Ever wish you could sign up for a mailing list or newsletter without using your “real” email address? Now you can with a single Gmail address. (Note: This trick works with all Gmail-based email services; Gmail, Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Education, etc).
The Trick
With Gmail you can add a plus sign (+) after your username followed by custom text and still have email routed to your account. This is known as creating an email alias. Your email address is composed of two parts separated by the “@”: username and domain.
[username]@yourdomain.com
In Gmail, your “new” email address becomes:
[username]+[custom text]@yourdomain.com
For example: “dave@davejansen.net” is my regular email address hosted at Google. I alter it when signing up for newsletters to: “dave+newsletter@davejansen.net.” It will still show up in my inbox but is easier to filter and automate.
Why?
Why do I use this? Pair this trick with custom filters and you have an easy way to add some automation to manage your inbox. For example: I created a filter to find all emails addressed to dave+newsletter@davejansen.net. The filter automatically applies the label “@ToRead” and archives it (moving it out of the inbox). This allows me to read newsletters at my leisure while keeping my inbox free of clutter.
If I remember to always use that email address for newsletters then I only have to create one filter. Otherwise, I’ll have to create one filter for each newsletter to which I subscribe.
When this doesn’t work? Not all websites allow the “+” as a valid character. So, be sure to test before you use it. Of course, the custom text still has to be valid email characters (eg: no spaces).
There you have it: Gmail and plus sign (+) make for a less cluttered inbox.
All Things Dave 
This is a great trick that I had no idea could work! Very neat, I just subscribed using the + in my e-mail.
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