Should You Use Your Real Address Online?

The debate over whether one should use their real address online has been ongoing for many years.

There is the philosophy that a P.O. Box gives away the fact that you don’t have a store front and that you work from home. Unfortunately, home businesses come and go, and so this same philosophy has folks shying away from those who use only a P.O. Box.

If you use your home address, you risk someone showing up at your front door. Lynn Terry tells the story of a client who couldn’t reach her via email and so he showed up at her home. He got her address from her online presence.

I send a once a month newsletter. The CAN-SPAM act reads in part "It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address."

Many years ago I solved the problem of what address to use by renting a box through a 3rd party. The company back then was called Mailboxes Etc. Today it’s called The UPS Store. There are also many other companies that rent boxes. If you look in your yellow pages under "mail box rental" you’ll find the businesses in your town that rent mail boxes. By using this method of having a mail box, I have a true street address. The address used is the address of The UPS Store. I then put my box number on it. Another advantage of using this type of mail box versus a P.O. box is that The UPS Store will accept shipments from UPS, Fed Ex, and any other delivery company. I can have everything shipped there, they sign for it and then they notify me that I have a package waiting.

For me, using The UPS Store over the last 20 years has been well worth the yearly bill I pay, which of course is tax deductible.

About the author:
Audrey Okaneko has working at home since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com