Contact Information

[KevinBE]

Do you list your home address on your Web page? I was wondering if I should do this or pay for a post office box. Are there disadvantages to listing your real address? What if I want to attract local customers? Your input would be appreciated.

[jeaniesa]

Timely question Kevin!! I'm wondering the exact same thing, so I don't have an answer for you. But, I'll be anxiously waiting to see the wisdom of the list!

FWIW, I have a neighbor with a home business up the street and he does list his home address on his website.

Jeanie

[chiquitita]

Listing your home/street address is necessary if you only have a PO Box because FedEx will not deliver to a PO Box. However, if you rent a box from a Mailboxes Etc. or other mail store, you will have an address which will read 123 blah road Suite 201 so FedEx will deliver and the rental place will hold it for you or put it in a larger box with a key in your small box.

[chiquitita]

Unfortunately, I have that problem with the post office. Opened mail, mail delivered to the wrong place, bent photos.... The best way is to have it delivered to your home/work via Fed Ex I suppose.

[clare]

I use a PO Box - for safty as well as to avoid heeps of junk mail. I didn't want my address on the web for quite a few reasons. In England the PO Box number is followed by your town so people know you are local - I havent experience any problems as yet with the service, apart from they never answer the phone when I want to be lazy and check if there is any mail without leaving the house!

Clare

[winwintoo]

Kevin, your name is on your web site - a search of switchboard.com revealed your address and phone number. whowhere even told me your age and if I was willing to pay $10 promised to tell me a lot more about you.

It's no longer possible to traverse the web incognito.


Take care, Margaret

[DJ Dubovsky]

There are millions of wonderful honest people online and there are millions of bad ones that can really make your life a living hell. I personally use a PO box because I just don't want to publicize any more of my life online than is already out there. You may post your real address and go on for years with little or no trouble but then something bad happens and the damage is done. Same with your home phone as well. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is. I actually think it hinders your business putting a PO box instead of a physical address because physical addresses give you credibility but I don't trust people. Doug always warns us against posting our e-mail addresses on the threads for the same reason. It can become public domain to all sorts of junk mail pests and criminals.
DJ

[KevinBE]

Thanks for all the good info guys. I guess it's really too late to think about protecting my idenity. Thanks for the eye opener Margaret, that whowhere site kind of bothers me but I guess there's nothing I can do about it.

I'll just have to see how things go after I put the site online. Hopefully I will have thought about everything I need to do before I go public. Lots to think about.

[CJ Swartz]

I notice that Doug doesn't have his address on his website. Of course, I believe that he's said that he doesn't get many referrals from the site either.

[d_kendal]

I've actually been thinking about exactly the same thing lately. What I'm planning on doing for contact info on my website is give my cell phone # (since that's not too hard to change if it starts to get abused) and email address then from there when somebody contacts me with a business inquiry I can give them my home address. the only other bit of info I'll be putting on there is the fact that I'm located in Edmonton, AB since I'm mostly looking for local business.

- David

[CJ Swartz]

Kevin, those people-data search engines like Switchboard, etc. must use the phone book for their info because I don't show up when I search for my name. I have an unpublished phone number.

David, I think your strategy sounds good. Serious customers would like to know your general location, and you can screen in those serious customers either through the email or phone calls. I'd use a freebie email address, of course, rather than my main one, as I'm sure you'll do.

[jeaniesa]

CJ - just wondering why a "freebie" e-mail address? It seems to me that a paid-for e-mail address adds some credibility to your legitimacy - especially if you're not going to put your street address on the site.

If the freebie address is b/c of the spam it will generate, there was another thread discussing that issue here.

If for another reason, I'm curious.

Jeanie

[chiquitita]

I have to agree with Jeanie. When I see [email protected] on a website I don't get the impression of a professional. Truthfully, even when I see a site with an address like [email protected], I have serious reservations.

[CJ Swartz]

I was just thinking about avoiding spam. If the website provides it's own email address, that would be fine. I would not use my email reserved for family and friends. I hate spam. I don't want to delete it - I want to not get it in the first place. Just my opinion.

I will have to read more about Kevin's suggestion - Hivelogic Email Address Encoder.

[Doug Nelson]

I considered putting my contact info on my site, but I work out of my home and firmly believe only very brave people put their home address up on the web. If I worked out of an office or storefront I'd have my address up in a heartbeat, along with a map and driving instructions.

I've said before that the web is not the best way to find customers for work such as ours, and that most customers want to work locally, with someone they can meet and hand their one-of-a-kind heirloom photos to in-person. I feel that, if I did put an address on my website, I would get more local business, but probably also less non-local business.

I get next to zero spam via my work website.