Difficulty Level: Super Easy
This tutorial is for bloggers and future bloggers on blogspot that intend to change the name.blogspot.com of their blog to a custom top-level domain name e.g(example.com) or a subdomain(e.g sub.example.com).
Why do I need to change to a custom domain name?
1. If one is going to monetize his/her site, some importants Affiliate Programs and Ad companies may not accept a subdomain.
2. Some are usually too long, since they are a subdomain to blogspot.com and it may be hard for people to memorize
3. Does not look professional and may be looked at by people as one of those free blogs.
4. Custom domains are very good for Search Engine Optimization(SEO).
5. Changing to a custom domain name makes your blog more unique, I think.
What do I need To get Started
1. A blogspot blog
2. A domain name with control panel with dns control
Note: you can also use a webhost control panel to make this changes, if your name servers are pointed to it already.
Short notes
1.What is a CNAME?
A CNAME, or Canonical Name record is an entry within the Domain Name System(DNS) that specifies where a user can find your web pages, or any other URL . You'll use this to associate your custom domain name with your blogspot blog.
2.What is an A record?
Every host on the Internet has a unique number. This is called an IP address and has a notation of four numbers (bytes). The numbers are separated by a dot. An IP address might be 50.28.9.216 This IP address is hard to remember and hard to communicate with your friends or business relationships. To make life easier the Internet uses names, or domain names, to recognize IP addresses. Therefore, instead of 50.28.9.216 we could say www.simple.com, which is much easier to remember. This is very similar to having your very own name listed in the phonebook: your name has a number there as well your phone number. An A record is nothing more then an assignment of an IP address to a name.
Changing to a Custom Sub Domain Name
In this tutorial I will be emphasizing on using the domain control panel, Using Smartweb specifically and also talk about other registrars. Basically, the settings is almost the same with all registrars, and this tutorial is just to show you the psyche of linking your custom domain to your blog using any registrar.
1.Log in to your domain control panel
2.Click on my domains tab
3.Click on view details button beside the domain you would like to link your blog to.
4.when the page loads click on DNS management , after the page loads, you'll see a select box=> Select CName and enter www.yoursubdomain in the host text box and ghs.google.com in the address text box, then save changes.
5.Then add another CNAME with a special alias name which would be given to you by google whenever you request to change to a custom domain name e.g 7ibkexqsrgr3 pointing to a special destination host e.g gv-tme7vz5zcxbod3.dv.googlehosted.com
6.Also create four A records pointing to four different google IP addresses:
216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21, 216.239.38.21 for your desired domain name. Although the previous step is optional you can just create for one IP but it is highly advisable to create A records for the four IP addresses
7.Now, log in to your Blogger Account. Afterwards you click on the Settings tab, then Publishing tab, again click on the custom domain link.
8.Now, click on the switch to advanced settings link. You should see a page with a text box to enter your sub domain name, enter your sub domain name with www(e.g www.subdomain.domain.com). Then tick the box with redirect your domain without www to the one with www(e.g redirect subdomain.domain.com to www. subdomain.domain.com) or else people who type in your subdomain without the www won't be able to access your site. Done.
How to get your special CNAME and destination host
From your blogger account, go to settings. Then under blogger address, go to Add a custom domain. Now, go to switch to advanced settings, then settings instructions.
There you should get basically this tutorial and the data you need.
Changing to a Custom Domain Name
Follow the above step, but when it comes to where to enter the www.subdomain.site.com during the creation of the CNAME record, interchange it with www That's all.
NOTE: Note if you purchase your domain with Smartweb without a webhost account you won't be given access to the DNS manager(that might change later),but you can ask them to make the changes for you. Also, when using the DNS manager of other domain names registrar you may need to enter the[b] TTL[/b](Time To Live) value. It is mostly 4hrs(14400) by default, but you can change it if you know what you're doing, but don't make it short to avoid catastrophic ramifications.
Also, before moving to the last step above, wait for about an hour for your DNS settings to propagate. It may take up to 48hrs to propagate, but the highest have seen is 2hrs and the least is 4mins or less.
The below image is an instance of this done using dnspark.net free service, although with invalid information. This was used cause most domain name sellers don't give full DNS control for domain purchases alone, although they often help make any changes needed. But this is how to do this using dnspark.net, assuming your domain provider won't make such changes for you. You log on to your domain control panel with the seller, find a link indicating where you can make certain changes on the domain.
After getting there change the domain name servers to that of dnspark i.e fns1.dnspark.net, fns2.dnspark.net. Now, that you've completed changing your nameservers, log on to dnspark.net(assuming you already have an account with them). Then, go to DNS hosting, then click on "add a domain". When the page loads input the domain(the one you changed its nameservers to that of dnspark) you wish to add, and then tick base DNS hosting. After that is done, then you should see something like the below image but this time just with the Nameservers records boxes and box.
Then you proceed to add the records, interchanging the type between A and CNAME records and clicking on update all after inputing a record till you are done inputing.
I just managed to show this using two different DNS manager. Feel free to drop a reply below, if you encounter any problem.
