Hiding your home address.

[ep90]

As many of you work from home, what do you do to hide your home address from internet users?

The problem areas are:

Whois lookup (except .co.uk where you can use the 'individual' option to hide it).
Having a contactable address on your website.
Companies house.

I see quite a few affiliates use POBOX addess which seems to address (no pun intended!) a few of the issues. However these are not secure and the postoffice will provide the owners address when asked.

Companies House - I understand you have to give them a physical address (not a POBOX no) - If you display your limited company name on your site then its easy for someone to get the address.

Has anyone ever had any issues with their address being publicly available - maybe I am just being paranoid!

Any thoughts on this subject would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[leec]

Hi,

I use a PO Box for all domain contact details & also site contact pages. I know people can check up your real address but TBH most people / if any will not bother!

Reg office address is to my home address but ive always looked at it that if someone wants to find you they will!

HTH

[dancey]

Originally Posted by ep90 Has anyone ever had any issues with their address being publicly available - maybe I am just being paranoid!

Over the past 5 years my address has been availaible online on a number of my websites (inculding the address to send cheque/cash payments to from one of my online stores), it's in the whois of all my domains, on the contact me page of domain in my sig, and the registered address for my ltd company. Never had any issues (other than a couple of customers getting my home phone number from directory enquiries and phoning me to check on or to place an order).

As said above a PO box offers no protection, so the only option you have is to pay for a mailbox somewhere, but then you've got the hassle (and/or cost) of collecting you post), you could use a registered office for your ltd (your accountant will do this for you at a cost). At the end of the day if someone wanted to they'd probably still be able to find your address (using the whois history on one of your domains registered before you changed addresses is a good place to start), 192.com has some great ways of finding people. Personally I think trying to hide your details is more trouble than it's worth.

[drivetowin]

Bear in mind too that if you have an affiliate website then technically hiding your address in the whois is against Nominet t's and c's as you are using the domain for business purposes.

[Donk]

If you are a limited company you must show your company registration number and registered business address just as you would on your business stationery.

[essdeekay]

Why not rent a small office?

I had one for about 6 years - cost me about #200 per month and was great for keeping business and personal life separate.

It also looked more professional (although I don't know if that's an issue for affiliate marketers or not).

Si

[Darren M]

Originally Posted by ep90 Companies House - I understand you have to give them a physical address (not a POBOX no) - If you display your limited company name on your site then its easy for someone to get the address.

The registered address of my company is my accountant's office, so I haven't got any problems there. If you're forming a new company this is a smart move IMO. I was also looking at getting a PO Box, as I need to publish an address on my mailing list emails and in my terms of service etc.

[ep90]

Thanks for the feedback guys - I've got my money out and gone for a PO BOX. I did have the option of using the accountant for my company address however that feels like they've got you by the balls (from some reason!)

Simon - I have considered an office, but I've only just left my full time job so fancy working from home for now.

Thanks again for the constructive comments.

[essdeekay]

Hi ep90 - the problem I found with working from home was that the cabin fever set in after a few months - it felt like a prison, being there 7 days a week.

I shared some offices with a few mates - we had a laugh and I am sure it ultimately upped the productvitiy even though there was additional costs involved.

Si

[morleyn]

Have you looked at virtual offices. Some of them offer just a mailing address. You use their address on your stationary, website, nominet details, etc. and they forward any mail to your home address. Looks professional and doesn't cost the earth.

Office Front offer a mailing address from £10 a month plus handling costs. There are lots of companies offering this service, eg. eoffice, Regus.

Nick

[john924]

If you are so paranoid about people know your home address and going to your home then why don't you have a baseball bat on standby or something. lol

Na, I'm sure there is nothing to worry about. If you are doing affiliate marketing then I'm not 100% sure, but some affiliate programs may be weary of this when approving you. They may wonder why you are using a pobox.