Free email services, such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo may appear to offer it all. Simple interfaces, the ability to check your email wherever you are, very little setting up—they can seem very appealing. However, if you then choose to conduct your business using one of these email addresses and get it emblazoned across your van or stationery, the end result is highly unprofessional.

It’s not just a question of taste, either. By using a free email address, for example, yourbusinsessname@hotmail.com, your business appears less legitimate and lacking in credibility. Some hyper-effective spam filters may even stop your emails from reaching their destination. All of this will have a serious effect on your brand.

Thankfully, these pitfalls can be avoided by simply having a registered domain and some email addresses. Hornet Web Solutions can provide you with everything cheaply and easily. Just tell us the domain (or domains) you would like, and the email addresses you need, and it can all be set up quickly and easily. So instead of yourbusinsessname@hotmail.com, you can tell everyone to use sales@yourbusinessname.com—which not only looks more professional, it also includes your website address, which is great for branding.

Here are some advantages of having a properly branded business address:

• More professional: Free email addresses can make your business look less credible, and less well established.
• Better branding: Having a domain name for your business means that each time you send an email, people will see your web address and your company name. Marketing for free.
• Ease of use: Once your email application has been set up (which we are happy to help with), even your personal email can be forwarded to your business address. This means you only need to look in one place for all of your email.

So there we go. If you want a simple way to improve credibility, branding and professionalism of your business, just ask Hornet Web solutions about registering a domain today.

The Learning Apps site (http://www.learningapps.co.uk) is written in Expression Engine, and I’m currently enhancing the ecommerce functionality using Exp:resso Store a handy and fully featured shopping cart solution for EE.

Textwall has been developed by Learning Apps Ltd. and is a highly useful tool that learners or delegates can send text messages to. The messages can then be shown on a large screen or interactive whiteboard as part of a lesson or event for everyone to see.

The designs can be viewed here:
http://www.hornetwebsolutions.com/ekl/

I just wanted to take a few moments to talk about my current situation. Having run Hornet Web Solutions since 2008, there have been many ups and downs - periods with too much work to handle, periods with the exact opposite, recalcitrant computers, burnt out iBook DC boards, the list goes on and on. I am however so pleased I made the switch from being a salaried employee to being my own boss and working from home, more so over the last couple of years than ever.

In December 2011 I was admitted to hospital for a colonoscopy. My GP referred me, as I’d shown symptoms of IBS for over a year that weren’t getting any better, despite many different treatments and drugs. The colonoscopy was immediately conclusive - I had active Ulcerative Colitis, a chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that was going to have to be treated with various medications, and at worst, bowel surgery. At first, this was a great surprise, and I felt elated; all those months of not understanding what was wrong me and now I had a diagnosis. It took a while for the reality to sink however, a lifetime of drugs, possible surgery, increased risk of cancer, lifestyle changes and chronic fatigue.

After a bad flare up of the disease a few weeks after my diagnosis, during which I was bed ridden for a fortnight, and couldn’t work for 2-3 months, I was prescribed the steroid Prednisolone, which thankfully brought down the inflammation and steadied my symptoms. With time and medication, the disease has gradually been brought under control, although I still suffer from bouts of fatigue which can wipe me out for days at a time. The worst part now is not knowing when the fatigue is going to strike, and, in addition, although the Colitis is in remission there is no cure other than surgery, and another flare up is possible.

Getting back to my first paragraph, my experiences with IBD have made me even more glad to be my own boss. I’m still more than capable of running my business, but working from home allows me the freedom to deal with my symptoms and to manage my condition. I’m glad I made the switch, and moreover I want much more awareness to be raised about IBD, that’s why I writing this post. So many people don’t want to talk about their symptoms, as it can be viewed as an embarrassing condition. I hope more people will share their stories and remove some of this stigma.

(Crohn’s and Colitis UK http://www.nacc.org.uk/ are a charitable organisation that provide support to patients with IBD and their families)

Mike here. I just wanted to say that I’ve been using Twitter Bootstrap (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) on a new project for a client, and I’m finding it incredibly useful. I look forward to seeing how it goes when applied to a full site, but for ease of use, and rapid prototyping, I’ve found it excellent so far.

I was very quick to jump on to the 960px grid system bandwagon that was all the rage a few years ago, and it really served its purpose at the time. Providing a solid grid-based system that had long been used in print circles, it allowed sites to be created quickly and effectively. With the explosion of mobile devices however, this rigidity was a drawback - sites were not optimised for mobile browsers and began to feel clunky compared to native apps. Now with frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation, sites can be designed with mobile in mind, and responsive from the beginning. Indeed, this very site was redesigned from the ground up using Skeleton (http://www.getskeleton.com/) a great, lightweight framework with responsive design in mind.

Adrian Ellerton, Yorkshire Quality Foods’ head of Finance and Administration, expressed his opinion of the site “Everyone has seen it now and expressed acclaim. Thank you once again.”