You Need to Register Your Own Domain Name

It's important to retain control over your identity: Dan Gillmor
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2013 1:47 PM CDT
You Need to Register Your Own Domain Name
   (Shutterstock)

Stop what you're doing and go register your own domain name, Dan Gillmor suggests in the Guardian today. But, you say, you're already on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr? That's fine, but "remember who's in charge at those social media sites," Gillmor warns. "You and I are just visitors, suppliers of content they hope to use to make money." That's why it's important for everyone to have a domain name, a place on the Web over which they have complete control.

What to put there? The goal is to "tell the world who [you] are and what [you've] done," and post your own work. Gillmor suggests starting a blog, which is easy and inexpensive. (Registering a domain is itself simple and costs about the price of "a few cups of coffee," he writes.) Yes, it is easier to share using social media, and you'll likely reach more people. But Gillmor refuses to give up "control of who I am and what I believe to people who may or may not be my friends in years to come," and he suggests you make the same commitment. Click for all his tips. (More domain names stories.)

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