Dear PropellerHeads: Some of my friends have lots of email accounts. They say it helps them manage their email traffic. I can barely keep up with what I have. What am I missing?

A: Well, sometimes more can be less. The reason you may be having trouble keeping up is that all of your email traffic is being funneled into one account. That means the important stuff, the interesting stuff, and the trash emails are all piling into one inbox. That makes it difficult to manage.

Your friends have probably set up multiple email accounts to reduce spam and to manage their email priorities. Alternatively, they could be porn hounds and are trying to maintain their anonymity. But let's go with option No. 1 for this question.

Spam can create big headaches for most email users. Some estimates are that more than 97 percent of all email traffic is spam. For the purpose of this article, spam is unsolicited emails from strangers who are most likely trying to get you to spend some money. The good news is that your email server and email client (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) are probably filtering out almost all of it. They have an ongoing war between keeping spam out and accidently filtering the email you really want. As a result, a lot still gets through. See http://bit.ly/ob7yZcfor a nice little FAQ on spam.

To help me manage this mess, I have three email accounts. The first is through my job, supported by my employer. I use this for job-related activity and the occasional casual email with people I already know. I never enter this into Web forms or enter it in social media contacts, forums, eStores and the likes unless it is job related. Filling out forms, posting to news groups, etc. is a very common way to get on spam mailing lists.

My second email account is a throwaway email account. I use this anytime I have to identify myself but have no real interest in any future correspondence. Basically, I want something and they want my email to give it to me. For this I use Yahoo! (mail.yahoo.com). An alternative might be the email your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you, like Comcast, Verizon, DirecTV, etc. An example of this would be a form you fill out for a free download that requires an email account. I used to make up an email address for this sort of thing (abcd@defg.com), but some of these folks have made that more difficult by asking you to confirm your email. Essentially, this is a defensive tactic.

My last email account is for the in-betweens. It is personal stuff that I might need, but may generate spam. Examples include newsletters I want to subscribe to or stores I want to buy from. Here I need to provide an email and I probably want to read their emails, but I realize I may have some spam coming my way. I use my Gmail (mail.google.com) account for this.

The main reason I picked Google's free email product is that they have very good spam filters and they allow you to easily create email address alternatives (aka aliases). Say for instance my Gmail email is propheads@gmail.com. With no additional set-up, I can add a meaningful suffix

propheads+ timelifebooks@gmail.com. Remember the plus sign (+). This will find its way to the same mailbox. Then you can filter and sort based on how you first identified yourself and track the source of your spam. Other email providers beside Google (Yahoo!, HotMail, etc.) also allow you set up email aliases.

Even though I have several email accounts, I typically use one email desktop client. Most let you sort email based on addressee and sender which allows you to easily see which emails really matter to you. So, you can triage the email into read-now, read-later, don't-read piles easily.

Managing emails can be a hassle, but for some of us, more is less.

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.