Email Alias – How to Set Up a Professional Email for Free

Are you still using a generic email address like [email protected] for your professional correspondence? While there‘s nothing inherently wrong with that, having a custom email at your own domain, like [email protected], gives a much more polished and established impression.

In fact, a study by GoDaddy found that 75% of consumers believe a professional email address is key to building trust with a business. And according to a survey by Verisign, 65% of consumers believe a company-branded email is more credible than a generic one.

The good news is, you can set up this professional email alias for free, as long as you already have an email account at a service like Gmail or Outlook. You just need to own the domain name you want to use.

In this guide, I‘ll walk you through the steps to create a custom email alias and configure it to work with your existing email account. No technical skills required! By the end, you‘ll have a professional email address you can put on your resume, business cards, and anywhere else you want to make a good impression.

What Is an Email Alias and Why Use One?

An email alias is an additional email address that points to your real email account. When someone sends an email to the alias, it gets automatically forwarded to your main account. And when you reply, you can configure it so that the reply appears to come from the alias rather than your main account.

Why bother setting up an email alias? Here are a few key benefits:

1. Professionalism: A custom email at your own domain looks more professional than a generic address from Gmail, Yahoo, etc. It shows you‘re serious about your personal brand.

2. Consistency: Using the same domain for your website and email helps with consistent branding across your online presence. It keeps things looking neat and unified.

3. Memorability: A custom email is often easier for people to remember, since it matches your name. [email protected] is more intuitive than [email protected].

4. Privacy: By using an alias for things like online registrations, you can reduce spam to your main inbox and keep your primary email more private.

5. Flexibility: If you ever change your main email account, you can usually keep the same email alias and just update where it forwards to. This provides continuity.

The beauty of an email alias is that you get these benefits without having to check a separate inbox. Everything funnels conveniently into your existing account.

Getting a Custom Domain Name

To set up an email alias, the first thing you‘ll need is your own domain name. While the email forwarding itself can be done for free, purchasing a domain does cost a bit of money.

However, a basic .com domain is pretty affordable, usually around $10-15 per year. Think of it as an investment in your professional identity. You can use it for your website and email for years to come.

When choosing a registrar to purchase your domain from, consider factors like:

• Reputation: Look for a well-established, widely-used registrar with a history of reliable service. Some popular options include Google Domains, Namecheap, and GoDaddy.
• Pricing: Compare prices for the initial registration as well as future renewals. Be aware of any add-on fees for things like privacy protection.
• Interface: Check out screenshots or demos of the registrar‘s control panel. Make sure it looks user-friendly and has the options you need.
• Customer support: Read reviews of the registrar‘s customer service. You want a provider that will be helpful if any issues come up.

Once you‘ve picked a registrar, search for the domain you want and add it to your cart. Most registrars offer additional services like hosting and SSL certificates, but for a basic email alias, you usually just need the domain itself.

When choosing a domain for your email alias, a good formula is to use your first and last name if available, like johnsmith.com. If that‘s taken, you might try:

• Adding your middle initial: johnqsmith.com
• Using .net or .co instead of .com
• Incorporating your profession: johnsmithdesign.com
• Including a word like "hello" or "mail": hellojohnsmith.com

The key is to keep it professional and easy to spell. Avoid numbers, hyphens, and unusual extensions if possible.

Setting Up Email Forwarding

Once you have your domain, log into your domain registrar‘s control panel to set up email forwarding. The exact steps will vary depending on the service, but the basic process involves:

1. Navigating to the email settings for your domain
2. Creating a new alias address, like [email protected]
3. Specifying your existing email as the destination address

Some registrars call it email forwarding, while others refer to it as an email alias or redirect. If you‘re having trouble finding the option, contact customer support for assistance. They deal with this all the time.

Here‘s an example of what the alias setup screen might look like:

Email Forwarding
Example

Note that with some registrars, there may be an extra step of adding MX (mail exchanger) records that specify the mail servers responsible for the domain. This is often as simple as copying and pasting values the registrar provides into the DNS settings. Again, customer support can clarify this if needed.

Example MX records:

Type: MX
Host: @
Value: In1-smtp.messagingengine.com
Priority: 10

Type: MX
Host: @
Value: in2-smtp.messagingengine.com
Priority: 20

Configuring Outgoing Mail

At this point, you‘ll start receiving emails sent to your new alias address in your main account‘s inbox. However, if you reply, it will still show your main email as the sender. Let‘s fix that, so your replies come from the alias.

The process for this will depend on your email provider. Many services call it "Send mail as" or something similar. Here‘s how to set it up for Gmail:

1. Open the Gmail Settings and go to the "Accounts and Import" tab
2. Under "Send mail as," click "Add another email address"
3. Enter your name and alias address
4. For SMTP Server, enter smtp.gmail.com
5. For Username, enter your full Gmail address
6. For Password, you may need to create an app-specific password
7. Set the port to 587 with TLS encryption
8. Click Add Account

You‘ll then need to confirm the address by clicking a link in a verification email. After that, you‘ll see an option to set the alias as your default sending address if desired.

Here‘s what the "Send mail as" section looks like in Gmail:

Send mail as
Example

Testing Your Setup

Before calling it a day, send a few test emails to make sure everything is working smoothly. Send one from your alias to another account and make sure the recipient sees it coming from the alias. Then reply and check that the response goes to your main inbox.

If all looks good, congratulations! You now have a professional email alias set up. Update your email signature, add the new address to your resume, put it on your business cards, and tell all your contacts. Enjoy the benefits of a custom email without the hassle of checking another account.

