Why You Should Always Own Your Own Domain and Host Account

It makes sense to hire someone to build and maintain your business website. Much to learn otherwise and will slow down your growth.

It is easier for your web developer to purchase a domain name for you and host on their reseller account. Less techie stuff to explain to the business owner. BUT. . .

Your domain name is your business. You want to be in control of your business. Even if you use a blogger blog for business purposes, you should own your own domain name, what happens to your traffic if blogger closed your account or your needs changed and you out grew blogger.

Even if you hired great web help, stuff happens. Lets say you have a successful website that is bringing you traffic, income. One day it is down and when you call your webguy you found out he died suddenly months ago, and hosting service ran out. If you don’t even own the domain, you’ve got a mess on your hands. OWN YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME

What happens when you decide to move your website to a new host, or hire a new web person? You don’t have control of the files. If you own your own hosting account, you have control.

Take ownership of your business, own your own domain and webhost.

6 thoughts on “Why You Should Always Own Your Own Domain and Host Account

  1. Hi Heidi,
    First, thank you for stopping by my blog and for adding me as a friend at Blogcatalog!
    I have to admit, I’m not sure I even understand what owning my own web host is??
    Lots of great info here!

  2. Ash, You own your own domain name, the most important of the two.

    Yes, I should clarify. I’m not sure where your website is hosted, but I’m guessing it is one of these 3. All 3 work, but number 3 is my favorite as you have access to your files.

    1. You have a wordpress blog, it may be hosted by wordpress.com A free service and a great way to get started. Some limitations as to what you can do, but many good blogs are hosted there.

    2. You may have a web person set up and manage your blog. Not a bad idea, frees you from learning the technical stuff. Your webperson may have a re-seller account where you pay them directly the hosting fee, but they have the contract with the hosting company. Simplifies things, but if something happened to them, you may not have access to your files.

    3. You pay a company such as HostGator, IXWebHosting or one of the many other hosting services a fee to host your website. You control who can upload files to your website whether you do it yourself or hire someone to do so.

    4. Get your own equipment and host it yourself. Not me! Do not want to take the time to learn all that right now.

  3. Dear Heidi, thanks for the good advice!

    Domain names are fun to play with, and such a wonderful stroke for one’s ego.
    As a network marketer I just use the company’s duplicated website,
    but I did get suitable names, to make it easier to remember for
    people. http://wildhealing.net is easier to remember than
    http://31685.amazonherb.net!

    With all the excellent free blog sites out there, I can’t see the
    need for building my own.

    I almost let go of the domain name I am using for my blog, it felt a
    bit like gratuitous vanity, but after reading your good advice I am glad
    I kept it!
    My blog lives at http://freegreenliving.com

  4. Great point, when we have those duplicated websites, the urls are hard to remember, or a typo can sent your prospects to somebody else’s website.

    Having your own domain name forward to that replicated website is very wise.

    Prospects go to your website, not someone else’s.

    If the company has multiple websites to choose from or heaven forbid go out of business, you don’t have to through away your biz cards, etc. Just change which url your domain forwards too.

    I use http://GetYourCardsHere.com
    and http://HeyClickHere.com
    for some of mine.

  5. Hi Heidy,

    yes a good recommendation you are giving here. But I don’t like the free accounts. There is nothing better than your own account with a well working hosting company. Pesonal accounts for a single domain and total control via control panel for less than $ 5 a month are available and if you plan to make some money with your web site, $ 5 should not be the issue that makes it impossible.

  6. You’re absolutely right. You should also make sure that when you’re registering a domain (from a web host) that the domain will be registered in YOUR name; some hosting companies that offer free domains with their hosting plans will sometimes replace your name, address, etc. with their name, address, etc. — making THEM the legal owner of your domain. This is a trick that is often used by cpanel hosting companies that purposefully makes it very difficult for you to leave them (without giving up your domain).

    Kind regards,
    Martin

    P.S. Nice WordPress theme!

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