18 Another blog is already hosted at this address - How to fix Tuesday, April 21, 2009 /

When attempting to set up their Blogger custom domain, many Blogger users have received the following error message:

Another blog is already hosted at this domain

Although I have set up many custom domains to use with Blogger, until this weekend I had never experienced this issue for myself (and was unable to offer any definitive solution for those experiencing this problem). My friend was experiencing this very problem after setting up her new blog a few days ago. We have been able to find some solutions which I hope may help others who see this error message when attempting to set up their custom domain.







Assuming you have already configured the DNS settings for your particular domain provider and have attempted to publish to a custom domain through your Blogger dashboard, here are the steps you should take:

1. Publish back to your Blog*Spot domain

In order to make your blog accessible while troubleshooting your custom domain, it is advisable to publish back to your Blog*Spot domain for the time being.



To do this, simply go to Settings>Publishing and click the link to publish your blog to "blogspot.com".

Once this setting is changed, your blog will be accessible at your-blogspot-address.blogspot.com until the custom domain issue is resolved.

2. Check your DNS Settings are correct

When setting up a custom domain for your blog, you need to have a CNAME for your domain which points to ghs.google.com



Adding (or editing) the CNAME for your domain is the most complex and problematic issue when publishing to a custom domain.



Those who have purchased a custom domain through Blogger/Google (usually through the Blogger dashboard) will find their DNS settings were automatically configured when the domain was purchased.





If you purchased your domain name through a different vendor (ie: directly from the domain provider) you would have had to set up the CNAME setting for yourself.



To check that the CNAME setting has been configured correctly, you will need to login to the domain settings dashboard for your domain provider, and take a look at the CNAME setting(s). If you use GoDaddy, you can take a look at my GoDaddy domain tutorial. For other providers, take a look at one of these pages from Blogger Help:

• ix Web Hosting


• 1 and 1


• EveryDNS.net


• Yahoo! Small Business


• No-IP


• DNS Park


• Other hosting/domain services

Most people want to link their entire domain (eg: www.mydomain.com) to their Blogger blog. In this case, you need to look for the CNAME for the WWW prefix and ensure this points to ghs.google.com (the correct setting). If you notice that the entry for WWW points to an IP address (a series of numbers), this setting is incorrect and should be changed to ghs.google.com instead.



Those who wish to point their blog to a subdomain (eg: blog.mydomain.com), you will need to add/edit the CNAME for your subdomain (in this example, this would be "blog"). Ensure the CNAME entry for your subdomain points to ghs.google.com or change it so that it does.



Important: you should not attempt to use a naked domain (eg: mydomain.com) when setting up your Blogger custom domain or you will experience issues! Be sure to use "WWW" or a subdomain and set up the CNAME accordingly. Once your domain is properly set up, you can choose to redirect the root domain (mydomain.com) to your blog's home page as I will explain later.



Save any changes you have made in your domain dashboard and wait an hour or two for any changes to take effect. If you made any changes to the DNS settings, wait a few hours before attempting step 3.

3. Ping your domain to check it has been set up correctly

By "pinging" the domain you want to associate with your blog, you can check to be sure the settings have been configured correctly.



If you use Windows, click the Start Button, then choose "Run". In the box which pops up, type CMD and hit Enter. This will bring up a box like this:

If you use a different operating system, find out how to access the command line utility instead, or visit KLOTH.net to use the online pinging service.



Type in the following, substituting "www.mydomain.com" for your own custom domain (including either the www or your subdomain prefix):

ping www.mydomain.com

If your using the KLOTH service, you simply need to input the URL of your domain.



Then hit Enter.



If you have set up the CNAME correctly, you should see something like this (performed for www.bloggerbuster.com):

Notice how it says "Pinging ghs.1.google.com? If you see something similar for your own domain, this means it has been set up correctly.



However, if you see something like this (where a string of numbers is displayed instead of ghs.1.google.com or similar)...

This can mean one of the following:

• The DNS settings have not yet taken effect. Wait a few more hours and try again (it can take as long as 48 hours for settings to propogate, though most become ready within 24 hours).


• If you have waited longer than 48 hours and pinging your domain still does not resolve to ghs.google.com, it is likely that your CNAME is set up incorrectly, in which case you should go back to Step 2 and check again.

