by Azam Corry
Yep ... I'm going to tell you what you've probably heard a dozen times already - get your own domain name.
The reasons why?
Not having your own domain name will create the following perception in the minds of most people:
- Probably new
- Definitely small
- Maybe part time
- Probably not a real company
- A strong possibility of being a "shady operator"
Having your own domain does not lead people to automatically trust you.
However, with this small step you will successfully alter their perception of you to:
- Probably established
- Could be large or small
- Full time
- Probably a real company
- Being a "shady operator" not impossible
Can you see the potential in the differences?
Another important point of course is branding. You want your name to become known and familiar. Something that people can remember easily. Something they will associate with what you do. That's a tall order if you don't have your own name to begin with.
With your own domain name, plus the right words and correct image, your task of creating trust is that much easier. Again...
You LOOK the part!
Don't put it off until your more established. If you name your site something and wait for it to become reasonably popular before deciding to register your name, you will probably find you're too late. Someone else will have already taken the name!
Then what will you do?
If you need further convincing, just imagine having to change host's for your site. All the work of promoting of your URL goes into the trash! Sure you might be able to set up a redirect for a couple of months, but ultimately you'd have to do all your previous promotion again.
Even worse ... what if the host closed the service?
Immediately every single link to your site from anywhere in the universe is broken! All search engine and directory listings would be useless to you, as would be any of your articles archived in other publications!
You will loose all of your visitors that aren't on your email list ...
... frightening isn't it!
As a domain name is simply a pointer to an address, having your own domain name means you can change hosts at any time. The name remains the same, only the address of the server it points to changes.
No loss of visitors, no wasted promotion!
With the cost of new domain names now cheaper than ever, you really have no excuse for not obtaining your own. Of the many registration services that are mushrooming online, the cheapest I've found to date is http://www.000domains.com where you can register domain names for only $13.50 a year.
Keep in mind that names ending in ".com" carry most weight for business sites and will continue to do so for a long time to come. If you feel you really must have a certain name and the ".com" version has already gone ".net" is the next best choice.
© 1999-2000 Azam Corry "Do it Better. Do it Faster. Do it Right!"
Online since 1998, Azam Corry Helps Newbies Develop a Winning
Web Marketing Strategy with Great Free Guides, Tools and Resources.
Also Discover
Resale Rights eBooks & Resell Kits That Make Money Fast!
==> Special from Azam:
Subscribe now to my Biz Bits Marketing eZine & get the Net's most
Comprehensive ecourse PLUS real-value ebooks completely FREE!
You can reproduce this article free of charge anywhere you want, as long as you include the author information found at the end. Please do not make any substantial editorial changes without reviewing them with me prior to publication. Links within the article or resource box may not be altered, and must be 'clickable' on a web page or in an ebook.
If you would like to have new articles sent to you as soon as they are released, use the contact form to let me know, or email Publishers@NowSell.com
Click here for a plain text version, formated to 65 characters per line for easy copy and paste straight into your ezine.
