Make an Email Address for Free
Email is one of the most important forms of communication in today's digital age. It's the way that millions (if not billions) of people stay in touch with each other. Luckily, this form of near-instant communication is completely free. Make a free email account today to start sending and receiving email immediately. Read on below the jump for detailed instructions on registering a new email account with several of the internet's most popular email providers.
Contents
Steps
Making a Gmail Account
- Go to Gmail.com. The first step to creating an email account with Gmail, Google's free email service, is to visit Gmail's main site. Type "gmail.com" into your browser's navigation bar, or, alternatively, type "Gmail" into your search engine of choice and click the relevant result.
- Click "Create an account." On Gmail's login screen, look for an account creation link under the email and password entry boxes. Click this link to proceed to the account creation process.
- Note - if you already have a Gmail account registered on your computer (for instance, if a family member already has his or her own account), you will need to click on "Manage accounts on this device," then "add account," then, finally, "Create an account."
- Enter your personal information. On the next page, you'll be asked for your name, phone number, birthday, and an alternate email address. Some of this information, like, for instance, the alternate email address, is optional.
- Choose an email address and password. On the same account creation page, you'll also be asked to decide on an email address and a password. The password you choose must be at least eight characters long, while your email address must not already be in use by someone else. Enter this information in the appropriate boxes.
- You'll need to write your password twice to confirm its accuracy.
- Verify. Scroll down until you see a picture containing some distorted numbers and a photo of a building's address marking. Type these numbers into the designated box - doing this ensures that you are human and not an automated program attempting to register an email account for commercial/nefarious purposes.
- If, for whatever reason, you don't want to participate in this verification process, you may be required to verify via phone later.
- Agree to the terms of service and submit. Check the box next to the text that says "I agree to the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy." This signifies that you understand and agree to these documents, which you can read by clicking on their links. When you're ready, click "Next step."
- Enjoy your new Gmail account. You're finished! Click on "Continue to Gmail" to access your inbox, read your emails, and write new ones.
Making an Outlook Account
- Go to Outlook.com. Outlook is Microsoft's current free email client which, in 2013, replaced Hotmail, Microsoft's older email service. Here, you have the option to sign into an existing account or to create a new account, which we will do.
- Click "Sign up now." Below the login boxes, you should see a sentence that says "Don't have a Microsoft account? Sign up now." Click the "Sign up now" link to proceed to the account creation page.
- Enter your personal information and decide on a username and password. On the next page, you will be asked to enter your name, location, birthdate, and gender. You'll also need to decide on a username, which will serve as your email address when followed by "@outlook.com," and a password. Your password must be at least eight characters long and is case-sensitive.
- You must also enter either your phone number or an alternate email address, which are used to help recover your username or password in the event that you forget either.
- Verify. When your account information has been completely filled out, you'll need to verify that you are a human being and not a computer program. Scroll down until you see a string of distorted letters and numbers. Enter this into the text box below. Because computer programs have a very difficult time completing this simple task, by doing this, you confirm that you are indeed human.
- Click "Create account." This completes the account creation process! You'll be brought to your new Outlook account, where you are free to read and write new emails.
- Don't forget to un-check the "Send me promotional offers from Microsoft" box before clicking "Create account" if you're not interested in receiving email advertisements!
Making a Yahoo Account
- Go to login.yahoo.com. From this page, you will begin the process of creating a Yahoo ID with which you will be able to access your email account. This login page can also be accessed from the main yahoo.com site by clicking on the purple "mail" icon in the top right corner.
- Click on "Create New Account". Clicking on the blue button beneath the purple "Sign In" button will take you to the account creation page.
- Enter personal information and decide on a username and password. On this page, you will be asked to provide your name, phone number, birthday, and sex. You'll also be asked to input a username (which, followed by "@yahoo.com", will also serve as your email address) and a password. When you're done, click "Create Account."
- Your password must be 8 to 32 characters long. For added security, it must also contain numbers and upper and lowercase characters. Remember that your password is case-sensitive.
- You can also optionally add a recovery phone number - a number that can be used to retrieve your username and/or password in the event you forget them.
- Receive your verification code. At the phone number you provided, you will receive an SMS (text message) containing a verification code for your account. Enter this code in the "Code" text box, then click "Submit code" to continue.
- If the number you provided cannot receive SMS messages, you have the option of receiving an audio call from Yahoo with your code. Click the "call you" link in the text below the "Send SMS" button, then provide a phone number that can receive calls and click "Call me." Enter the code you receive in the designated box to proceed.
- Enjoy your new Yahoo account. You're finished! You will be automatically taken to your new email account page, where you will have the ability to browse and write emails.
Make a Disposable Email Address
- You can create a temporary email address for signup confirmations, shopping, or email newsletters.
- After you've made the temporary email, you can receive mail for as long as you have the temporary inbox.
Tips
- Most emails have a settings page, you may click this and crank up your page. It will probably have themes or colors, also may include signatures and colored words.
- Write your email password somewhere so that if you forgot your password, you can just look at where you wrote it.
- Get your friend's e-mail accounts so you have somebody to talk to.
Warnings
- If you don't know the sender, delete the email without opening it. It could contain a virus.
- DELETE ALL SPAM!!!
- If someone changes the way they are sending you emails (email looks suspicious), delete it. They may have gotten a virus in their email.
- If you don't delete spam, it might build up and crash your computer or possibly make it slower.
- If on the page for creating the email address, it says, "optional," DO NOT answer the questions. This will put a charge most of the time.
