Maintain eye contact and back away slowly ;)

OKAY WHATEVER DUDE

Muwahaha! Now, THAT's funny!

You're beating your head against a wall with this guy Greenie |banghead|

"Talking with you is like a Martian having a conversation with a fungo."
~ Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in Bull Durham

10 is good for me |thumb

To answer your original question - registering a domain is putting your "private" information out there for anyone that wants it - by law it is required in the US to be available for every domain registered. If you use a privacy service offered bythe domain registrar it will be hidden from the people doing whois searches (which is how Alexa gets the information) however that information can still be retrieved by any agency that requests it.

More importantly - so little people use Alexa as a search engine its not like the information is going to show up very many places.
As was previously posted however, it can certainly affect your business if you own an adult site, as most traffic sources will not link to people that hide their information anymore. Also, there is a trend (my personal feeling is that it has already been implemented) at Google to dampen ranking based on hiding information from their whois part of the search algorithm. Just so that there is no misunderstanding, Google recently became a qualified registrar specifically for this purpose.

Last - I dont know who has been giving you information on corporations, but as pointed out it is entirely false. I dont have a clue where you live as I havent looked up any of your info, but claiming franchise tax as a big deal is ridiculous - in my state its $25, in Delaware where one of my corps is registered its $200 including the registered agents' fee. I also have my own financial adviser and accountants and they would shoot me if I ever tried to get rid of the corps - with the expenses that wouldnt be able to be claimed as biz expenses I would be taxed so heavily, I would owe the IRS tens of thousands of extra dollars every year.

I guess after looking around a little I would have to agree that you should hide your whois info

I saw that you were looking for trades on that xtasyvids.com site you had at the beginning of 2005 - hopefully you have sold that domain as that sure is a pretty picture in the whois now - http://www.whois.sc/xtasyvids.com

Nice find Linkster |thumb

I have checked out several state's on thier website, yes delaware was one of them. my home is california where the minimum franchise tax is $800. and of course it goes based how much money you make. I did look at delaware. that price quoted are just minimums meaning if you made no money at all. Meaning if you have successful biz you won't be paying $25 on your 2nd year. But my favorite is nevada no state taxes at all. I wasn't trying to insinuate it was a bad idea all around, but I believe people glamourize owning a corporation to a degree that makes it seem like it is always the best thing to do, and this just isn't true.

yeah I sold it. I sometimes devolop domains and sell them.

Well - lets see - if you are a LLC or Partnership in Delaware the franchise tax is $200 + a $25 filing fee every year.
If you are a corporation - it depends on which of two methods you use for filing - either the Authorized Shares method which if it is just you and one other person (assuming you have the minimum shares set at 3000 like a normal S Corp would) the franchise tax is $35
If you use the Par value method and assume you issue 1 mill public shares at $1 value your annual franchise tax would be $500 (although I kinda doubt youre company would have over $1 mill in assets of public stock)

In the state I live in the franchise tax is $25 per year.

As far as glamourizing having a company - I would have paid an extra $45000 in taxes this year if I had filed as personal tax vice filing as a company. Sure seems like a little extra glamour to me

these are just franchise taxes, there is also corporate income tax, personal income tax, don't forget corporations must also file at the federal level also. and if you do opt for an s corp the tax you like sole proprietor or partnership wich is on your corporate income on your personal income tax. wich means you still have to pay $45000 mentioned. you also have the many formal requirements for corporations wich include shareholder meetings, board of directors meetings to name a few. wich by the way still must be done even if you are one person that holds alll positions. you also have to a registered agent wich costs money unless you do it yourself and I doubt your qualified for that. all this stuff adds up, this is money that could be going into the biz instead to varois legal entities.

This thread is sinking quick. Someone call the coast guard!

Alex

No no - dont bother the Coast Guard - theyre really busy protecting our ports from takeover by AlQaeda companies (ooops I mean terrorists)

|ufo|