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My driving routine has shifted somewhat as I find myself increasingly more captivated by talk radio as opposed to music. Specifically, I’ve taken an interest in an outspoken independent political channel on Sirius called IndieTalk. Woven into each of the shows is a rather progressive segment entitled “Blog Updates” which consist of intriging headlines that have been assembled from the top political blogs around the world.  An IndieTalk staff member reads 3-5 headlines each quarter-hour and gives listeners the web address of the blog so the article can be read in it’s entirety. It’s a great concept but after more than eight months I have to say I’m utterly shocked at the number of missed opportunities. Far too often I hear something like “check out Leftist Elite Blog at theleftisteliteblogoutofdenver.blogspot.com”. What a mouthfull. Who can really commit such a lengthy and obscure address to memory and furthermore, what does this say about the caliber of individuals running the blog?

I’ve long been a strong proponent of owning a personal web domain but many friends and family haven’t understood the reasoning behind it.  As a result, I’ve compiled a list of the key reasons I feel it’s absolutely vital to your personal brand that you have your own web domain (yourname.com):

1. Permanence

Whether you’re running a blog on Wordpress.com or Blogspot, or rely on the any number of the wildly successful social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, ask yourself this one question: can I count on these sites to be around 5, 10, or even 20 years from now? The social networking internet as we know it is less than five years old and continues to grow at an exponential rate, while the underlying technology is progressing even faster. The popular sites of today may evolve into something completely different down the road or even shut down altogether. However, when you purchase your own domain, there is an inherent permanence involved. Web domains will remain in your possession forever, provided you continue to pay the associated renewal fees and don’t blatantly infringe on a copyright. Note: I’m not at all advocating the need to eliminate participation in social networks but rather pointing out the unique benefits of owning your own domain.

2. Brand Equity

The concept of permanence described in #1 leads me right into the second key benefit of owning your own web domain which is brand equity. Whenever your blog or personal content rides on top of another web domain (as in the case of my fictional Leftist Elite blog example above) you miss any chance of committing your web address to your visitor’s memory.  Worse yet, you risk tripping up your guests with these lengthy and complex web addresses.  By launching your own domain, you begin to build traffic, awareness, and equity in a web property that you own – and therefore control.  This gives you the freedom to design the site 100% in your favor rather than sharing premium real estate on your web pages with another brand.

3. Flexibility

The beauty of the domain system is its incredible flexibility.  Think of a domain as a set of pointers that can be modified at any time by its owner.  For example, you may decide initially to have yourdomain.com point to a blog that is hosted by Wordpress.com but if you change your mind down the road, you can just as easily redirect this pointer to Blogger.com or even to a web server of your own.  The beauty of this process is that there’s no need to alert people to the change. Visitors will continue to access the same web address even if you alter the destination.

But the power doesn’t end there. Owning your own domain also means you have the ability to utilize custom email addresses such as me@yourdomain.com.  Again, just like the Wordpress/Blogger example, you can elect to have these email addresses function as pointers which simply redirect email to another location. So if you’re a fan of Gmail like me, you don’t have to eliminate your @gmail.com email address but instead just point the inbound mail for me@yourdomain.com to your @gmail.com mailbox and no one will be the wiser.

4. Professionalism

It’s undeniable that ownership of a web domain establishes us (at least for the time-being) in a class by ourselves on the internet. Owning a personal domain creates distinction and presents us in a much more professional manner, but even beyond this it tells others that you’re proud of your identity and are working hard to promote your personal brand.

Do you already own your own domain? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject and any additional reasons for domain ownership.