TL;DR
- Using a domain name (e.g.
example.com) that you control for your public presence has multiple advantages:- you can change where it points, so there is less friction to change what services you rely on
- looks more professional, IMHO
- Starting from scratch, buying and configuring a domain name for a website takes less than 10 minutes.
- Costs start from $5/year, and they are resistant to lock-in (relatively easy to move between providers)
What is a domain name?
Most people encounter domain names in the URLs they see at the top of their web browser.
For example. with:
https://mycoolshop.example.com/item/sticker1mycoolshop.example.com is the domain name.
Domain names are human-friendly identifiers that get translated into computer-friendly identifiers called IP addresses. IP addresses are used to direct the flow of internet traffic to and from the correct computers.
Motivating example for using a domain name you control
Say you start selling stickers using https://www.redbubble.com/ , and you tell
people about your shop by mentioning your Redbubble shop URL
https://www.redbubble.com/people/mycoolshop/ in various places, e.g.
- Posts on social media
- YouTube video descriptions or baked into the video
- business cards, notice boards, posters, QR codes, side of a white van
- WhatsApp messages, emails
Then suppose one day the Redbubble service becomes terrible relative to its competitors due to reasons out of your control, e.g.
- change in terms of service
- private equity buys the business, strips it bare and/or decreases your margin
- goes bankrupt
So you consider moving your sticker shop to a competitor like Etsy, but all your previous announcements and advertising are still pointing to old place! Some of them you might be able to edit without too much pain, but some of them you can’t.
If you had instead bought the mycoolshop.example.com domain name and
advertised https://mycoolshop.example.com, you could instead of just changed
where mycoolshop.example.com points (change it from pointing at your Redbubble
store to pointing at your Etsy store)
But it’s not just merch shops
What if your cloud email provider drops their free quota threshold and you have to start paying for using them.
- Other cloud email providers are available, but if you gave out an email address that isn’t using your domain name, it’s going to be a pain to change…
What if your blog is on Tumblr, and Tumblr change their terms of service in a way that endangers your blog
- Plenty of ways to blog for free, but everyone has bookmarked your Tumblr URL…
Haven’t I just moved the problem up a level? No
You aren’t locked-in to a domain name seller (=registrar) — the internet governance folk (ICANN) say you must be allowed to change registrar.
I suppose it’s possible ICANN could change the rules drastically, or your registry could ramp up fees, but I think it’s unlikely.
Picking which top-level domain (TLD) to use
e.g. .com vs .uk
They vary in:
- price
- restrictions and local laws
- aesthetics (e.g. some people liked to incorporate the TLD into the branding,
e.g.
del.icio.us)
Technical details of how the Domain Name System (DNS) works
Stuff like DNS servers and DNS record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, etc) are
covered well by the Julia Evans zine “How DNS Works”.
Technical details on using a domain only to redirect to another domain
If all you want to do is immediately send people who visit
https://mycoolshop.example.com to https://www.redbubble.com/people/mycoolshop/ ,
without any website of your own in the middle, you may want to use a redirect
service. There are plenty of these available for free. Cloudflare has one if you
use them for DNS, but other options are available. Details available on request.