What is your favorite free domain?

[OniBlackMage]

If you are looking to present yourself professionally in any manner, its simply a wise business investment to put up the little bit of expense to garner the attention of stronger spheres of influence. There is a lot of rapport to be gained from being your own brand image rather than showing everyone you won't even take your own blog THAT seriously to give it its own domain.

 

[protoboard]

It's not profit if you can't generate any organic traffic to your website, and have them click your ads. I also think it's highly unlikely for someone very new to web developing is going to generate tons of traffic on the first month from ads alone.

Well I never said that it was an investment that would be paid over the night. There's work and time involved but I think it's wise to start with a paid domain if you are trying to make money from your site.

 

[CodeMaster67]

The thing is .tk domains get a lot of "heat" because of some of the "parking scams" people have accused them of and they always come up with excuses but the same ones, but people are using the .tk for inappropriate things thats why they are not listing .tk domains on google and stuff. I know a few reseller/web host that have banned them. I use .ml domains but I purchase a domain when I go to register it usually because I'm going to put a website on them but if I want to make a short link for something then I'd just use free registrations. I also don't use a free web service because I've began not to trust them anymore because most of them are from YouHosting and you know how that is.

 

[protoboard]

Any of you know of another free gTLD like .TK? I haven't seen any other and usually gTLD domains can be very expensive. Maybe they all just want to avoid being banned from search engines.

 

[Raivyn]

I don't like any free domains.

Whenever I see one, I think that the owner is too cheap to buy one for less than 10$

I see what you're saying, and agree to an extent. However I will be looking for a free domain at first to see if it will be something that will keep my interest and I won't quit on. If I find out it is, I'll be buying a domain. If not, then that's the end of it. I'd hate to spend money (no matter how little) on something I'm not planning to stick with.

 

[CodeMaster67]

I see what you're saying, and agree to an extent. However I will be looking for a free domain at first to see if it will be something that will keep my interest and I won't quit on. If I find out it is, I'll be buying a domain. If not, then that's the end of it. I'd have to spend money (no matter how little) on something I'm not planning to stick with.

Agreed.

 

[rashidckk]

I will rather use a sub-domain from Blogspot than using .tk domain name.

In my opinion, everyone should have a paid domain name. It costs around $12 only.

Yes, blogspot or similar subdomains are better than free domains like tk. Google may even stop indexing .tk domain in the future (remembering the fate of co.cc domain). So it's safe to stick with the basic subdomains.

 

[Subrata Chowdhury]

Never go for anything free as if anytime your website is stopped you can't claim it. Next always go for .com extensions. This will help you in SEO and not the price or any other thing.

 

[Raivyn]

Never go for anything free as if anytime your website is stopped you can't claim it. Next always go for .com extensions. This will help you in SEO and not the price or any other thing.

Of course. I'd always go with paid for something I was serious about. For me though, it's trial and error until I find something I enjoy. When the time comes I'll be checking into moving from free to paid.

 

[ozadin]

Well I never said that it was an investment that would be paid over the night. There's work and time involved but I think it's wise to start with a paid domain if you are trying to make money from your site.

I don't get how it's wise to start off with a paid domain if you're getting nothing in return. You can familiarize yourself with web developing with free domains just fine, along with some occasional free web-hosting errors, it's fine using free domain and web hosting. However, if you even get 5-10 visitors a day on your website, that's a sign you're doing good, and when you should switch to a paid domain.

 

[Danch]

I choose blogspot over .tk because Google owns blogspot and they favor them in search results. I have blogspot blogs that get good traffic from Google. I could be wrong, but I don't know if I've ever seen any .tk websites on the first few pages in Google search.

If content is the key, then BlogSpot appears so many times on the first page of Google, it must rank higher than .tk domain. The very idea that Google makes money from contextual advertising appearing on all the blogs should tell us it is a better option.

