8 of 10 people may have asked themselves this question before. "Should I buy a domain name or get a free domain name instead?" I know that it can be frustrating to decide as I did ask myself the same question before. To prevent you from pulling your hair off, here’s a breakdown of what are the top benefits to get your own domain name. 1.Presentation (First impression counts) Think of this, when you are promoting your website, the first thing that the reader ever sees before reaching your homepage is the URL. Having a top level domain name(.com, .org, .net etc) simply gives the reader a sense of trust or worthiness. As they know that chances of viewing higher quality content is greater rather than a free sub domain name. This is extremely important if you are in a business or a field where your site have to presented as professional. 2. Branding and Identity Having a domain name, not only make your website look good, but it strengthens the branding and identity. At the end of the day, you want your user to relate to your brand whenever they are thinking of that niche. 3. Truly Yours Owning a domain name puts you to ease. You wouldn’t want to depend on your free domain provider’s fate. Do remember that they can always terminate your account for whatsoever reason they deemed fit or worst, they may not be there tomorrow. It isn’t worth the risk and jeopardizes your effort. 4. Growing Value So here is the interesting part. If you think that promoting, marketing and backlinking is not important, then you are wrong! Whenever you promote your website, chances are, they are going to serve you some traffic in the future. You may not see the immediate effect of this but it will contribute to the backlinking and popularity of the website. The more backlinks and traffic to your website, the higher the value of the domain name. A domain name can be worth $0 at Day 1 but it can worth millions if it gets popular. 5. Reaping Returns For whatsoever reasons, be it 2012 is coming and you decide to end your business to buy yourself a football field filled with bananas, and eat your hearts out; The good news is, you are able to sell your domain name for cash. Imagine building your blog or website on a free domain, you can’t sell off those sub domain names. 6. Low Costs, Wide Benefits Domain names are not that expensive, average it costs less than $10 for a domain name over a year, which is approximately 2 cents per day! It shouldn’t be hard to recover the $10 don’t you agree? If you are looking to be in the CPA or Affiliate Marketing field, having a top level domain name can increase the chance of being accepted as their publisher. 7. Earning with domain names If setting up a hosting is hassle or you know nuts about programming, you can simply do domain name trading. All you have to do is spot and purchase domain names which you think are valuable then simply sell them through domain selling websites.
Number 3 is my one main point which is a must , Owning the domain you are using is a MUST imo , renting which has come into its own recently in my opinion is one way to get your self in alot of trouble potentially , especially if you site suddenly really takes off, not only will the domain cost be put up but it may even be taken away completely just as your business is taking off............Tip of the day : Make sure all legal contracts are signed before entering a domain rental , make sure you are protected.
nice post there are other benefits like u get the PR juice to ur own domain while promoting rather than just using a sub domain which doesnt really benefits on pr and SE traffic
Yes, you are right. Buying a top level domain is very important if you are a serious web entrepreneur. I think for casual onliners free domain concept is nothing bad. I found all of your 7 points very useful. Thanks
That was one good reads, the pointers are clearly understandable however there are people who still prepare to have a free domain. Maybe if the domain is just for personal use, free domain is acceptable but not if you are doing a business.
Damn, how could have I missed this thread. There was a nice ad back in the 90's of a sexy-looking office woman labeled "I love a man with domain" So, add "8. Being attractive and sexy"
I would like to think you would own a domain name for the sheer fact you need one to develop a website.
yea, you dont need to use other services and their name for your blog presence. also, you can move your site around as needed.
