stupid q about email.

[hatwoman]

how do I set up an email address that doesn;t have hotmail or something similar in it? I want one for freelance work that sounds a bit more profoessional than hatwoman @ hotmail.com. something more like [email protected].

It's not an easy thing. First, you have to own "woman.com", which costs a certain amount per year, and then you have to have someone host it ... if you look up "custom email address", a bunch of options come up - from $9.99 per year.

Depending on what you're freelancing as, you might want to just use gmail initially, as it's nicer than hotmail ... but it is still obviously a freebie account. I do often see freelance people, or even proper companies (with vans etc) with yahoo or hotmail addresses.

MrNQC here - think www.google.com/a/?hl=en_GB might be what you are looking for where google host all of it for you, if you want something more traditional Demon (and many other ISPs) will do it all for you and forward the emails to your hotmail account etc. www.demon.net/demon/products/domains/domainreg/domainnames

I have loads of gmail invitations if you want to try that, you have to be 'invited' by an existing gmail account holder and you get 50 invitations to send to others when you set up your account.

Oh, you do need a gmail account to use MrNQC's first link there, anyway. Loads of MNers have gmail invites to hand out, for anyone who needs 'em.

percypig - could I possibly take you up on that offer of a gmail invite? I just tried to CAT you but can't. what do you need to send it to me? many many thanks

To send someone a gmail invite, I (or percypig) need an email address to send the invite to. Or you can email me on [email protected] and I'll send you one as a repoly.

thanks NQC - i tried to CAT percy with my email but it didn;t work. so in actual fact I nabbed one from someone else. all sorted now. am a bit mystifed wht it says [email protected] but [email protected] also works. (decided in the end that I couldn't be bothered to buy my domain - too much faffing around and too many companies to choose from - many with bad reviews)

Sorry hatwoman, I've never done the CAT thing (not sure I understand how it works and am a fairly new poster, though long time lurker) Glad you got sorted though, either @gmail or @googlemail will work, gmail is just quicker to type!