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What a great question and I guess that is why there are horse races.
You can bet on your favorite horse, but you don't know who is going to win.
We live in a new age of technology and it is changing daily.
Spam is a new tool and everybody is using it.
Some emails and web sites have filters. A good filter will keep the spam away.
As far as gaining new business and exposure try the SCORE web site at "www.score.org"
It is FREE and SCORE has 26 online courses including DEVELOPING A BUSINESS PLAN
BUILDING AND PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS AND BUILDING A WEB SITE.
The price is right, Good luck, LUCKIEST

As a consumer of jewelry, I asked for your website so I could peruse and possibly buy. I am always looking for new things to wear with my austere shark suits. Unusual jewelry makes sure that I get remembered even when I am wearing a black suit.

My website is posted on my profile. Anyone is free to take a look and I have already had a question about what my product was.

Someone somewhere is always going to try and sell you something.Just do what I do: SAY NO!!!! I just delete the spam and go on....

Question is: do you really want the business? If so get that web address out there...personally I can't wait to see whats out there..AND ya'll need to check out NatOnlines' site as well.

When someone posts a question, I always read the profile before responding, and if there's a website listed, I visit it. It helps me provide a more specific and (I hope) useful response. If there's no background information there to go on, I may skip the question or wait until more responses are added to help define it.

The privacy/spamming point you bring up is a good one. Reminds me of dating -- we go to a lot of trouble to attract the attention of someone wonderful, and then lament over having attracted someone creepy as well. Opening ourselves to the possibility of something good almost always means exposing ourselves to the risk of something bad. I think there are many better ways to gather website identities and information en masse (if that is someone's motive) than picking through the members of this community -- so I think the rewards outweigh the risks.

Well then, you may ask, why don't I have a website listed in MY profile?

1. I haven't posted any questions.

2. I'm not here to promote my businesses.

Great question, dazzler!
First, about forums in general. There are information seekers, slick-haired car salesmen, experts, and the whole lot, which makes a public forum exist. If you post your site, invariably you will be contacted by some forum and non-forum members to offer their services. I post my website in my profile, so if someone wants to contact me, they may do so. But I do not go through the profiles seeking business, as I think this is "forum etiquette". - Maybe I should optimize that term!

As for safeguarding your private information: That's a choice you make. I belong to several SEO and web-related forums, and I'm completely transparent, or public. But on some political and investor related sites, I'm anonymous. That point is chosing to be public for good reasons; i.e. sell a product, have someone review your site, improve site traffic, etc.

As for spam, most email addresses are not protected on websites, and there are a couple old and easy methods to "hide" your email address. First, make your email address an image, not text. Spambots will not be able to read the image or graphic. The other method is to hide your email with a character mixer. User's would see, for instance, "email us", but the link would be going to your email address. In HTML code, the email address in this case would look like a string too long for the email harvestor/ spambot to read. I've used a service called addressmunger.com for years with no spam. (I don't work for them and can only speak to my results).

So, you join a community to share experiences, and going public is not going to get you more spam or threaten your privacy. As for harsh critiques, some websites really need it, if the reviewer knows what works and what doesn't. I think a critique, from a forum etiquette standpoint, should be asked for by the poster or implies they need help. So the choice is yours. Your still part of the community either way, and it is all about sharing.

Good luck with your choice, and welcome to the club!
Cliff

I think it's a great opportunity to get exposure for your business. At any time you can update your profile. So, you can add in more information about your business as you start to feel more comfortable or remove it, if you start getting random calls or random emails. Just remember to share only your "business information" or whatever you'd want advertised in the public yellow pages, etc.

Dazzler, WRONG - -WRONG - - WRONG I have NOTHING to Sell and I DO NOT have a web site.
SORRY you do not understand, LUCKIEST

Yes! You're right and when you have a great legal team and a good Webmaster, it is reassuring. Thanks so much!!!!