Is your email promoting you or your internet service provider? Does your email address add to your business or distract from your professionalism? Does it say you're serious about your business and professional image or does it imply you just threw your business together or do it "on the side"?

One of the easiest things to do to solidify your professionalism in your communication and marketing materials is to have a professional email address. Here's why you should do this and the common client turn offs that come from your email address.

1. Don't wait for the "perfect" business name to come to mind.

There's nothing more perfect than YOURNAME@YOURFULLNAME.COM. This will always stay the same no matter what your business evolves into. Even if you change your business, you can always still use that email address. It's a solid, grounded choice.

2. Stop promoting your ISP and start promoting YOU.

When your email address points to your internet service provider (for example YOURNAME@AOL.com) you are promoting your ISP with each email instead of you as a business entity. This used to be okay in the early days of the internet, but with the advent of everyone and your grandmother having email, you'll need something more professional to stand out.

3. Show them you're a professional.

When I see an professional marketing piece that uses an email address that points to an ISP, I have two immediate thoughts. A newbie in the field or someone who doesn't know what they are doing with their marketing.

4. Buying energy is yang, not yin.

(As in balancing the energy of Yin and Yang) Health practitioners and healing arts professionals are most susceptible to this. Email addresses with new age references, sanskrit and quirky names that only you understand are fine for personal correspondence but not at all professional for communicating and networking with clients. It only serves to confuse people. If you want people to buy from you, choose language that is concrete and grounded (yang).

5. Choose .COM.

Why is ".com" better than ".info/.biz/.us/.net/.org?" Think of the companys or experts you admire? What is their website's domain address? Chances are, it ends with ".com." ".COM" = ready for commerce and is the easiest to remember. Everything else has another implication. (".NET" is okay, but stay away from the others).

Here's a breakdown of the above examples I shared. See if you can get a "feel" for what each address projects.

janesmithhealthisvibrance@yahoo.com Jane is what? Vibrance what? Watch for buzzwords that make you sound like a stereotypical health nut.

janesmith@yahoo.com Better, but still affiliated with Yahoo! Which is known as a freebie email service. Not too invested is she?

jane@janesmith.com Hmmm... I wonder what Jane is up to? I think I'll check out her website. JaneSmith.com

(If you don't have your website up, it's okay. You can set it up to say "Coming Soon!" And, it will give you momentum to get it done because you should absolutely have one.)

It's really easy to set up a professional email address and doesn't cost much. Here's what you do.

Go to a service such as GoDaddy.com (they are my favorite - great prices, reliable services and good customer service) and purchase a domain name (YOURFULLNAME.com).

Then sign up for an email account (at godaddy.com it's free with each domain purchase) and follow the instructions to send and receive from this email address using your current internet service provider.

Let people know of your new email address. Hang on to your old one for personal use or set it up with an automatic reply that gives people your new, more professional email address.

That's it!

To your professional expansion.