Redirecting (Moving) Your Blogger Blog to a Custom Domain

When you create a blog in Blogger, you will have a blog address in the form of http://<<YourChosenName>>.blogspot.com. Let's breakdown this address:

• blogspot.com - This is your domain name
  
• <<YourChosenName>> - This is a sub-domain of blogspot.com
  

What about www.TestWhat_I_Learn.com? Well, the www is the sub-domain of the TestWhat_I_Learn.com. In short, anything on the left side of the domain name is the sub-domain.

So, what if I want to have my custom domain name for my blog? Say, http://www. MyCustomDomain.com? or http:// Subdomain.MyCustomDomain.com?

I am going to show you how to set this up in Godaddy.

Note: First, you must own a domain before following these steps!

Case 1 - http://Subdomain.MyCustomDomain.com

1. Decide URL address for your blog. For this example, use http://blog.MyCustomDomain.com


2. Create a CNAME (Canonical NAME) record in the DNS (Domain Name Server) for your blog URL. This tells your user where to find your blog. Here's how:
   
   1. Log in to your Godaddy account
      
   2. Click on My Account
   3. Click Advanced Details on the right of your blog's domain. In this example, click Advanced Details on the right of MyCustomDomain.com
   4. Find DNS Manager, then, click Launch
   5. You will see on the top of the page, Zone File Editor, and below that, you will see tables with whole bunch of numbers. Go to CNAME (ALIAS), then click Quick Add.
      
      • Host: <<subdomain>>. In this example, this would be blog
        
      • Points to: ghs.google.com
        
      • TTL: <<don't have to change this, just use default>>
   6. Click Save Zone file. Done. Your changes should be applied in a couple of hours (or a day).
   
   
3. Now, you must set up your blog.
   
   1. Log in to your blog in blogspot.
      
   2. Go to Settings ==> Publishing ==> Custom Domain
   3. You can buy a domain from google. However, let's assume we already bought our domain. Click on Switch on advanced settings.
   4. Enter your new blog URL. In this case blog.MyCustomDomain.com.
   5. Save Settings and Done. You may have to wait up to a days for the changes to be applied. If you change your blog URL setting before changes in your godaddy account take effect, then you will get error message below the URL that you type in the previous step. Basically, it says that the new URL is still not working and it may take up to a day to take effect. Don't worry about this. Just wait.

Case 2 - http://www. MyCustomDomain.com

1. Decide a URL address for your blog. For this example, use http://MyCustomDomain.com
2. Create 'A' & 'C' NAME record in the DNS (Domain Name Server) for your blog URL. This tells your user where to find your blog. Here's how:
   
   1. Follow step 2 part a to d from Case 1
      
   2. Go to CNAME (ALIAS), then click Quick Add.
      • Host: www
      • Points to: ghs.google.com
        
      • TTL: <<don't have to change this, just use default>>
   3. Go to A NAME (HOST), then click Quick Add.
      
      • Host: "@" (without the double quote). @ => your domain, in this case MyCustomDomain.com. All 4 new record will have the same value ("@")
      
      
      • Record 1 - Points to: 216.239.32.21
        
      • Record 2 - Points to: 216.239.34.21
        
      • Record 3 - Points to: 216.239.36.21
        
      • Record 4 - Points to: 216.239.38.21
      
      
      • TTL: <<don't have to change this, just use default>> ==> for all 4 new records
        
      
      
   4. Click Save Zone File. Done. Your changes should be applied in a couple of hours (or a day).
      
   
   
3. Now, you must set up your blog.
   
   1. Follow step 3 part a to c from Case 1
      
   2. Enter your new blog URL. In this case www.MyCustomDomain.com.
      
   3. Save Settings and Done. You may have to wait up to a days for the changes to be applied. If you change your blog URL before changes in your godaddy account take effect, then you will get error message below the URL that you type in the previous step. Basically, it says that the new URL is still not working and it may take up to a day to take effect. Don't worry about this. Just wait.
      
   
   

Note: Sometimes, people like to type a domain name without "www". As far as I know, you can easily redirect a domain name without "www" to www.YourDomain.com, just by checking the option Redirect YourDomain.com to www.YourDomain.com below the URL that you type on step 3 part b in case 2.

That's All!