I recently talked about how to take back your mailbox from junk mail. Today’s post is to talk about how to do the same for your email!
I registered andrewknight.com back in 1998. Â Back then, SPAM was not the problem it is today. I had used my andrew at andrewknight address for years. Â I had given it out to hundreds of people and organizations and quietly over time it had started collecting a lot of spam.
At the end of 2005 I tried using some spam filters but found that I was missing some legitimate emails and I was still getting spam in my inbox. The solution? Create an e-mail alias system for all my e-mail. Here is how it works:
1) Create a new email address that you only give to friends and family. Â This is a painful step as you need to update your contacts but I found that people caught on quickly.
2) Keep your current e-mail on for about a month and then turn it off. This will force people to start using your new email.
3) Now to the alias part. For EVERY website or company that needs your email address create a unique email address to use. Â Currently I have over 350 of these!
The beauty of this system is that if an address ever starts getting spam on it you can simply turn off that email. You will also know who the culprit is so you can “plug the hole”. I did this recently with 2 of my emails that started getting SPAM on them. Â One was website at thisdomain.com and godaddy at thisdomain.com. Both were published on the web and the spammers picked up on them.
I have used this system for the past 3 years and I highly recommend it for taking back control of your inbox!
