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This may be a “yeah, I already knew this” scenario for some, but it might make others incredibly happy. If you’ve never heard of Google Apps, nor know about how you can create a Gmail account for all of your domains and point them to the same inbox, then you’ll probably be overjoyed enough to read on :)

Google Apps is an enterprise-level set of office tools that’s used on the corporate level to set up mass Gmail accounts, calendar sync, and all of that other stuff that’s typically done through Microsoft Office. However, they also have an equally awesome Standard Edition for people like you and me who don’t want to pay anything.

Google Apps Standard Edition essentially gives you a Gmail account that you can use for your own domain name. You can create whatever account you please, such as “info@mysite.com,” “sales@mysite.com,” “admin@mysite.com” or anything else. You can do this for multiple domain names, AND, have all emails across all domain names flow into the same inbox. So, you can have emails from “info@mysite.com,” “info@myothersite.com” and “admin@myblog.com” flow to the same place.

The only catch with the Standard Edition is that your reply will be sent from the primary domain name that you set your account up with. In other words, in looking at the example above: if we created the Google Apps account with “info@mysite.com” and reply to an email that came in from “admin@myblog.com,” the reply would be visibly set as “info@mysite.com.” It’s best to create your Google Apps Standard Edition account with your official business’ URL. I personally used my LLC’s domain name for it. Alternately, you could also create a Google Apps account for every single domain name you own.

How to Create A Google Apps Standard Edition Account

Visit the standard edition site and proceed with the new account creation process.

Eventually, you’ll have to add MX records to the domain name you set your account to – this can only be found through your web hosting account. Personally, I’m running off of my own VPS server, which is running the WHM control panel system. Google gives instructions on how to update your MX records (since you probably don’t know how to do it, unless you’re a server geek) for all different platforms: WHM, GoDaddy, cPanel, 1and1, and several others (simply search their help section for “MX records” and you’ll find more results).

The Google Apps dashboard appears after you've logged in, giving you access to your email and other Google features.

When you create your account, simply bookmark the direct link for your new email account. It can be found at “mail.google.com/a/mydomain.com” – you’ll also automatically get a Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Sites and Mobile account with it. You can also create up to 50 users: joe@mysite.com, mike@mysite.com, mary@mysite.com, etc., and give each of them their own login.

Google Apps' email account looks and functions identically to Gmail, except you use yourname@yourdomain.com!

I can tell you as a fact – nothing looks more professional and gives more credibility than owning the “info@mydomain.com” email address for your online business domains. They’re even required for certain business-related ventures, directories or organizations you might join in the future.

Conclusively: if you love Gmail, don’t know how to set up your own email addresses, need to set up multiple email accounts for your associates, and want to have one main account that collects all of the emails coming in from several of your domain names into one convenient place, then Google Apps Standard Edition is the answer to your prayers!