Choosing a Good Email Alias

We touched on this earlier, but it‘s worth reiterating some tips for selecting an email alias:

• Keep it professional. Avoid cutesy names like "NinjaMarketer99." Use your real name or a straightforward variation.
• Make it intuitive. People should be able to easily guess your email from your name. If you go by "Bob Smith," [email protected] is better than [email protected].
• Short is sweet. The longer and more complicated your email is, the higher the chance of typos when people try to contact you. Brevity is best.
• Avoid numbers if possible. Numbers can make an email look spammy or temporary. They‘re harder to remember than words.

Here are some examples of strong professional email aliases:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Of course, you may need to compromise if your ideal address is already taken. But in general, aim for an alias that is concise, memorable, and exudes professionalism.

Privacy and Security

Using an email alias can help protect your privacy by shielding your primary address from potential spam. You can freely give out the alias address, keeping your main account more guarded.

One potential privacy concern with aliases, though, is that if your alias and primary address are too similar, people might be able to guess the primary one. To reduce that risk, consider making the username part of your alias (the part before the @) a bit different from your regular address.

From a security perspective, using an email alias is relatively low-risk as long as you‘ve followed the setup steps carefully. But there are a couple of considerations:

• Make sure you trust the domain registrar and email provider you use. Stick with established, reputable services.
• Use a strong, unique password for your alias. And if possible, protect the associated accounts with two-factor authentication.
• Be aware that while email forwarding is generally reliable, there is a very small chance of messages getting lost in transit between the alias and your primary inbox. If you‘re concerned about this for critical emails, you may want to give out your main address as well as a backup.

Here are some more tips for securing your email alias:

• If your domain registrar offers it, enable WHOIS privacy to hide your personal information from public listings.
• Be cautious about posting your alias publicly on social media or forums, as this can attract spam.
• If you‘re concerned about a particular alias getting too much spam, you can always create a new one and phase out the old address.
• Use sub-addressing (also known as plus addressing) for even more control. Many email services let you add a plus sign and additional words after your email username (e.g. [email protected]) to create instant disposable addresses.

As always online, use common sense and implement standard security precautions, but there‘s no need to be paranoid. Millions of people use email aliases every day without issue.

Advanced Setup: Catch-All Alias

For even more flexibility, some domain registrars allow you to set up a "catch-all" alias. Instead of creating aliases one at a time, a catch-all redirects anything sent to *@yourdomain.com to a specified account.

So if you owned johnsmith.com, you could give out addresses like [email protected], [email protected], etc. and they would all forward to your main address without needing to be set up individually.

To set up a catch-all alias in your domain registrar‘s control panel, look for an option labeled something like "catch-all," "wildcard redirect," or "default address." Instead of specifying a full email address, you‘ll usually just need to enter the domain name and the destination address.

Here‘s an example of what a catch-all setup might look like:

Catch-All Redirect

*@johnsmith.com → [email protected]

This can be very convenient, but it does come with an increased spam risk, since spammers often try to guess common aliases. As long as your email provider has good spam filtering, though, it‘s still a handy option to have.

Using Aliases with Multiple Domains

As a full-stack developer, you might be working on several projects, each with its own domain. You can set up email aliases for each domain to keep your communication organized.

For example, let‘s say you have two side projects: an app called TaskWhiz and a blog called CodeGuru. You could set up aliases like:

• [email protected] for app-related communication
• [email protected] for blog-related messages
• [email protected] as a general contact address for the app
• [email protected] as a friendly address for blog readers to reach out

By using different aliases for different purposes, you can keep your inboxes tidy and quickly see which messages relate to which project. Plus, it just looks more professional to use a custom domain for each venture.

Using Aliases in Software Development

In addition to using aliases for external communication, they can also be handy for testing and development purposes.

For instance, if you‘re working on an app that sends automated emails, you might set up a series of aliases like:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Then, in your app‘s configuration, you can specify these aliases as the recipients for different types of emails (e.g. account activation, password reset, order confirmation).

This way, you can thoroughly test your app‘s email functionality without spamming your personal inbox or having to create multiple real user accounts. Just check the inboxes for the test aliases to make sure each type of email is firing correctly.

You could even take it a step further and set up aliases for different environments, like:

• [email protected] for development
• [email protected] for your staging server
• [email protected] for live emails

By separating your test emails by environment, you reduce the risk of accidentally sending a test email to real users.

Paid Email Hosting vs. Aliases

An alternative to using free email aliases is to pay for dedicated email hosting for your domain. With this approach, you get an actual separate inbox for your custom email address, not just a forwarding alias.

Paid email hosting gives you more control and eliminates the dependency on an outside email provider. However, it‘s usually at least $5 per month per address, and you‘ll have another inbox to check.

For most individuals, a free alias is sufficient to gain the professional benefits of a custom address. But if you run a business with multiple employees, dedicated email hosting may be worthwhile for the added customization and reliability.

Here‘s a quick comparison of the two options:

Feature	Free Email Alias	Paid Email Hosting
Custom domain	✓	✓
Separate inbox	✕	✓
Forwarding to main email	✓	Varies
IMAP/POP access	✕	✓
Custom spam filtering	✕	✓
Price	Free	$5+/month

So if you just want the appearance of a custom email address, an alias is a perfect solution. But if you need the full functionality of a standalone email account, paid hosting is the way to go.

Wrapping Up

Setting up a professional email alias is a quick and affordable way to level up your online presence. With a few dollars for a domain and a bit of configuration, you can have a custom email that elevates your brand without complicating your workflow.

An email alias is the best of both worlds: The professionalism of a custom domain, with the convenience and familiarity of your existing email account.

Whether you‘re a job seeker trying to stand out, a freelancer establishing your business, or a full-stack developer managing multiple projects, an email alias is a valuable tool to have in your kit.

So claim your domain, set up your aliases, and start reaping the rewards of a more polished and professional online identity. Your future self will thank you.