Previous Comment: ” I am just setting up my domain items and had a question which I can’t find an answer to. Two options exist for the set up : option one and then option two- which says it is more professional. Can someone tell me how it is better? Suggestions?”

[The client is inquiring about Masked Domain Setups versus Your Own Domain Setup]/

Option 1: Masked/Forwarded Domain Name
Option 2: Fully Branded Site with your Own Domain Name

Option 2 is much more professional
Here’s Why:

Option 1 will use your website http://www.member-name.com and it will “attach-on-top-of” to a previously existing domain that you may own. In most cases, google doesn’t see your pages, your posts and search engine optimization on your website will be poor unless your with blogpost, wordpress or google pages [all of which are free online website creators].  So when a lead [or source of traffic] goes to http://www.member-names.com the website will redirect the user to http://www.whatever-this-page-actually-is.com.  In my humble opinion there are two problems with this. 1. You are not branding yourself. 2. You can’t market your website on Google organically because the latter website is owned by someone else. Your personal blog won’t show up in search engines for different pages [you will show up in search engines if you use Google pages, but you won't have individual pages that will be easily marketable]. I recently advised someone to “stay away” from this option, as its much cheaper [$10 for your own domain] and [$3.95/m hosting] to brand yourself -  especially if you’re branding yourself for business reasons.

Option 2 will brand you under http://www.member-name.com. This brand entitled “you”. When leads [traffic] visit your website . they see http://www.member-name.com and it will not redirect to another link [a link that you won't see anyways even though you're browsing the same website because it "masks it"]. As for option 1: the whole point of “masking a wesbite” is to “hide the true identity”. You can be batman, but its always better to be Bruce Wayne. Google loves a natural blog with natural flowing content that isn’t “masked to any affiliate websites” This makes “your brand” more powerful.  Having your brand makes you genuine and more professional. The internet is changing, and so are people. 1 in 6 people right now are learning 50% better taking online courses than the others. 96% of the Generation-Y demographic has joined a social network, how will your brand be notice [look for a future post about Socialeconomics].