When creating new websites many people consider whether or not investing in their own domain is worthwhile.

So what kind of options does someone who wants to create their own website really have? As a website owner, you can build your website on a shared domain or on your own domain. In most cases, if you have your own domain, your website will have an address such as yourdomain.com, and if you choose to use a shared domain it will be something like yourdomain.parent-domain.com. So if you have your website on the shared domain at Webgarden the web address will be something like yourdomain.webgarden.com.

The main advantage of using a shared domain is that it is completely free.

Although the market may offer a lineup of comfortable alternatives, buying your own domain remains the best option.

In order to make your domain easy to remember, it’s good to use a short and catchy name. Avoid using unusual or foreign words in your domain name - people often mistype these types of names.

If you want a domain name consisting of multiple words, you are sure to think about whether or not you should hyphenate them. Both variants have their advantages - while a hyphenated domain name will be easier to read, unhyphenated domain names are more convenient for users when they want to enter the name into their browsers. It’s up to you to choose which option is better for your website.

More and more domain names become unavailable with each passing day. You won’t be able to have just any domain you want; the truth is that the best ones have long been occupied. See for yourself by typing a domain into your browser such as shipping.com, furniture.com, or flowers.com. These are so-called premium domains, as they consist of only a single keyword. So if your dream domain name has already been taken, you could possibly change the name of your company or perhaps add your name before the desired keyword as in jonesfurniture.com, for example.

If you get your own domain already in the earliest stages you will save yourself a lot of trouble. Once your website has been running for a while, domain changes reduce the number of visitors. This is especially true for websites whose visitors reach them via search engine. In order for a search engine to list your site, it has to first index it. Although the transfer to the new domain takes no more than several hours and your website stays in the same place, your url changes, and therefore the search engines have to reindex your website. Plus, sadly, when your website is indexed again you will have lost your page rank and will have to start over. Consequently, it really pays to make the transition to your own domain as soon as possible, so that later on nothing will stand in the way of visitors getting to your website.

To get to the VIP Eshop, while in administration, click on the gray tab in the upper left-hand corner of your screen labeled either Website, Menu, or My Account (depending on which page you are on). Then click on the bright yellow link Premium Plans without Adds + Custom Domains.

Once you've reached the VIP Eshop, scroll down the page to find where it says Register Your Own Domain Name. This is where you can check the availability of domain names and then register.