Misconceptions About Changing Email Addresses ⇥ tidbits.com

Or, rather, a how-to guide on transferring your Earthlink account to your own custom domain. (Remember Earthlink?)

It’s pretty inexpensive to move to your own domain for your email account. Domain names are around $15; while Joe Kissell recommends easyDNS and Directnic, I prefer Hover. Email services range from free (with Outlook.com and Windows Live Domains) (see update, below) to over a hundred bucks a year, but you’ll probably be fine with Fastmail’s $40 per year plan.

While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion that people with Hotmail addresses are viewed more pitifully than Gmail users — at least, among the non-techie crowd — there are so many advantages to controlling your own domain name and email account. Switching email providers without changing addresses is reasonably easy, and it allows for full control over your email setup. Plus, it looks pretty cool.

Update: Apparently Microsoft can sniff through your email account if they feel like it, so I wouldn’t use their services any more.