In this post we want to look at custom domains and using a custom domain on Blogger instead of the blogspot sub domain.When you start your free blog on Blogger you choose a free sub domain like spiceyourblog.blogspot.com.This is the address of your blog and in general you carry on setting up your blog and start posting.However you do have the option to use a custom domain and get rid of the blogspot part, to be like spiceupyourblog.com, a full domain without blogspot.What are the advantages of this ? In fact the advantages are huge !
Blogger is totally free and that is a big attraction over other platforms like Wordpress, while there is a free version of Wordpress it is rubbish and constraining.The self hosted Wordpress is a fantastic platform but you must have a custom domain and pay for hosting every month.So if you want to set up a blog quickly with a lot of freedom most will go with Blogger.Blogger do not charge for hosting or indeed anything connected to your blog, 99.9% of Blogger templates are free as are any gadgets etc you require (And you have amazing blogs like this with Blogger Tips helping you along the way :D ).
Dot Blogspot Dot Com
But Blogger or more specifically blogs using Blogspot sub domains have been in some quarters for this very reason associated with low quality sites.In fact many people land on a blog, see it has a blogspot sub domain and are immediately sceptical.Why ? Here's what i think ..
The great feature of being able to start a blog on Blogger in less than 5 minutes also has it's downside.Tens of Thousands of blogs started are by people that write 3 or 4 posts and realize it's not as easy as it looks so quit.Leaving low quality outdated blogs behind them.
Spammers using the free service to set up auto blogs and republish copied content surrounded by ads.Some of the blogs i have seen are a joke with more ads than content.
While there are lots of amazing blogs using blogspot sub domains there are now hundreds of thousands of abandoned or low quality blogs also.And these blogs in many ways hurt the general image of Blogger Blogs using blogspot sub domains.
In the same way as i when i see a blog with the domain .co.cc or .tk (both free) i instantly think the site will be low quality, if they were serious about the site they would have a full domain often a blogspot sub domain is looked at in the same way.
Custom Domains Are Almost Free
That is why in my opinion not having a custom domain is just stupid ! If the custom domain cost $100 i would think OK well that is a lot of money for most people.But it's nothing near that.Setting up a custom domain directly though Blogger is easy and costs just $10 per year.
That's $0.83 cent per month or less than $0.3 cent per day !
Every thing else is free, surly you can afford $10 bucks in a year.And by setting it up through Blogger it is all done for you and you have features like free Email accounts connected to your domain (yourname@yourblog.com).In fact just this week your Google Apps account connected to your domain can act as a full Google account, more on that at a later date.
In a Recent post on ProBlogger the question was asked "Why are Bloggers so against spending money on their blogs?" That post was about buying advertising and spending a few hundred bucks.But it is a valid question, why are Bloggers so against spending even a few dollars when it can have such a huge impact ? We really do need to get out of the "Everything Should Be Free" Mentality.
Setting Up Your Domain
In the next post that i will publish (Later Today) to run along side this i will show you in a video just how simple it is to buy and set up your free domain through Blogger.Update - That video post is published and can be found here - Buy A Custom Domain Directly From Blogger And Connect It To Your Blog.
And remember even though a domain can be bought for around a dollar cheaper elsewhere always use Blogger, and people telling you otherwise are probably doing it so you use there referral link for domain registrars.The last thing a newbie wants to be doing is trying to figure out the DNS settings on a site like GoDaddy.
Why You Wouldn't Change To A Custom Domain
I guess there are a few cases in which i wouldn't change.The main one would be if you have a really well established blog.Lets say you have been blogging for a few years and have already built a brand around the Blogspot domain.But even if your blog is lets say a year old with 100 posts i would still make the change.
Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.
Stay Connected With Free Updates
 |
 |
 |
Subscribe via Email
|
If I change to a custom domain, will the URL of a particular post (not the blog itself) still be functional after a change? In other words, will the old URL direct you to that particular post?
ReplyDeletethanks.for this information
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous - Yep that's exactly the point, every post will also be redirected.So for example a post published a year ago as :
ReplyDeleteyourblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/an-amazing-post.html
would then automatically be :
yourblog.com/2010/06/an-amazing-post.html
With the original redirecting ..
Thank you so much. You have THE BEST tips for blogs. :)
ReplyDeletei think we should go for a custom domain considering the amount of traffic we recive per month.when you have reputation and loyal readers then go for it.
ReplyDeletecan i control the dns after setting up a new .com domain with blogger ??
ReplyDeleteTHANKS that was helpful
ReplyDeleteif i buy a custom domain from blogger,then is hosting from blogger will be free or we have to pay some more amount for hosting also..??