4. Try to set up your custom domain once more

By now, your domain's CNAME settings should be in order, so it's time to try linking your blog to your domain once more.



Go to the Settings>Publishing tab of your Blogger dashboard and click the "Switch to: Custom Domain" link.



Since you have already purchased your domain, you now need to switch to the Advanced Settings page by clicking the appropriate link.



In the "Your domain" box, type the URL of the domain you want to associate to your blog:

Remember to use either www.yourdomain.com or the subdomain (eg: blog.yourdomain.com). Do not simply type yourdomain.com!



It is also very important to type your URL in lowercase letters! If you use a combination of upper and lowercase letters (eg: www.MyDomain.com), this will cause problems for your custom domain. Once set up correctly, you will be able to access your blog through the custom domain even when typing upper and lowercase URLs in your browser. Check www.BloggerBuster.com to see this for yourself.



If you are able to save this correctly and can access your blog at your custom domain URL, congratulations you are all set up and ready to go!



But if you are still receiving the "Another blog is already hosted at this address" issue, continue to step 5.

5. The Magical Custom Domain Form

Because so many people have experienced issues with the "Another blog is already hosted..." message, the Blogger team have set up a form which you can use to resolve this issue.



The reason I included all other steps before this one is because this service will only work if the CNAME settings for your domain are correctly set up and verified. You should only fill in this form when you are sure the CNAME settings are correct.



You can access the Magical Custom Domain Form here, and read more about it on this page of the Blogger Help Group.



This form works by clearing any Google associations with the URL you are attempting to use for your blog (which seems to cause the "Another blog is already hosted" issue).



Within 48 hours (possibly less), your URL will be cleared and ready to use for your Blogger Custom domain.

Does this work for you?

After checking all other settings, my friend filled in the Magical Form and found her custom domain issue resolved in about a day.



I hope this tutorial will work for you too, but if not, please take a look at these other helpful tutorials:

• Recycling domain settings (The Real Blogger Status) 


• Check URL mapping with Google Apps (from TipsBlogger)


• Another Blog is already Hosted Issue (by SimpleBlogSkins

Linking your "naked" domain to your "www" domain

As I mentioned earlier, you need to use www.mydomain.com or [subdomain].myblog.com when setting up your custom domain. You cannot set up the domain effectively using the root URL of your domain (eg: http://mydomain.com).



Those who have purchased their domain name through Blogger should be able to redirect their non-www domain to their blog with ease. Simply check the setting on the Settings>Publishing page which says "Redirect yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com and save.



If you purchased your domain from a different vendor, checking this setting will probably not work. In other words, yourdomain.com will not redirect to www.yourdomain.com even when this setting is checked.



For this issue, there are a number of "fixes" you could use:



For Blogger Buster, I created a "meta-redirect" page which is hosted with my domain provider, GoDaddy. You can read how I set up this redirect page here.



For a different domain, I set up a 301 redirect using .HTACCESS. This requires Linux hosting to be available at the root domain (check here for instructions for free basic hosting if using GoDaddy as your domain provider). Setting up an .htaccess file is not particularly easy, but if you're interested, take a look at this in-depth article from Taming the Beast (in particular, the section for "www vs non-www).



Another possibility is to forward your non-www domain to your www domain using the forwrding settings in your domain dashboard. Ettiene has written a tutorial for this which may be useful for those wishing to try this possibility. Although I have never used this method for my own blogs, I'm assured by others that this works to redirect the non-www domain to the www domain of your blog address.

Your thoughts?

I hope the methods outlined in this article have helped resolve any issues you are experiencing with your Blogger custom domain.



Please let me know your thoughts and opinions, particularly if you have advice on other methods which could work to prevent the dreaded "Another blog is already hosted" message, by leaving your comments below.

1 Easily redirect readers to your Blogger custom domain! Friday, November 9, 2007 /

It used to be awkward to set up your Blogger custom domain to ensure that both the WWW and non-WWW versions of your URL pointed to your Blogger hosted blog. Now Blogger have introduced a great new feature: automatically redirect visitors from http://yourblog.com to http://www.yourblog.com! No more fiddling with the CNAME and A records in your domain's DNS settings as Blogger will now do the hard work for you!

