A friend was looking for my brother after years of not talking to each other. He went to look and searched the web for him with no luck. He then found me through my blog and contacted me.

I think it is worth it to have your own domain, rather than just create a blog or a site with a free provider. If you can get your firstnamelastname.com or just your lastname.com that would be great.

The 3 reasons I think why you should have your own personal domain are:

1) Maintain your web presence:

Having your own domain name versus hosting your site on a free provider reminds me with the argument of owning a house versus renting it. These days owning is not a good idea, but it is worth it for the long term.
Owning a domain name will assure that you will keep it, even if you have to move from hosting provider to another hosting.

2) Friends and others will find you easier:

Search engines will not give attention to websites hosted by free providers, like they do with your own domain. Many sites that are hosted by free hosting providers are not even indexed by some search engines. On the other hand, if your domain name includes a keyword, it will be indexed and your friends can find you easier this way.

3) Acquire a unique email address:

This is my favorite. I always like people’s emails who are like: firstname@lastname.com. Isn’t that better reflecting who you are than just firstname.lastname@yahoo.com?
If you can get your lastname.com or .anything else, you can add emails for other family members, like yourson@lastname.com, …

Do you have a personal domain name? I hope you are convinced that you need one right now?
For a small fee that you pay for your own domain name before it is taken away. You will end up getting long lasting benefits that will payoff in the future.

Check out availability of your domain name and register it right here.

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