Most groups are fine with myawesomegroup@gmail.com, but sometimes you want to add the extra level of professionalism by using email addresses on your own custom URL.
Note: if you are using a custom URL on Alumni Spaces and need to make any DNS changes to support whatever custom email solution you use, our team will likely need to make those changes for you. Send us a note and we'll get it done ASAP.
1. Email Alias
Using an "alias" is good when you just have one or two people who need to send email on behalf of your group and they (or you) are fairly tech savvy or wiling to follow tutorials that involve DNS management. Essentially, this process involves telling your domain registrar or host to forward all of your email to an existing email address (like myawesomeclub@gmail.com) then telling Gmail to send email for you as if it were coming from that other email address. ProBlogger has a great tutorial on how to set this up.
The best part about this method is that it is typically free and easy to setup.
2. Setup Custom Email Service
If you need a lot of email accounts or would prefer to have a more fully featured email service for your domain, you will want to setup a custom email account. This usually just requires buying a service then making a few DNS changes to your URL.
Some services that offer email solutions for custom domains:
Your domain registrar - if you bought your domain from a web hosting company like GoDaddy, chances are they also sell email accounts
ZoHo Mail - Zoho is not the prettiest interface you've ever seen, but their custom email is free up to 3 users and only a few dollars per account after that
Office 365 - for just $5/month per account, you can setup custom email accounts and have access to the full Microsoft Office 365 suite of collaboration tools
Google Apps - also $5/month per account, Google offers custom domains for Gmail that includes a private Google Docs setup for collaborating with your team.
While we do not officially sell or setup any of these solutions, we're happy to help you decide which tools are right for your group and answer any questions about setup you encounter along the way.