I have tried several paid domain options but failed to get them on the first page. I'm here to check out how members make progress with various suggestions. I will definitely go with BlogSpot for all keywords I want to rank. It becomes an asset which can then deliver link juice to my paid domain money sites later on. The question is how long I can sustain efforts to rank for a keyword.

 

[Cammie27]

Personally, I do expect a common TLD as a matter of basic professionalism. .tk and other lesser-known or free domains are suspect, in my opinion, and often a haven for malware distribution.

For someone just getting started, a free domain or free host is perfectly adequate as a test-run to determine interest in your subject (both your own and others') and to develop your web design, content development, and SEO skills, but at some point I think anyone serious about building an online presence and business needs to scrape together the funds for a .com, .net, or other well-respected TLD for their site.

 

[protoboard]

I don't get how it's wise to start off with a paid domain if you're getting nothing in return. You can familiarize yourself with web developing with free domains just fine, along with some occasional free web-hosting errors, it's fine using free domain and web hosting. However, if you even get 5-10 visitors a day on your website, that's a sign you're doing good, and when you should switch to a paid domain.

Picture this: You start your blog on a free domain but you are planning on switching to a paid domain once you see it's getting traffic. Once you move your blog to another domain you'll see that it won't be getting the same traffic because all the backlinks will be pointing the other domain and it won't appear in the SERP so you'll have to begin your SEO work again.

What I believe is that, since domains aren't that expensive (around $10) it can be a good idea to start with a paid domain. Think of it as an investment, not just as an expense.

But yeah, you can do just fine with a free domain. You can even stick to a .blogspot and you can make money there.

 

[crazycroc]

I don't use free domains. If you are going to invest significant time and money into buying a domain name then you should do it right and spend 10 bucks on a real TLD.

 

[ozadin]

Picture this: You start your blog on a free domain but you are planning on switching to a paid domain once you see it's getting traffic. Once you move your blog to another domain you'll see that it won't be getting the same traffic because all the backlinks will be pointing the other domain and it won't appear in the SERP so you'll have to begin your SEO work again.

What I believe is that, since domains aren't that expensive (around $10) it can be a good idea to start with a paid domain. Think of it as an investment, not just as an expense.

But yeah, you can do just fine with a free domain. You can even stick to a .blogspot and you can make money there.

Well it's already hard for the free domains to even rank on the Google page, so I wouldn't really mind where I stand in the SERP rankings, but isn't there some way you can redirect the original free blog to the paid domain blog? For example, if someone mistypes googel, it will automatically redirect them to google.com; is that doable for free and paid domain blogs?

 

[Danch]

My free domain is Blogger. I research for keywords and in many instances have found a Blogger site on the first page of Google. It goes to show I can build a site using the free domain to rank and then make most of free traffic that comes my way.

The platform is simple and allows AdSense earnings until I decide to monetize it with affiliate links.

 

[TrainerPlus]

i will not use any free domains because . I created a site at xtgem and i parked a .tk domain actually it is free after 90 days the domain disappeared . they just suspended me from it

 

[thevirtualtraveler]

I will rather use a sub-domain from Blogspot than using .tk domain name.

In my opinion, everyone should have a paid domain name. It costs around $12 only.

That is true. Actually I get domains all the time from Godaddy for just $1.17 with a coupon code. Doing this means you don't have to put down a major investment but still gives you a great domain name.

 

[thevirtualtraveler]

Well this is good since i wanted to have my own domain for free. i also love to use .tk because this is the shortest free domain option and so easy to remember.

The problem is that it is not a trusted domain extension so even though people can remember it that does not mean that they will trust it.

 

[protoboard]

The problem is that it is not a trusted domain extension so even though people can remember it that does not mean that they will trust it.

They can trust it if the content is good. At the end having a good domain can help you get more traffic and also seem more legit (that's why I talked in favor of paid domains earlier) but if you have good and quality content people will trust you no matter what domain you choose.