It’s easy to own your own website these days and you can in fact get one set up in less than a half an hour if you know what you’re doing. The real question here is: Do you actually need to own your own website? The very first thing you want to consider is why you would want a website. Do you want it to serve as a blog? Do you want to make a charity website to raise money for a good cause? Do you want to make a website dedicated to your favorite hobby, sports hero or TV show? Or do you want to create a website in order to make money selling products, services or information?
These are all good questions and what you intend to use your site for is really the bottom line when it comes to deciding if it is wort the investment of owning one.
Owing a website and setting it up is a simple matter but not free. First of all you will need to purchase a domain name. The .coms usually run you around $9.99 USD while .infos are usually only $0.99 USD. There are other more expensive domains as well such as .org. In the end you are going to want a .com if you ever intend to sell these site because it has a higher received value.
Once you have a domain you’re going to need a hosting service. These services are where you website will be located and where you will go to edit and maintain it. A typical plan is around $9.99 a month though there are less expensive and more expensive plans available.
If you want a website in order to blog be aware there are free alternatives that you can use. In addition to this social media sites can be a great way to share your thoughts, feelings and opinions without the need to own your own website.
If you’re interested in creating a site dedicated to something or someone you’re a fan of don’t forget that you can use a free website that you can sign up on and begin creating web pages on for free. This can be a great way to express your enthusiasm about your passion without making an investment in a website.
On the other hand if you want to make money online or raise money for a charity it can be best to own your own site. Free blog services and web 2.0 sites usually have strict rules about advertising and commercial ventures. In addition to having total control over your own online assets having your own site becomes an asset in and of itself if you make money with it. This allows you to sell the site off at a later time if you wish.
Overall owning a site is very easy to do and doesn’t take a huge investment. However depending on your specific needs you may not actually need to own your own website. Think about what you’re trying to accomplish, the message you’re trying to get out to the Internet and make an informed decision before investing in website ownership.