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The SITS Girls

The Secret to Success is Support

Why you need to own your own domain

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Bloggers sometimes wonder whether it really is worth it to have their own domain. The argument for not having your own domain makes perfect sense. Why pay for hosting and the domain itself when you can use free sites like Blogger, WordPress, or Tumblr to blog? Well the reasons to buy and own your own domain in the blogging world is quite comparable to owning your own house in the real world. It is always better to buy then rent.

How do you get your own domain? Everything you need to know about buying your own domain name.

Why you need your own domain

Ownership of content

One huge reason to buy your own domain is for ownership of the content. Even though on Blogspot blogs or free WordPress blogs you can write whatever you want you really don’t own the content. Blogger, WordPress, or Tumblr can pull your content or delete your blog whenever they want. You didn’t pay to use their services and anytime you have a Blogspot.com or WordPress.com blog they are in control of the future of your blog. Imagine having 500 posts written and one day finding out that WordPress or Blogspot or Tumblr decided to remove your whole blog for whatever reason. Legally it is in there right. If you own your own domain this issue will never happen to you. Even if you only write for fun you probably have become pretty attached to your blog, so buy the domain and the hosting.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits

When you buy your own domain you usually are set up with the paid version of WordPress which allows you to add many custom plug ins. A lot of these plug ins are SEO related and will help Google and other search engines find your blog and deliver much more organic traffic. When you have your own domain you can do more on page SEO. On page SEO means titles, descriptions, and keywords that help the search engines find and rank your blog. With your own domain you have much more control over how your blog will rank in the search engines. Search engines much prefer a .com blog versus a .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com blog. If you have the same number of links with your own .com versus a .blogspot.com blog the search engine will give your .com blog a higher ranking just because you own your own domain. This is a big advantage.

Earning potential

If you ever are trying to make money off your blog you need to own your own domain. Advertisers are looking to advertise with bloggers that have their own domains, and would likely only ever pay for an ad on a free blogging site if the traffic was off the charts. When you own your own domain you can build those stats that advertisers want to see to a blog that you own. Every link that you build, every reader that subscribes, and every time your page rank goes up your blog looks that much more attractive to advertisers. Since you have put in all that effort and energy you control what the advertiser pays. If your blog becomes popular in a popular niche you will get a lot of offers. Having your own domain plus lots of traffic in a popular niche will eventually have you making money off your blog. The money that you pay to buy the domain and host the domain is nothing when compared to the potential ad revenue your blog can generate. You can even become an affiliate for big companies that you love if you have your own blog. In fact if you have lots of traffic companies will ask you to become an affiliate. Selling whatever you want and making big commissions can be a nice perk.

If you were ever on the fence about getting your own domain I hope this post has swayed you. The upside to having your own blog on your own domain is huge and the downside to not having your own domain is also huge. If you are serious about blogging you need to buy and not rent.

About the Author:
Timothy Fox is the CEO of Soge Shirts where you can find http://www.sogeshirts.com/ funny tshirts for men, women, and children. Follow him on pinterest at www.pinterest.com/sogeshirts.

About Tracie Nall

Tracie lives in Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and more books than her shelves will hold. She spends her days writing and editing. Many of her words end up on her blog, From Tracie. Find Tracie on Twitter @FromTracie and on Instagram where she takes pictures of things that are yellow.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. pavan says

    Pavan @(pavanh)
    Hi ,
    Thank you for a nice post , i started my blogging with subdomain and now i moved to custom domain i just wanted to ask you on moving from subdomain to custom , whatever backlinks which were achieved from subdomain will it be lost or redirected to custom domain

    Waiting for your reply
    Thank you

  2. lincoln.ac.uk says

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  5. TFBadmin says

    Hello, thanks very much for this interesting post.

    I am thinking about buying my own domain through blogger. I currently have a free blogger website and I was just wondering… if buy my own custom domain, will blogger still be able to delete my site and/or posts… since I would still be using their service own my own domain.

