I want a new email address

January 10, 2011 / Updated: January 10, 2011 / Lena Shore
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Question

I would like to change my e-mail address,  do you have a suggestion on how I do this?

Answer

The first thing you need to do is decide if you like your domain name or want to change it.

Keeping Your Domain Name

If your email is [email protected] and you want to change it to [email protected] (and keep the comcast.net part) you can call your service provider (in this example that would be Comcast) and ask them to help you set up a new email address. Most internet service providers allow you several email addresses.

Keep in mind that whatever you put before the @comcast.net might already be taken by another person, so come up with some alternatives.

Changing Your Domain Name — FREE

If you want to change your domain name to something else, you have lots of free options: Google, Yahoo, Hotmail are a few. You can go to their respective websites and sign up for free account. My favorite free email is Google. In each case you will inherit the domain name of the provider ([email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]).

Again, the part before the @ will be subject to what is available, so have several ready to try.

Changing Your Domain Name — PAID

Another option is to purchase your own domain name and create your own email address. I own lenashore.com and I have the ability to create all the email addresses I want associated with it (lena@, info@, webmaster@, domainnames@, etc). The sky is the limit. Furthermore, when you own your very own domain, you have some flexibility to have all the emails go to separate accounts or to the same place.

Domain names range in cost, but you can usually purchase them for under $35 a year and you can get discounts is you purchase them for several years in a row.

Another advantage to having your own domain is that it never has to change. If you have a Comcast email address and quit their service and get Bellsouth instead, you lose your email address. If you own your own domain, you can keep it as long as you are willing to pay the yearly registration fee.

Letting everyone know about your new email address

After you get a new email address, you’ll want everyone to know what it is. I suggest a three part approach:

  1. If possible, keep your old email address active and have it forward all of your emails to the new email address.
  2. If you still have the old email address, change the “reply to” in your account settings to the new email address to encourage people to use the new one.
  3. Send out an email to your contact list telling them your email address has changed along with a expiration date on the old email address.

Eventually, you won’t get any mail from your old email address and can turn it off or stop checking it.

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