What’s in a domain name?
These days there are lots of places to get your blog online for free which has probably helped to fuel the massive growth in the number of blogs over the last decade. People who have no understanding of php or have never seen a html page are able to get their blog hosted for free in minutes. Most of these services also allow a certain degree of customisation to your little part of the internet. And it’s all totally free!
And the best things are free right? Well, no. Sure you save a few bucks in the short term, but in the long term you lose our big time. What happens when you no longer want to be hosted on someone else’s site and you want to move to your own server? Or if the site that hosts your blog collapses. Or, if you’ve been naughty, if they kick you off. At this point you will have to buy a domain, but now, people’s bookmarks, the links back to your comic; they’re all pointing at the wrong place! Buy registering your own domain name you’ll be able to change hosting services whenever you want meaning you won’t be tied down to a slow, ad filled environment, or forced to stay on a site that has terrible downtime.
Also, yourblog.com just looks so much better than yourblog.someone-elses-site.com. It shows a level of professionalism, it shows your audience you’re taking it seriously. Looking at long winded subdomains isn’t fun, and they are hard to remember. If you register your own domain you get to choose something short, snappy, and most importantly, memorable.
The only con is that you will have to pay for the domain. But, seriously, these days you can get a domain for 10 dollars a year. Trust me; it’s defiantly worth it in the long run. If you don’t want to invest the minimal fee of $10 you may need to rethink how much you really care about your blog.
I agree… the communities that the premade blogsites have are pretty valuable and get blogs to friends a lot quicker and easier than doing it on your own, but without your own domain its unlikely that outsiders will really take you seriously.
Yeah, it’s a difficult balance. On the one hand you get an initial boost by effectively joining a pre-existing community. However, you lose the credibility in the future of being your own outpost.