Protecting your Online Identity
I’ve received an email from a blogger asking if there was a way they could buy a domain name and host their own blog but protect their online identity. When you buy a domain name, and host it with a hosting provider they will create a WHOIS record which includes your name, address, date you register the domain etc.
You can hide the personal information and if you speak with your hosting provider they will make the effort to ensure that this data is not published. If you use blog applications like Wordpress, b2evolution or Typepad then you don’t have to reveal your name or any other personal information.
The next decision is choosing the right hosting provider, and my advice is to not to rush into making a decision. Choose a provider that offers a MySQL database as you will need one of these to host your blog.
I’d recommend signing up to Web Hosting Talk Forums, and Web Hosting review sites like Hostfinder. Draw up a list of hosting providers that offers good customer service and good ‘uptimes’.
Then call the providers and ask questions, and this will give you a good idea if they are happy to help. Then Google the hosting provider name and see if you can find anything badly written about the provider.
Does anyone else have any tips about protecting your identity or choosing the right hosting provider?
Related Articles...
Filed under: Blog Promotion Tips on March 27th, 2007
I would also suggest using a domain registrar that allows you to protect your personal information, such as namecheap.com’s whoisguard, which is free with new registrations and a very low fee to renew yearly. I buy whoisguard in packs.
Thanks for that Kalina, I’d not heard of whoisguard until today!
Happy April Fools Darren.
I promise not to play jokes on you. 
Hahah Kalina, have you seen my travel blog? I did a good April Fools on there, and its been featured on USA Today
No, was it last year you did this?
No, today! hahah
Visit http://www.travel-rants.com and look at todays post.
omg, naughty naughty! :D:D
Quite a lot of registrars can provide a provide a “private registration.” For example Tucows can offer global domains with privacy at extra cost, via their extensive network of resellers.
In the UK we have noticed a marked increase in people concerned about their address details being publicised
in the WHOIS data. I think has been due to “identity theft” concerns, (possibly as a result of the UK Government loosing confidential data CD’s).
Having a “private registration” which basically provides you with a “proxy” address can cut down on spam, but one thing to watch is that if you are concerned about your search engine rankings, google might not like it.
It is debatable whether or not Google look at WHOIS data for ranking purposes. I remember when Google bought up a domain name registrar - Webmaster World went into a frenzy of extending their domain name registration to 10 years. I pointed out at the time, if Google wanted a nice master list of domains with SEOs “behind” them, then all they had to do is look at who extended their reg period within those few months.
There may be minor trust issues relating to SEO and registrations, but I don’t think it will have a noticable affect on rankings.
Scott
You may well be right Scott, I forget where I read about the importance of revealing your WHOIS data for rankings. I can’t see “sploggers” hosted on zillions of .info domains paying the extra for private registration. They are more likely they have a tame domain registrar, they can register using bogus details. Be interesting to know though if Google attributes more trust to a particular extension, ie: a .com or co.uk is automatically more “trustworthy” than a .info ;o)
Actually I read something a few years ago where some MSN research rated domains by TLD. Their research had people labelling domains as spam or not and a whoping 70% of .biz domain names were considered to be spam!
My original write up is back here: http://www.fusednation.com/seo/15th-international-www-conference-edinburgh-may-2006/