You want your own online business? Good because it’s one of the
most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very
profitable.

Remember that just because it’s an online business doesn’t mean
that you should treat it with any less professionalism or
seriousness than you do your daytime job.

Why? Simply because when you run an online business it’s a
serious business. Well it should be taken seriously if you want
to make serious money.

One of the most important aspects of any online business is the
domain name. This is where the vast majority of new online
entrepreneurs make their first big mistake – they choose one of
those free domain name providers to represent their business
online. This is a critical mistake.

Let’s say you’re starting a computer repair business. Which one
of the following domains looks better:

‘www.computerfixer.com’ or; ‘computerfixer.freehosting.com’

The truth of the matter is that computerfixer.com is a top level
domain and computerfixer.freehosting.com is a sub-domain. These
free domain providers would have you believe that their cheapo
subdomain is as good as a top level domain – this simply isn’t
so.

Online shoppers expect your online business to be located on a
top level domain. If they find your website on one of these
cheap or free domain services you’ve just lost 50% of your
potential customers. They’ll click back and look at the next
search result in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Free domains make you look cheap, show that you don’t want to
invest in your business, that you don’t take your customers
seriously, look terrible on business cards and make you look
like an amateur. There aren’t any benefits to cutting corners on
your domain name.

A domain name costs, at most, $15 per year. That’s 4 cents per
day. If your business can’t afford this then you really
shouldn’t be running an online business at all.