Many of my blogs have dedicated domain names – and some don’t – mainly because I have about 40 blogs and am adding them as I decide what to use 
But for anyone who wants to use a blog platform as their primary website — I highly recommend that you bite the bullet and buy a custom domain name – and its great if you get a domain that contains your primary keyword.
If you use a free WordPress blog – it is very easy to add a custom domain and its less than $15 a year. Your business or your book is worth $15 a year.
These are detailed instructions on how to add a custom domain -
I went through the process and these are step by step instructions on how to register the domain – fill in “www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com” — with your chosen domain. If you try to register an address that someone already owns, the site will tell you that there is a problem – so its not a bad idea to have several possible ideas.
Directions to Register a Custom Domain
Go to www.wordpress.com and enter your log in info. That should bring up your dashboard – if it doesn’t — look at the top of the page and you should see “my dashboard” – click there and click on People Side of Business – that brings up your dashboard. The reason I’m not sure is that I have so many blogs, I get a couple of different pages when I log in, so I don’t know what you will see — but I think you are on the dashboard when you log in. Or if this is complicated I can enter the credit card info – but I’d prefer not to do that.
You will see a long list of links in the left column, scroll to the bottom and click on “settings” – then click on “domains”. Then in the box near the top of the page enter “www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com” — that must be exact. Click add domain and enter all contact info – click ‘register domain” and it will ask for a paypal account info or a credit card number. Follow all prompts and when its done -
I can change the “primary domain” to that address and you’re ready to go Or, if you all want to do it, you go back to the “domain” page and click on the primary blog URL — this needs to be the primary address and save it. BUT — anywhere you listed the other address is still fine. It can be changed – but that is not necessary. BOTH addresses will take people to the correct page.
