There comes a time when you might want email that is associated with your domain. After all it looks and free email verifier pretty slick to have something like, for example, bob at bobswidgets.com rather than just yourname at gmail.com. A number of people consider the first to be a little more professional. Now you could go the regular route and pay Google, this might be a great option especially if you want support, or you could have that for free. If you are thinking the free option, keep reading, otherwise see Google Apps for business (note that you will still end up having to do a bit of setup for this as well).
Just to clarify, there is some work involved in setting up Google Apps for free and the only support you will have is through Google Forums. These instructions assume a certain level of knowledge regarding your website. However you won't need to keep shelling out for your email to Google or anyone else. There are a few things you will need before you can do this:
1. A domain owned and hosted.
2. Access to the advanced DNS records via your domain registrar.
Here are the steps to take:
1. Sign up for free Google Apps. To get started choose Administrator and then put in your domain. Put in your business or personal information.
2. Pick an admin account. You need an admin account in order to make any changes going forward. You can just choose admin but it is generally more secure to put a person's name. The admin account will be just like any other in terms of functionality, it will just have admin rights.
3. Verify with Google. You need to verify with Google that you are truly an admin for the domain you are using. There are two options and we are going with the easier of the two, uploading an html file. Copy and paste the string of characters that Google displays for you into an html file and upload onto your site. You then click verify.
4. Use the Guide. At this point Google provides you with a step by step guide through the rest of the process. Pretty sweet, eh? Google makes it pretty easy.
5. Changing MX records. The hardest part of the process is setting up email to work since you have to create MX records. Not to worry, Google has instructions for most major domain registrars like Go Daddy, 1and1, DreamHost, and generic if you can't find yours in the list.
6. Shorten Your Mail Link. One of the things you want to be sure to do is shorten the URL used to access your email. See the information Google has on creating custom URLs.
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