Attention : Henbima’s blog has moved to “henbima.com”

I am currently thinking to have my own domain for my blog.

Yes, this hokkymart.com is my own domain, but it was first intended to be my company (read:shop) domain. I ordered the domain so i can have my email with “@hokkymart.com” prefix in my name card as well as all my correspondence.

This blog was started just for fun, and wrote all the mumbling i had in mind, nothing serious thinking with it. But now, i realize that, blogging is not just for mumbling, having fun and sharpen my english. It actually can be used to make money, making friends and many more.

Why do i need my own domain, rather than continue using this blog as my blog. Well, some people out there already pointed out some of the benefits of having my own domain rather than subdomain. Below is my excerpt from fellow bloggers :

• Bloggingmix says, the benefits are :

1. Freedom and Security Purposes - Blogs under a subdomain is usually hosted for free (e.g. Blogger and Wordpress), hence, these blogs are under the mercy of the site administrators. Failure to comply could mean the suspension of your blog.
2. Better Search Engine Ranking - Based from experience, a domain name compared to a subdomain generally has a higher search engine ranking especially when it’s well optimized. Blogs or websites under a subdomain is in high suspicion of spamming. Since it’s free, the potential for spamming and abuse is very high. On the other hand, websites that use their own domain names are considered to be less spammy. Why would you spam using your own domain when you’re paying for it?
3. Keep Your Google PR and Other Rankings - Most of the successful bloggers of today started blogging with free blogging services like Blogger. As soon as they have established a number of readers and credibility, they move to host their own blog. The problem with moving your blog is lossing your Google Page Ranking and other ranks if all the while you’ve been under a subdomain (e.g. yourblog.blogspot.com). If however you have your own domain name, you can keep all your link juice, your precious PR and other rankings when you decide to move and host your own blog.
4. Easier Branding - With your own domain name, branding is much easier. I’m sure you don’t want to look some fly-by-night who can’t afford $10 per year to register your own domain name.
5. More Blog Monetization Opportunities - The fact. Advertisers are becoming more picky with blogs where they want to advertise. If you’re with PPP, Sponsored Reviews or Smorty, you probably read opportunities that are not accepting reviews from blogs under a subdomain. If you’re using a subdomain, you are lossing alot of opportunities to earn from your blog.

What i can’t agree more is : Registering and using your own domain name is really cheap.

• Nasir, the winner of TophostingCenter competition about the importance of owning your own domain, says this in his blog :

1. First and foremost reason, it gives a professional to your blog/site, if you own a domain
2. Most of the times, sub domain are ignored by search engines to be listed in their search results
3. Subdomains are subjected to follow certain rules and regulation, in some cases show compulsory link to their main site4. Sub domain are not registered on you. Moreover sub domains do not have email address support, like you@yoursite.subdomain.com, whereas in domain you have a support for email address like you@yourdomain.com
4. You are no more than a tenant, Sub domains are registered on their respective owner, whereas if you own a domain your are the real boss
5. Subdomain url’s are hard to remember with those slashes, dots, hyphens, numbers etc example Http://.123-mysite.free-site.com/
6. In the other hand if own a domain url’s are based on your name or company so its easy to remember
7. Subdomains like blogger, wordpress and other free platforms does not support PHP, MYSQL database, ASP etc, In the other hand domains PHP, MYSQL database,ASP and lot more are supported
8. In sub domains like Blogger,Wordpress, or any other free platforms do not support file hosting of word,PDF,.exe files on to their server.In domains you are allowed to upload and host many files on to their servers
9. Sub domains(expect wordpress) do not have multiple pages like http://You.subdomain.com/contact. In other hand in domains, you can have a number of multiple pages

Reasons given by Nasir and bloggingmix should be enough for me to start considering a domain name for my blog. Other than reasons stated above, i think having my own domain, will somehow motivate me to post more and socialize more with other bloggers, this long domain name, is not an easy name to remember as well…