    The reason I ask is because my previous blog unfortunately got shut down without reason by blogger, and it was extremely frustrating. I honestly have no idea why they deleted it, because as far as I’m aware I don’t have any illegal content on it.

    I would like to continue using bloggers easy-to-use service, but at the same time, not have to worry about my blog ever being deleted again.

    So basically, what I am asking is… If I buy a domain, does blogger still have the power to delete my site and/or the things on it?

    Thanks for your time.

  6. Hammad says

    nice article. Content ownership and from advertisements point of view it ll definitly matters but it doesnt sounds search engine prefers .com sites

  9. Marcos Freire says

    Very good explanation. I recently bought a domain for my blog and I can already see the differences in the positions of google searches. Thank you.

  11. mia says

    I posted this comment a few minutes ago to try to get some advice and suggestions does anyone have the best advice for all this I am looking to start a website with a blog and other special features if available. I would like to know all the must have’s I have a few questions if you could please answer:

    How much cost to have a website and I pick the domain name and the would the website include a blog? Total Cost for hosting and who would do the hosting?Also can I allow ads from other companies should I get that sucessful?

    Please if I left any out any major questions or cost please include that for me as well, thank you very much and have a nice day

    • Hilda says

      Mia, Maybe try sending her a Twitter message. I did that and am waiting for her reply.

  12. mia says

    Hi I am looking to start a website with a blog and other special features if available. I would like to know all the must have’s I have a few questions if you could please answer:

    How much cost to have a website and I pick the domain name and the would the website include a blog? Total Cost for hosting and who would do the hosting?Also can I allow ads from other companies should I get that sucessful?

    If I left any out any major questions or cost please include that for me as well, thank you very much and have a nice day

  13. Hilda says

    You just answered my question I have been searching for for a long time now. Thanks so much!

    Where do you suggest we buy a domain name and hosting?

  16. sarah says

    Thanks for a wonderful post. I am a new blogger and have lots of questions including buying my own domain. I do not have a credit card and have not earned yet thru blogging . I am from the Philippines and our currency unit is the peso. So how do I buy a domain online when they cost in dollars ?

  17. Dawne with D Magazine says

    Thank you for this post. I wish I had known that it was better to get a .com than getting a .me !! I’m still trying to navigate this thing. I’m hoping I’ll figure out how to become more search engine friendly soon! Argh!

    ~~written from my own island out here in the Blogesphere

  19. Delilah says

    I just bought my domain through blogger this past weekend. I don’t know why I waited so long, it was so easy to do. I was worried about whether or not I own my content since I’m technically still on blogger. I’m just not ready to switch to WordPress yet. Thanks so much for all the great information!

  20. AnnMarie says

    I have wanted to do this for awhile and am finally going to take the step. The only thing holding me up is whether I should keep my name or shorten it. It’s making me anxious because I want to own my content and be taken seriously as a writer and I agree that this is the way to do that. Thanks for the great info!

    • [email protected] says

      You are quite welcome Ann Marie. Shorter names might be easier to remember but as long as your content is interesting it won’t matter too much. Go with what your gut is.

  22. Kim @ Coffee Pot Chronicles says

    Maybe I’m weird but I honestly began to feel dirty and almost invisible when still using a .blogspot.com address. I wanted to be taken seriously…no two ways about it. I’m still building up my name and site but I’m happy to know my content is my own and my domain name belongs to me.

    On a side note, I’d strongly disagree that owning a home is always better than renting one. I’m an apartment renter and with home values what they are today it makes almost no logical sense to own. Just my two cents. =)

  25. Alie says

    I agree. I use godaddy for my domain name and use wordpress.com to host. I moved to wordpress from blogger last year and have been very happy. Great post. Thanks.

  28. Joyness Sparkles says

    Good to know. I have not yet decided on the future of my blog…and don’t know if I have enough of an audience that really wants to read what I write yet, but this is great information for future planning.

