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Old 22 Jun 2020, 11:02 PM   #9
TenFour
Master of the @
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,742
Personally, I would say avoid the location-specific domains for a business email unless you run a business that is hyper-local and you want to really identify with the place. For example, maybe you are a real estate agent for a particular city. But, for general purposes, I would suggest not to. Some people just don't like one place or another and that could be a slight negative. Or maybe you are pitching services to people around the world who might be put off if you are in a different country or a city on the other side of the country.

In general, the shorter the better. I prefer something friendly like firstname@12345.com. If possible, get a four- or five-letter domain that is easy to spell and remember, and only use .com, .net, or .org. The best is .com. Most of the others have worse deliverability and cause errors. Even if it isn't .com people will enter .com by mistake. In general, the longer your address the more often it will get entered incorrectly and cause lost messages. I collect email addresses for a nonprofit and it is frustrating how often we find email addresses entered incorrectly the first time. If you just use firstname@12345.com it sounds friendly and not intimidating, and if you have it set up correctly they will see your full name in the email header.

The #1 factor with a professional email address is to sound like a real person reaching out. I think using your real first name does that.

Having written all this, I see every variation of email from all types of professionals every day. I am amazed how many "professionals" use some rinky dink yahoo or aol address they set up in high school, or a professional that shares an email with his wife and family. Don't do it!
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