Video Tutorial Purchasing and setting up custom domain through Blogger

Transcript of video tutorial: Purchasing and setting up a Custom Domain through Blogger

Have you ever wanted your own custom domain for your blog? Now it is easy to purchase and setup your own custom domain directly through Blogger. There is no need to buy online storage space. You can still continue to use Blogger free hosting. To set up a custom domain for your blog, first log into your Blogger account and visit your SETTINGS and PUBLISHING tabs. Click SWITCH TO CUSTOM DOMAIN. If you already own your own domain, click SWITCH TO ADVANCED SETTINGS for instructions on pointing it to your blogspot blog. Otherwise, enter your desired domain into the field provided to see if it is available and to begin the purchase process. Domains cost 10 dollars each and will be registered for 1 year. Keep in mind that your existing blogspot address will still direct readers to your blog. Once you found an available domain, click CONTINUE. Next, you will need to fill out your domain registration. Be sure to chose whether or not you like your registration information to be listed in the WHOIS directory. By default, your information will be unlisted. Accept the Terms of Service (TOS) and choose whether or not you want your domain registration to be automatically re-registered each year. Next, you input your billing information to Google Checkout. Once you finished, click AGREE AND CONTINUE. Next, review your purchase and place your order. Now your custom domain is set up. Click VIEW BLOG to see your blog at this new domain. Although your blog may appear immediately, please note that it may take up to 3 days for blog to transition to your new domain. Have fun with your custom domain.

Custom domain set up: Video instructions

The video below shows how you get set up a custom domain which will be your own domain (property) and not a sub-domain (and property of Blogger) of blogspot.com

I initially registered some domains from Godaddy but that took me so long to start because I want to make sure all related URL's, that is both the URL's that have www and minus www will go to the same custom domain page. Found out later that is going to be a torturous process and kept putting off the Herculean task until I discovered the method described in the video below:



Hopefully, when I get the time, I will do a transcript and maybe even a few screen shot so you don't need to refer to the vidwo each time you forget a step.

Custom domain for New Blogger (formerly Blogger Beta)

Custom domain is a fairly new feature available recently for bloggers using the New Blogger platform. Most bloggers using Google Blogger do not have their own domain. Instead, they have a sub-domain in the form of http://yourblog.blogspot.com.

Some people are not too happy to use a sub-domain for their blog, as the sub-domain does not belong to them, but to Blogger. Some also have the opinion that it is less prestigious to use a sub-domain, rather like using your home for a business office which then therefore command less respect. If you are of that opinion, this is where custom domain comes in. You can register a domain for your blog and Blogger can host it free for you. And not only is it free, you do not have to bother with the hassle of using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to publish your post. And you can use the new features available for New Blogger like Layout, drag and drop, Label list, etc.

Some bloggers are still not satisfied with just having their own domain, and want to host the blog on their own with a third party web host in addition to having their own domain. In this case, in addition to having pay for the annual renewal fee for the domain registration, you will have to pay monthly or yearly hosting fees. Depending on which web host you choose, you may also have to bother with limited bandwidth, etc. If your blog attracts high traffic, you may have to pay more for more bandwidth, etc.

If you are using your blog for business purposes, it is probably good to have your own domain for your blog. You will then have to register a suitable domain name. Now getting a suitable domain name may not be easy as many domain names have already be taken up and the one you want may not be available. This is where www.buydomains.com comes in. You can search for suitable and available domain name using their search box or their Advanced Search Tool.

If the searches don't turn up anything, you can use their new New Domain Alert to alert you of new available domain names.

Now you can also make a business of blogs that you start. You can register good domain names which you think may be of great value to someone, but who may happen to be late on the scene. You can then put up your domain name for sale at Sell Your Domains.

If rather than just parking the domain names, you start blogging and build up a good PageRank for the blogs. A domain name with a good PageRank> can probably fetch higher prices. A PageRank of 5 is not too difficult to get if you put some work into it. Your blog will then fetch a good price

In addition, if you join the Google AdSense and place contextual text and/or image ads., Google search boxes or Google referral text or buttons on your blogs and get it up to earning a decent income, your blog can fetch even higher prices as there are people looking for ready made revenue generating blogs and are willing to pay for them. If you want to go that route, I can help you. Just comment in any of my blogs or email me. And when you are ready, just put the blog/s up for sale at Sell Your Domains.