Inexpensive domain solution for email?

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Musetta
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Inexpensive domain solution for email?

Post by Musetta »

Help please? I've been browsing old posts and I'm getting confused :-) I not technical at all really!

In a nutshell, I need a new email address to use with my Italian rental.

I have sold my profitable NYC rental house & this particular property really is just my holiday home. It's rentals pay it's upkeep and costs & it's not really a business nor money-maker. I rent it for a minimum amount...so...I pay for advertising but there's not any left in the budget to send on anything fancy. I'm happy with just my wordpress blog (& it as doing very well bringing me business the years I was attentive & updating) Unless we ever purchase another property in the area, I would most likely not ever need to create a "real" website.

The general consensus ;-) on LMH is I definitely need something more professional than gmail. I, however, don't really want to be trapped into monthly fees, etc. for hosting. Is that inevitable? I pay a small amount to get the domain name and then I have to pay yearly or monthly? Is there something inexpensive w a yearly price if I just use it for email and I'm not hosting a site?

I'm sorry. I know I sound really ignorant! Thanks for any advice or pointers.
Last edited by Musetta on Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Never mind :-) I think I've got it. I can buy a domain for about $10/yr & then I can use something like google apps or something as an email application (?) is that right?
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

I am not technical at all either Musetta but I do know that my son set up my cottage email address with google. It is powered by google but it doesn't show as a google address - it has the business name felicity@my cottage name... and Bookings@mycottage name Not a lot of help I know as I don't know how the whole thing works but I get a tiny bill from Google for Work every month (£2.75) for having that second address (I use a 'normal' one for personal stuff).
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Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

There seem to be others too like Zoho (?) I guess I'll look around to see what will work best for me. Anyone happy with something other than google?

I post this in another thread but...thoughts? I'm probobly leaning towards CalitriRental - the town of Calitri is not well known but I like that it is simple to remember and type.

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!
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Hosting does not have to be expensive. See recent discussion viewtopic.php?t=25508&highlight=

... or if you don't want to host your website on your own domain (no idea why you wouldn't) then you can always buy your domain name for about £10 and then pay for email only hosting, although you won't save a great deal on some of the low cost complete hosting packages out there, which would have email included.

Google Apps is an Email + Document sharing solution

However, I have the feeling you may not be interested in maximising your income or making the most of your rental property and are content with just a few bookings to cover the costs, which is fine. If this is so, then our advise to spend some money to give a more professional front to your business doesn't really apply.
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Thanks very much for the thread link!

I guess I don't mean I don't want to maximize bookings, etc. but I've had a very popular, very busy, very business-like rental property in the US and this one is very different - it is not in a traditionally tourists area and extremely off-the-beaten-path and rather bare-bones ;-) we've done well over the past 9 years(can't believe it's been that long!) but the cliental is different - very friendly and casual, if that makes sense. It does not sleep large groups either so that plays a part but mainly if attacts people looking very very specifically to visit that area of Italy to find their heritage or for an obscure site or vineyard or who have travelled extensively in Italy...we rarely get just a relax-in-the-sun-type guest (although occasionally!) many past guests have become personal friends ;-) & many call me to chat about the town & Italy and a few have bought properties nearby. We also get visitors of other owners who need extra space....anyway...I hadn't focused on being very business-like with this one because the casual friendly approach has worked thus far ;-) but that dosen't mean I'm opposed to a professional-looking website for sure! Honestly, even if every single week booked, it was not going to ever make the kind of serious money the NYC property was taking in - and the time and energy as spending to keep that one up was a lot...so that as where my focus was. It s always an investment whereas, this one, was for us ;-) & we'd never sell it anyway even if we never rented it (but it's nice to cover costs and I don't like it sitting empty!)
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

For example, the one FC recommended in that thread gives 3 email addresses, plenty of web space and 1 database, which would be required, for example, if you had a Wordpress site.

That's only 24 Euros a year for email AND web hosting. Then you add to that the domain name cost and it's still very cheap. Just 1 day extra booking a year would pay for it. It just doesn't seem worth the effort trying to go the freebie route.
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Yes, I just clicked through to that. The price seemed too good to be true - if FC hadn't recommend I'd be concerned it wasn't legit!

I'm wondering though, since I'm so new to this if I'd be better off w godaddy or something w a website builder feature (?)
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Post by Musetta »

The more sites I look through, the more confused I get :-( O see that I can just get a domain at Wordpress w my blog for $18/yr w email forwarding and would automatically redirect from old blog...or buy a domain at godaddy for $10/yr (just domain name...or for a promo of $12 first yr I can get a website w it too that renews at $72/yr...and now I'm confused w options!
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Post by Essar »

I use one.com; first year for a domain name is usually free, you get unlimited email, there's a web builder app and it supports WordPress.
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Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

Thank you, Essar! That looks fairly perfect for my needs!

(I guess now I need to decide if I'm going to keep my trusty-but-in-need-of-updating wordpress pages in use as my main site or start anew w a website...and maybe keep the blog separate.)

Thank you, everyone, for listening to my rambling!
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Musetta wrote:Yes, I just clicked through to that. The price seemed too good to be true - if FC hadn't recommend I'd be concerned it wasn't legit!

I'm wondering though, since I'm so new to this if I'd be better off w godaddy or something w a website builder feature (?)
I would strongly advise against GoDaddy and their website builder. It's absolute rubbish. The only decent online host provided website builder I've come across was Weebly. Most are extremely limited.

It would seem you know how to use Wordpress so why not just stick with that? There are some excellent themes available and the premium ones are well worth the one off cost. You can host a Wordpress site anywhere, not just Wordpress.com.
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Post by FelicityA »

Have you looked at http://www.promotemyplace.com/ ? I love it, particularly their customer service! As well as being an excellent easy website builder for the non technical (moi) I am pretty sure they can set you up with a domain name. I had my own already so I just moved to there. If you do like it and decide to go ahead just PM me for a referral code that gives a little bit off for you and me on the subscription ( currently £69/year).
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

true re: wordpress. I like it and it's so simple - so much more user-friendly than when I first it up in 2006 or '07! Perhaps I need to just get over my outdated-looking pages and make new pages with a nice new theme (or even old I guess w new photos, etc.) Perhaps I should just buy the wordpress domain since it's so inexpensive or pay for a host that supports wordpress so I can just keep it to what I'm used to but have the added benefit of a domain and email and a more professional presence. It does seem to be the most economical solution. What's your take, Kev, on the one.com option? maybe unnecessary if I'm going to build the site on wordpress anyway?
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