Remembering a password is difficult for everyone, however there are a number of tips to help you create a password you can easily remember while still making it very secure. There are already numerous articles around covering the rules of creating a safe password, but often following these rules can make it nearly impossible to remember. Given that most Internet users now have several passwords, it not only means people forget their passwords, but may resort to writing them down. Unfortunately the moment you do this the secrecy of your password is at risk of being compromised.

But first let's look at some important rules of making a secure password:

1. Never use words found in a dictionary.
2. Never use words or names that can be associated with you (eg. name, address, pets name.)
3. Use a mix of letters and numbers (and other characters.)
4. Use a mix of UPPER and lower case.
5. Use at least eight characters (the longer the better.)
6. Do not write it down or tell anyone.

As you can see, if you were to use all these rules when choosing a password, you would need a good memory to easily recall it, and what if you had several? It's critical that you don't forget a password if you haven't got it written down. The trick is simply one of association, so let's look at the steps to make an easy to remember password while still following the rules.

Step 1.
Take two or three things or events in you life that have strong memories for you but are not directly connected to your personal details.
Example: Let's say you visited London and Paris in 2002 and this was a big event in your life. You'll never forget that in a hurry, so let's start there.

Step 2.
Now take a piece of each word which does not make a word of its own.
Example: lon and par.

Step 3.
Now take a number that perhaps relates to these events in some way and place it between the two part words.
Example: The obvious choice is the year, so now we have lon02par

Step 4.
Make sure you use capital letters somewhere, preferably in a place easy to remember.
Example: Lon02Par

So there we have a password that we are pretty sure to remember but is also quite secure. Every time you want to remember your password just think of that great holiday you had! Associating passwords to important or life changing events will almost guarantee that you remember them as you will always have a trigger to jog that memory. You could even write down a reminder word such as Holiday and carry it with you in complete safety.

Using this technique it should be possible to remember several passwords. So lets look at simplifying the problem many people face with multiple logins and which password went with what. Let's choose three good passwords and apply them to a category. Let's say all banking and very private information use password 1. Internet logins such as your ISP, email, web host use password 2, and finally all non critical logins, such as newsgroups, free webmail, games or member websites use password 3. This way when you need to create a password for a website, you know which one you should use.

Some people recommend that you change passwords regularly, in fact some corporate networks enforce it. I don't subscribe to this theory, at least for a personal or home enviroment. If you create a strong secure password, dont write it down and never tell anyone, it's as safe tomorrow, next week or next year as it was yesterday. The danger in regularly changing passwords is the risk that people will choose a simple password and be tempted to write it down, completely contradicting the whole purpose. One good password beats numerous bad ones anyday. Remember, passwords are your main line of defense against anyone accessing your most valuable details.

Other tips for creating good passwords can be to substitute letters with similar numbers or symbols. For example, replace the letter i with the number 1, letter o with the number zero and the letter A with @ etc.

To help you check how good your password is try out Microsoft's "password checker".

More reading: Study: Weak passwords really do help hackers