Although it may not seem to be the case when you look at some hosting packages, in reality there is no limit on the number of addresses you can have linked with your domain name. Once you've got a domain name for your website, you can set about creating sensible and professional looking email address.
Don't use Gmail or Hotmail or other free services
Whilst they may be easy to set up, free services just don't look professional.
There's nothing to stop you sending all your email to one of these services and dealing with it there, just don't publicise that!
If you haven't got your own domain name, it could be worth getting one purely for the capability of using it in your email correspondence. Domain names are cheap and you can forward any emails to an account of your choice or handle them with webmail if you prefer.
Don't use abbreviations
Unless you're only ever known by the abbreviated version of your name (even by your grandmother!), don't use it as part of your email address.
The same goes for nicknames.
They don't exude an air of professionalism and whilst we don't necessarily consciously notice them when we're clicking the reply button in our email programs, rest assured that they are noticed and the signals that are given off will reflect on you.
Use punctuation if necessary
This applies more to company addresses than it does to personal ones but it's worth taking account of either way.
Most larger companies have a naming convention for their email addresses - often it's first and last name, separated by a full stop.
You can give off the impression of being a much larger company than the one man band that you actually are if you use this convention as your main address.
That said, if you're giving out your email over the phone or typing it into a reply on your mobile, it's usually easier not to include any punctuation other than an "@" sign, so think about how you're most likely to give out your email address.
Don't use a generic email address for your email
Whilst it seems that almost every website has things like an info@ address, that's not the case.
Generic email addresses have their place - it's a useful way of filtering out sales enquiries versus tyre kicking enquiries - but not for personal correspondence.
Most people prefer to deal with people and that means that they prefer replying to email addresses that show signs of having been sent by a real person rather than a robot.
Do forward a generic address to a real one
Sales@, info@, contact@ and other similar email addresses all have their place.
If someone is just visiting your website and doesn't want to use the contact form or phone you, there's a good chance that they'll use one of those common prefixes as a best guess.
Because most website hosts expect every single email address that you want to use to be explicitly set up, it's worth making sure that these generic emails are automatically forwarded on to you and then you can use your more professional address to send the reply.
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