I just cannot believe it .. I am actually saying this “GET A DOMAIN”. And yes, I am very serious about this .. as I was 3 years ago on one of my first articles posted on Wtricks (it was on a free host back then) when I was totally against a site domain and paid hosting. I thought we need to first learn and test and only then pay. But what happened all these years that I started thinking the exact opposite?

Well .. I learnt. When I started webtips (as this site was initially called) I also started learning how to use a CMS (used e107 for the start, then in 2 day I moved to Php Nuke). I also learnt to modify an image, then the css, then make a header and then even en entire theme. As I got higher on my learning schedule I was able to offer good content and also promote. My link was doing nice, I even got a PR4 for the page and 500 visitors a day. Not huge, but so nice for a free hosted site.

And then .. the decline: The host being free had some issues. Even if they started nice too many privileges made people abuse the server. Downtimes, slow loading pages .. till I just couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to make some link exchanges with people from the webmaster business and they would always tell me “get a domain, then we talk”. Idiots and snobbish .. that’s how I would call them back then since I just didn’t think I needed my domain name. After some time, with all the downtimes and pressure even from my members to make it really serious by getting a domain name and a paid host I made the movement. The smartest thing ever.

Why? Because now I can promote the “brand” Wtricks .. it’s simple to understand and remember instead of my long domain plus subdomain name. I can blame my host for anything that doesn’t work and support on paid hosting HAS to be good: they know they would have issues if one customer was too mad at them … When one pays, one demands perfect service or at least explanations and refunds. I still have a lot of work to do to regain traffic and exposure I lost once moved servers, but it was a good move. Now let’s see the reasons people don’t think paid hosting is worth it and what we have to comment at them:

1. I just need to test stuff and learn some ..

It’s our biggest lie and we do ourselves a lot of harm by starting like this. I wanted to learn too, but as time passed it did get serious. And then I lost my initial work and had to start all over again on a domain. If you are so thrilled with web development that you want to learn .. trust me YOU WILL LEARN. And while doing this, you’ll work very hard for your project. With a cheap domain name bought from the start and your huge enthusiasm and work .. you will make it. The site will thrive and it would surely worth your initial effort.

Do you want to test? Get a local server and do this on your PC. If you release it online and you are so thrilled about the project, give it a good start. All promotion work will be made on the domain you have and in time it will get older and better ranked. What really pisses me off a lot is that I still see links to my previous free hosted version even in DMOZ and I cannot put the new domain in it if I kill someone there. If I had the domain link from the start .. all my previous promotion work wouldn’t have been wasted like this. No redirects in the world can make up for this: start with a domain and promote it.

Once you have members on a forum or regular visitors on your site you’ll understand the entire stuff it’s quite serious. Not only you did learn, but you actually created something good. They are here because you succeeded into making a good site. It is easy to learn the stuff needed to make a nice site or a forum. I am a woman and started this at 23. I worked on my sites from work since I didn’t even have a PC at home. I was able to make sites and even work on them and not own my own PC. The learning curve can be really steep once you are passionate about something. Thinking you don’t need a domain till you learn is a bit tricky: you can never be too satisfied about your knowledge and keep the site on a free subdomain for ever or learn in 3-4 months and then hurry to buy a domain and maybe catch the next PR update and re-create back links you lose after moving.

2. It costs money

Of course it costs money .. it cannot cost monkeys

But let’s see what fortune are we required to spend: a domain name is ~ 10 USD (you can get them even cheaper). Don’t know about you in other countries, but even for my country, Romania, with our horribly small wages, 10 bucks is far from being the end of the world. And hosting .. decent cpanel hosting, php/mysql and all the jazz … 3-7 USD a month. I have a reseller account for 10 USD and host more sites on it. And the bandwidth and space are MORE THAN ENOUGH. Don’t think your site really needs those 3000 GB traffic and 200 GB space some free hosts advertise. You will mainly require 150 MB space and maybe 3-4 GB bandwidth. This site requires even less. And when you get to almost 30 thousands posts in the forums and over 1000 members, then worry about the space being too smal

So .. seek a nice hosting plan and don’t eat a chocolate a month or a MacMenu. Instead of those calories you get your domain name and nice hosting plan. With awesome support and the freedom to really make your dream come true.

3. People don’t care about this, only you snobbish people bug me with a domain

Oh .. rewind please .. to December 2004. God I really believed this: I don’t need anything, my talent, work and ideas are enough and people will love them. Yes, some did. Some were faithful enough to be in here and help with the site, maybe because they knew I would finally get serious one day and get a domain. I think the most celebrated thing on wtricks was when the domain was bought (on a lucky June 13 day :)).

Most of people would tell me into my face that I do have some excellent content and the site is really helpful, but I should consider getting a domain. When an internet business man offered to buy me a domain name I knew it was the time. I was making a fool of myself by refusing to spend money and taking this seriously, but still working 10 hours a day on the site.

I bought the domain name and got an excellent response from many people: “Now it’s a serious site indeed”. And after 2 years of getting this domain name and more others for all the sites in my network I realize I am not willing to accept a partnership with a free hosted/subdomain site myself. Yes I am being snobbish, but I am not pleased to link to such a site, unless it has an exceptional content (and believe me, such sites are hard to find). But why?

• I don’t trust you … How can I not trust you? Maybe because I know too many sites that failed or too many free hosted sites that never made it through 3 months age. Because I HAD SUCH SITES. And being on a free host and knowing I can always get a new one started and just let a project die made me careless with my site. I wouldn’t care if it lived or died, but I am sure my link partners wouldn’t be too thrilled to start a partnership with a dying site. Having to pay for that domain and host makes us all work harder and invest even more effort: you cannot just give up like this. We’re humans and we know what sacrifices we made. Once you put money into this, believe me YOU’LL CARE. When I start a partnership I was a quality content site and a site I can trust would make it till January at least
• It’s my name in connection with yours … I might again sound weird, but I do care about my brands. They are not as known as Nike or Panasonic, but they are MINE. They are hard worked sites, with nice slogans I worked on and content I don’t sleep at night for. I always wanted my sites to be known as good and serious. I am known as serious in many forums I post at and on my sites too. I just cannot be related to a site that doesn’t spell “serious” like mine does. It’s my brand that needs to be connected with good brands too. Your site really needs to be awesome as content so that I can connect to it. I might be a partner, if it’s on a free host, but I would search a lot of information about it before making the cooperation happen. No, I am not that mean or snobbish, I just want to have great partners for both of us to establish ourselves as quality content providers.

I know this article might upset people. It’s not meant to be like this. I do appreciate good effort, but I consider the domain to be an essential part of this effort. A huge percentage of people who started on a free hosted/sub domain site DID GET A DOMAIN. All realized it’s important to them in the end. The problem is that we all made up our minds later or sooner: it took me 6 months to make the big step. I wished I could turn back time. If it was possible wtricks.com would be even older and I am certain .. way better and successful.

Filed under: Web development by ramona