Hi Kathleen,
I'm going to agree with you 100% on a couple of points, but before your readers go rushing off to purchase domains and setup a hosting account I think it's CRITICAL to get them thinking about the right steps BEFORE spending more money, because after a domain is purchased you're stuck with it, and as I noted the hosting you suggest is $4.95 per month ONLY IF you pay 1 year in advance..... (and don't forget the $10 setup fee!)
You're absolutely right that people can benefit from owning their own domain. Owning your own domain provides a level of control and benefits WAY beyond the "free" alternatives like freewebs, adlandpro etc..
If you do things correctly you look more professional, and you have a much better chance at improving your results, you have your own email redirects instead of tired old affiliate links, and TONS more, but there's a SO MUCH that people generally don't do in preparing to purchase a domain and setting up their website.
Unless a person has educated themselves, their first purchase of a domain tends to be something they "like" and that "sounds good" to them.
Let me tell you folks. Google doesn't care a byte what YOU like or what sounds good to YOU, so don't expect a flood of visitors from Google if you haven't done your homework first.
Have you first done extensive research on the niche you're working in? Do you have a clear and focused keyword strategy? Do you have any idea which keywords you might have a chance ranking on? Do you know who your competitors are for those keywords?
Do you even know if there are CUSTOMERS in this niche?? Do they even want what you're planning to sell and do you know what KEYWORDS they are using to find it?
You see..keywords are what Google uses to match you up with people who are seeking things, so if you aren't using any of those words, or if your content is seen to be "not relevant" to what you're selling or if your site is nothing but advertising with no real added value, then your traffic will most certainly be numbered in the SINGLE digits, and those will be "accidental visitors" and most likely GONE before ever reading your ads or clicking ANY links.
POOF!!
There are many other aspects to a successful search placement strategy, things such as Page Rank, linking and trackbacks, latent semantic indexing (LSI for short) and VERY IMPORTANT is your content.
But you know what? the MOST important thing is still the research you've done on the niche you've selected to work in, because if you haven't done that research, you have NO IDEA that people are looking for what you have, you don't know who your customers are, you don't know where they're at, and if you can't find them don't be expecting them to find you either, at least not in any appreciable numbers.
There's more too!
What about the site? Who's going to build it? HOW MUCH did you say?? Did you suddenly learn html? I can't wait to see it! Do you know how to operate your FTP and work in C-Panel?
I looked at the hosting service you recommended and saw that it included an easy site builder, but generally speaking although the end result is acceptable, it's hardly memorable or even mentionable. Chances are it's also going to ask you
what??
Keywords my friends. If the site builder is worth anything at all..it's going to ask you to provide some keywords.
Before you decide on a domain name PLEASE do your research. Make sure the niche you're in has enough money that you stand a chance to earn some of it and that the name that you select is relevant to the keywords in that niche. There's no point in a name that makes people think of sinks when you're trying to sell bird seed!
Friends, there's no way I can teach you all about this in one forum post or article. All of what I know on the subject has been picked up over YEARS of plodding along..making the mistakes, and learning from professionals.
Don't expect success just because you've bought a domain name and got a hosting account. All you've got are more bills if you haven't learned what you need to know and done the things you need to do.
To Success!