It is probably stretching a point to say that changing your email address is like moving house, but anyone who has done it knows what a hassle it can be. Both exercises require you to write to all the people you routinely communicate with – insurance companies, local businesses, not to mention relatives and friends – informing them of your new address.

There is a way to avoid this: set up your own permanent email address by buying a domain name. This is essentially an internet address for a website that can be used solely to deal with your email and means you will never again have to ask all the people in your contacts book to update their folders. The same domain name (which might typically be your surname or business name) also lets you create addresses for your family or employees.

WHY BOTHER?

There are two main types of email address: those based on your internet service provider (ISP), such as Virgin and BT, which come as part of a broadband package, and those based on a webmail service such as Hotmail and Google Mail. The advantages of the latter type is that webmail-based services are usually free and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection.

If you change broadband provider you will almost certainly lose your ISP address (a few ISPs let you keep an old email address but often charge). By contrast, you can keep a webmail address indefinitely, irrespective of your ISP, unless the service closes down.

The disadvantage to webmail addresses is that the obvious names are in use, leaving you with an address such as davidsmith1584@hotmail.com. It’s a little impersonal, which is why many people consider a third option: buying a domain name.

If you own a domain name, such as www.smith.co.uk, you can keep the same email address, for as long as you keep paying the annual fee. This avoids the hassle of having to tell friends of a new address and updating email newsletters or website registrations.

Another advantage is that the whole family can have a simple email address based on this domain, such as david@smith.co.uk and daughter@smith.co.uk.

PLANT YOUR FLAG

Buying your own internet address (or domain name) to lay permanent claim to an easy-to-remember email address is simpler than it sounds. And setting up the system so you can continue to send or receive emails as you do now (see “How to set up” below) is quite straightforward.

Before you set your heart on a specific name, check that someone hasn’t beaten you to it. The organisation that maintains the registry of domain names in the UK is Nominet (www.nic.uk) and its website has a good FAQ on all aspects of this process. You can also check which names are unavailable – and often who owns them – using the site’s “WhoIs” search box.

To buy a domain, you must use an online vendor such as 1&1 (www.1and1.co.uk) or the UK-based UK2Net (www.uk2.net). All domain sellers have a “WhoIs” search box on their home page that can check availability and suggest alternatives.

If purely for email purposes, your own name is the obvious choice. To also run a website from the same domain – especially a business website – consider something snappier. Don’t get clever and attempt to register the name of a well-known company or celebrity: so-called “cybersquatting” is frowned upon and you’ll probably be stripped of the address.

NO FRILLS

When choosing a domain address, you will be presented with a blizzard of options, most of which are aimed at business users – so don’t be oversold. All domains are sold with a country and/or category suffix at the end. For instance, .co.uk indicates a UK-based address, whereas .com or .net is international and .org is the address used by big organisations.

A .co.uk address is all you need to get started and should cost only £3 per year (for a minimum period of two years). International domains cost £10 a year and a really fancy one such as .tv can set you back £30 per annum.

There is some merit in buying more than one domain suffix so that email will still reach you if people get the second part of your address slightly muddled, but this is an expensive option for individuals. In reality, only big companies need to snap up all the regional options and common misspellings of their domain.

Take care as many domain sellers automatically add extra domains, which can push up your bill. Order a .co.uk address at www.123-reg.co.uk, for example, and it will add an £8 per year .com and a £7 per year .eu address to your order – plus Vat. Make sure you untick these options before proceeding to the checkout.

Be wary, too, of sellers trying to pile on extra paid-for services, such as spam filtering and web-hosting space. Some of these services are useful, depending on how you intend to set up your email, but you won’t need them to send or receive emails from your newly acquired address.

HOW TO SET UP

A domain name will not automatically act as an email service until you tell it how, and there are two broad options. The simplest way is to have the domain seller store all your messages, allowing you to send and receive with the minimum of trouble. The snag here is that it can cost up to £20 a year.

However, your domain seller’s website will also have a free option called “email forwarding” or something similar. From here, you can specify that all messages sent to the address you have bought are automatically forwarded to the inbox of your choice. This means that you can arrange for emails to be forwarded to, for example, a work email address.

If you set it to forward emails to a free webmail account, such as Google (www.googlemail.com), Microsoft (www.hotmail.com) or Yahoo (www.yahoomail.co.uk), you can pick up your new email from any internet-connected computer or a mobile phone.

The problem with this approach is that your replies will still carry the address of, say, your Googlemail account, and this will confuse the recipients.

To ensure outgoing messages carry your new address in Googlemail, click “options”, “accounts” , select “add another email address” and then enter, for example, david@smith.co.uk. Finally, ensure the “reply from the same address the message was sent to” option is selected. That’s it – your Googlemail account is now transformed into an email account for your new address.

TAKING IT FURTHER

Once you have registered the domain name you are also free to build your own website. Most domain sellers offer simple website building tools, enabling users to create an online presence.

However, to do this you will need to pay the domain seller for hosting your website. Alternatively use a free blogging service such as www.wordpress.com and set up your domain to automatically direct people to it. If you are keen to build your own website, Webmonkey has tutorials from the basics to professional design at tinyurl.com/37p6ck.