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:

• See Custom Domains - What Are The Benefits?, for an overview of the benefits and challenges.
• See Blogger Help: How do I use a custom domain name on my blog? for instructions from Blogger / Google.
• See Using The "Buy A Domain For Your Blog" Wizard, for a description of the 15 minute purchase and setup process, if you haven't already purchased a domain. Have your credit card ready, because that's 10 of the 15 minutes.
• See Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems for a step by step checklist, for identifying what may have gone wrong, when that occasionally happens.

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