Guide · Email addresses

Your email address is the key to the whole system

Everything on this desk runs through one email address. This guide explains why that matters, and exactly how to set up and use it — including how to make a new one from scratch if you do not want the paid mail in your main inbox.

Why one address rules everything

Every program pays you because you are a real person with a real, working email address. That address does four jobs across all six programs:

It is your login. You sign in with it, so if you forget it, you cannot get to your money.
It is where the paid offers arrive. Paid emails and survey invitations are sent to it. That is the income stream.
It is your identity on the account. When you cash out, the program checks the payout name against the account. Changing emails at cash-out time is what causes withdrawals to be held for review.
It is your recovery route. If you lose a password, the reset goes to this address. No access to the address, no way back into the account.

Should you use your main email or make a new one?

You can use either. Most members make a separate one, for one simple reason: volume. These programs can send a dozen emails a day each, and by month two that is real clutter in the inbox where your bills and family messages live.

Use your existing address

Simplest option. Nothing new to learn, one less password. The only cost is inbox clutter, which you manage with folders and filters.

Make a dedicated "earning" address

Keeps paid mail completely out of your personal life. Recommended if your main inbox is already busy, or if you plan to be on the desk for months.

How to create a new email address (step by step)

Pick a provider. Gmail and Outlook are the two that every program accepts without question. Either is fine.
Go to the sign-up page. gmail.com or outlook.com, then click "Create account".
Choose the address. Use your real name plus something simple — [email protected] reads as a real person, which matters to the survey programs. Avoid a string of random numbers; it looks automated.
Set a strong password. Not the one you use for banking, and not the one you use anywhere else. Write it down.
Add a recovery phone or email. This is the single step that stops you being locked out of your money later. If you skip it and forget the password, that account is gone.
Sign in once and leave it open. Confirm you can get in before you register it anywhere.

Do not skip recovery details. The programs hold money on that address. A password you forget, with no recovery option, is a balance you can never collect.

The one-hard-rule: never lose the address

Everything else in this guide is a preference. This one is not. The email address you register with is your access to your money. Keep the address and its password somewhere you can always find them — the accounts tracker, a paper note, a password manager — and the money is always reachable. Lose the address, and the programs cannot help you recover it, because the address is the proof you own the account.

Handling the volume

Create one folder ("Earnings") and let paid emails collect there. A filter that moves anything from the program's domain keeps your main inbox clean in two minutes.
Open, don't delete. Paid emails pay per click. Deleting them unread is deleting your own money.
Check the folder daily, around the same time. The programs send on schedules, and a ten-minute daily sweep is worth more than an hour on a Sunday.

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Email Payment Account is an information service. The steps above describe setting up a free email account at a third-party provider (Google, Microsoft) that we do not own or operate. We do not pay members and do not hold funds.