Why Should I Have a Domain Name?


by Heather Howe - Date: 2007-04-23 - Word Count: 816 Share This!

Many people when first starting out in the internet use the free web space offered by their ISP or they go to the free hosting sites. This may seem like a cost saving measure but is it?

Firstly if anything goes wrong and it usually does when you least expect it to the options of fixing those problems can be very limited. What happens when your site begins to build a lot of traffic? We have all seen it before when a free hosted site runs out of bandwidth. This mean they have exceeded the limit assigned to them and request that the visitor return later. Remember bandwidth is your monthly allotment of the amount of data that your site can send and receive. Is this the professionalism you want your site to portray?

Secondly,are the advertising banners and pop-ads? While some may suit your business, most will not and can detract from your business. Don't forget that pop-ups and banners are a part of free hosting; this is a way of paying for the free service they are providing. While this may not be a problem for personal web-pages if your site is a business orientated then it could lose credibility as it often lacks professionalism.

Thirdly, is the name game problem with free hosting as your website is placed in a sub-domain or a folder (www.yourwebsite.freehosting.com or www.freehosting.com/yourwebsite). This can sometimes result in poor search engine rankings. Remember, this part of the internet game is easy for people to search for what you are selling or offering on your website? That is, a domain name that reflects your business which, helps drive people to your site.

Fourthly, is a fatal flaw with free hosting sites. Many don't allow FTP access to your site. FTP is File Transfer Protocol and this is how you upload your files for viewing on the web. That means you have to use whatever software they insist that you use to upload your files; usually only one file at a time. Very time consuming when you have a lot of images or pages to upload at once. Free hosting as a cost saving measure? What is your time worth?

The expense of hosting is one that shows the slowest return for your money in terms of being tangible revenue; however in terms of first impressions and professionalism it is worth its weight in gold. I used to use free hosting but once I decided to purchase my own domain and pay for hosting it was the best business decision I ever made and I haven't looked back.

The key is research! There are many good hosting companies out there and some not so good. Ask people you know who have their own sites; who they use? Ask the company who is designing for you if you are using one. Remember paying for your own domain name and hosting gives you total control over your domain. A good hosting company will also provide extras that can make it worth your while to host your site. Extras like:

Guest book for visitors to leave comments and suggestion for you WordPress great easy to use templates for blogs, websites Fantastico (one click installation of guestbook, blogs, bulletin boards, photo sharing, shopping cart software and other great features). One of the best features of the hosting company I use; Sibername.com is that I get 20 email accounts and I can set them up myself with whatever password I decide. I don't have to contact my ISP provider to setup the email accounts or change the password for me or if I decide to delete an account I can do that too.

A nice feature of having your own domain is that you can make sub domains. One key point to keep in mind is that, unlike domains, sub domains can be created "at will". For any domain, you can create as many sub domains as you like; you do not have to go to a registrar and pay an annual fee for each of them. For example a website could be http://www.forexample.com and sub domain of that would be www.question.forexample.com. It is a way to classify different parts of your website.

Some hosting companies will also offer Help Center Live, this allows you to chat with support live and get help ASAP! You have heard of MSN Messenger or Yahoo Chat or many of the other online messaging systems live chat works like that. You type in your question and a support person answers you.

The main thing is that there will not be a page that comes up and says "Sorry the website you are trying to view has exceeded its allowed bandwidth. Please try again later."

In conclusion, if you want to have quality and professionalism, then spend a bit of money each month to a qualified and dependable hosting company. The number of paybacks are simply too abundant to throw away.


Related Tags: website design, domain, professionalism, isp, free hosting, paid hosting

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