How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Here's a simple, fool proof, quick way to go out of business in no time at all, what's more, you may already have the tools at hand. (And if so obvious, I don't know why folks haven't thought of it earlier.)

Simply use your personal email account for all your online business needs. Not only does this tell your potential customer that you are REALLY a business, but you get the added bonus of being at the mercy of your ISP or email host. For example, ISPs like worldnet, qwest, comcast LOVE to block whole domains of email addresses like those of your customers at a drop of the hat. Think how fast your customers (and suppliers) will run to chargeback (or stop shipments) when they get that beautiful "Message Denied for Abuse" message from your ISP/Email provider. Yep, nothing says "Amateur Hour" quite like a personal email address, especially a free one such as hotmail or gmail.

So don't delay. If you are stuck on the Success Track and are still using a domain based email, and don't have and use of these personal email addresses get one today.

[Dakota@eMediaSales]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

Where's 1-9? :p

[Red Flare]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

Here's a simple, fool proof, quick way to go out of business in no time at all, what's more, you may already have the tools at hand. (And if so obvious, I don't know why folks haven't thought of it earlier.)

Simply use your personal email account for all your online business needs. Not only does this tell your potential customer that you are REALLY a business, but you get the added bonus of being at the mercy of your ISP or email host. For example, ISPs like worldnet, qwest, comcast LOVE to block whole domains of email addresses like those of your customers at a drop of the hat. Think how fast your customers (and suppliers) will run to chargeback (or stop shipments) when they get that beautiful "Message Denied for Abuse" message from your ISP/Email provider. Yep, nothing says "Amateur Hour" quite like a personal email address, especially a free one such as hotmail or gmail.

So don't delay. If you are stuck on the Success Track and are still using a domain based email, and don't have and use of these personal email addresses get one today.

I am guessing you had a precedent recently?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

Just a reminder...we see it probably on a weekly basis...folks order from us, or contact us for support using their "personal" email accounts and then our replies get bounced...

bottom line, it just looks hokey. Its like handing someone a business card with someone else name and company on it.

[koala]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

Also, why do people put these types of email addresses on their business cards?

I had a proprietor of mattresses (I won't mention who, but they're proud of the fact that they're located in Beverly Hills), some of which retail for more than $10,000 leave their card with me and his email address is "[email protected]" - of course the business card is gold foil stamped, so that makes it okay.

I know this thread is really old but I thought this was comical for sure!

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

I *think* its because folks think of email addresses the same way as they think of phone numbers. While for general use, this is fine, for business...not. Some businesses go through great lenths to even make their phone number more business like, either using some sort of word pattern, or getting a "round" number. (1-555-6000 as opposed to 1-555-5629)...

Oh, and #9 on the list is using SPAM challenges on customer emal accounts that make the customer (and your suppliers) jump through another hoop just because you are too busy to hit delete or install a real SPAM filter.

[kayakbabe]

Re: How to go out of business in 30 days or less: Part 10.

Yes it is better to eat the spam (pun fully intended) than to force your customer's into difficult situations trying to contact you. bottom line is.. they won't bother and they will go elsewhere.

to me when someone has an online shop with it's own domain and they don't use that domain for an email address.. it says to me.. they are not serious about their business, they hire amatuers, they are amatuers, they don't take the next step, they're lazy.. etc.. all those things are warning signs that this is a very new business, or one that is not going for long becuase they don't pay attention to even obvious details.

it's not brain surgery to use your domain for email.

If you've got a bunch of domains.. so what.. many email reading programs let you setup for multiple email accounts.. and will also let you appear to answer from that same email box that mail came from. If you've got MS outlook use it.


Yep Bruce.. this is a pet peeve of mine too. When I was developing for other clients back when I hired out.. this was one of the first things I insisted they do for themselves. If it was a new domain, i would set it up and make them use it to communicate with me. I'd take a mail box at their domain and make ones for them.
Mail hosting is cheap, and it doesn't have to be from the same company that actually hosts your website. the mail and website are not glued together. that is what dns is for.

.. back to loitering...