Help me choose a new email address?

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
Musetta
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Help me choose a new email address?

Post by Musetta »

I am leaving my ISP after having issues with bounced email from abroad and would like to pick a new gmail address for my enquiries. My current email is "SouthernItaly @ ...." and my blog site is "SouthernItaly"...but that's taken w gmail...so...I need to come up with a new one. I could have my house name, "CasaDelCipresso" or I could have the town, "CalitriRental," or "CalitriHouse?" what do you think? Other ideas? Thanks!
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

Hi Musetta - long time no hear from! Hope all's good with you.

Personally I wouldn't consider using a gmail address at all for a rental - to me it looks a bit shoddy and unprofessional to be honest. You really need a domain email rather than one that's so obviously from a free email provider, I think ...
Joanna
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Post by Joanna »

+1
It's relatively easy to set up your own domain and not expensive. How about calitrirental.com or casadelcipresso.com? If you can get a key search word like villa, holiday or rental in there that would be ideal. You can also now get domain names that end in .holiday instead of .com so casadelcipresso.holiday is an option. Then your email can be musetta@... or bookings@....
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Thanks. yes, that's a thought and I may break down and do it but I need something straight away because I'm canceling that account I'v had for years and years and years. I don't want to use the new internet provider's email (I've moved house) because I'll just have to change everything again if I ever move again. For some reason, email from Italy bounces quite often to the US isps and it's been a problem for me for years and I've always had to provide a gmail address as a back-up and my housekeeper has to use it as she can't reach me at my paid personal email address...France too. It's very annoying. Do you really think gmail looks that bad? I'll look into the cost of a domain too.

and thank you very much ;-) It's nice to be back. It's been a busy couple of years and the Italy rental has taken a backseat for sure. We moved house, had a baby, and sold our NYC rental house. I'm now having to clean-up and fix broken links, outdated photos, listing sites that have changed hands, etc. it's an overwhelming mess! Looking at it now, it's shocking I was still getting booking the past two years!
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I know I'll get slammed for this because so many LMH members use it but gmail is not very suitable for professional use. It's a great choice for personal email (I have several myself) and the interface and spam handling are great. It's also prime choice for scammers. Spend a tiny bit of money and use a more business like email address from your own domain. You can still handle it through the gmail interface if you prefer.

I am one of those people who are very suspicious of dealing with any business who uses gmail. (or hotmail etc) or free websites.

A domain costs about £10 a year and hosting is fairly cheap too. Well worth the investment.
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Post by Joanna »

It's also fairly quick to set up. I wouldn't bother setting up a gmail account, linking it to your listing only to have to go and do it again when you get your own domain. Just get the domain name and you can forward email from it to your existing gmail account. When you buy the name you should have some options for managing it through a dashboard.

I got my names through ukreg.co.uk, maybe other LMH members can recommend the registrars they've used?
Jo

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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

Musetta, you can buy a domain and have it up and running in a couple of hours and as kev says for 10 euros or less (for a dotcom - other suffixes for as little as 1,99). That's as "straight away" as you need surely - and then it's done once and for all ...
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Okay okay okay. You've convinced me. Been using the same email for about 10-15 yrs (at last nine w the Italy rental) and change is hard! :-) I'm a creature of habit (& not terribly technical.) Do I just google buy domain? Do I look into Wordpress since I have a blog there (but I thought it was more like $100/yr there?) I'm, personally, suspicious of non .com or maybe .net addresses (I've seen, for instance, a lot of Italians who use .org (!) for commercial sites where it should be used for nonprofits, etc.) This property attacts almost exclusively Americans as of late so .com would be what I'd look for.
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Ok. I think I get it now :/) I can pay $10/yr and then find a free application for email...now need to choose a name.., I've been attached to SouthernItaly for a long time :-) but I'm thinking its best to let it go anyway because it's so impersonal & I don't want to give the impression I am a management company (?)

CalitriRental
CalitriHouse
CasaDelCipresso (too hard/long for people to type I think)
MyItalyRental
MyItalyHouse
SouthernItalyRental (too long?)
SouthernItalyHouse (too long?)
SouthernItaly dot NET (I tend to prefer dot com)
CalitriItaly

Brainstorm more with me please?? Ideas welcome!
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

What about the province or region? [whatevertheprovinceor regionis]rental.holiday or dot com or whatever is available? E.g foggiarental.com or apuliarental.com (I don't actually know where your house is). If your town is not well known then how many people are going to search for it? Won't southernitaly in a google search bring up a HUGE number of properties and listing sites? I think people generally have an idea of the area they want to go to, but not necessarily a particular town.
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Province (Avellino) is not well known - I don't think people think of it to go on holiday...region, Campania, is better known for Amalfi Coast, Capri, Sorrento, etc. & my property is not near the ocean so those wouldn't be relevant. The town is right where Campaina, Puglia & Basilicata meet.

Ps just checked - AvellinoRental is not available but AvellinoHouse is
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