Though I am not a firm believer in Murphys’s Law, there are times when services on the Internet seem to go down or not be available when you need them most. One of them is usually email. Even the split-second unavailability of a server can send people – and companies – into a tailspin in this world with split-second expectations.

As someone who relies more than I should on email, I have dealt with such problems for many years and going on decades. One thing I have learned with email, not to mention most aspects of business and life, is to have a backup plan. When it comes to email, it is always handy to have a backup email account with an alternative service provider than your main email accounts.

Backup email is just that – an account to use when you cannot use your main one. You don’t have to spend big money on this either – a free Gmail or Yahoo Mail account will do the trick. For myself, I have accounts with many of the free providers in the event I am not able to connect with one.

As it is a backup account, the idea is it is available if your primary account isn’t. Therefore it is not a good idea to give out the address unless absolutely necessary. In order to best utilize it, you should keep a backup copy of your contacts database so that you can easily access it if your primary account is down. Even if it is a paper printout and you have to manually type each address, it is much better than not having one. Your backup account can be also used for people to forward email messages they tried sending to your primary account but did not go through for some reason.

Backup email accounts are a key component of your overall technology backup strategy. I’ll be talking more about backups and my own strategy over time.

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