I’ve never put much thought into email before. It wasn’t a super big deal to me; I had no professional needs with it, just a regular online-life email. I had no custom email addresses; I just used what Google and Apple gave me.

Until you read a few stories about people being locked out of their email accounts and losing everything.

This brings email to the forefront and makes you consider who your email provider is and whether you have a backup plan.

Most non-professionals end up with Apple Mail, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, or a similar service. Remember AOL “You’ve Got Mail”. I’ve had them all over the years, including Hotmail. The last few years have been focused on Apple, Gmail, and Yahoo. You know the routine: an Apple address for business, a Gmail address for website accounts, and Yahoo for my spammy stuff - I don’t care if I lose this email.

That’s always been enough.

Recently, a lot of fuss was made on Mastodon about an individual who lost his Apple account after being locked out for using a bogus Apple gift card, according to the story.

This made me deep-dive into my reliance on big companies and who controls my data, especially email, email addresses, email Providers, backup plans, and best practices to avoid losing access to your email.

I’m not saying this is the best way, but it’s a lot better than what I had. It may help you as well. I think it’s pretty bulletproof.

What you want:

Your own email addresses with a custom domain: They are yours; you never have to change them. You can move them to any domain provider that suits you. Mine are at Hover. If Hover ever goes out of business, or things get flaky, I can move my domain names to another provider. The important part is that my email addresses will never have to change unless I want them to.

An email provider/service that you register your custom domain names to: This needs to be a service that has everything you need from a provider: cost, aliases, good apps, and a good look and feel. You can use your custom domains with Google or Apple, but why? You are risking some real hassles. There are excellent providers with minimal risk, such as FastMail, Proton, and others. This is where some good research will pay off. Review everything, find something that fits your needs and budget, then follow the Provider’s instructions to register your domain names with it. Remember, you can always move Providers later if you need to. At Proton, and now want to move to FastMail, just move your domains over to FastMail. In theory, you won’t lose any emails, as undeliverable emails will bounce for days, always trying to reach their destination. By the time your domains are registered with the new Provider, emails sent to and from you during this transition period will eventually reach their new home. At least that is what I’m told.

I went with Proton Mail. They have easy-to-follow instructions for setting up your domains, provide email aliases, offer good apps, and encrypt your email from start to finish.

An Alias Email Address Structure/System: The next step is to plan which email address to use for each location. You’ll have your primary email address, your favorite one. You want to keep this one mostly off the internet. You don’t want a ton of spam going to it after all these companies get hacked, and they have your email you used to sign up for all these services and accounts. In steps aliases. Most email services provide aliases for you to use. I went with a custom domain for my aliases, too; this way, I have complete control over how they look and can maintain a regimented structure. I’m using a service called SimpleLogin. I attached my custom domain to it, and now, I can make a unique address for each online account I ever sign up for. This way, when it’s eventually leaked online, and I start getting spam to it, I can change it. I only have to change one email address, and the spam stops. Suppose you use your primary email address for all your online accounts; you’re stuck. You will eventually get tons of spam, and the thought of going back and changing hundreds of email addresses will make your eyes cross, and you’ll say screw it.

My Email Plan in Action

I have three custom domains. One is for my personal email, one is for secondary/recovery emails in online accounts, and the third is my aliases email with SimpleLogin.

My business and personal email are with my main/favorite email address. Every other online account has a unique email address, an alias. This is where your email Provider will help, or you can use a custom service like SimpleLogin. I’ve been using SimpleLogin for years now, and it’s an excellent service. I’ve had zero issues with them. When that alias email gets compromised, and it will, I change that one email. Easy.

For example, I just signed up with The Atlantic magazine. It gets its own custom email: theatlantic@yourcustomdomain.com. I use the name of the account I’m signing up for; that way, I always know which account it is and which email has been compromised. Hit the easy button!

I now have 150+ email addresses out there on the internet; they all go to the same email Provider and open in the same Mac or iOS app—clean, simple, and pretty bulletproof.

Benefits

• Everything can be moved.
• Nobody can lock you out of your emails.
• You’ll never have to change more than one email address when that one ends up on the dark web for sale, and hundreds of spam emails are inundating your inbox every day.
• Every new account you sign up for gets its own email address. Your-new-account@yourcustomdomain.com or a structure that you can remember. You’ll never forget your username again.
• An easy backup schedule that can be automated if needed.

Downsides

• You’re not getting free email anymore. All this is going to cost you something every year. But, with that comes a lot of peace and a whole lot less spam.
• Once you get your new email address, you will spend days, weeks, and maybe months changing all your emails from that Google address to your sporty new custom ones. But it’s worth it. It will be the last time you have to do this.

Let me know if you have any additional tips or if you see a vulnerability in my plan.

As always, thank you for reading.