Thanks to Mike I have just learned about this great new feature, which cuts out the need for manual redirection once you have initially set up your custom domain with Blogger.

Now, after setting up the DNS settings in your domain control panel, and registering your new URL with Blogger (see this post for full information), all you have to do is go to Settings>Publishing in your Blogger dashboard, and tick the box which is highlighted on the image below:

This setting ensures a flawless redirection from your non-WWW to your WWW blog URL, and most importantly, you will lose no visitors who accidentally key in your blog's URL without the WWW prefix.

If you currently make use of any free hosting provided by your domain agent, be sure that this redirection will not affect any existing files which are hosted in the root folder of your hosting account, as this redirection may make them inaccessible to you. For this reason, I won't be using this new feature myself, though I am very happy that Blogger have finally resolved this issue for bloggers who have little experience in setting up domains.

Now all we need is for Blogger to actually set up the custom domain for us, without the need to do this ourselves in the DNS settings...

Technorati Tags: blogger | custom | domain | set+up | redirect

1 A better way to set up your custom domain? Wednesday, October 24, 2007 /

When Jason pointed out an article by Blog Bloke which claims to be the best way to set up your Blogger custom domain, I popped over to take a look at the differences. Indeed Blog Bloke's solution is a very good method to use: this ensures both your www and non-www url both point to your blog quite easily, whereas my preferred method requires a little more customization to perform the same function. Both methods have their advantages and drawbacks, as I shall explain here.

As Blog Bloke points out, many Bloggers who have set up their custom domain do not redirect visitors to their non-www address (eg: http://myblog.com) to their www address (eg: http://www.myblog.com), instead leaving their "parked" page in place, which can be quite frustrating for visitors who forget to add that www in the address bar, not to mention off-putting!

Both Blog Bloke and I agree that it is useful to have redirection in place for your non-www url, though our solutions are slightly different.

Amanda's Custom Domain Method

I use GoDaddy as my domain provider, and my method for setting up your domain with GoDaddy requires three steps:

1. Set up your custom domain by changing the CNAME records and the settings in your Blogger dashboard.


2. Activate your free hosting account


3. Upload a redirect page, which redirects visitors to your www blog url.

While this may seem like a lot to do in order to ensure all visitors to your URL actually get to your blog, I do have good reason for doing things this way. When you set up a redirect page at your non-www url, you can explain that your blog is located at www.myblog.com to ensure bookmarks are correctly formed. Most importantly, when you activate your free GoDaddy hosting, you can utilize this space to host images, scripts and files on your own domain.

Blog Bloke's Custom Domain Method

Blog Bloke's method ensures you only need to set up your custom domain. He advises that you don't change the CNAME records, and instead utilize the "A" records and domain forwarding to ensure your custom domain name points to your Blog*Spot URL. This is a much simpler and cleaner method, and ensures that your non-www automatically redirects visitors to your www domain.

However, this method means you cannot create an informative redirection page, and makes the use of your hosting space a little more complicated as you would need to set up sub-domains in order to make your hosted files accessible. Nonetheless it is a good method, and from what I have read this does work effectively.

Which method should you use?

This depends entirely on your own preferences, but here is some advice to help you decide for yourself:

• If you want a quick and easy method, go for Blog Bloke's method. For this, you don't need to set up your hosting account or create and upload a redirect page to ensure all visitors get to your blog.


• If you want to provide info about your URL, and make good use of the free hosting space available to you, you may wish to consider my method instead. Fair enough, it does take a little longer to set up, and requires a little more effort, so it may not be the ideal solution for everyone.

Why not let me know which method you prefer to use by leaving your comments below?

Technorati Tags: godaddy | set+up | blogger | custom+domain

9 Set up your free GoDaddy hosting account Monday, July 9, 2007 /

When you purchase a domain from GoDaddy, you will be entitled to a free ad-supported hosting account. This is great for bloggers who may need to set up a redirection page to their true blog address. I've been asked a few times now how to set up this free hosting account, so I thought it was about time I posted a walk through!

