How to Set up a Yahoo! Mail Account

A variety of email accounts can be handy. It's great to keep a personal email that you only give to friends, a business email that you only give to associates, a "trusted provider" email that you give to companies you trust not to sell your name, and the risky list—when you're just not sure who you're giving your name to. To manage these, it's important to have an email provider you trust.

Yahoo! is one of the Web's most reliable and long-standing email providers, and it's no wonder— it's free, it's fast, and it's easy to set up in a jiffy. Enjoy the efficiency of corresponding in style and security with your new Yahoo! Mail account.

1. Go to Yahoo.com. In the top right is a Mail link. Click that to begin the email signup process, or click Yahoo! Mail.
2. Click on the Create New Account button. It's that ginormous yellow button near the top right of the Yahoo! home page, next to the even-more-ginormous ad.
3. Choose your login. You can also choose to sign in with your Facebook or Google account. Instead of clicking Create New Account, click the Facebook or Google login buttons to create a Yahoo! email address. Once you've linked your Facebook or Google username and allowed the connection, you will fill out the rest of the Yahoo! Mail signup form.
4. Enter your basic info. Fill in your name, gender, birthday, country, language, and postal code in the appropriate fields.
5. Create a Yahoo! ID and password. Make it one that you will be comfortable using for a long time, as this will identify you to your email recipients. Remember that you can use numbers and letters and even a single dot.
   • Type the Yahoo! ID of your choice in the field provided, and then select one of 3 domains: yahoo.com, ymail.com, and rockemail.com. Verify the availability of your username/domain combination by clicking the Check button to the right.You may have to think of an alternative username if your top choice is already taken by another Yahoo! user.
   • Choose a password when you have successfully entered a unique username. Passwords must be at least 6 characters long and keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive. You will be asked to type your password twice to ensure accuracy.
6. Add secure mental backup. In case you forget your login or password (yes, it happens), enter an alternate email address, and pick 2 secret questions from the pop-down menus.
   • After you've selected your questions, enter the correct answer—one that you are not likely to forget. Yahoo! will ask you this question if you should forget your password in the future, in order to verify that you are the correct user.
7. Verify you are not a robot. Enter the visual code that only humans (with warped glasses) can read. Type the characters shown in the last section of the registration page, into the field provided.
8. Read the Terms of Service. Doesn't everybody? Thoroughly examine every page till the end or till your eyes glaze over, and then print a copy for your records.
   • Select Create My Account