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I can't believe I've been intimidated by this whole concept! I've wanted to do it forever, and now I feel stupid after seeing how easy it was! I changed to my own domain 3 minutes after reading this...and am in LOVE with your site! THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteNice info... if u change to a custom domain, do you still have the blogger features and can you return to a blogsot domain after? In the case of your domain expiring would you be changed back to a blogspot domain or wud your blog stop working?
ReplyDelete@ All - There is no extra costs for hosting or anything, the only thing that changes is your blogs address.You can switch back to blogspot at any time via the publishing settings.You have control over the dns settings and could create a subdomain etc..You access the settings through your Google apps account associated with the domain.You can go to Google apps here - www.google.com/a
ReplyDeleteBasically everything stays the same except you have a custom domain.
thanks for this useful post. gonna look at your tutorial and create a custom domain for my blog http://jalabulajunks.blogspot.com. Well, no more dot blogspot dot com its http://jalabulajunks.com :)
ReplyDeleteYour information is always good but please get a copy editor. Writing is not your skill so ask for help. Also, I would never hire anyone who had poor grammar, spelling and word usage. You advise paying for a domain because it's worth it. I promise you having your work copy edited would be very much worth it to you. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteI already own my .com domain through godaddy. I did this before I started my blogspot.com blog. How can I change to my .com domain now that it is through godaddy? My blog is only 3 weeks old, yet I have 82 followers and would hate to lose them. Thanks.
ReplyDeletehaha yes, Switching to custom domain is far important, I have done that in january, :)
ReplyDelete@ Debbie - Thanks for the honest advice.The main aim for me is to deliver posts people can understand including the 60% of visitors for whom English is not the first language.Posts also have to be Search Engine Friendly, glancing through this post again you can pick out ten key words that have no place apart from being good for SEO.That said i totally understand your point and respect your honesty.By the way you should see the posts before i use spell check :D
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous - I don't really understand, is your domain from Godaddy parked and you want to connect it ?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIf I change my domain will I loose my google friend ccnnect and networked blogs followers and the number of pageviews till now?I also use facebook like buttons and retweet buttons on all my posts...will the likes and tweets be reset to zero?
Thanks a lot for the information. :)
@ Abhisek - I have published a new post answering many of the questions including the Google Friend Connect question (You Do Keep Them).On Networked blogs i think that uses your feed so it should be fine and i honestly don't know about the Tweet and Share counts :(
ReplyDeletethanks a lot changed my blogspot blog to a custom domain bought from Name.com (Just 9.99$ for 2 years) This is my blog Address http://www.stylifyyourblog.com/ ,you the real inspiration to this blog
ReplyDeleteI think it is .03 $ per day, and not 0.3 $ per day - please look into it. Of course, thanks for the good information - I already have a custom domain! :)
ReplyDeletePlease tell me what will happen with my blogspot blog when a redirect it to custom domain. Should I change my all meta tags with custom domain URL?
ReplyDeleteCan I start a new blog with custom domain under my old username and password; even if I have an old blog with a blogspot.com domain? I do not want these blogs connected, I want one to be custom and the other to stay blogspot.com. Am I better off just creating a new sign in username and password?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the article..This is all that I was looking for....
ReplyDeleteI'm just now starting my blog up and I was debating this topic. I think I'll hang on to my ".blogspot." a little while longer. I'm going to wait until I get at least ten solid posts in. I don't want to spend the money if I don't think I'm going to commit. But heck, with all the work I've been doing so far I don't think I plan on quitting any time soon!
ReplyDeleteWould you lose page rank after you make the shift?
ReplyDeleteyes, I just did it an lost all page rank.
Delete@nishitak
ReplyDeleteYes you will lose PageRank as Blogger doesn't have any option for 301 Redirects
I think that's non-sense, you will never lose PR if your sub-domain is redirected properly. Blogger does have 301 redirects and it is done automatically without the blog owner having to tamper with .htaccess file.
Deletei am going to buy custom domain, example from errrexample.blogspot.com to errrexample.com. it means it is now two sites right? is it be determine as duplicate content since the two has the same content?
ReplyDelete@ Paula - There are no duplicate content issues when you get a new domain.The blogspot domain re-directs but does not exist as a seperate address.
ReplyDeletecan you please explain the subdomain under custom domain thing...will those subdomains be static page or they can be used as seperate blogs(i mean posting,editing etc.)?
ReplyDelete:)
I heard that blogger blogs are very vulnerable, as in Google can shut down any blogger blog without any notice, then that's the end of our website isn't it? I mean all our posts will be lost, wouldn't they?
