Maybe you wrote down someone’s email address incorrectly, or you’ve been trying to track down a relative and hit a dead end. I can help.
Start with a search
It’s obvious, but it can work. If a web search like “John Smith” + “email” doesn’t yield any results, try this:
- Put the name in quotation marks. In the John Smith example, you might get names that include either John or Smith but want both. I’m sorry to say the more common the name, the harder it will be to find the email this way.
Try the online White Pages or web directories
Usually, when I talk about online directories, it’s advice on how to remove yourself. If you’re the one searching, it’s worth seeing what you can turn up.
With WhitePages.com, you can find cell phone numbers, addresses, business details, relatives and property details.
Hunter.io lets you search through a company’s domain for an email address and lists them with some information redacted for business contacts. Finding the person you are looking for will give you a good idea of their email address. You get 25 free searches a month.
Try social media
There’s a chance you can find the person’s email address on their social media profiles. Some professionals will list their contact info on sites like Twitter or LinkedIn.
Use a plugin
Browser plugins like Email Extractor for Chrome can help you find email addresses on web pages. While you can’t search for email addresses with the plugin, it can extract all the addresses listed on a domain.
Email Hunter is another Chrome plugin you can try. It extracts addresses from pages as you visit them and auto-saves them to a notepad.
Make your best guess
If all else fails, guess. Really! Most companies use simple naming structures for addresses, like John.Smith(@)acmeinc.com. Using the Hunter.io web directory, you can easily see the structure of a searched company.
Good luck with your hunt! If you want to talk to me, you don’t need to track down my email address. Just drop me a note here — I read them all myself.