How To Choose An Email Address

This is the first in my Tech Tuesday series and it was inspired by my recent foray into the world of email list building. I was scanning through my list of subscribers before I sent out this week’s edition of my Passive Income Tips and I noticed all the different types of email address and started wondering about each type.

What follows then is a listing of the various types of email addresses and when to use them and when not to.

Types of Email Addresses

The Disposable Email Address

A disposable email address is provided to create an email for one time or very limited use.

Find a disposable email address service.

Another alternative is a service called Bug Me Not which aims to combat the useless gathering of emails by sites that force you to register when there is no real reason for it by enabling “sharing” of logins. There is also a Bug Me Not Firefox plugin.

When to use:

• When you are asked for an email [called in the industry "squeezed"] to receive a freebie or get access to content.
• Also useful when you have doubts about the trustworthiness of the site where you are signing up, but you still need to confirm yourself with an email address.
• Rather than just making up an email address that you don’t own….I mean how do you think the guy that owns asdf@asdf.com feels the trash he must get.

When not to use:

• If you need an email address for longer than 30 minutes. So don’t give to anyone that you want to actually contact you.

Free Email Address

Free email addresses are very popular. The big providers include Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo.

Often they are semi-disposable meaning that every once in a while you can get a new one, send an email to the people you want to keep in touch with announcing your new address and abandon the account.

When to use:

• When you need lots of storage and easy portable web based access [you can send and receive email anywhere]. These accounts usually have the added advantage of pretty decent spam filtering and virus scanning.
• You’ll need one or more of these accounts to use many related services offered by these companies such as instant messaging, customized search and customized home page portals.

When not to use:

• If you mind having a side order of ads with every email you view or embedded in every email you send.
• If you care about presenting a professional image.
• For storing information that may be highly sensitive or damaging if it was to become public.

ISP Email Address

I call this category the big NO-NO. Examples would be email addresses that have the following as the domain section: Comcast, Shaw, Telus, AOL, Cox, Covad, Netzero etc.

When to use:

• Never…ever!

There is one advantage to this type of email address and that is that it can give you the features of a Freebie email address without the ads.

But the downside is so large that the ads are worth it.

Why do ISPs give free email addresses? To keep you hooked to their service. Let’s say you are signed up with Netzero and Comcast comes along and offers you a free PC just to switch to their Internet service, if you have been using Netzero as your primary email address and you switch, you may miss emails.

With people relying more and more on email for important communication, changing primary email addresses is not a trivial matter, just try and think back to all the people and websites you have given your email address to. It is just not a good practice to have a vital contact channel tied to who is providing your Internet service. One you’d prefer to have for life…the other you will likely change several times, so don’t bind them.

The same issues forced a law with cell phone companies to allow their users to keep their numbers even when they changed carriers. For email the only way to correct this issue is to not take the ISP provided email in the first place…just never use it, because you can’t take it with you.

Your Work Email

Using your work email address for your own personal business is almost the same as using your ISP’s email address. If you change jobs you could miss valuable communication.

When to use:

• For things relating to your work only.

When not to use:

• For anything that is personal…that you would want to know about even if you changed jobs.

Using Your Own Domain

This is the most professional option. Most domain registrars will allow you to register a domain and set up an email account for a small fee…you don’t even need to create a website.

They often come with basic spam protection and web-based access. I have a couple domain names that I use for this category: js.ca and jonjsymons.com.

When to use:

• When you want to project a professional image…on a resume, especially if you are a technical person, don’t use a free email service.
• You are doing business online, in these cases a freebie email address is tacky.

When not to use:

• If you are really all thumbs when it comes to technical stuff and you can’t bribe a nearby geek to help you get set up.

If you do decide to get your own domain to use for email don’t set up a *catch-all* address [meaning anything that is sent to the domain will be welcomed], you’ll get a TON of spam.

Summary

Clearly there a quite a few options when it comes to selecting an email address and really there is no right choice. People like me use all the options when appropriate.

It’s *never* appropriate to use the ISP provided email though…so if you are using one now, try and pick another option and begin to switch over now, so that when that killer deal comes in for the free flat panel or you move to a new city you’ll be ready to do it without losing contact with all your friends.

Bonus Email Tip

Never put your email address on the web like this notareal@address.com because there are automated programs that can “harvest” them and add them to spam lists. At the very least put them in this format jon[ at ]artofmoney.org and mention to replace [ at ] with the @ symbol. I see a lot of people posting their email address in forums with the “@” symbol in it and then they wonder why they are getting a ton of spam.

Happy emailing,

Jon

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