>>To All,
>>
>>Recently I have considered dropping my GLRsoftware.com web site. I have had it for many years, but have done little to maintain it in the recent years. It was a cool thing when I first developed it, but it old (classic ASP), and I rarely do anything to update it. The site is hosted by GoDaddy. Which I like. They also host my Email and FTP. But currently I have offering my GMail email address to friends and clients. GLRsoftware inbox (and spam box) are becoming saturated with email messages I don't even wish to read, yet alone respond. Also with Cloud storage available (MS OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and DropBox), I don't even have to bother with having a FTP client application. Plus I could move many of the download application and tools I offer to GitHub. All of these cover about 90% of the reason I have the web site in the first place. I started it more as a sandbox to learn web development, but became more of a storage area. Besides, having the GLRsoftware.com as part of my email address have giving people that I have an active company, which I don't anymore.
>>
>>Opinions? Suggestions?
>
>I'd say whether you want to maintain a web site is up to you.
>
>IMO there are some benefits to having your own domain for e-mail. One is when you sign up for services such as online banking. If you use an e-mail address on your own domain, you always have full control.
>
>Historically the most common alternative was to use one of the free e-mail addresses normally provided by your ISP e.g. MyName@MyISP.com . This works OK until you change ISPs, in which case you either have to maintain that mailbox at your old ISP, or change the address you used for all those online services.
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>These days another alternative is Gmail or similar. The downsides to that are Google reads your mail, and you're still vulnerable to Google disabling or deleting your account as they see fit.
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>As for "appearance" of an e-mail address, for business or professional use, MyName@MyISP.com looks unprofessional. MyName@gmail.com is not a lot better; it's increasing used by professionals but some people are reluctant to let Google read mail they send to those accounts. Using any custom domain is better. I for one don't read too much into the actual custom domain name, but if you don't like the one you have, get another one and forward mail to it, then wean your contacts over to the new domain.

Thanks Al for your insight.

Even though I agree with your point, I may point out that whether I allow Google or GoDaddy to host my email account appears mute. I guess it would be different if the web site and email was a personal web server. Then changing from a private to a public environment would be giving up some of my privacy. But currently I would say that some 7 out of the 10 emails I receive are from places I never subscribed to (spam). My GMail email address does not have this issue currently. And for the professional appearance. I basic consider myself retired. And any work that requires a client to contact me via email, the email address means little to them.

Sorry, it has been a long day, and I feel I am rambling.