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A few weeks ago I decided to switch my personal email account from .Mac to Gmail. This would be about the third or fourth time since 1997 I’ve switched my personal email address. The first time I switched my email address was a huge pain in the butt. I had subscribed to a lot of newsletters and when I changed my email address, I lost about half of my subscriptions and missed a number of emails from friends and family. With each switch, I’ve gotten a lot better about going about it in an organized manner. If you need to change emails sometime in the future, learn from my mistakes by following these tips:

  1. Start the switching process early- If you expect your old email address to be deactivated at some point in time; it’s best to start the process of switching addresses early. Try to start the process a minimum of two weeks before you expect your email address to be deactivated. This will give you enough time to completely transition from your old email to your new email without missing any important messages. Two weeks is the bare minimum, one month is ideal. Either way, the earlier you start, the better.
  2. Make a list of where you need to change your address- If you’ve had your email address for any length of time, you’ve probably given it out to any number of people and web sites. This includes:
    • Email lists
    • Online accounts (for online banking, bill paying services, etc
    • Membership profiles (forums, message boards, directories)
    • Web site
    • Business cards
    • Resumes

    Any place that you’ve provided an email address needs to be changed. Make of list of these places and once you’re fairly certain that you have everything listed, start the process of switching addresses at each site. Once you start making these changes, you’ll begin to get confirmation emails from these newsletters web sites, and accounts. Create a folder in your email client and store a copy of these emails. From now on you should start saving a copy of confirmation emails every time you join a new mailing list or open a new online account. Why? If you ever need to change your email address again, you’ll have a ready made list of everything you need to change along with the email addresses and web addresses you’ll need to contact to make the changes.

  3. Use your new address for any new contacts- Once you’ve gotten your new email address set up, start using it for any new mailing list subscriptions or membership profiles you sign up for from now on. If someone asks you for your email address, be sure to give out the new one instead of the old one. Don’t continue to use the old address out of habit thinking that you can make the switch when you deactivate your old email. One, you may forget to make the switch when the time comes, and two, whoever you tell may forget update your email when you decide to make the switch. In the end it’s just easier to start using your new address as soon as possible so that you’ll have less to change in the future.
  4. Don’t forget your address book and stored emails- If you are switching from one web based email service to another (for example from Hotmail to Gmail); you’ll also need to remember to transfer your address book and any stored emails to your new service. If you’re using a desktop based email program like Outlook, Eudora, or Apple Mail, you won’t have to worry about this step as your emails and address books are generally stored on your computer. You will, however, need to create a new account
  5. Announce your new email address to your contacts- Once your new email address is up and running, send out an email to all of the people you have in your address book and tell them that you have a new email address and ask for everyone to update their address books. Use your new email address to send out this message so that it will be easy for people to add your new address to their address books. It’s also a good idea to send this message again a week or two later. Some people may forget to update your address or they may have missed your first email. A second email will give them an extra little reminder if they have forgotten.
  6. Monitor your old email address- If you can, keep your old email address activated for some length of time and monitor the emails coming in. No matter how thorough think you’ve been it’s possible that there a mailing list you’ve forgotten about, an old forum account you’ve missed, or a friend who’ve still hadn’t gotten the memo about your new address. By keeping your old account open, you’ll be able to catch whoever or whatever that may slipped through the cracks. If you wish, you can keep your old email address open indefinitely and use it as a “throwaway” or a spam address. You can use this email when you’re signing up for contests, temporary mailing lists, or other things that you don’t plan on keeping up with that may attract a lot of spam.

Have any tips that I may have missed? Post a comment and tell me about it!