Should you buy a dot Blog domain name for your blog?

Recently Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, released .blog website extensions into the public domain, but should you buy a dot Blog domain name for your blog?

Firstly let me clarify that WordPress.com is a commercial company and probably not the company you are using to host your Blog. It’s likely you’re are using WordPress.org which is the free open source version of WordPress. Well, at least I hope you are.

You see WordPress.com is a business that needs to make money, and as with all businesses, when profits start to fall, the quick fix is to put prices up.

And although WordPress.com offer free websites, they are next to useless, unless you just want to play around with WordPress. Even then they offer such a small piece of the functionally that’s on offer in the complete version of WordPress. Learn more about this here..

And the WordPress.com business model is to lure people in with a free website, and then convince them they should upgrade to a paid version which still has limitations. And the paid version isn’t cheap either.

For instance, the cheapest paid version at WordPress.com is $3.99/mth which is twice the price of iPage and yet, this supposed low-cost entry-level version doesn’t even let you monetize your blog? What?

Personally, I can’t tell enough people about iPage and their $1.99/mth discounted rate, which is an affiliate who I use and love, but fear one day they’ll revert back to a higher price model. But until then tell your friends as it’s the cheapest way to get a blog or website on the Internet.

Anyway, I digress, so let’s get back on topic.

Should you buy a dot Blog domain name for your blog?

Well, I guess this depends on your chosen blog domain name and if the .com is available for it.

You see the .com domain is the oldest and most trusted domain name extension available on the Internet. And due to its popularity, it’s also one of the cheapest.

And although a .blog extension might sound like the right fit for your blog, what if later down the track you want to turn it into a business website, with the blog being just a small component of your blog?

What then?

In reality, the .blog extension it only good for one thing and that’s a blog. Nothing else and nothing more.

Now this might be ideal if you don’t want to host your blog on your company website, and need a separate domain, but most bloggers aren’t companies.

Most bloggers are real people who expect they’ll get some monetary return for the hours then spend building their blog.

So having a domain name that can move with your business ideas works best and that’s why so many choose a .com domain instead.

Blog Domain Name Renewal Fees

But if I haven’t convinced you to save your money and avoid buying a .blog domain name then consider the company who owns the rights to the .blog domain name extension.

Yes, Automattic, the business I mentioned earlier, owns the rights to the .blog extension and can change the price on this domain name extension any time they like.

Check out this man who was totally ripped off in an auction bidding process for a .blog domain when everyone else can simply purchase the domain for $29. This is an example of the company you’ll be dealing with.

Oh, and the $29 is just the initial price, it could go up and it could go down.

Another example of this domain name tomfoolery was when a purchase a .co domain for $7.95/per year. A fair price I thought until the owners of the top level domain decided to bump up the price to $48.95/per year. Now, I’m paying for a domain name that’s not worth the money, just to keep it alive.

Just be aware that the price of a domain name isn’t fixed over the long term, so if you do buy one at discounted rate, consider buying it for 5-10 years to cover the life of your blog or website.

Conclusion

Always look for a .com or .org domain name first and forget the hype around .blog domain names. You absolutely don’t need it and the problems you may have pivoting your blog to something else in the future.

And if you need help trying to find the perfect domain name for your blog then try out one of these Blog Name Generators to help you find the domain name that’s just right for you.

As always, take a little time trying to find the best domain name for your website or blog and it’ll last you many years into the future.