  29. Sonia Barton says

    I finally made the switch this Jan. I really need to learn more about SEO – that little section didn’t sound like english to me. One of the big reasons I plan to attend BBC in Vegas.

    • [email protected] says

      Hi Sonia. I have actually written a bunch of posts on SEO. I don’t want to clutter this post with them but if you contact me on twitter I’d be happy to direct you to more of my guest posts.

  31. Karina Tobin says

    This is great!!!!! I have owned my own domain name from the first day, but only because my blogger friends told me to. They couldn’t really explain to me WHY as well as you have 🙂 Thanks!!!! Now, to go out and get more traffic! LOL….

  32. Cynthia M says

    I own my own domain name, but I use blogspot. Where does that fit into all of this? Do they still own my content? What about SEO and advertising?

    • [email protected] says

      As long as you own your own domain name you should be fine. WordPress is just the blogging platform you are using. With your own domain you own the content.

  34. Christine says

    Absolutely! And even if you’re just starting out and not quite ready to buy your own hosting… buy your domain and point it to your free site. Then, when you’re ready to make the jump, you won’t have to notify everyone, because you’ll still have the domain name. it’s cheap and very important.

    • mia says

      Hi I am looking to start a website with a blog and other special features if available. I would like to know all the must have’s I have a few questions if you could please answer:

      How much cost to have a website and I pick the domain name and the would the website include a blog? Total Cost for hosting and who would do the hosting?Also can I allow ads from other companies should I get that sucessful?

      If I left any out any major questions or cost please include that for me as well, thank you very much and have a nice day

  35. The M Half says

    Excellent points. Except for that analogy about it being better to own a home than rent. Since the housing market crash, that’s a tougher sell (ha!) than it used to be.

  36. Nikki Wright says

    I found your blog really interesting, I have been considering purchasing my own domain for a while and I think your points are very good. I might take the plunge!

  37. Kat says

    Yes! You must have your own domain. I feel like I can take over the world by owning my dot com 🙂 And it’s so much easier to direct people to my blog with it. Though I just can’t get on the wordpress bandwagon. I find is so frustrating – and it just doesn’t work for a techno-dummy. Blogger I find very intuitive and user friendly – so I am sticking with it. For now anyway!

  38. Sharon says

    I try to explain this to people who approach me for blogging advice. I am not a fan of blogspot or tumblr for those who are seriously looking into blogging as a “business”. I made sure from the beginning to buy my domain and pay for hosting. I wanted to make sure that I had complete control and ownership 🙂

  39. Tanya says

    I just bought my domain name in the last couple weeks and am still trying to get everything moved from my old Blogger blog to my new wordpress blog. It is a lot of work to move it and i am still working out the kinks but so far so good. I do think it looks more professional. I got mine through godaddy.com and it was pretty reasonable.

  42. MangoChutney says

    Good info in this post. I actually own my domain, and after purchasing it and seeing others who hadn’t, although it’s pretty reasonable in price, there are alot of others who still use the free services and their blogs are much better than mine!

  45. Ashley says

    Great post! I absolutely agree that you should own your own domain. There are a number of companies that you purchase it through (I’ve purchased http://www.neveradulldate.com through Host Poppa). And they are quite inexpensive. I pay $30 a year for mine, but there are some places that offer them for $10-15 a year. Definitely worth it. It’s a small price to pay to own your own content 🙂

  46. Kerry Ann (Vinobaby) says

    Great points. I’m on blogger now, and I plan to switch over once my blog transitions to my “author blog.”
    Do you have any recommendations as to the best places to get your own domain, who to go through?

  47. Angie says

    Owning your own domain also makes word-of-mouth advertising so much easier – something we don’t think about in the online world.

    • Ashley says

      Angie, you’re exactly right- so much easier to talk about a domain and have people remember it!

    • Ashley says

      Lynn, your analogy is just right! It really is like owning real estate on the internet 🙂