You want your own online business? Good because it's one of the most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very profitable.

Remember that just because it's an online business doesn't mean that you should treat it with any less professionalism or seriousness than you do your daytime job.

Why? Simply because when you run an online business it's a serious business. Well it should be taken seriously if you want to make serious money.

One of the most important aspects of any online business is the domain name. This is where the vast majority of new online entrepreneurs make their first big mistake - they choose one of those free domain name providers to represent their business online. This is a critical mistake.

Let's say you're starting a computer repair business. Which one of the following domains looks better:

'www.computerfixer.com'
or;
'computerfixer.freehosting.com'

The truth of the matter is that computerfixer.com is a top level domain and computerfixer.freehosting.com is a sub-domain. These free domain providers would have you believe that their cheapo subdomain is as good as a top level domain - this simply isn't so.

Online shoppers expect your online business to be located on a top level domain. If they find your website on one of these cheap or free domain services you've just lost 50% of your potential customers. They'll click back and look at the next search result in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Free domains make you look cheap, show that you don't want to invest in your business, that you don't take your customers seriously, look terrible on business cards and make you look like an amateur. There aren't any benefits to cutting corners on your domain name.

A domain name costs, at most, $15 per year. That's 4 cents per day. If your business can't afford this then you really shouldn't be running an online business at all.