Buying domains?

[Giles]

Ive never bought a domain before, do I need one. Do domaid affect PR or any other aspect of SEO or am i ok with a subdomain or directory?

[Cutter]

You want a domain, because if you don't have one, then you don't own the site. Subdomains or directories on free hosted sites do have uses for SE spamming. About 6-9 months ago I found some who was ranking in the top 10 for hundreds of high PPC keywords, they were all hosted on .us.com or .uk.com sub-domains, which I believe are sold as domain names.

[Giles]

Im not making any seriously big idea sites and i got a games arcade with a subdomain and a directory a PR 4 and lots of MSN results:
http://giles.zoomcities.net/games

When you're a cheap 14 year old you don't want to buy a domain, I am going to make a whole lot of content pages on a free host and see how it goes.

[Fender963]

Giles you can get a domain for $9.99 a year and introductory hosting for like 5.99/month. It really is worth that initial cost. If you have a valuable content site you can easily make that back.

Borrow money from your parents. I started my first site when I was 15 and did the same.

Kyle

[Giles]

I havea little money and big ideas. But im too scared to invest in making websites. I have seen a good $2 month hosting plan but i would probably be better off buying multiple domain hosting for later, when i make more sites.

None of my current sites are hard-hitters, but some of them are marginally popular. I keep getting project ideas and then backing out because of technical difficulties or time and effort.

Maybe I will buy domains and hosting when I get my first adsense check, I'm already about 1/3 of the way there and my earnings are slowly rising.

I have just started a mini project of publishing essays and other random writing that I have done at school and then stashed away in my documents foler. they are all hosted on the same host, in different directories. Only a few of them are up at the moment, the site design is ver basic, just the content, the adsense and the the links at the bottom.

[r2d2]

I havea little money and big ideas. But im too scared to invest in making websites.

I bet the guys at Google, eBay, Amazon etc are glad they didn't give up because they were too scared to invest in a domain name :)

[Cutter]

$10 for a domain, $10 a month for a host. Even at your age thats spare change. If you aren't willing to make even the smallest risks you are going to have trouble getting ahead with your own business.

[Giles]

I guess i'll have to invest in one then. Thanks for convincing me, i'll have to buy one, once I come up with a good enough site idea. But abouth this 9.99 domains. For a .co.nz domain here in New Zealand it's $32 per year. The 9.99 domain sites seem pretty budget and untrustworthy.

Now I just need a good idea to get me started.

[bbolte]

Godaddy.com domains are less than $10 bucks. not necessarily an untrushworthy outfit (enough cash flow to place superbowl ads anyway). although they aren't necessarily the best. i've bought most of my domains there and haven't had any problems with them.

[Giles]

Thanks, I thought godadddy, being a more official outfit, would have more expensive domains. I guess I should have cecked first.

I'll have a look after school.

[masm50]

It took me a good few years before I bought my first domain name.
But back when I was 14 and started my first site they weren't as cheap as they are now - or even close.

The benefits do really outweigh the minimal expense though, for the simple reason that ad networks are far more likely to accept your site if you have one. I regret not investing in one earlier, as had I done, and that was the only reason I was rejected from many networks I found out later, in the dotcom boom I would have made a packet.

You live and learn I suppose ;)

Tim

[Giles]

Thanks masm50

I'm about to spend quite a bit of money on an idea that I think wil do really well. I'll let you know if it does.

[spotmea30]

GoDaddy's domain prices are not only reasonable, their hosting is very decent as well. Affordable and great support. Highly recommended!

[Giles]

GoDaddy's domain prices are not only reasonable, their hosting is very decent as well. Affordable and great support. Highly recommended!

Someone go paid to day that.

I have a big project at the moment and I am going to test it on a small community and see how it works, I will then launch a full site if all goes well.

Stay tuned.

[bbolte]

their hosting is very decent as well.
just keep in mind that it's Windows...

[Giles]

I have very cheap good hosting lined up, so thats no worries.

[MamawDenise]

you need your own domain, you can take the time to build something and get great PR over time, but then what happens if the free host or where ever your pulling the sub from decides they want the sub domain, its gone that they have your traffic and your site and not a thing you can do about it, nothing!

[Bjorn_Iceland]

Yes, buy your own domain. Consider a previously owned one with traffic...


Ive never bought a domain before, do I need one. Do domaid affect PR or any other aspect of SEO or am i ok with a subdomain or directory?
Cutter and MamawDenise are correct. You will want to get your own domain name.

(What he says about blacklisting at free sites can also be true of any domain. It may be free to register, but it also might have a dark past... yet it's easy to check for. I wrote an article on this here: http://www.exdirectories.com/news/?p=10 )

Consider a previously owned domain with traffic because that way you get the benefit of someone's previous development of the domain and thus its related SEO before it dropped.

You inherit the backlinks from other domains which will allow you to get the level of Google PageRank they had, back in the fullness of time after you have developed the domain.

You can pickup some great domains if you do a bit of research, including expiring ones with literally tens or hundreds of thousands of backlinks, for only $7.95 for a com from a GoDaddy reseller (GoDaddy service but lower prices).

Don't waste your development efforts without getting a domain (or domains) - you are merely helping the free host's rankings, and as has been mentioned, if you move you lose that investment.

So tell us, how did it go?