With today's economy you cannot consider running any type of a business without owning domain names and having a web presence. Many people look up a business for directions, phone number and more importantly credibility. I know of people that have changed doctors because the one recommended was not found on the internet.

The internet has made the world smaller so the old "word of mouth" that always worked so well has now morphed into reviews posted on the internet in blogs, forums etc.

This is why a business cannot survive today without web presence. Deciding what to buy is done mainly on the internet now through searching for reviews and actual product information.

So much information is available today that the average person did not have access to just 15 or 20 years ago.

Domain names are becoming very popular for personal use also. Many people buy their name and use it for family pictures and information.

Domain Names are used by non-profit organizations also to expand their mission statement across the world and give information plus post pictures, video and audio which can enhance the amount of donations they receive.

Of course various governments use many domain names to offer numerous amounts of services and information.

There are also a lot of education organizations that use domain names to offer services and information along with many online courses available. Lots of education can be completed entirely online or with a combination of online and offline training.

Social networking has taken the internet by storm. People want to belong, and they want to know what other people think about things. Many people make choices this way on purchases. I always look for reviews of particular items before I purchase.

Google is the very first place I type in a general description and the word review. You will have access to many free sites that list lots of reviews. Also type in the product and scam, be sure to read the reviews because many times in the search results you will see scam but when you click you find reviews of their own product. It is a clever way marketers use to get people to click.

However you choose to use domain names always consider the most important thing when you are ready to buy one. The more you build on the site the more control you will want, so even if you start with free hosting you will eventually want to move up to paid hosting.

At this point you will want to be sure your site is up and able to be viewed as much as possible. You also want to be able to easily contact customer service, hopefully being provided with multiple ways of contacting them if there is a problem.

Owning domain names and building websites can be very fun and many companies provide easy fill in the blank templates to have your domain names hosted with web pages built in minutes.