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Five reasons to get a podcast po box. Thank you for joining me for the Audacity to podcast. I'm Daniel J. Lewis. Post Office Boxes or PO Boxes or maybe called something else in other countries, whatever they're called, wherever you are, they require an investment, especially increasing the last few years in the United States, but they could be worth it for you. So I have five reasons that I think you should get a PO Box or whatever it's called wherever you are. Just if I say PO Box, just interpret that to whatever it is where you are. And you can get these kinds of PO Boxes from your local post office in the United States or even other providers like UPS, maybe FedEx and some other kind of delivery service like that. There are even places that all they do is is just have things like PO Boxes for people to be able to rent at varying prices and varying sizes as well. So I have for you five reasons that I think you should get one for your podcast. Number one, privacy. Obviously, this is the thing that most people think of whenever they think of why should I get a P.O. box? They think, well, I want to protect my privacy. And that is certainly the obvious number one answer. And in fact, all of these reasons tie back to the central idea of privacy. But privacy alone isn't good enough. Simply having the PO Box doesn't give you instant privacy. You have to use the PO Box in the right way. So that's what the remaining four points I'm going to share with you will be. And by the way, if you want to follow along in the notes for this episode, they are a simple tap or swipe away. Look at the chapters or go to the audacitytopodcast.com po box. Moving on then to number two, use your po box for public records. This could be first of all for your domain. This is not so much of a concern these days because a lot of domain registrars now provide, at no extra charge, what they call whois privacy protection. And there's this other thing that's taking over for whois information, and that's rdap R D A P. But it is when you look up the domain on a website, you might be able to find information about who owns that domain. This is how I got in trouble with the mom of a little boy who owned danielj. Lewis. Com many, many years ago. I simply looked up the WHOIS information on that domain, saw a phone number listed, saw that it was a residential phone number and there was a real name associated with the domain. So I picked up the phone and Called the number that was listed publicly there on the Internet, like any stalker would do. And the mom was really angry at me and I tried to explain. Your phone number is publicly visible here on the information about the domain. So I'm not stalking you or your son or anything like that. I just wanted to call and talk about seeing if you want this domain anymore and buying it from you. Well, I have that domain now, but it's not because of anything that happened with that mom finally changing her mind. It's just the domain expired and I got it. But nonetheless, your domain could be revealing your personal information. Potentially, though a lot of these domain registrars now will protect your information for free. Some places still charge extra for that. Easiest thing to do is go look up the WHOIS or RDAP information for your own domain. And I'll have a couple of links in the notes for this episode so you can check that out for your own domain to see if it shows your name and your personal home address. But the great thing is, if you have a P.O. box, you don't have to worry about it. You could associate your domains and any other kinds of public records, or almost any, I would say public records, with your PO Box instead of your home address or your business address. Or your PO Box could be your business address. Number three. Encourage your audience to send things to your PO Box. This is the most fun thing. And I have received some really fun things to my P.O. box over the years. And yes, I still have the same P.O. box for forever that I've had. It's P.O. box 739, Burlington, KY 41005. You can send fun things to me. Send me podcast swag if you want, send large donations, send blocks of gold, send blocks of bitcoin if you want, or anything like that. That's fun. Chocolates, cream sodas. But you can encourage your audience to send things to you, too. The most exciting thing I've ever received was for my clean comedy podcast that I used to host. Someone wrote a story that they wanted to share on the podcast, and they wrote it on a big inflatable ball. I don't mean like basketball size, although that would be pretty fun. This is even bigger than a beach ball, a big inflatable ball. They wrote their story and even their return address. They put the postage on that ball and they mailed that to us. That was awesome. Other people have sent us fun things like stickers, magnets, signs, posters, money. Really fun stuff. You can encourage your audience to do that same thing and most likely the thing that's holding you back from doing that is you're probably thinking, I don't want my audience to know where I live. And that is a very legitimate concern. That's why the biggest benefit of a P.O. box is privacy. But this is one of the benefits that if you get a P.O. box, then privacy is not only no longer a concern, but now you have this added advantage of you're providing your audience with a way that they can further engage with you and send you things back. I frequently talk about the podcast profit paradigm, P R O F I T. It's what you and your audience can gain from your podcast. Popularity, relationships, opportunity, fun, income, and tangibles. That tangibles is perfect