Domain name prices increase
I received an unwelcomed email from my domain registrar saying that prices for top level domains will increase.
The central registries for COM, NET, ORG, INFO, and BIZ are raising prices from 15th October from US$6.20 to US$6.62 and so most registrars will pass the cost directly to their customers round up to the nearest dollar.
Most domains cost around US$8.00 to US$9.00 per year. However, if you already paying US$15 for your domain, you probably won’t see an increase.
Why Have Your Own Domain
You could just as easily run a successful blog on free Blogger with a blogspot name, so are there any compelling reasons to even bother with buying a domain name? If you are making money online doing paid blogging, you would earn more having your own domain because many advertisers specifically exclude free blogs when choosing blogs for paid reviews.
Sell Your Blog
If your blog becomes successful you would not be able to sell a blogspot blog. The traffic and pagerank authority you’ve built up would be tied to blogspot. In order to have complete ownership and control over your blog, having your own domain is a good investment. Although you could probably buy a domain and do a redirect later, you will lose traffic and pagerank when you change domains and run the risk of ending up in the Google Sandbox.
Hosted Domain Blogs Get More Respect
There are successful blogs that use blogspot, but the overall feeling is that blogs with their own domains appear more credible and attract more advertisers. If a blog isn’t even willing to spend $9.00 a year on its own domain, why expect advertisers to spend anything on the blog?
So even with the increase in domain name prices, it is still worth considering to get your own domain if you intend to make money with your blog for a while yet. Would you be willing to spend US$9.00 a year on something you work so hard building?