Are you afraid to give out your email address for online subscriptions and purchases? Or are you missing out on good websites and newsletters because you fear that if you give out your email address you will be inundated with spam?

There is an easy way to solve this problem. Just get a special email address that you use only for online forms and subscriptions. This is easy to do and it doesn’t cost a penny.

Just surf over to one of the websites that offer free email. The two most popular are Microsoft Hotmail  and Yahoo!Mail. These are web-based email programs. Although each program may be slightly different, you will find that they look and feel similar to the email program that you are currently using.

The biggest difference between these web-based accounts and the Netscape, Outlook Express, Outlook, or other email program that was set up when you got your Internet access is where the mail is kept. If you are using the email program that you received from your Internet Service Provider, your email is downloaded from the Internet to your own hard drive. With programs like Hotmail or Yahoo!Mail, your mail is kept on the Web servers of the company that provides the program.

These services are just as secure as other email programs and they offer the added value of being available from anywhere in the world. You simply access the Internet and log on to the service with your user name and password. Your mail and your personal address book are available whether you are at home, at work, or on an African adventure.

You can use your new email account anytime you are asked for an email address. You only have to check this email box occasionally for newsletters, purchase confirmations, and other miscellaneous information.

If you distribute your regular email address only to friends and acquaintances, your personal mailbox will be more private and less of a magnet for spam. If your regular email has already become spam infested, you can get an extra web-based email account and use it as your more private personal account. If you are careful to only give your new address to people you want to get email from, that account will be less prone to spam. All of the web-based email accounts have spam filters that also lessen spam.

If you want to go one extra step, you can get a free Gmail account from Google. The extra step is that you have to either get someone who already has a Gmail account to invite you to join or you have to give Google a cell phone number. They use the cell phone number to send you a text message code that you then use to set up your account.  This may sound a bit convoluted, but it does limit spam. I have a Hotmail account, a Yahoo!Mail account, and a Gmail account, and the Gmail account is the most spam-free. You can get a free Gmail account at the Google website.  

Web-based email accounts are useful and they are free. Try one out. You’ve got nothing to lose.

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