Website article, Why Should You Get Your Own Domain Name

Why Should You Get Your Own Domain Name and Your Own Web Site?

Getting Your Own Domain Name
by Joe Reinbold

The question as to whether you should get your own domain name
continually surfaces when discussions are held about setting up
a business on the Net.

Why can't I just get a free page or two and get my business
started that way? Hey, You Can! That's the way many started
their business journey online.

That's how I started with The Entrepreneur's Home Business Link.
I started with a five page free site, tested the waters, studied
what was happening and got a feel for what could be done online.
Then I went right to my own domain at www.homebizlink.com. In
less than a year our site had expanded from a one page home site
to a site with online malls, free classified ad sites, a free for
all links site, a multitude of products and services, a growing
international newsletter, monthly contests, autoresponders that
work for us 24 hours a day, numerous affiliate program associations
creating multiple streams of income, a book store, marketing
library, freebies center and traffic that continues to build every
month!

I indicated above that I started with a free site. This is fine
for getting your feet wet and experimenting.

But if you are serious about starting your own online business,
get your own domain name and a professional web host. The cost,
which can be pretty inexpensive, will be worth it in the long run.
Free sites don't give you speedy servers, ownership of your domain
name, 24 hour support nor many of the marketing tools you need to
promote your business online. Most free sites also have very long
URLs or page addresses with your user ID name attached to the end.
It doesn't look very professional. Another downside to using a
free site is that they have all kinds of pop up ads appearing in
front of your visitor and you have no control over them. The ads
are the rent that you pay to use their service.

But let's talk about domain names and why you should get your own.
In next issue, in Part Two, we will talk more about getting your
own web site and what to look for in getting one.

Plenty has been written about the advantages of having your own
domain name. The primary ones are name recognition and a more
professional, businesslike image. Your own unique domain name can
be a cornerstone to establishing your business on the Web.

It is important to note here that thousands of new domain names are
registered every month and it is a high probability that the popular
names and most targeted business type names are already registered.
So it is important for you, if you are considering getting your own
domain name to use now or in the future, to go check its availability
right now. You can reserve it now and use it whenever you want. If
you wait, the one you want may not be available. Once you register
it, no one else can use it.

But what exactly is a domain name? Each site and each page on the
Web has a unique address or else people couldn't find it. A domain
name actually provides an alternative to using an IP address, which
is a group of numbers, to access your Web site. You have probably
seen them. An IP address can look like this - 143.23.23.267. In
actuality, we could use the IP address but replacing it with a
domain name makes it easier to remember. I sure like using
http://www.homebizlink.com better than having everyone try to
remember http://45.234.78.438

Your domain name "yourname.com" can consist any alphanumeric
characters, a-z, 0-9, and/or a hyphen. The .ext can be any of the
approved suffix's such as .com, .net, .org, .ca. So your domain name
is YOUR own address on the Internet. This address, "yourname.com"
is what is called a URL or Universal Resource Locator.

There are some domain extensions that are available worldwide. For
instance, .com, .net, .org and .biz are probably the ones you see
all the time. These are generic global extensions that anyone,
anywhere can register and use. There are also those that have
specific affiliations, such as .mil, .gov and .edu which can be
used by American military, government and education institutions
respectively. There are also hundreds of country specific domain
extensions like .ca for Canada, .uk for United Kingdom and .in for
India to name a few. Some of these are restricted to use by only
people in those countries, others are not.

The most common recommendation by those who have had a long time
business on the Web is to try and obtain a .com address which is
what we also recommend. It is the one that was used initially during
the early Internet days and is the one that most people are used to
and comfortable with.

So now that you have an idea of just what a domain name is, you
need to sit down and make yourself a list of a domain names that
you would consider using for your business enterprise. Be creative
and write down all combinations that you can think of. A name can
be up to 63 characters. Then take the list and put it in order,
with the one you want the most at the top of the list.

Then set aside some time to go check out the availability of the
names on your list. You can use these companies to check