Assuming you have already purchased a domain name from GoDaddy, you should have your login details and be able to log in to your GoDaddy account. Once you have your login details to hand, this is what you should do:

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account manager.


2. Select "Hosting account list" from the "Hosting and email menu" in the navbar near the top of the page. This will open the "manage hosting page"


3. On this page, you should see a link saying "Use credit" next to "Free Hosting Credits". Click on this link to open the next page.


4. On the right, you should now see "set up free hosting". Select the domain you would like to associate your hosting account with, and choose either Windows or Linux hosting. The main difference between Windows and Linux hosting is the ability to use different programs and databases in your hosting account, so if you're only using this to host a redirect page for your blog, it wouldn't matter which you choose.


5. Once you've made your choices, click continue, then go to the Hosting Account list. Click on "Set Up Account" next to the New Account (Free with Domain) that you want to set up.


6. In the Hosting Control Center, click Accept to accept the End User License Agreement.


7. Now, you'll need to set up your free hosting account with the following information:
   
   
   • Enter New User ID: Create a user name that you will use when you log in to this hosting account. This can be different to the login name you use when logging into your GoDaddy account.
   
   
   • Enter New Password: Create a password that you will use when you log in to this hosting account. Again, this can be different to the one you use to log into GoDaddy.
   
   
   • Confirm New Password: Re-enter the password that you just created.
   
   Make a note of these details so you can log into your hosting account later. Then click continue.


8. Verify your Domain Name and User ID, click Submit, and then close the Hosting Control Center. It may take a day or two for your hosting account to become active; you will receive an email when the hosting is activated, including your FTP settings, so it's probably best to wait for this before attempting to log in to your new account.

Once your ad-supported hosting account is active, you can upload files by FTP. The easiest way to do this is to use an FTP client program such as FileZilla (a free, open source program) to connect to your hosting account. Alternatively, you could use GoDaddy's web based ftp client, which you can read about here.

Now that you've set up your GoDaddy ad-supported hosting account, you can easily upload your redirect page, or indeed any other files to your hosting account.

Related posts:

• Create a redirect page for your blog
• How to set up your Blogger custom domain with GoDaddy

Technorati Tags: godaddy | custom+domain | free+hosting | ad+supported+hosting | ftp

7 Create a redirect page for your blog Sunday, July 8, 2007 /

If your blog's web address has changed, or if you are using Blogger's custom domain service, you may have need of a redirect page for your blog. A redirect page stays at the location of your old blog (or at the http://yourblog.com address if you are using a Blogger custom domain) and automatically redirects users to your blog's true address.

Here's how to create your own redirect page:

1. Copy the whole text in the box below and paste into a simple text editor such as Notepad. Change the text in red to reflect your true blog address, and the text in blue to something which better suits your needs.
   

   <html>
   <head>
   <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="8; url=http://www.yoururlhere.com" />
   </head>
   <body bgcolor="#cceedd">
   <center>
   <p>
   <font color="#446666"><b>Your text and images here</p>
   <p>For example: My blog is located at www.mydomain.com. You will be redirected to my blog in about 8 seconds. Please update your bookmarks to reflect this new address. </p>
   </body>
   </html>



2. Take note of this line:

   meta http-equiv="refresh" content="8;

   The "8" means that the browser will wait 8 seconds before redirecting to your true blog address, just enough time for the visitor to read the text and understand the reason for the redirection. You can change this to "0" instead, which means that the redirect would be immediate, and the visitor would be unaware of the change in web address unless they look at the address bar. However, it is good practice to have at least the URL of your true blog address in the body of the page as some older browsers do not recognise the redirect function and would be unaware that your blog is not hosted here.


3. You should also change the font and background colours to suit your tastes and blog colour scheme/branding. Images can also be displayed in the body section of the page (between <body>> and </body>)


4. Now, save this file to your computer with the file name "index.html". It is very important that you name it such, as this needs to be the page which loads when a visitor types http://yourblog.com into their web browser.You can preview this in your own browser to check the page looks okay, and you should be redirected to your true online blog address within the time you specified in the meta section.


5. Now, you need to upload this to the root of the folder where visitors would visit your blog. If you have purchased a custom domain for your Blogger blog, for example, you would upload this to the root of your hosting account. If you are uploading to a previously used sub domain at http://blog.yoursite.com this may be the root of the folder named "/blog/".


