How often have you received the advice: "Stop using your Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, rochester.rr or frontiernet e-mail address for business?"

Do you then ask yourself: "What the heck's the matter with MyBusiness@frontiernet.net?" You know better than to use your personal e-mail address, cutechick@yahoo.com, for your business. But what's wrong with advertising your Frontier or Road Runner address if it uses your business name?

Well, here's the scoop: In today's business world, you need to have your business name as your domain name (www.mybusiness.com) in order to fully legitimize your business.

"An e-mail address with a domain name gives you more credibility," says Susan Kastan of Kastan Consulting in Rochester. "People take you more seriously." Mine, for example: sandy@zohariconsulting.com. You could also use your first initial and last name, as in szohari@azotekdatabases.com.

Free and low-cost solutions for setting up all of this are easily available to you. Here's how:

Do you already have a Web site that uses your own domain name? Find out if your Internet service provider also offers e-mail, as most do, and then just set up the accounts you need.

If your Web designer hosts your account, however, e-mail may not be available.

With Google Apps, you will be able to obtain free e-mail addresses using your existing domain name. You also have the option of purchasing one through Google for only $10 a year.

The standard app is free and comes with additional features for organizing your schedule and sharing events, creating Web sites and group wikis, plus sharing online documents.

It's a big help as well to maintain additional addresses, such as info and sales@mybusiness.com. You can have these addresses forwarded to your main business address, or monitor each one separately in an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook.

Sandra Zohari owns AzoTek Database Solutions.

This column is written by members of the Rochester Women's Network (www.rwn.org), which seeks to help women connect, grow and succeed