When I first got into affiliate marketing and blogging I thought it was important to use an email address with my company name instead of a free email service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc. so that sponsors would know I was legit.
But lately I’ve been doing work on several computers and sometimes on the road and I thought it would be handy to have all my sponsor update emails available on a site like Gmail so I can access them anywhere on any PC. If you’re a sponsor, would this concern you?
I suppose I could just set up automatic forwarding on my company email accounts so they go to a Gmail account and no one would ever know. But if using free email accounts is generally OK with sponsors I’d rather do that. I might even set up several email accounts based on niches or categories to help me better get a handle on the flood of emails I get each week.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
When I last used Gmail there was actually an option for retrieving (and sending I think) your POP3 mail accounts. But you’re right I always put more trust in someone who use their own domain name rather than a anonymous email account.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
Yes totally agree with Bjorn
and many times if you forget to check that gmail acct it fills and then we get a bounce back it gets frustrating when sending out affils update emails
I look more towards biz spec. accts too to trust
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
geez, if the gmail acct is filled, that’s a hell of a lot of messages being stored. I’ve been using gmail for eons now, and only had two issues for it, with sponsors. So not sure if its all that much of an issue these days. Though I agree, using one’s domain email is a bit more professional, it’s also a huge pain when you have a lot to check.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
One issue that you have to consider as well is that some free email services are a pain to deal with from a sponsor’s point of view. AOL comes to mind as one. You can only send so many emails in a certain time frame before you start getting into trouble. Gmail is a powerful email platform and there are many ways that you can get your emails into gmail for either just viewing or using it as a spam filter. As for setting up different accounts for niches. Why not set some filters up in your email program so they goto different folders? I have been doing that a lot lately.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
I have always hated them - “most” affiliates that use them don’t empty their inbox’s and so they get filled up… which means our affiliate mailers get bounced back… and that makes the whole affiliate “partnership” feel like a waste of time.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
Right, and when that happens more than four times in a row, our software automatically unsubscribes that affiliate from the mailing list.
As for it appearing more professional, sure that’s true. However, at the end of the day I really don’t care what you use as an Email account as long as you manage it properly (not letting it fill up). What I care about is if you’re sending any traffic (and sales of course). Not what Email service you use.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
I use Gmail as my email consolidator exclusively. It’s just so rock solid. After dealing with email systems since 1987 I can’t speak more highly of their service.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
I agree 1000%. Zero spam issues, rock-solid delivery, and it goes right to my Android so I know immediately if I have mail and can reply. As a tech person my reaction is the opposite of some of these replies – unless someone has a real good reason to host their own mail (and willing to pay a lot to make it work properly) most likely they’ve just fallen for a ‘vanity account’ scheme for $5 a month in the theory it looks more professional when in fact they likely are losing a lot of mail…
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
The thing is Gmail allows you to use your smtp server, IMAP and POP3. And it works flawless. If you want email coming from your SMTP relay server thru them it appears as professional as you can get. You can set it up to come from whatever email you have.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
Yep, gmail is rock, spam filters are second to none. The sheer size and volume of the gmail system means that they can detect spam much better than any other system.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
I agree with gumdrop, it is rock solid. You can also point your own mail domain to run over Gmail, I do that for the twinkpay domain. Works like a charm and its completely free. In fact, I just got rid of my Thunderbird program and now run everything over Gmail.
I don’t really care what email address my affiliates use. As long as they bring in sales.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
Well I’ve always used my free yahoo account, and people are just used to it by now. To switch would be a bit of a hassle, and I fear people will not recognize my new email if and when I start using it.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
We use Gmail, although we did take the white label option. So we keep our “vanity” domain and get all the rock solid performance and portability that Gmail offers.
Re: Sponsors: How do you feel about affiliates who use Gmail, YahooMail, etc.?
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I looked into the Google settings and it appears that I can set up Gmail to receive email from my company domain and also send messages from it as well. So unless I’m missing something, it looks like I can use Gmail without anyone really knowing. I guess I’ll give it a try.