6. Go online to your redirect page address (eg: http://yourblog.com/index.html) and check that the redirection works. Then all you have to relax and know your visitors will be able to find you!

If you have purchased a custom domain for use with a Blogger blog, you should find that your domain provider will provide at least enough room for a single web page, which you can use to upload your redirect page. I use GoDaddy for domains, as this company provides free hosting, personal email address and other features of great use to Bloggers. (Just in case you're wondering, I don't get paid to recommend GoDaddy; but of all the domain providers I've ever used, this company is simply the best value I've found!).

If you have any problems setting up your redirect page, feel free to contact me directly for more detailed help.

Related posts:

• How to set up your free GoDaddy hosting account
• How to set up your Blogger custom domain with GoDaddy

Technorati Tags: custom+domain | domains | redirect | page | index+page |

12 How to set up your Blogger custom domain with GoDaddy Thursday, June 21, 2007 /

This post is originally from my other blog, Glamumous. I decided to reproduce it here so you readers can easily find other information linked to this subject.

I used GoDaddy to register my domain name, as this company seemed the cheapest dot.com domain provider, and also because they supply a free email address and basic hosting account with each domain, which has come in rather handy.

However, I'd read quite a few complaints about using GoDaddy for custom domains with Blogger hosting, so I was rather careful to make sure I did everything correctly!

Please do note that you can only link your site as http://yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com. Not both. It just doesn't work that way. My advice is to use the www prefix, and if you can make a simple redirect page in your host root, as I'll explain later.

I followed Blogger's advice to the letter, and everything works fine. Here are the basics of their tutorial, or you can read the whole thing yourself on this page.

1. Buy your chosen domain name and create your account.


2. Once your domain has been registered, log in to your control panel, and choose to "manage domains".


3. Click on the area marked Total DNS Control, and then on Total DNS Control And MX Records.


4. Look for a record prefixed "WWW". If there isn't one, add a new CNAME record; if there is one, you'll need to edit this record instead.


5. Insert these settings exactly as they are described! For the "Name" type "www" (as in www.yoursite.com). For the Host Name, you need to enter "ghs.google.com". Don't change or enter anything else except for these two functions. If this is a new CNAME, click "add". If you are editing an existing CNAME, click "update" and "continue".

Before you link this domain to your Blogspot blog, you may well want to check that all the settings are correct. To do this, you'll need to "ping" your new domain and ensure the host points to ghs.google.com.

If you're a Windows user, this is quite simple to do using the "command" feature. Windows 98 and ME have a "command prompt" program in the start menu; Windows XP has the "run..." feature, which brings up a box; simply type in CMD, hit enter and you'll get your command prompt.

Then all you need to do is enter the following:

ping www.yourdomainname.com

substituting yourdomain.com for your domain name and suffix. Hit enter, and see what happens. It should look something like this:

Pinging ghs.1.google.com [72.14.207.121] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=89ms
TTL=247
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=86ms
TTL=247
Ping statistics for 72.14.207.121:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received =
4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip
times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 85ms, Maximum = 89ms, Average = 86ms

Notice that the ping recognises that my site is hosted with ghs.1.google.com. This means that I can (and indeed, have) followed the next step in telling Blogspot my new domain name. If you don't notice the host is registered as Google, wait a little longer before following the next step.

Log in to your Blogger control panel. In the settings section, click on the publishing tab. Near the top of this page, you'll notice "publish to a custom domain". This is what you want to do.

When prompted, enter the domain name you have directed to the ghs.google.com host, including the www prefix! Continue, and you should see that your new settings have been saved.

View your blog to ensure everything works and looks okay. Don't worry if at first you get a "404 file not found" page: it can take a few days for DNS settings to propogate across the whole internet. You can always switch back to Blogspot hosting and try again in a day or two. When this does work okay, you'll see your blog exactly how it is normally seen, with the exception that your new domain name is in the address bar. Blogger takes care of all the inter-blog links, page titles and such for you, and even redirects traffic from your old name.blogspot.com address to your new www.yoursite.com address! This is great as it means it's unlikely you'll lose traffic or page ranking stats.

