While giving away my email address, I frequently get weird looks and comments like
“Euh, li marser meme sa?”
In some way, having a family email address makes you feel cooler (yeah!) and more geek that those who having the usual @gmail, @yahoo or @hotmail inbox. And believe me, some people use @orange.mu too!
My family email address runs on gmail, i.e. the same size, features (most of them), looks etc.
What does it cost?
Only around $12 (approximately Rs360) yearly per domain. I mean that if you got 2 sisters, 5 brothers, 10 cousins and 12 kids, you pay only about that much per year!
The steps
- First of all, you need to buy the domain name. On Godaddy.com for example or you can do it directly from Step 2 in case you don’t have a domain. (btw, NO, I cannot buy it for you, don’t even think to mail me about that!)
- Register for Google Apps (Click here)
While writing this post, I noticed that Google gives you the possibility to do the setup pretty straightforward. The purchase and configuration is done directly from there itself. - If you choose to do the DNS settings manually, you can have a look at the various articles on the web, or just leave a comment here.
- Once everything is set up, please give up to 24-48 hours for the DNS to propagate.
Just imagine how cool it might be: dad@family.com, mum@family.com, firstname@family.com, me@family.com…
You can even use it for your MSN Messenger and Google Talk too. Finally, don’t forget to change your email address everywhere : Facebook, twitter, newspaper subscriptions (and your porn sites[!!!])
The switch
Most probably, you won’t be able to change email address abruptly. You need to do it over certain weeks or months so that people actually start contacting you using your new email add. During that transition period, you can redirect or forward your old emails to your new inbox or vice versa. It is even possible to compose/reply to emails using different “from” email add :
Now, please update your address book.
After months of smooth transition, I made the final jump. My email is yashvin[@]awootar[dot].com and please keep your spam for yourselves or everything from you will go to the junk yard (Gmail handles this pretty good, you have been warned!).
Hope that this post was informative and interesting! Waiting to see more personalised email addresses while you comment here!
Good post. But Godaddy?
You might get a few flaming comments about that quite soon. 🙂
@all: if you can buy a domain, buy your family name now. You never know when it may become useful. You@yourfamily.com looks sweet on a business card, official documents etc. Also, keeps cyber-squatters away. Register it for Twitter etc too, where names are reserved. And most probably, the .com, .net etc are already taken anyway. 😦
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Anywhere. GoDaddy was just an example. If am not mistaken, even google.commakes the purchase via the same.
Adding a last part to your comment : Buy it before someone else buys it! 😛
Thanks @Inf!
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Exactly what I do too, although only three people in my extended family use it. Everybody else had that same attitude – “li marser sa?”
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One thing you must agree, some of those people actually say “wow” just after they receive your first mail 😛
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Google apps said my domain was already registered with Google Apps.
Anyways, i went to my host’s cpanel and added ‘boss[@]nayarweb[.]com’ and forwarded it to my gmail address. 🙂
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I once had a [disagreeable] experience with google apps. I wanted to test the premium features (on free trial) and the thing actually ended by charging me over hundreds of dollars. Fortunately, I got in touch with them on time, they called me and got the payment cancelled 🙂
Try to contact them. Google always listens [to everything] like a big brother. lol.
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I got the job done anyways. I can send as ‘boss’@’nayarweb.com from my usual gmail account.
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I have been thinking about a domain family name for sometime now. I will probably combine with website hosting. Question: is dot.MU still expensive?
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.MU = not worth the price.
I am personally against giving much importance to this overpriced country domain.
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I am not aware of the price right now but at some point of time, the .MU domain was between Rs1500-Rs2000 while the other domains (.com, .net etc) are around $10-15. You can contact register.mu or any local web hosting company to get hold of a .mu domain.
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.MU is $64 for one year (Rs.1865), a bit overpriced!
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More than overpriced when you can get a .com (or .net etc domain) at $12 average.
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@A.R : You can have a look at http://www.mauritius.biz.
This old friend of mine proposes some nice value for money packages (including my domain names).
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Bitch Pleaseeeeee… I have an email address that last for 60 min 🙂 http://www.guerrillamail.com
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60minutes? Above that I noticed that you use a wanadoo mailbox? duh!
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B n zafer la Ashvin, moi dan le paC, mo ti tane dir ki to hT n domain name 1 foi pour toute, pa renpuvler tou les ans. Et si to domain name ggn valer avec letan, Google ou Godaddy ou Enom kpv pas renouvler to D.N. pu mem pri, nan?
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Zamais mone tan sa. (Et tone mal ekrire mo nom, GRRR!)
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Mille xkuz Yashvin, sori sori, mne vremen pa fer xpres. Mo ti mari fatiguer kan mo ti p ecrire sa comment la. encor n foi, sori.
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😛
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it still works yashvin? thinking about it 😛 compared to my myt.mu email XD
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I use it daily. Same for my wife, sister and cousins 🙂
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