Skip to main content

Custom Domain Names Hosted By Blogger

Up to now, if you wanted a blog (web site) named myblog, you had 2 choices.
  1. Setup myblog.blogspot.com, hosted by Blog*Spot, and with all of the shiny features of New Blogger 2006.
  2. Setup myblog.com (myblog.org, ...), hosted by a host of your choice (and extra cost in most cases), but with less features than a Blog*Spot hosted blog.


Now, there is a third choice. Setup myblog.com (myblog.org, ...), hosted by Blog*Spot.
  1. You pay for the DNS listing, which tells your reader's computers where your blog is.
  2. You setup a DNS entry, pointing "myblog.com" to "ghs.google.com".
  3. You setup Blogger to publish to the custom domain.
For a description of a packaged version of this process, see my chronicle Using The "Buy A Domain For Your Blog" Wizard.

If you setup your domain using "Buy A Domain", or using Google Apps directly, you'll automatically get a Google Apps account for your domain. If you buy your domain through a third party DNS host, you can still setup a Google Apps account for your domain. Google Apps will give your custom domain enterprise quality services like email, file sharing, and various office automation products, all of which will be administered by domain based accounts.

This solution has its good, and its bad, points.
  • The Good:
    • Save money. No need for an extra cost hosting service for the web site content (though you will still have to pay for DNS hosting).
    • All of the shiny features of New Blogger.
    • None of the unstable publishing problems with external hosting, reported of late.
    • Your current Blog*Spot address will continue to work, and to forward to your new, custom domain.
    • No abandoned Blog*Spot address, and no subsequent splog hijackings.
  • The Bad:
    • If you opted for external publishing to get away from Blog*Spot hosting, this isn't for you.
    • If your domain contains more than a blog - ie maybe a chat room or FTP server, this may be a challenge. You have two possibilities here.
      • Have two named domains - one inside Blog*Spot, the other outside, and links between the two.
      • Setup a subdomain DNS record, pointing to "ghs.google.com". Make sure that all of the links between the website and the blog are absolute, ie "http://myblog.mydomain.com", rather than "/blog".


(Note): This is an overview of the Custom Domain concept. For more detail:

>> Top

Comments

Terry Cripps said…
I am having trouble seeing the template on my web site. The preview is fine and it says it has connected and uploaded but when I view on my web site the page does not appear . I have my own DNS (custom domain) and ftp is allowed and they confirm there is no blocking their end. What have not done or doing wrong.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".