3 Uses For A Second Email Address That Don’t Involve Spam

You probably have a second email address you use for blocking spam and other junk that you don’t want in your primary inbox — but that’s not the only reason you should set up an alternative address for yourself. Here are three more ways you can put a second email account to good use.

1) Save your read-it-later articles

Never mind Instapaper or Pocket, use a second email address to save all those long reads you’re eventually going to get around to. Either email the links directly to the address, or use some built-in tools (like the ones in Inbox by Gmail) to queue up your articles.

IFTTT (If This Then That) can help out here. It’s possible to set up triggers whenever you save something to Instapaper or Pocket, or whenever you like or share a link on Twitter, or whenever you bookmark a post on Medium, and send the URL to your email address.

2) Set up a private social network

Remember you don’t have to be the only one accessing this alternative email account you’ve just created. You can easily share the login details with your closest family, friends from your school days, or colleagues from work, giving you even more options.

Perhaps the most obvious one is letting you create a private social network for relatives, particularly if you’re sharing photos of the kids that you don’t want the wider world to see. Most email clients have become pretty adept at displaying incoming photos and videos.

3) Manage all your travel plans

A growing number of services, from Google Now to TripIt, tap into all of the reservation emails in your inbox to help you with your travel plans. If you don’t like the idea of third-party services rooting through your primary email, set up a dedicated travel address.

You could extend the idea and use it to keep in touch with all the people you meet on your travels without giving away your main email address. Forwarding photos to the account is also a good idea if you want to keep them safe in the cloud while you’re on the move.