I think I mentioned myself being a part time domain investor, and I own a number of domains, which I’ve either bought from others or registered myself. So it stands to reason why I’ve rambled about domains in the past. If you’ve been planning to have an online presence, remember, the first smart step is to get a good domain name.
Being a regular poster at some forums, I definitely notice countless newbie bloggers starting out with Blogger every day. While Blogger is free, the downside is many new blogs on Blogger get relegated into a sandbox state at the beginning, which means you don’t appear on anywhere in Google that gets seen by people, except perhaps for obscure terms or keywords (that nobody ever looks up).
So this is the downside of free hosting sites. They might be free, but sites hosted on them typically have a harder time getting visitors during the beginning. At least that is what I notice. Not only that, but free hosting sites may have “fine print” clauses that take a percentage of any ad income you may receive from your “free” site.
So before you embark on your blogging adventure, it is important to get a good domain name; even if you have to register or buy one. Yet, I notice many folks never want to spend money on getting a domain name, but don’t think twice about getting a new PDA! I know I wouldn’t want to start a blog on a subdomain which I don’t even own, as would be the case with a free host site like Blogger. I want to own my site. How about you?
It’s no secret; all the search engines give a slight preference to a good and (preferably old) .com domain. While other TLDs can also work out fine, there is a slight edge to .com. So always get a good .com (if you can).
A couple pointers
Is domain investing profitable? Yes it is. Domain investing can pay off handsomely if you know what makes for good names, and are prepared to invest money and time on it. While virtually all the premium domains have long been taken up, it is anything but closed off. Due to the recession, many domain prices have dropped this year alone, so for a few hundred bucks, you can become the owner of a good domain (even if not premium), and begin planning your website or blog on it. There are many good domains that cost less than an Xbox, so while today you can’t hand register any more premium domains, you can certainly buy your way in, slowly.
All is not lost if you can’t spare the quid required. A common fallacy is that all the good domains are gone; but this is not strictly true now. In my observation, many domains have been dropped this past year alone, most likely due to the recession. So if you search hard enough, you might still be able to uncover some nice names for the price of a hand reg!
Buying or selling domains is also easy. There are many domain selling sites which act as brokers for domain sellers and buyers; some of which I’ve used to sell or buy domains in the past are:
- Sedo
- BuyDomains
- Namecheap Marketplace
- Digital Point and NamePros forums.
As this year draws to a close and a new one begins, if you’ve been planning to start a blog or website, how about starting off on the right foot with a good domain? Have a great year ahead!