Now here's the awkward part: as I mentioned earlier, you can only have http://www.yourblog.com or http://yourblog.com. Not both. Blogger/Google simply haven't recognised that this may be important, and only offer the function of linking one address to your blog. But in a strange way, this is good: you don't have to worry about having two seperate blogs listed in Technorati, for example.

I advised that you use the www prefix for a good reason. Many domain providers offer a single page (often called a "holding page") with each domain name. This will show when you type http://yourblog.com, even though www.yourblog.com will link to your Blogger blog.

So make use of it!

If you are able to edit the HTML, you could create a redirect page to automatically redirect visitors to your www address. That way, you won't lose any visitors at all. To make the page redirect to your www address, you need to insert this code between the head tags, substituting "mysite.com" for your domain name. You can do this using an HTML editor (I prefer Notepad).

<head><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://www.mysite.com" /></head>

The part content="0; means that there is no pause before the browser is redirected. You can change this to "5" for example, to give a 5 second pause if you also want to include an explanation for the redirect in the body of the page. It is also a good idea to include a hyperlink to your www address in the body of the page, just in case the visitor's browser doesn't recognise the redirect command.

If you look at my redirect page at http://bloggerbustercom/, you'll notice that there is an 8 second pause and an explanation for the redirect. Play around and see what works for you!

Similar posts:

• How to set up a redirect page for your blog


• How to set up your Blogger custom domain


• Should you have a custom domain for your blog?
  

Technorati Tags: blogger custom+domain domain+name dot+com+address customizing+blogger+templates blogging

7 How to set up your Blogger custom domain Sunday, June 17, 2007 /

After blogging for a while at a Blogspot.com address, you may decide it's time to upgrade to a custom domain (eg: yourblog.com). This is the least expensive method I've found of hosting your blog at a custom domain since Blogspot will still host your blog for free! All you need to do is pay a few pounds for your domain name, be it a dot.com, dot.co.uk, dot.info or whatever you choose!

The process is probably much simpler than you think! You don't need to worry too much about finding a host provider that is compatible with Blogger: any domain provider which allows you to alter the DNS records for your domain is compatible! Just make sure that you don't have to pay extra for this service (these days, most domain providers don't, but there is still the odd one around...).

Here's how to set up your Blogger custom domain:

1. Decide on your domain name, and register it with a domain name provider. There are literally hundreds of sites you can use (just do a Google search for "domain name providers"). My provider of choice is GoDaddy.com, since this site offers very low cost domains with free hosting, free email accounts and other features too. I'll explain shortly why having free hosting is very beneficial.



2. Once you've registered your new domain name, you'll need to change the DNS settings. DNS stands for Domain Name System: a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. You need to tell the DNS servers that visitors to your custom domain should be directed to your Blogspot blog, which is what we're doing here.
   
   You need to access the control panel for the DNS settings associated with your domain. Take a look at the CNAME records here. Is there a name/sub domain called WWW? If there is, you'll need to edit this; if not, you'll need to add a new CNAME record. In either case, you should enter the correct information as I'll explain next.



3. For the name/sub domain (this depends on what your provider calls it!), enter "www" and save (or click continue).



4. For your target host/destination/record (again, this is provider dependent) you need to enter "ghs.google.com". Save and continue. This is all you need to do with your domain provider!



5. It may take a few days for the DNS settings to come into effect, so it might be worth waiting a day or two before completing the next step, which is to associate your Blogspot account with your new domain.



6. Now, you should log into your Blogger account. In the "settings" area, click on the "publishing" tab near the top of the page and choose to set up your custom domain. In the text box, enter your new domain name (eg: www.example.com). Now when you preview your blog, you should see your custom domain in the address bar instead of your blogspot one!

Your old Blogspot address will automatically forward to your new domain, so you don't have to worry about losing any traffic. Also, since Blogger still hosts your domain, you'll have no worries about hosting or bandwidth.

However, there are a few points you should take note of when publishing to your custom domain.

Most important is this: you can only post to http://yourdomain.com or http://www,yourdomain.com. NOT BOTH! So before you enter your domain name in the Blogger settings be sure which of these you prefer to use.

