In my last post, I made the case for why you should create email accounts for all of your children at a pretty early age. Realizing that most moms aren’t as geeky as myself, I wrote this post to tell you how to actually do it. Believe me, it really isn’t difficult at all.

Choose a Domain Name
First, you need a domain.  More than likely, the first domain you choose will not be available.  You will probably have to try several before you find a domain you like that’s actually available to purchase.  If you’re having difficulty, you can always move on to domains other than .com. They offer .family now, which could be kind of fun.

Creativity is not my strong suit, so I’m not much help in the idea department, but I can give you some basic guidelines for choosing a domain name.

Tips For Choosing a Family Domain Name

• Keep it short.
  Hewittfam.com – great.  Hewittfamilyintexas.com – not so great.
• Make sure it’s easy to spell.
  If your last name is Stephanopoulos, maybe don’t use that.  An average person should be able to easily spell your email address.  Also, unique spellings don’t pay off here.  No one else spells Julie, Jewlee.
• Consider longevity and avoid embarrassment.
  When your daughter becomes a tween, Hewittlittles.com or Momsfavorites.com will become yet another evidence to her that you don’t ever want her to have friends or be happy.  Trust me.  Pretty much anything your tween daughter doesn’t agree with will produce the same conclusion.

You can check domain availability here.

Purchase the Domain Name
West Host is who I use for all of my personal and business website and email hosting. Just click on ‘Email Hosting’ at the top of the page to find the plan you want. You can get up to 25 email addresses for $24 per year and add a custom domain for $1 right now.

There are countless other options for purchasing a domain name – some good, some awful.  Just keep in mind the company from which you purchase the domain is also the company you’ll have to use to manage it.  And avoid GoDaddy at all costs.  While they appear to be simple to use, they make domain control unnecessarily tedious. (Side note – I have noticed that an ad for this vendor shows at the bottom of this post at times. That is a Google Ad, and I have no control of which ad appears.)

Create Email Accounts
Once you have purchased your domain, the company will send you an email with instructions on what to do next.  If you have questions, just call support, and someone will walk you through the process.

There you have it! See, that wasn’t so painful now, was it?

* This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive compensation should you choose to use my link to make a purchase.  Thank you for your support!