ReplyDeleteGoogle wont shut down a blog without cause, in fact they dont shut the blog they just take it offline.You will always be able to access your content and maybe move it elsewere.But again they shut vry few blogs ...
DeleteNice posts but something keep bordering me with the way the custom domain works regarding the Recent posts issue, it doesn't seem to show up on Search Engine quickly unlike been in a blogspot domain thats tends to show the recent post immediately after posting, will be glad if you can shed more light on it because am really worried now..... Dunno if it affect you when you switched to a custom domain, please i await your reply
ReplyDeleteWhen you switch it takes a little time for your new domain to be crawled and indexed by Google.I would suggest submitting a sitemap to Google..Use the search bar in the sidebar to find tutorials on sitemaps...
DeleteHey friends can any one help me?
ReplyDeleteI have facing problem after changing url
my old url was www.current-affairs-quiz-questionsanswers.blogspot.com
and new http://www.currentaffairsworld.com
My old url was very stupid so I changed it.
It redirecting properly but, Continually my rank going down, when I write new article then it is not appear in google search. and also I have lost google search on some best article , So what is happen Please help me.......
Vikas, as said in the post it will take a little time for the new domain to gain authority just be patient the change will be worth it in the end.
DeleteOk thnx Paul
ReplyDeleteWhen I changed the url then it redirect me on godaddy to make some changes. I put my id pass and It have done aromatically.
After that redirect is going proper. if redirect is proper,
if redirect is going proper then I think I need not to change on godaddy any where now.
am i right?? or I need some changes??
I will keep continue my posting........
Thanx again for your reply
great post... lots of good information here :) basically answered all my questions, thank-you. stop by and check out my blog for tech related stuff :)
ReplyDeletehttp://hckdos.blogspot.com
Do we earn from our custom domain and If yes, how much?
ReplyDeleteNo you don't earn from a domain, you can earn from AdSense and other ads on your blog..
DeleteHi Paul, your blog is great and so are your precise answers. I am indeed lucky to have found your site. :)
ReplyDeleteWell my query is, how much of ads does blogger consider too much, I mean excessive enough to cause them to delete a site, and will this quantity still be considered excessive even if a domain is purchased?
Well, I am talking about just three to six banners on the home page, plus an Adsense frame or Chitika frame and around two links on each sub page.
Thanks!
Hey, this is really interesting...I'm actually in the process of deciding whether or not to switch from Blogspot to Wordpress. This is due to a number of reasons, but the big one is that I've heard that some bloggers have had their blogs deleted without warning. I want to ask you: If I change to a custom domain, can blogger still delete it? I like blogger but am reluctant to stay with it. Thanks, Niki
ReplyDeleteNiki, Blogger are not in the business of deleting blogs for no reason.In fact they never ever delete a blog.If a blog is infringing copyright and gets a complaint from the copyright owner for example Blogger may take a post or the blog offline until resolved but it will not be deleted.You will always have access to your content and you own the content.People use Blogger to stream sports and movies, get the blog taken down and wonder why ?
DeleteSome are being blocked from even accessing it now.
DeleteAwesome site, full of great stuff.
ReplyDeletepaul, if you can be so kind to answer a few of my concerns. will blogger still host my content after switching domains? my domain is hosted on hostgator. im thinking the load time may not be as fast because i just ordered baby gator plan and im also worried about bandwidth limit when my site gets higher traffic. i want to change domain names because blogger might take down my blog if webmasters report the name for spamming. i will be using several softwares for backlinks.
ReplyDeletePaul, excellent blog post! It's been very helpful, and so have all these Q&A's. I do have two more questions I didn't see answered yet.
ReplyDelete1. How about SEO, right now my .blogspot.com is getting all my SEO power (or lack of, because they could care less about my content), but after I make the switch to having a custom domain (my business website) still using the blogger system, will that content then help my actual website SEO, or will it still be sucked up/blocked by blogger?
Then my 2nd question, you and others have mentioned that when you make the switch you will drop in page rank, is this just for the actual blog, or will the domain name/website you are moving it to also drop in page rank because of the adjustment/move? Also, piggybacking off that, how about incoming links (say from other bloggers to my blog), would those now be considered incoming links to the website (again, good for SEO)?
Thank you in advance!
-Sandy
Great post! Thanks! The post and comments are all helpful. I've actually been contemplating for awhile now if I should or shouldn't switch. I think I'm gonna go with that switch to a custom domain.
ReplyDeletethemommist.blogspot.com
This is really great information. Thanks!
ReplyDelete