My advice would be this: try to use a domain provider which offers some free hosting with your domain (this is why I'd recommend GoDaddy) and set your blog to be hosted at www.yourdomain.com. Then upload a simple redirect page as your index to your hosting account, which will redirect any visitors to www.yourdomain.com instead.

I don't consider this to be much of a problem. In fact it can be an advantage: having only the http:// or http://www in your blog address is that your Technorati ranking will be improved, since there will not be two entries for your blog (one at each sub domain, a problem I used to have with a hosted Wordpress blog). By redirecting your readers, they will always know where to find you, and you won't lose any traffic.

For a complete tutorial on registering your Blogger custom domain with GoDaddy, take a look at this post on the Glamumous blog. For detailed walkthroughs to register with other domain providers, this article on the Blogger help site can prove rather useful.

As always, I appreciate your comments! Also, if you have posted a walkthrough for other providers, please leave a link below to help others do this too.

Technorati Tags: blogger | custom | domain | domain+name | dns | cname | blogspot | godaddy | set+up | compatible+with+blogger

0 Now live at BloggerBuster.com! Saturday, June 16, 2007 /

As of today, Blogger Buster has a new address: http://www.bloggerbuster.com/!

I have set up my Blogger account to use a custom domain provided by GoDaddy, a process which I will explain in full in a later post (or alternatively you can look at this post on my other blog).

Nothing else has changed, so if you were previously reading this blog at the old address: blogger-buster.blogspot.com, you will have automatically been redirected here.

Now I can finally start updating things and promoting my blog to the bloggosphere, a process I was unwilling to attempt before the change of address. Trust me, it's far better to set up your custom domain early on in your blogging career, then you'll have so fewer problems later on.

More on this subject later...

Technorati Tags: custom+domain godaddy blogger blogspot blogger+buster

0 Should you have a custom domain for your blog? /

If you only blog for family and friends, have no intention of generating a wide readership, or simply can't be bothered at working with your blog, then the answer is no, and you can ignore the rest of this post. I won't hold it against you! However, if you have any intention on becoming a serious blogger, then my answer to this is "YES DEFINITELY!".

Although this particular blog is relatively new (at the time of writing this post), I have been blogging in various places for over three years now. From what I've seen, read and personally experienced, having a custom domain name for your blog is a very good way to show your readers that you are a serious blogger who cares about what they write. It can also have many other benefits too, which I'll explain about shortly.

Having a free hosted blog address such as yourblog.wordpress.com or myblog.blogspot.com is perfectly fine when you're first starting out, but can become the blogging equivalent of having an AOL or Yahoo address, and may well imply that you don't care enough about your blogging identity to pay a few pounds for something more.

There are many options to purchasing a custom domain, and your choice depends on a number of factors:

• The blogging platform you use


• How much control you would like over your blog's performance and appearance


• How much you are willing to spend!

As you may be aware, I have chosen to publish my Blogger blog to a custom domain, which Blogger hosts for me. This is probably the least expensive and simplest method of having a custom domain for my blog. Bloggers on other platforms may have to choose a different option: Wordpress users would need to purchase a hosting package and host their blog software on their new domain; Typepad bloggers would need to map their new domain to their Typepad blog in addition to the blogging fees, and so on.

The choice is a very personal one, and my choice may not suit others so well. For example, one of my other blogs is a self-hosted Wordpress blog; I chose this option so that I would also have storage space to upload files to my domain, have extra "pages" in my blog to make it a more functional "website" for my content, and also to have maximum control over my add-ons and widgets. With both this and my Glamumous blog, I have realised that the new Blogger software is more adequate for my needs, and that the hosting is much more simplified.

Of course, there are many exceptions to my "rule" that successful blogs need a custom domain name; many popular blogs are hosted at shared Blogspot, Wordpres and Typepad domains because their content is great and readers keep coming back for more. But in my humble opinion, having a custom domain can really help your popularity.

Here's one final note: if you do intend to have a custom domain for your blog, do this sooner rather than later as it really avoids many of the pitfalls of redirecting readers, updating your blog address at various sites, and moving images/files/etc from one server to another. Trust me, it's worth the effort!

Related posts:

• How to set up your Blogger custom domain

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