Everyone likes a bargain. It's also smart to keep costs low. On the other hand, it's possible to be so cheap that you kill yourself.
Here are two ways to register a domain name for free, as well as some reasons why you might not want to.
- You need your own TLD (top-level domain) name
Your business website should have its own top-level domain (TLD) name. It could be something like yourcompany.com. It doesn't mean something like yourcompany.someisp.net, which is a subdomain of someone else's domain name.
People sometimes don't register a good domain name because it's too expensive, they don't know enough about it, or they can't decide. But if you pay the small fee that the domain registrar charges for your own domain name, you can get a lot out of it.
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Internet address like (leaving out the http) someisp.net/hosting-accounts/yourco/ or yourcompany.someisp.net just doesn't look as professional as yourcompany.com. Even though it's free (because it comes with your web space), it's not good enough.
Think about this: If you put your URL on letterheads, business cards, signs, etc., which one looks more professional?
If you say your URL on the radio or over the phone to a customer, which will be easier for them to remember?
Also, what if your web host goes out of business or you want to switch to a different company? Now, you need to let everyone know that you have moved to yourcompany.someotherisp.net. You will also need to change all your business cards, signs, and ads to reflect the change.
On the other hand, you could move the domain name yourcompany.com from one web host to another by telling your domain name registrar about the change.
So, if you don't want to lose business and pay extra costs that aren't necessary, make sure you have your own top-level domain name.
Should You Use a Free Top Level Domain?
You can get a free top-level domain. There are, however, times when using a free top-level domain name is not the best idea.
Here are a few of the rules that the Dot TK website lists.
You can only sign up for a maximum of three free domain names.
The ownership of the free domain remains with Dot TK. You can't sell it because of this. (Of course, you own the domain if you pay for it and can give it to someone else.)
Also, your free domain name registration is canceled after 90 days if you don't have 25 people visit your home page.
So that your dot tk name can point to something on the web, you need to have something on the web already.
There may well be more problems.
It looks like Dot TK shows your website using frames. If this is the case, you may have trouble finding specific pages or bookmarking them, and search engines may not like the site.
So, if you want to use free domain names for your business seriously, you should think about how much they really cost.
