The Supercali- fragilistic- expialidocious Email Test

Several years ago a web hosting client came to me with a request for a new and exceedingly long email address. There's nothing more annoying than listening to someone spell out each letter of a thirty-five character email address over the phone. Having to be the one slogging through reciting all those letters is no fun either, so I knew I would do my client a favor if I could convince him to shorten the requested address.

But how to point out the obvious blunder of such a long address without using the phrase "obvious blunder"? My solution was what I have coined "The Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Test."

I sent an email to my client that compared the number of characters in his email address with that really long word we are all familiar with:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
TestUserLongEmailName@yourdomainname.com

This simple visual explanation was all I needed to convince my customer to go with a shorter email address. And it's worked many times since, as well.

Of course, this test works for more than just email addresses. Believe it or not, you'd be surprised at how many times clients have suggested website domains that are nearly as long as the "S" word.

So next time you are considering a long email address or domain name, try to err on the side of short and sweet--or you might not pass the test.