Do you pay for whois-privacy on all your domains?

[system0]

I currently pay extra on 90% of my domains so that my whois data is not public. Most of the domains are websites which is why it was important to protect my whois.

I'm looking to build up my domain portfolio so I will be acquiring more domains.

My question is this - do you pay for the additional whois privacy on all of your domain names or have you done something else e.g. setup a PO box and company name for your whois info.

thanks,
Kevin

[Ervin]

Normally no. Unless it is an important website for me.

[SpartaN]

I protect my whois info but for now I dont have too many domains to worry about. I am on my way to having 100+ domains so I am thinking about using a company name with a PO box.

[system0]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I definately think a po box or something similar is the way forward if you have 100s of domains.

[DomainMagnate]

I used company name, address, and phone number redirected to voice mail for all whois.
Better rent a po box than pay extra for whois

[SGBoise]

I just use a fake name with a real email address. With.coms you can do that. Somone told me that you have to use your real contact information for .us domains.

[system0]

I've always been reluctant to use false whois information incase a domain dispute developed.

[jdk]

I used company name, address, and phone number redirected to voice mail for all whois.
Better rent a po box than pay extra for whois

Is there a service out there where you can rent a voicemail number instead of using your phone #? Right now I have mine with my business name, po box, and cell phone#, but I want to change the cell# to something else to stop the solicitation calls.

[DomainMagnate]

Is there a service out there where you can rent a voicemail number instead of using your phone #? Right now I have mine with my business name, po box, and cell phone#, but I want to change the cell# to something else to stop the solicitation calls.

skype offers this for $3 per month, there are also many other big sites with similar services, google around.

[cursal]

For Phone:

I've never tried it, but I've heard both good and bad reviews of the www.MagicJack.com

But looking into renting voice mail, why I hadn't thought of that before Good idea

[Carter]

I've never use a privacy-whois service all my life.

[Fatbat]

Likewise, I don't hide who I am. I'm doing business. If someone wants to contact me about that, they are more than welcome to.

[james2002]

I don't see the point of using private whois unless you are running an adult porn site or an illegal site.

[Johnn]

You want to use privacy if you are not planning to sell the name/website and don't want to receive spam emails.

[james2002]

But there are many privacy services with akward email addres like 2o43ou432@privatemail.com etc... but in fact you can still contact them. If you like to stop spam , you may want to use spamarrest etc...

[system0]

With regards to privacy. It's not a matter of hiding who I am. I am very public about my name, my home town etc and I pass on my contact details to those who need it.

It's a matter of privacy.

1 ) Some spam companies target whois email info
and more importantly
2) Disgruntled members/readers/visitors can target you. A few years ago I banned a member on a forum I ran. That domain had it's whois protected but he found out about another website I owned and that didn't have it protected. He posted my home address publicly and told other disgruntled members to send spam to my home. Thankfully nothing happened but it did highlight the fact that I don't want my home address made public.

[Honan]

Private whois is bs
The registrar will disclose your details immedaitely to nearly anyone who asks
Standard practice in business is to use a PO Box for your postal address
Use a mobile / cell or a skype local number for the phone number
Use a stand alone unique email address for whois and forward it to a Gmail address set up just for this purpose. It will periodically and automatically delete your spam.

[jdk]

Use a stand alone unique email address for whois and forward it to a Gmail address set up just for this purpose.

What do you mean? Take a domain and make an email with it?

[poulos]

I dont like the whois privacy because i read somewhere, they actually take possesion of the domain , the whois privacy company, i think the best thing is if you have domains that are valuable form , a corp or a llc,its good protection,,

[Gerry]

Only once did I use privacy as a creator for a controversial site.

I have had more sales from direct email contacts than I could ever hope for from any online service.

I used to list a bogus phone number but now do not.
Since listing a real phone number I have made sales from direct calls.
And I have had other domainers/designers call me out of the blue to consult/price projects.

I seriously see NO advantage to privacy.

Being reachable and able to receive calls and emails is a huge plus.

I would highly recommend a PO Box.
Lately I have gotten tons of letters mailed to renew domains from services I have never heard of.
I get enough trash and junk from regular postage and weekly mailers.
It is amazing these idiots are wasting a boatload of money on printing services and postage sending out letters and flyers.