutions for the new year is to get an email address customized to your business because then you will be taken more serious than when you use a free web based one. Before we look at why you should get a customized email, we would like to make it categorically clear that the web based emails are still good but they come in with strings attached.

Reasons to consider for getting a customized email:

• You are looked at as a serious entity when you use you@your_company.com as opposed to using others. If a company is called Blahze!, then the right thing could be info@blahze.com
• No need of going to the SPAM folder which in most cases has over 1,000 unsolicited messages but also with legitimate ones. the problem is the cost of scrolling through the unwanted to extract a legit email.
• How many emails form conmen do you get in a day? How many of those are using customized as opposed to using the 'free' emails? It is obvious conmen use free web based emails.
• If you used a customized email to communicate, chances are your email will be read first and acted upon.
• Of course many look at it as a cost saving measure but if you are not careful the move will make you loose a lot more than you think you are saving. Meanwhile, an email account is not very costly if you bothered to ask.
• Not so many people out there consider the internet seriously but the numbers of those who do are increasing and trust me you could even loose out on a bid where you are vying for too much money just because you can't part with very little to have your own email that even makes you not only professional but more professional than using a free service.

Finally, free web based emails are good and in fact you will rarely find customized emails that have just as much space that Gmail can offer, or find a customized email that has a search engine embedded in it like Gmail or real time news with your email interface like Yahoo.