Would you purchase anything from someone with a "@yahoo.com" or "@hotmail.com" e-mail address? I certainly wouldn't! For starters, people using these e-mail addresses give others the impression that they’re not taking their business seriously.

Now I understand that you don't want your regular e-mail address in ads that you run on free ad sites to prevent spam, but let's look at this matter constructively.

If you don't buy anything from Yahoo! off-line, why would you buy from a Yahoo! online? If you're serious about your business you have to show it through your actions. And the first action to take is to buy your own domain name and use it for all of your e-mails.

Let's say you are to purchase a product from me. Will you be quicker to purchase from me and trust me if my e-mail address is "edmund@ebizmodelsyoucancopy.com" or if you read an ad from "edmund@yahoo.com?" I'm the same person, but which e-mail address makes you trust me more and believe I'm operating a legitimate business?

If you're not ready to put up a website, create a professional presentation with your e-mails. They're your main form of communication online and it's the main brand people see when you communicate. Every time you send an e-mail you're advertising. Do you realize that you'll never make decent money online if your e-mail address ends with "@hotmail.com"?

When you come up with a name for your website or Internet Business get a .com or .biz entity, not a .net, .info or any other domain entity. Why?

When you want to send a package overnight what company do you think of first? Probably Federal Express (FedEx). This is simply because they were the first company to do overnight shipping. You can use UPS or Airborne Express or some of the other smaller companies, but FedEx is the company that gets the most business because they've practiced the idea of overnight shipping in the first place. On the same analogy, you need to have a .com domain because that's where visitors will go first no matter how many new domain endings are created years and years from now.

If you have any other domain name then you'll be setting yourself up to lose visitors to whoever has the .com domain for your name. Outside of earthlink.net how many .nets come to your mind right now? On the other hand, how many .coms can you think of?

When you hear about a cool company and want to see if they have a website, do you try their name with a .com or with a .net or .info or .tv first? If I'm a compulsive gambler, I'll bet all my money and assets that you will try the .com first every time and you always will because it's always going to be your first choice before any other domain entities.

So if you haven't already, get a great domain name for your Internet Business and buy it before it gets taken. This is a small price to pay for a huge investment. If you're not willing to invest a few dollars then you don't have a business. If you want to be taken seriously by your prospects, take your domain name just as serious. This can mean life or death for your Internet Business in its initial stages of birth.

Copyright Љ Edmund Loh