For a lot of newbies starting out, the question of whether you should purchase your own domain name or use a free solution like Blogger is a serious one. When you are in the initial stages of starting on IM business and you’re not sure if it’s going to make money or not, laying out cash - even the $10 for a domain name and $8 a month for hosting - can seem like a big leap of faith, one you’re not sure if you should take.

Still, my recommendation is to purchase a domain name and hosting. First of all, it’s a relatively small outlay of cash. $20 is the cost of a dinner out, in most cases. If you’re not willing to invest $20 in yourself and your new business, it sends a serious message to your subconscious illustrating how serious you are about the success of your new venture.

Having your own website makes you feel like a business owner. You’re not a person who has a Blogger blog. You’re a webmaster who owns a valuable piece of virtual real estate. It changes how you think about your business as a whole.

It also changes the way other people feel about your business. With your own domain name, you have branding opportunities. You have your own email addresses at a domain that belongs to you, you have zero design restrictions, and a web address that is completely under your control.

Also in your control is the content. When you use a third party hosting service for your content, you can wake up one day and find it’s gone. POOF! They deleted your account. True, the chances of this happening lessen a great deal if you’re not doing anything shady, but whitehat blogs sometimes get caught up in the spam-fighting net, as well. No algorithm is perfect, including Blogger’s.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules. For instance, I have a friend, Susi, who keeps a highly respected, high traffic, PR 5 blog on Blogger.com. Her blog is the industry standard in her niche, and she has accomplished a highly successful branding campaign despite being hosted by a third party.

Not long after we first met, our friend Brandy, who introduced us, made an offhand comment about Susi’s John Mayer blog. I said, “Oh, does Susi keep a John Mayer blog?” and Brandy responded, “No. She doesn’t keep A John Mayer blog. She keeps THE John Mayer blog.”

For Susi, there are definite advantages to using Blogger - it’s simple and it’s free. We, as niche marketers, generally receive smaller amounts of highly targeted, purchase ready traffic. Or at least that’s the plan. But we can make a very nice living with a network of sites that get a steady stream of a few hundred uniques a day. For a blog like Susi’s, which averages ten to twenty thousand uniques a day and experiences spikes of over 100,000 uniques in a day - yeah, hosting could be pricey.

Also, even though this drives an Internet Marketer like me crazy and I just want to scream “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU COULD BE MAKING WITH 100,000 VISITORS A DAY? PLEASE LET ME SHOW YOU SOME METHODS!!” lol, the truth is, Susi blogs for passion. So, to her, it’s not important to do things that further her mindset as a serious business owner.

What it comes down to is this - stories like Susi’s are the exception to the rule. Susi is a BLOGGING GODDESS. If you, however, are NOT a blogging god or goddess, but rather just an internet marketing mortal like the rest of us - do yourself a favor. Invest $20 in yourself and your business. You’ll love yourself for it.

PS - You can check out Susi’s masterpiece here - http://TryJM.blogspot.com.

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