Things to Consider When Creating an E-mail Address

Email is a great way to communicate. However, just like regular, or snail mail, you need an address in order to have your email reach you.

Unlike snail mail, you have a lot of flexibility in creating your email address. Granted, various providers sometimes have limitations on the number of characters and what characters and names you can use. In most cases the address must also end in .com or .net.

However, unlike snail mail, one can usually have multiple email addresses while incurring little or no expense. The nice part about this is that you can create different email accounts with different email addresses for different purposes.

Having all this freedom lets a person be very creative. However, there are some practical considerations in additions to creativity. These considerations will vary depending upon how you want to use the email account.

If the email is going to be used solely to communicate with some high school or other close friends, the address can be as outrageous as you want subject only to the provider's limitations and how many other people also want the same name. Sometimes the more outrageous the name the more popular it is which forces you to either try numerous email providers in hopes of finding one where no one else has beaten you to the name or modify the name by adding numbers before or after the name. Thus if stud@isp.com is already taken, you might be able to get stud24897@isp.com.

One problem with cute, silly or pornographic email addresses is that, while they may be fine when used among friends, they can create a negative image of the user when used with strangers. For instance, how would you feel about contacting surgeon, whose email address is all-thumbs@isp.com, about scheduling some delicate brain surgery? Or how about enrolling your child in a preschool where the director's email address is predator@isp.com?

So, while cute, silly or pornographic email addresses may be fine for a small circle of close friends, you may want a different address for professional purposes. Something like John@smith.com or neverlatedelivery@isp.com might be more appropriate for conveying a positive image to potential employers or customers. In addition to being professional sounding, you may also want something that is easy to remember if you are in sales. While it is a good idea to put your email address on your business card, people do lose cards so, if your address is easy to remember, the customer can still contact you. You can buy your own domain name and most domain name hosting services include email with the hosting. I was surprised that, while both my first and last name were already registered by others as .com, both my first and last name together and my son's first and last name together were available as a .com. So I registered both of them just to have them available if either of us ever needs an easy to remember email address for business.

In other cases you may want to remain anonymous and have an email name that has neither a negative connotation nor a connection to you. I have one email address that has no negative connotations and is easy to remember but also does not have any revealing information about me. I have that as one of my Yahoo address names and use it when I don't want to reveal my name. I also used the same name for a Netscape email account which I opened solely for the purpose of using it to accept offers and participate in sweepstakes both of which generate lots of spam as a byproduct. This way I have an easy to remember name that also directs the flood of spam that follows the sweepstakes entry or information request to a mailbox that I don't use for anything else.

So, when choosing an email name, determine what you want to use that email address for, then design the name accordingly. If the name you choose is not something that you can use for all of your email purposes, open additional accounts and choose a name that is both easy for you to remember and appropriate for its intended use.