Blogging Tip: How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

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Blogging Tip: How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

If you are at all serious about blogging, or think you may someday become a more serious blogger, is it essential that you take the time to learn how to set a domain name. This is a very inexpensive purchase at just approximately $10/per year for your domain name registration. This is a very small investment that will insure that you will have your domain name of preference and won’t ever have to worry about switching over your blog post links down the road when you might be read to switch. This will also allow you to build up your Google Page Rank that won’t be built if you are using your name at a .blogspot or .wordpress type of account. When I first started blogging, I just used blogger’s free blog hosting service. A few months in I learned how important it was to have my own domain name and was able to continue using blogger but rather than being amomstake.blogspot.com I was able to change my name to amomstake.com.

How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

If you use blogger to run your blog, you can follow this easy tutorial to learn how to set a domain name right from your settings panel. It is extremely simple and you’ll quickly wonder why you didn’t do this sooner! To start, login to your blogger dashboard and select your blog. Then, you will just select the “Settings” tab from the menu bar. It will be the last option on the list. Doing this will automatically bring you to the “Basic” settings page which is where you can change your name settings.

How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

You will see a section called Publishing and under that your Blog Address. You can click the link right below your address that says, +Add a custom domain. Select that option.

How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

You will be directed to a page where you have the option to search for a domain name and can even purchase your domain name right here through Google. I would, however, not recommend that you purchase your domain name here through Google. When I started my blog, I purchased my domain right through blogger. When I was ready to leave blogger’s platform and start using a self-hosted website using wordpress, it was extremely confusing and difficult to get my domain name switched from Google’s hosting to my own purchase independent of blogger and Google. You have to do some running around trying to verify that it was actually you that purchased your own domain and it is really confusing to do so. However, you can just visit www.GoDaddy.com , which is who I use, and purchase your domain name directly and you will have complete control over your domain name and avoid this future problem. Plus, GoDaddy.com almost always has a great sale going on where you can often even find your domain registration cheaper! So, the next step is to head over to www.GoDaddy.com or your other choice of domain registrar and pick out your name.

How to Set a Domain Name in Blogger

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Once you have purchased your domain name, you can click the link to “Switch to advanced settings”. Type in your domain name here. You may be prompted that you will need to take additional steps to verify your domain name ownership. Blogger will provide you with two CNAME settings. You will login to www.GoDaddy.com or your domain registrar and change your settings by adding the two additional CNAME records that are shown to you in blogger if this additional step is required for you.

How to set a domain name in blogger

Owning your own domain name will give you credibility that you are not in this as a very fleeting hobby. It is just a small step to take the time to invest a little bit of money and show you are serious about your blog.


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About Janel

Janel is the owner and lead blogger of A Mom's Take. She is the mother of 4 little boys ages 6 and under. She loves to play board games and digital scrapbook.
  • Elizabeth

    I wish I would have found this sooner. Based on the advice of a friend I went ahead and purchased my domain name from google as soon as I started blogging.

  • Nik

    This just got scary when I got to the whole cname business. GoDaddy has my $12.34 though. Thanks anyway.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kfeatherable Kristyn Featherston

    I am not a ‘too serious’ blogger, but I think that this post has great information just in case i become more of a blogger! Thank you!

  • Carol TheAnswerIsChocolate

    It worked!!!! I needed to be patient and let the behind the scenes stuff take the time it needed but I’m now on my own domain woo hoo! Thanks so much.

    • http://www.amomstake.com A Mom’s Take

      Yay!! Congrats on owning your own domain name!

  • http://twitter.com/VMTwriter Vicki M Taylor

    thanks for the post. I’ll have to talk to hubby about getting a domain name through our server so we can host it here. I never thought about it for my blog.

    • http://www.amomstake.com A Mom’s Take

      If you have the ability to host your own blog you will want to start using the self-hosting wordpress platform. This is different than just setting up your own domain name through blogger. Hosting generally runs for about $50 a year but if you already have a hosting server sounds like you can possibly avoid the yearly fee. This is the next big step to take in blogging after your domain name. I’ll get around to a post on that eventually but you can just check out wordpres.org and it’s a completely free download. Simply purchasing a domain name doesn’t need to be hosted anywhere though, you can still continue to use blogger if that’s what you’ve been using until you are ready to take the leap to completely self hosting your blog. It is a great step to take, though, so if you’re ready for it absolutely do it!

  • Tavashi Singh

    Hi,

    Thanks for sharing your post that covers the tips on how can we setup custom domain name on blogger. It is really a great help to all those people who want to setup custom domain names on blogger.

  • kelly thompson

    cool, thanks- can you do follow up on what things this will cause change to…like remembering to change your watermark on photos and other often overlooked things you will need to do etc. thanks
    also, are you still powered by blogger etc…

    • http://www.amomstake.com A Mom’s Take

      Thanks for the questions, I’ll mark these down to talk about soon! :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/suezecue Suesan Kennard

    If you change your domain name, what happens to pins and links that people have to the old domain?

    • http://www.amomstake.com A Mom’s Take

      Posts are automatically redirected to your new domain. When you move off of blogger eventually, then a blogger redirect notification will appear that looks like this: http://www.amomstake.blogspot.com/2011/03/boba-baby-carrier-review/ (as an example). Which can be found on my own domain by just removing the .blogspot part of the link. Hope that helps!