Eleven habits, and the two that matter most are: pick a readable naming convention on day one, and never disable an alias attached to an account you still use. Everything else is refinement. A system fails for one of two reasons — it created too much friction to sustain, or it locked you out of something. Both are avoidable by decisions you make at the start.
Setting up
1. Decide the naming convention before you create anything
Company name is right for most people: netflix@, ikea@. Seeing the address should tell you the company instantly, because in two years you'll be scanning a list of two hundred deciding what to switch off. Conventions in detail.
2. Avoid random strings if you have the choice
Unguessable, but you won't recognise them, and you'll hesitate to disable one in case it's something important. That hesitation is how the system quietly stops working.
3. Turn on WHOIS privacy
If you register a domain for this, enable registrar privacy protection. Otherwise you've solved an email exposure by publishing your name and postal address instead.
4. Use catch-all if you can
Creating each alias in advance is the friction that kills the habit. With catch-all the address exists the moment you type it into the form. Trade-offs.
Day to day
5. New signups only, at first
Don't migrate everything in one sitting. Nobody finishes, and a half-migrated setup is worse than not starting.
6. Migrate opportunistically
When a service emails you anyway — receipt, password reset, policy change — spend sixty seconds moving that account. Within a year everything that matters has moved, because the things that matter are the things that email you.
7. Keep the spam filter on
Aliases and filtering are complements. Nothing here replaces your provider's filter.
8. Don't over-segment
One alias per organisation. Not one per purchase, not one per newsletter issue. More granularity than the organisation doesn't buy you anything, and it makes the list unmanageable.
The two rules that prevent disasters
If bank@yourdomain.com is off, the bank's password reset and fraud alerts both bounce. Disable aliases for senders you're finished with. If a service you still use is spamming you, change the address on the account first, confirm the new one works, then disable the old one.
A circular dependency worth avoiding: if your domain registrar or your alias service uses an address on the domain it controls, and something breaks, you can't receive the reset that would fix it. Use your real address for those two accounts specifically.
Long term
11. Keep the domain renewed
The single biggest risk with your own domain is forgetting to renew it. Auto-renew on, card current. Every address dies at once otherwise — which is the same failure mode as a provider shutting down, except this one is yours to prevent. Why the namespace matters.
What not to expect
- Not anonymity. You typed your real name next to the address.
- Not deletion. Disabling stops mail; it doesn't remove you from anyone's database. That's a different mechanism.
- Not retroactive. Your existing address stays as exposed as it was.
- Not universal acceptance. A minority of sites reject alias domains. Use your real address for those and move on.
More: the core routine · avoiding lockouts