Advice: Top 5 reasons to register a domain name

A lot of you reading this could already guess at least 3 or 4 of the main reasons to register a domain name for your business – but it’s something that a lot of small business and soloists overlook – and in the interests of all, it’s worth a refresh.

So I present to you the Top 5 Reasons To Register A Domain Name For Your Business. Beginning with…

No 5: You can set up a web site.

Insanely obvious, I hear you ask? Yes – and no. While it’s true that you generally have 50mb or so of ‘web space’ given to you by your ISP (ie. your Internet Service Provider (ie. the company that you use to get onto the Internet with)) this web space is not usually endowed with many technical features that let you do much more than small static web sites. By having a domain name, it does generally force your hand to move to some level of Web Site Hosting – the upshot of which will catapult you into the next level of features: multiple email addresses, a much larger allocation of web space, web site stats, and support for databases and open-source software like shopping carts and photo galleries.

No 4: Your email address stays the same – forever.

That alone is worth the price of the domain name – once you set up a new email address like me@mydomain.com, you’ll never need to change your email on any document, on any stationery, or in anyone’s address book ever again. Even if/when you change ISPs it will remain the same – you can ride the waves of technological breakthrough after breakthrough without getting dumped in the sand.

There are two ways of ‘moving’ from your old email address to the new email address:
- The best way is to check BOTH accounts each time you check your email. Set up a second account in your email software and add the new account, but don’t delete the old (ISP) one. Set your ‘reply to’ address of your old (ISP) email to your *new* email address, then over time, when people reply to your emails, they’ll be using the new one, not the old one.
- The second way to do the changeover is to have all the email from the *new* address redirected to the *old* address – just like Australia Post can do when you move house – you can have the email redirection changed each and every time you move ISP. Make sure you change the ‘reply-to’ on the old address, as above. The downfall with this way is that you can’t determine which email account most of your emails were directed to – that is, all emails will appear to be coming in via the old email address.

No 3: You enhance your branding.

If your domain name is chosen well, and it is either the same as your business name, or a highly guessable variation, then your customers can make the connection between your business, and your web site. Your email addresses all end the same as your web site address, and so the knowledge of one leads to knowledge of the other. A memorable domain name is an essential building block for marketing your business.

No 2: Your business looks professional.

In a crowded marketplace, ‘making your mark’ is something that takes time and effort. Why put your email address on your business card as ‘ballardfamily@myisp.com’ when you could write ‘ab@allroundniceguy.com’. You’re not pretending to be something you’re not, you’re just separating your professional life from your personal life. Keep your business business, and your personal life, well, personal.

And now – drumroll please – the number one reason to register a domain name for your business is:

No 1: It’s investing into your business.

To have never heard about your domain name options is not a crime – in reality, a lot of small retail businesses don’t have internet access – but a sizable proportion of their customers certainly might be online.

But to be informed and to choose not to register a domain name for your business is to say to that sizable proportion of your customers: “I didn’t see the need to spend $140/$45 on my business every 2 years.”

That’s the basic cost: in Aussie Dollars, it’s $140 or $45 for a .com.au for two years, and around $20 per year for a .com domain name. Yes, you might require Web Site Hosting on top of that, but that’s only going to open up new marketing options for you to explore.

Even if your business is little more than a hobby, or it’s in an industry where you don’t think you need a web site – putting up a one-page ‘electronic business card’ type web site can direct those people who are online and looking for someone like you to contact you by your preferred means: by phone/fax or to your door. Give the online population a method, and a reason, to contact you.

As an added bonus, investing in a domain name also protects your online business name from being poached by competitors, multinationals looking to secure their name in every possible country, and cybersquatters/Russian Mafia. It’s a very, very small price to pay. Trust me on that. There is one Russian in my life who is dangling the keys to one domain over my head – a domain I would very much like to purchase. He knows I want it. I know he knows that I want it. And HE knows that I know that he knows that I want it. Grrrrr…

AB out