I was totally flabbergasted to discover that you are a regular rank and file postal employee. With the quality of this site I would have sworn it was run by a top Web design service. I wish the best for your venture."
- Sincerely, Rural Houston

Wakefield, a letter carrier in Dallas, Texas, got the idea for the site in 2000 when he went online searching for information about postal benefits for a fellow employee. He was expecting to find a category site for postal employees, much like Military.com's site for service members. What he found, however, were a few personal sites that were infrequently updated.

"I found that many postal employees didn't even know basic facts about their postal benefits," Wakefield says. "Postal benefits are governed by a complex mingling of union, postal, and federal regulations. Many postal employees, for example, don't even understand how their leave and sick leave is computed. I wanted to provide postal employees at least the basic facts about these regulations."

Wakefield posted the information but received few visitors initially. He soon learned a few elementary facts about the Internet. "First, you have to find a way to be found. So I registered with search engines and traded links with other postal sites," Wakefield says. "Second, I found that Internet surfers have a voracious appetite for information, and they frequent sites that are frequently updated and discard sites that aren't. When I began updating my site daily with postal news found throughout the Internet, the hits started coming," Wakefield adds.

Another lesson that Wakefield learned is that, though information is power, a professional Web site design equals credibility on the Net. He believes that the design aspect of the site is important.  "On the Net, all that people see is what is on their monitor. A professional design levels the playing field with the big guys," notes Wakefield. In PostalMag.com's case, the design betrays that the fact that the site is a one person operation. Wakefield both laughs and is humbled when postal employees ask him such questions as "how many employees work for PostalMag.com" and when job seekers apply for such positions as the Chief Technology Officer.

One of the most popular features at PostalMag.com has been their discussion boards, which allows postal employees from all across the nation to voice their opinions, vent their frustrations and share information using anonymous postings. The forums have hundreds of thousands of page views and tens of thousands of messages. Though some of the messages are your stereotypical gripe sessions, many other messages are from postal employees seeking and giving postal-related advice and information.

Sites such as PostalMag.com have revolutionized the way postal workers communicate with each other. Before the Internet, many postal employees received only sporadic information from the Postal Service, most of it pertaining only to their particular tasks at hand. Today, postal news stories are culled from online news sources from around the world and posted for all to see. As a result, local postal stories are also becoming national stories. For example, the story about a Missouri letter carrier killed while delivering mail in the dark became a national story that was discussed on workroom floors across the country  the next morning. The incident, and publicity from the incident led to a national outcry among letter carriers and has led to some reforms concerning delivery after dark. The local paper that initially ran the story was surprised at the volume of e-mails received from postal employees around the nation.

One of the most important stories PostalMag.com has followed is the anthrax through the mail terror attacks. Many postal employees have contacted PostalMag.com saying they received more information about anthrax and the attacks from the site than any other source.

Though Wakefield is a postal employee, the site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Postal Service. Wakefield says that he is very careful with the ethics part of the situation. "I don't use inside information and most all of the content at PostalMag.com can be found somewhere on the Net. And though I developed the site primarily for employees of the U.S. Postal Service, the site is generic, in that, it is a postal site, not a United States Postal Service site." In fact, Web statistics show more than a few visitors from from such diverse places as Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Australia.

What do top officials at USPS headquarters think about PostalMag.com? Wakefield is quick to point out that they are probably a bit under whelmed. "Their site, usps.com, is one of the most frequented and most important sites on the Internet." Nevertheless, Wakefield knows from his Web statistics and from e-mails that top postal and postal union officials regularly visit the site.

Wakefield believes that an informed employee is a better employee. He likes to tell the story of a manager at a district manager's meeting who knew all of the answers in a question and answer session about postal reform - because he was a frequent reader of PostalMag.com.

"PostalMag.com's goal is to give postal workers the news, information and resources they need to help make their careers with the postal service as rewarding and enriching as possible," Wakefield says.

The biggest lesson Wakefield has learned at PostalMag.com over the last several years is that there is a vast amount of untapped human potential among the 700,000 plus employees of the Postal Service. "Due to the repetitive and controlled work environment involved with working the mail, it's hard for postal employees to realize their full potential at work," Wakefield adds. "Hopefully PostalMag.com can help unleash some of that potential."

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