I thought about it long and hard, but in then end, there were just too many reasons against keeping my own server space in operation, and too many reasons for storing and publishing my data, portfolio, and contact information elsewhere. Here’s what convinced me to stop the madness and save a little money in the process.

1. Discoverability. Because I am not myself anywhere near an expert on SEO, and because I’ve been entirely uncomfortable with shoving links to my content down the throats of people in my network, any content I might post on my own domain goes largely unnoticed. Sure, I have the occasional link via profiles on sites like this one, but let’s be honest, how many of us click through to those, and even having done so, how often do we follow further links off-site from there?
2. Maintenance required. When it comes to your own site, you take responsibility for the look and feel, the user experience, and the content. The look alone requires pruning, refinement and the occasional overhaul to keep it feeling fresh and current. Keeping content up-to-date might be as easy as updating other social networking site pages, but more often than not, it’s actually a lot more work than making sure your Facebook or LinkedIn profile is accurate and current.
3. Low Rate of Return. The monetary investment involved in setting up a web site is not inconsiderable. Even if you’re only paying between $100 and $200 a year for server space and domain name registration, are you really seeing that money come back to you as a result of having your own web site? Think about the professional connections you make that turn into profitable relationships. Do they come mostly from your own site (if your business isn’t operated solely from your site, of course), or from connections made via the social web and other sources?
4. Distraction Factor. A web site of your own might be doing more than just costing you money. If you’re spending a lot of time trying to boost your visitor count, set up advertising, and basically justify its existence in some way, you could be spending your time in a much better and more productive way pursuing additional contracts, working on high priority projects you’ve been procrastinating about, or even just improving your work/life balance.
5. Reputation. If you do have a web site, and it languishes in disregard, as mine does currently, than it might be even worse than just distracting or wasteful. Stale, dated content with your name on it automatically becomes part of your personal brand, whether or not you’re actively trying to cultivate one. If someone is looking you up online, and they come across your web site before anything else, whatever good things they heard about you via word of mouth could be tainted or even completely erased by the impression your site gives of someone who is either lazy or out of touch.

A web site is admittedly a nice thing to have if you’re a web-based professional. But if your business isn’t dependent upon it (which it would most likely be if you were a web site designer, for example), then that’s all it is: a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. If you can let it go, maybe you should. You’ll save yourself time, money and possibly even face in the bargain.

Do you have your own web site? Do you use it? How often does it bring you business/real value?

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From a couple of years ago on WWD: “You must get the dot-com: It doesn’t matter how great the name is, if you can’t get name.com, it’s not worth having. People will look for you at the dot-com even if you’re registered at one of the other top-level domains, no matter how often you emphasize the difference.” And from last year: “For most web workers .com is still the place to be. That’s because no matter how Internet-savvy you are, it’s fairly likely that your customers still hear ‘Internet’ and think ‘dot-com.’ If you want to be found, put your site where the clicks will go.”

So, what do you do if you (or your clients) find that the dot-com domain you want isn’t available? Here are a few suggestions.

• Pick a different name, especially if the organization is new. But try and keep it as short as possible. Just because domain names can be 63 characters long doesn’t mean that something that long should be used! “WePickedThisDomainNameBecauseEverythingElseWeWantedWasTaken.com” says it all.
• Add dashes or numbers. Domain names can include letters, numbers and dashes. But be careful. As Mike said in the post I linked to above, “[I]f your…name is not easily and unambiguously spelled over the phone, you’ll regret it.” I agree. As a former radio person, I always cringe when I hear some poor announcer having to spell a domain name on the air.
• Consider buying the name from the current owner if they aren’t using it. Sites like DN Journal have lists of recent domain sales, so you can get an idea of what the name you want might be worth.
• Incorporate the city or region you serve into the domain name.

Sometimes, none of the above options will work. I think that you can take the “get a dot-com at all costs” mentality too far, so you may want to consider alternatives to .com. Some TLDs are relatively well-known, like:

• .net Originally intended to be for Internet service providers and other parts of the Net’s infrastructure, but it’s now unrestricted, open to anyone, and more or less synonymous with .com.
• .org While most people think of .org as being for nonprofit entities, it is actually unrestricted.
• .biz Limited to “bona fide business or commercial use,” but widely available.
• .info Open to anyone.
• Country-based TLDs, like .us, .ca or .uk, depending on where you’re located. Europeans may also register .eu names, and Asians may register .asia names.

Some TLDs, while nominally country-based, allow anyone to register a name. Many can be registered through a number of different companies. Search for “registrar” plus the appropriate TLD to find where to buy them.

• .bz (not to be confused with .biz, mentioned earlier)
• .cc
• .fm
• .gd
• .gs
• .im
• .io
• .me
• .mp The folks at Chi.mp are giving these names away as part of their service, which I mentioned, and Darrell reviewed, a while back. If you don’t want to use the Chi.mp service, .mp names may be purchased separately.
• .tc
• .tv

There are also some specialized top-level domains that you may want to consider, such as:

• .aero Available to aviation businesses and related organizations.
• .coop Available to entities that are legally organized as cooperatives.
• .jobs Can only be used for displaying open positions at the company registering the name. The idea is that users who want to work at Acme Widgets would type www.acme_widgets.jobs and be taken directly to the company’s available jobs page. These domains are expensive, though, so I’m not sure why companies would opt for this domain rather than, say, www.acme_widgets.com/jobs.
• .mobi For sites designed for mobile devices. This TLD seems to waning in popularity, as mobile browsers and technologies for adapting standard web sites to mobile use improve.
• .museum Limited to museums. The list of .museum domains is pretty short, and few of them appear to be active.
• .name Intended for individuals to establish their Internet identities, in the form “first.last.name”.
• .pro Open to licensed professionals only, who must provide proof of their active standing.
• .tel We wrote about this service back in December. The idea of an Internet-based directory is interesting, but there are many other ways to achieve the same results, so .tel has not become popular.
• .travel Only available to travel-related businesses and organizations, although their definition is fairly broad, and includes hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and “attractions,” among other things; in other words, .travel is available for sites that might be of interest to tourists.

There may soon be a whole new set of TLDs, if a current proposal is approved. Meanwhile, there are more than enough options to find a good domain name, even if your preferred .com is not available.

What alternative top-level domains have you used? Are you satisfied with the results?

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