Just the other day I get an email from Sharryn who has recently been introduced to the wonderful world of Internet and email. She asks “Do I need a web site for an email account“? The answer is NO. An email account and a web site are two different beings, as it were.
Email (or e-mail) stands for electronic mail and is used primarily for transferring letters from one digital device to another. These digital devices can be computers, palm tops or even mobile phones. Email messages can contain text as well as pictures and other attached files.
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The advantages of email over traditional post are immense – check that link to know more. A web site, on the other hand, consists of bunch of files (web pages) that are typically linked to each other and also to other pages on other sites.
To put it succinctly email is a communication technology while web sites are more geared towards presentation. The following sections will guide you on how to get an email address and create a web site.
Opening an email account
As mentioned above, you don’t need a web site to open an email account, though you can have email accounts associated with your web site. So how does one go about getting an email address? The simplest way is to create an account at one of the many free online email services.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that let you create and maintain an email account but I would suggest using the best email services – Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft’s Hotmail or Gmail (owned by Google). Getting an email account is very simple and all you need to do is complete an online form which is similar to filling a form on paper. However, I do understand that beginners like Sharryn may get confused and so below are the links to page with step by step instructions with helpful screenshots on how to go about it.
By the way, you can open an email account in all the top three services if you so want but remember managing them might become cumbersome. Since you are just starting out, I suggest you gradually enter the pool and not jump from a 40 feet high diving board!
How to make a web site – a blog?
Let me put it straight – getting an email address is much simpler that creating a web site. Why? Because there is nothing much to email – all you need to do is select the service (one of the three mentioned above), fill up their form and your account is created – that’s it! As for web sites, you need to put in much more.
However, with the advent of blogs and free blog services, the process of making a web site has been simplified manifold. A blog, also known as a weblog, is just a type of web site. Blogs have gained immense popularity in the past few years because they are very easy to maintain and update unlike conventional web sites. Just like email, there are many services you’ll find on the internet that let you create a personal blog for web site free. To know more and for step by step directions, please refer that link or how to make a blog for free.
In conclusion: You don’t need to have a web site to get an email account. The two are separate and individual identities. There are tons of online services that will give you an email account for free. You can also create a web site – make a blog – using one of the many free services. However, maintaining a blog requires much more than maintaining an email account because for the latter you don’t need to do much except login every few days just to check for new messages.
