If you’ve never had your own domain name before you may want to consider getting one.

Why?

Well here are 5 reasons which explain why it makes good sense for you to take advantage of this very low cost, but potentially extremely valuable resource.

1. Strangely, getting your own domain name can be thrilling!

Even now after working online for over twenty years I still get a buzz when I find a domain name that I’m after is still available, and I can register it for myself.

There’s something very satisfying knowing that you effectively own a tiny slice of ‘virtual real estate’ (… sorry for the Americanism), that costs peanuts, but can genuinely give you a gateway to the rest of the world!

“If you don’t know already, a domain name is that ‘thingy’ you type into the address bar of your web browser when you’re looking for a particular website. On this site for example the domain name is thecashtrail.com.

2. Your own domain name can lead to bigger and better things

Deep down most of us know that growth and development is massively important if we want to expand our life experiences, both spiritually and physically…

… which is something most people crave but not enough people do anything about.

Which is one reason why, even if you’ve never considered putting anything online before, having your own domain name can lead you in directions you may have never even considered.

If you register your own domain name it can literally inspire you to do something new…

And from there you can grow and grow!

3. If you’re in business you need one!

Of course if you already own a business or are considering starting one, it goes without saying that in the modern digital age, you’ll be left behind if you don’t get online.

Consequently you need to have a domain name, preferably one which is relevant to they type of business you’re in.

4. You can have control!

Another reason why owning your own domain name is a great idea is because of something that has probably never even crossed your mind!

Are you on Facebook?

Twitter?

Intsagram?

Snapchat maybe?

It’s a fact that nearly all of us in the modern world use social media these days and probably the majority of us have an online presence on one or more of these platforms already.

The reality is however, we’re all slowly becoming social media addicts and while connectivity around the globe may be a good thing, there are aspects of it that we really should be thinking about.

For example, I don’t really feel I’m exaggerating when I say that these social media giants are pretty much controlling everything nowadays.

And that includes the content that you post on ‘your’ social media!

Now it’s very unlikely that these platforms will change what you say about yourself in your profile, account or whatever.

But here’s the thing…

They could!

Not only that but they can, and often do, actually stop what you want to say, being shown at all!

Which is why you should never forget who controls what YOUR profile can display and what can be seen!

In other words, we need to keep reminding ourselves who’s in charge of these social media sites.

You could argue that these sites are free so does it really matter?

Well ‘free’ is never free, in fact it can cost a hell of a lot!

Whether it be using ‘our’ data to make more profit and the consequences that come with that…

… or the possibility of huge invasions of privacy on a massive scale, we, the ‘people’ are just visitors to these sites supplying content for THEM to grow bigger and bigger, make even more money and command even more influence.

Think about this.

Within reason, we should be able to say what we like, especially about ourselves.

A massive corporation shouldn’t be able to say otherwise.

But they do!

You just have to look at the amount of censorship that goes on around social media these days…

… the biggest example being that the 45th President of the United States was actually banned from using Twitter!

Now whether you agree with him or not isn’t the issue here, what’s important is that these giants have that much power that they can really decide what YOUR audience gets to see.

Do we really want that kind of power to be available to a tiny minority of people at the very top?!

Well this is another reason why having your own domain name could be the way you can have your own identity on the web in such a way that big corporations cannot control!

Now this article is definitely not meant to be a ‘downer’ on social media.

Far from it.

As I said earlier, the value of connectivity and sharing aspects of your life can have many advantages, as well as offer great opportunity.

But ‘sleepwalking’ into allowing these giants to have total control over us – control that’s even bigger than governments – could well turn out to be a massive mistake!

But getting a domain name can be a way of ‘fighting back’!

5. Getting your own domain name is cheap and easy

Registering a domain name can literally cost less than a medium Starbucks!

There are plenty of domain name providers out there but the one I tend to use is namecheap.com.

The website is very intuitive, easy to use and as it says in the name, not expensive!

I’ve also used Godaddy.com and 123-reg.co.uk.

All of these are reputable companies and you can’t really go wrong using them.

But what do you do with a domain name?

Most domain name registrars have also got platforms behind them that allow you to ‘rent’ a bit of web space if you want to, that will enable you to put up a website that your domain name will ‘point’ to.

Now starting a full on website is a whole other story but you can just as easily put up a simple one page ‘placeholder’ site that gives some basic information.

Of course if you want to take it further, most domain name registrars will also offer loads more tools and everything you need to get a full on site up on the internet.

These tools vary but generally they include hosting and very often website builder packages that make setting up a new website an absolute doddle… even if you’ve never done it before!

Another thing you could do is start a blog through which you can share with the world what you have to say.

You can actually do this without it costing you a penny by using free software at WordPress.com or Blogger.com for example.

However, these free platforms do have their disadvantages, the main one being that the domain name will be a derivative of the platform’s domain name, meaning you can’t use YOUR domain name for your blog.

For example, rather than the address of your blog being ‘yourname.com’ it would be ‘yourname.blogspot.com’ which I’m sure you can see, isn’t as satisfactory.

A much better way is to point your own domain name to your blog which you can easily do if you rent domain space (… hosting) from a webhosting company or domain registrar.

Many hosting companies will not only supply low cost hosting to ‘serve’ the web pages on your domain, but many will set up blogs for you.

They also often have web based software included, that makes creating new websites incredibly easy, including the setting up of your domain to show your blog!

I’ve used Hostgator for many sites over the years which is a great low cost resource that includes everything you need to set up any size of website, including a domain name registration facility!

Conclusion

In the digital age where so many aspects of our lives are stored as data by corporations to whom we’ve never really given true consent, it makes sense to maintain as much control of our lives as we can.

Having your own domain name can provide a means for you to share with the world what YOU want to, on your terms if you choose to use it.

Even if you have a doman name that is a derivative of your own personal name, it can be extremely satisfying and you never know, it could just be the kick up the proverbial backside that you need to take you on to bigger and better things!