Register a separate domain instead of a sub-domain

Subdomains are a nice way to create new websites without needing to register a new domain. This site is a subdomain of About.com - webdesign.about.com. But subdomains are not as recognized by search engines (or customers for that matter) as separate sites. For example, most people who link to my site link to it with a title of "About.com." But if you were to go to www.about.com, you'd get a very different impression of my site than the true URL of webdesign.about.com. The other problem with subdomains is that most people think that URLs should start with "www". Sometimes www.subdomain.domain.com will work, but sometimes it won't. If you can, you should move all sites that are on a subdomain onto a real domain name of their own.