101 email tips for new and experienced users

For more than a decade, I have been helping people 'get on the Internet'. I've guided beginners as well as advanced users on how to take full advantage of email and the web as a whole. During these years, people have asked me all sorts of questions, from simple ones (which are sometimes the most difficult to answer and explain) to really convoluted queries that left me dumbfounded. The email tips compiled on these pages are a result of such interactions. I dedicate them to the kind inquisitive souls who wanted to know more.

And if you have questions of your own, feel free to ask using the form at the bottom of this page.

Get email for free

You don't need to pay for an email account if you don't want to. There are tens of services that offer free email accounts. The most noteworthy of them are Gmail from Google, Hotmail from Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL. Below are links to pages with detailed instructions and screenshots that will help you in getting an email account in a matter of minutes.

• Gmail
• Hotmail
• Yahoo!
• AOL

Free or Paid email account

Most, if not all, free email accounts are sponsored by advertisements - image banners or simple text ads. They are typically displayed at the account when you are checking, reading or composing messages. To get rid of the ads, take out your credit card and upgrade to the "paid" version. The cost is quite negligible when you consider all the goodies that come with the upgrade such as extra storage space, larger attachment size, better customer support etc. Free accounts from all popular email services can be converted to paid ones for as little as $20 per year.

I.S.P. email address

Generally, Internet Service Providers (I.S.P.s) offer one or more free email accounts with the Internet connection. Such accounts are fine when you are just starting out on the interesting journey to the World Wide Web because the company's web site and customer support will be able to help you at each step.

However, it is not advisable to continue using an I.S.P. email account for a long time. Why? Because, in the unforeseen future, you might relocate to an area where the I.S.P. has no service. You would then have to let go that email address. To know more, read the advantages and disadvantages of using I.S.P. based email accounts.

Format of an email address

An email address consists of two parts separated by the 'at' (@) sign. The first part is the username, also known as user ID, and the second, is the domain name. Case does not matter in an email address; thus, [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] are all the same and can be used interchangeably.

Tip: Feel free to use capitalization if you feel it will help people remember the email address, as in [email protected].

Email username

All popular email services let you choose a username as long as it is available, i.e. not in use by another subscriber. Since the username is the first part of the email address and differentiates your account from others, remember to pick one that "describes" you in some manner.

For example, TheFootDoctor is an excellent username for a podiatrist. I also advise avoiding numbers in the username unless they are a part of your business / organization name. In another article, I've provided several tips on how to choose a good username for your email address.

Email domain name

The domain name in the email address determines where your account 'resides'. For instance, an email ending with gmail.com means the account exists on the Google's Gmail servers. Similarly, the domain names yahoo.com, rocketmail.com and ymail.com belong to the Yahoo! Mail service. Unfortunately, the popular email services don't offer much choice in the way of domain names. However, you can try mail.com which has tons of domain names to choose from. You may just be lucky in getting a great email address of your name.

An email account on your own domain name - a truly personal email address

Though getting a domain name and creating one or more email addresses is a tad more tedious and may cost you a little (less than $20 per year), it is the best way to project a 'professional image'! It's also a small price to pay for prestige, right?

Once you get a domain name, you can create as many email addresses as you want. Check out Network Solutions which is one of the most trustworthy companies in this industry. To know more, read how to create a personal email address.

More than one email account

When you are just starting out, it's difficult to choose from the four services mentioned above, though I believe that Yahoo! email is the best (this is solely my opinion). So here is what you should do - create email accounts at all the services: Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and AOL.

Once you like the features of a particular service, make that email address your primary online contact and ignore the other accounts which will be closed on their own (more on this in the next point). FYI, you can create more than one account at each of these popular services.

Email accounts also die

Free email services expect subscribers to log in regularly - the only way they can make money is by showing ads, right? If the account shows no activity for a stipulated period of time, it is shut down and all the messages are deleted forever. This period of inactivity varies from service to service so be sure to log in at least once during this time else your email address will expire.

Limits set on your email account

There are many limits set at an email account and this is especially true on free email services. The most important limit is the storage space, though Yahoo!, AOL and a few others have removed all boundaries (read about unlimited storage space email accounts). Email attachments are also restricted to a certain size, typically 25MB. Another constraint is the number of messages you can send from an account in one day. For instance, on Hotmail this limit is 300 messages.