for the PO Box, which is your audience can send you all kinds of things to your P.O. box. Some things may or may not be legal in the state that you live in, but still you can receive things from your audience and encourage your audience to do so. When you get a P.O. box number four, use your P.O. box as a secure delivery address for retailers. This may not be available everywhere and for every kind of P.O. box, but it's something I've taken advantage of several times where I can provide a retailer with my PO Box for receiving packages. Some places say we don't ship to P.O. boxes. Okay, yeah, that's true. Well, here's a cool little trick. Some post offices, at least here in the United States, will let you send to your PO Box by using the street address of the post office. If you have a P.O. box, ask them if they can do this. Usually it involves adding something like simply box 739 in my case to the address. Or you say suite 739, or office 739, something like that, that has your number very obviously as part of that address, but it is the street address. And many places that say we don't ship to P.O. boxes will ship to a street address like that, as long as maybe their database system does not make addresses completely unique. Where only one person can be associated with an address per account or per person site wide, that's something that I think you would only have to be concerned about in the realm of mail in rebates. And do people do that anymore? Besides things like menards and their 11%, which I've been a big customer of lately, a whole episode is coming about some of the stuff that I've done recently in my house and how it relates to podcasting, but that's coming up soon. So you could use your PO Box as that Secure delivery address. And I say secure because this means you could receive a package in and it's delivered to the post office, they can sign for it. If it's delivered during business hours, they can store it securely for you so you don't have to worry about porch thieves. This can also be great, not just simply for what happens during the day while you might be at work and then you get home at the evening to discover that someone stole your package from the front step. This could even be for if you're on a trip. I've done this multiple times where I have ordered something while I've been on vacation and I've known that this is going to arrive while I'm gone. So I'll send it to my P.O. box or the street address of my P.O. box, and I've received it there securely, so I didn't have to worry about it sitting on my front porch for days at a time where someone could take it or it could be exposed to the elements in the weather and damaged. So you could use your PO Box for that secure delivery address. But before you do that, and before you start using the street address of your post office or whatever kind of provider you're using, make sure you check with them. Some places may charge extra for this, some places may not allow it at all. But do look into that as an option. And then number five, you can boost your reputation with a hint of professionalism. It is really cool to say you can send stuff to my P.O. box. Well, not just like that, but to just give that as your address. Yeah, I'm reachable at podcast PO Box 739, Burlington, Kentucky 41005. And that's your address. That's your business address, your podcast address. If you do anything with business, then certainly you can also deduct the expense of your P.O. box. Make sure you check with your accountant, though, for sure. But that's the way I do it, and my accountants never had a problem with that. And this can then be a good investment for you to boost that professionalism for you and your podcast. And then all of these other benefits, but especially the most exciting one, is being able to receive things from your audience. So if for no other reason except for the basic privacy that a P.O. box provides, I think the top benefit for you of having a PO Box is then being able to get stuff from your audience. And that can be exciting. And if you ever need to send stuff to your audience, you could use your PO Box as the return address instead of your home address. So so think about that for protecting your privacy too, so you could more easily send things out to your audience without giving away where you live so that you don't get stalked or no one comes knocking on your door wanting to record a podcast with you. So check out the notes for a couple of these resources that I mentioned over@the audacitytopodcast.com PO Box I A couple of episodes ago asked you to share your thoughts about the Audacity podcast and I would love to remind you about this. I've gotten some great feedback already and I'm going to have an episode coming up soon to discuss some of these things and I have tested something in this very episode and I have a few theories and so I'm looking for feedback, very general feedback, and I'm looking to see how many people notice what I'm looking for and how much of my theory can be proven true or false based on the feedback I get. So it's really simple. What I want is the answer to three open ended questions. Number one, what would you like more of from me or the Audacity to podcast? Number two what would you like less of from me or the Audacity to podcast? And number three, what else do you want to tell me that's been on your mind? You can send that feedback to me at feedback the audacitytopodcast.com or send a written or voicemail through podcast feedback.com audacity and now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast and get a P.O. box for for Passion and Profit. I'm Daniel J. Lewis from the audacitytopodcast.com thanks for listening.