There’s a belief that you can never really lose money if you invest (wisely) in real estate. As the saying goes “they’re never going to make more land”. When it comes to the internet, having domain names is owning online real estate and that’s why despite all the free resources online you should buy domain names.

But, just like real estate, not all domain names are going to be equally valued, some will be worth more than others. To pick out a good domain name, which will enhance not only your business but how much you could sell the website for down the road, is something of a science. There are a few elements you should consider when you buy your domain name:

1. The first thing you need to do is to identify the niche your new website will be in. What product or service will you be promoting? Once you’ve figured that out you should do keyword research to find a list of great keywords that get a lot of searches every month. Those keywords should be the domain name.

This is a great way to get a lot of traffic to your website for free. Why? Because you already know from your keyword research that the “great keyword” gets a lot of monthly searches, so many of those searches will be sent right to your website since that is the domain name. This one step can help you get a lot more targeted visitors for free.

2. There are a lot of places online where you can buy domain names. If you want to find more just visit some internet marketing forums and ask for opinions, or do a search. Domain names are inexpensive usually around $10 a year at the most. Many sites offer sales or multiple domain discounts.

3. There is a lot of conflicting opinions about whether or not you should get any domain with a different extension such as .net or .org for example. It’s better to use a .com, .net or .org. I’ve found that any of them work very well for my needs and .net are quite cheap. You’ll have to find what works best for you, but you need to remember something: many people will say that customers will forget a long URL or a different extension, which is true, but how do you target the majority of your customers?

Most of the traffic you’ll get is either from searches or from online marketing and in all cases your website visitors just have to click on a link which is why I think having different extensions hasn’t had a negative impact on your business.

Take the time to establish your internet presence, don’t get fooled into thinking that going the ‘free’ route with a blog is the best way to go. If you don’t buy domain names and rely solely on the free services you don’t actually own your fair share of internet real estate and you don’t present a professional image.

Benefits of Domain Names

Besides establishing your online presence and creating a professional look, when you buy your own domain name you can actually flip your website and sell it. It’s the same concept as when someone buys a house, fixes it up and sells it for a profit. There are sites online that will allow you to place your site up for sale, Flippa.com is one of those sites.

Just buy a good domain name, put up a site, get some traffic (and hopefully some sales) than list it on Flippa and make some money. Think about it, if you only paid $10 for a domain name and a little bit for hosting, and then you sold the site for only $200 that would be a pretty nice profit for such a quick and easy sale.

Treat your online business like a business and establish your online presence and professionalism by buying domain name. The cheap route can work in a pinch but as soon as you can afford $10 or so, buy your own name.