Are you a young professional? Just entering the workforce? Want prospective employers to have a good first impression? A personal domain allows you to control what others see. Properly ranked, a personal domain will show in search engines ahead of other pages. It allows you to showcase your best work, provide insight to the type of person you are, how you are involved in your community, and the interests and hobbies you have developed.
Finding a suitable personal domain name may be fairly straight-forward. Your name might be available in any of the top level domains (.com, .ca, .me, or .name). If your first choice is not available, consider including your middle initial or middle name, or a well known nickname, if appropriate. Creating a longer, but memorable domain name might be better than an unmemorable string of characters. Possibly your Twitter handle would make a suitable domain - it is reasonably unique, especially if you registered it early. You may be able to easily link the two in people's minds. Boris Smus took these ideas to a minimalist endpoint with his business card design.
Registering a domain is a simple process these days, and with domains available for less than $10 per year, inexpensive as well. While some web hosting companies offer free domain registration with a hosting package, it is often recommended to separate the domain registration from the web hosting provider, so you can more easily manage the two independently, and avoid delays should you wish to change either. The Canadian Registrars 10dollar.ca and Hover.com are often recommended for .ca domains.
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