It’s good business sense to have your own domain name instead of using a free hosting site to which your site is attached (e.g., www.FreeYellow.com/YourSiteName) or buying hosting from a service that will append your site to their domain name. Here’s why:
- Your own domain name is, ideally, more memorable, and therefore easier to find you online. When people are looking for you or your business, they’ll typically think of it by name or brand (which may be the same).
- Your own domain name conveys professionalism and credibility. Your own domain name, especially in an increasingly web-savvy public, tells your visitors that you take your business seriously. And in a field still struggling to create a professional identity, your professionalism efforts move us all forward.
- Your own domain name conveys stability. Using a free host that inserts their domain into your URL suggests to your visitors that you’re testing the waters and not sure you want to commit for the long haul.
- Your own domain name offers you some control over your site. When you use a free host, if the free host folds, so does your site. When you own your own domain, you can use whatever host you want, like taking your cell phone with you when you switch wireless providers.
- When you own your domain you can choose to host with a service that will make setting up a blog easier. I’ll be discussing this later, but for now: Some sites will install the blog software for you and that’s the kind of host I recommend unless you’re a techie.
- You get email addresses with your domain’s extension (e.g., YourName@YourDomainName.com). Most, if not all, domain name registration services offer a number of free email addresses as part of your package. This lets you send email from your brand. An added bonus is that your email becomes a tiny viral marketing tool…when people see the domain name in your email address, they may be curious enough to check out your site (a new client came to me that way earlier this year).
If You Already Have an Established Domain Name
What if you’ve already got a well-established domain name that isn’t all that it can be or you want to keep it and have a different name for your blog? You certainly don’t want to lose the traffic that knows the established domain address (the URL).
Fear not. Here are several strategies to the rescue:
- Keep your current domain name and simply rename the site with the new brand. So if you’ve been using CurrentDomainName.com with the title Pet Mediation Services, you’d use the same domain and rename the site Purrfect Harmony.
- Keep your current domain name and add the blog as a separate, linked site. I think this is your least effective solution because you end up maintaining two sites and it’s harder to integrate their appearance effectively.
- Retain ownership of your old domain and forward it to your new domain. Or, vice versa, buy the new domain and forward it to your old domain. A person typing in www.ConstructionMediation.com, for example, is seamlessly taken to www.ConflictResolution.com. Domain forwarding is very inexpensive ($4-$8 per year and in some instances no additional charge, depending on your web hosting service).
- Use domain mapping. Domain mapping is the process of re-mapping your entire site using a new name, so that the URLs of all your web pages will now direct a visitor to the new page with the new address. You probably don’t want to pursue domain mapping without some technical support, unless you’re a geek with the know-how.
Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
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