Anyone with access to the Internet can get a free email account. There are several websites where you can register and open an account, and each of these offers plenty of different options to customize your email experience. You will need several basic pieces of information prior to opening up a free email account, and you should also determine what features you would like to come along with it.
For starters, you will need to find a free email service provider that you prefer over the others. A quick search in your favorite search engine should yield several results for popular websites that offer free email. Some are ad-based and will have advertising embedded within their interface, while others remain relatively ad-free. Either way, you should pick a free email service provider that you like or that is highly rated, and you should definitely read the “terms and conditions” of the website as well as their privacy statement.
You will need to create a unique name, or username, to be associated with your new email address. When creating your username, you should keep in mind whether or not you will be using the account for professional reasons. You probably will not want to correspond with an employer, for example, with a username that sounds unprofessional. In this instance, a unique combination of your first and last names can sometimes be appropriate. Conversely, if you plan on using a free email account rather anonymously or purely for entertainment reasons, you may choose more of a fun username that is also unique to your online personality.
Next, you will want to decide on a secure password to keep your identity safe and your email from the eyes of computer hackers. The level of safety of the email site you are using depends on which online service you use for your account. Different providers of free email also offer different types of spam filters while offering different options for configuring your email to determine how much of this unsolicited email winds up in your inbox. Other factors that may help you determine which free email service provider you should choose are the type and speed of the interface it uses and the availability of access directly to your desktop.
Storage space is another factor in determining which free email service provider to go with. Some providers offer little space, but lately the amount of free online storage has increased greatly, with some sites offering as much as 5 gigabytes or even more. This feature may or may not matter to you depending on what you plan on sending and receiving via your email account. If you are a person who happens to need even more space in your inbox, some service providers will offer more to suit your needs for a monthly or yearly charge.