Thanks to weblog services such as WordPress and Blogger, blogging has become so easy and popular. With the improvements in weblog services even first time bloggers that know nothing of HTML can set up their own blogs in a few minutes and put up their first post. Customization is also no problem since the services make room for more advanced users to configure their blogs according to their needs and taste. And this all for free!
Everyone loves free stuff and the same goes with bloggers. However, there are times when shelling out just a little money is the smarter move. When it comes to your own blog it is actually much better to pay for your own domain name. So what’s wrong with a blog ending with blogspot.com, wordpress.com, typepad.com, etc? Nothing really but looking at it in the long run you’re actually missing out on a good “investment opportunity”. If your blog is simply a personal journal then paying the minimal yearly fee for your own domain name might not be worth it but if it’s your business’ blog then it’s a different thing.
First of all by having your own domain name your blog automatically sounds more professional. This is true whatever the nature of your blog is. A blog with it’s own domain name simply looks more credible. Secondly, by choosing your own domain name and paying the minimal yearly fee you won’t get tied to one weblog service. In case you decide to change the weblog service you use you can migrate easily since you wouldn’t need to change your domain name. While you might have no plans to do this in the near future with improvements rapidly going on in the competing weblog services you don’t really know if it’ll someday be advantageous for you to change to another. Thirdly, by registering a domain name as early as possible you start the ageing process of the domain name. We know that search engines place importance on the age of the domain so that the older your domain name is the more valuable it becomes. Really, compared to the very small cost of yearly fees the benefits you will reap, both eventually and right away, from having your own domain name far outweighs that small cost.
Originally posted on November 30, 2007 @ 11:10 am
