But for a long time, I resisted setting up a sweepstakes email account on Gmail, because I didn't want to have to log out of my personal email account to check my mail. But then I stumbled across this easy trick for forwarding my sweepstakes email to my regular Gmail account.
If you already have a Gmail account, and want to use a second account to enter sweepstakes, these tips will help you do it.
Here's How:
- Set Up a New Email Address on Gmail
Visit Gmail.com, logging out from your regular email address if necessary, and follow their instructions to set up an email account to be used only for sweepstakes entries. - Set Your New Gmail Address to Forward to Your Old One
From your sweepstakes Gmail account, click on the "Settings" link on the upper right-hand side of the screen. Then click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.In that tab, you'll see a button to "Add a forwarding address." Click on the button and enter your original Gmail address.
- Log Into Your Original Gmail Account
Log out of your new sweepstakes Gmail account, and log back into your original Gmail address. - Create a Label for Your Sweepstakes Emails
To make your sweepstakes emails easy to find, create a label just for them. To do this, click on the "Settings" link on the upper right-hand side of the screen, then click on the "Labels" tab.Scroll past the "System Labels" section to the regular "Labels" section. There, you'll see a box where you can type in your new label's name. Enter something descriptive, like "Sweeps" or "Sweepstakes." Then click the "Create" button.
- Set Up a Filter for Your New Sweepstakes Email Address
In your original Gmail account, click on the "Settings" link on the upper right-hand side of the screen. Then click on the "Filters" tab.Click on the link to "Create a new filter."
Enter your new sweepstakes email address in the "To:" field, then click the "Next Step" button.
On the next page, click on the options to "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)," "Apply the label:" (select the label you created above), and Never send it to Spam.
Finally, click on the "Create Filter" button.
- View Your Sweepstakes Emails from Your Regular Gmail Email Address
The result will be that all of the emails you receive at your new sweepstakes email address will arrive in your original Gmail account. They won't show up in your inbox, but rather in a neatly-ordered archive that won't get mixed in with of your regular emails. To view them, just click on the appropriate label on the left-hand side of your screen. You won't even have to log into your sweepstakes email account again. - Make Sure You'll Reply from the Correct Email Address
You don't want to reply to a sweepstakes email from your non-sweepstakes email account or vice-versa. To make sure this won't happen, click on the click on the "Settings" link on the upper right-hand side of the screen, then click on the "Accounts and Import" tab.Make sure that the option to "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" and you'll answer your sweepstakes-related emails from your sweepstakes address, and your non-sweeping emails from your regular address.
What You Need
- Two Gmail email accounts
