Get Rid of The Blogspot: How to Setup a Custom Blogger Domain on GoDaddy

One of the biggest perks with using the Blogger platform for your blog is that is is 100% FREE.  You don’t have to pay to be ‘self-hosted’ like other blogging platforms.  (While I’m on it, the term ’self-hosted' is a misnomer actually.. unless you have a server in your garage, you aren’t self-hosted, you are paying for a hosting service.. you aren’t actually hosting your own content. It should be called “privately-hosted” or “third party-hosted” or something.)

In the case of Blogger blogs, our host is Google.. which is a pretty sweet deal!  Like any other hosting company (Bluehost, HostGator, FatCow, DreamHost..) Google DOES NOT own your content, the same way any other hosting company doesn’t own their client’s content.  (That is another big misconception about Blogger.) Hosts (even Google) are just ‘holding’ it for you and displaying it on your little corner of the internet, it is still YOURS and cannot be taken away from you. The biggest difference between Google-hosting an other privately-hosted blogs, is that Google holds our content for free, and without any bandwidth limitations or a big monthly bill!





So does this free hosting come with a hidden ‘cost’?  Well.. sorta.  If you just blog on Blogger and use their free platform, you are stuck with a .blogspot subdomain URL.  Google doesn’t provide free custom domain names.

But I have good news!  For a couple bucks a year, you can actually buy your own domain name, and set up a redirect so you get all the perks of FREE hosting with the customization of your own URL!  Have your cake and eat it too!  Nice right?

So how does that work?  I personally use and recommend GoDaddy. (Yes, even despite their obnoxious sexist commercials.. ) They are easy to use, reliable, and provide the large majority of Blogger domains.  They used to be Google’s go-to domain company until Google starting selling it’s own domains.  (I highly DISCOURAGE people from buying their domain through Google.  They are still in Beta and really buggy!!) 

To buy a domain though GoDaddy you just set up an account, search for a URL you want to use (typically it is the URL of a blog without the .blogspot on it) and buy it.  Depending on the popularity of that URL it can be $10 all the way to hundreds.  And frequently GoDaddy has 99c sales where the first year of your domain is only a dollar!


Once you have your domain, you are ready to send your blog over there.. or set up a ‘redirect’ so that all your traffic sees your new URL.  That is what this tutorial is for.  (If you still can’t figure it out after reading this.. or just don’t want to, you can fill out my blogger support contact form and I will help you out.  The cost for a domain migration is $20)

 STEP 1:  Activate Redirect in Blogger
Log into Blogger and Under Settings>>Basic click “Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog”

Type your new URL in the box making sure to use the full URL (don’t leave off the “www”)
Thanks so much to Angela at BlueIStyleBlog (formerly BlueIStyle.blogspot) for letting me use her blog as an example.  (Her blog is gorgeous by the way! Go visit when you get a chance) 

When you hit enter you will get an Error message.  THIS IS CORRECT!!!  Don’t freak out!  We need Blogger to generate some specific information for us now that it knows what the new URL is going to be.  

You will see some Host Record names listed under your domain.  You are going to eventually need this information, so either copy it down or leave this window open when you proceed to the next step. 

Step 2:  Add A (Host) Files to GoDaddy
Now that we have our host file names, we can log into GoDaddy and enter that information so that your new URL knows where to look for your content.  On the login page you want to click “Manage” on the DOMAINS menu item.    (If you aren’t seeing this menu when you login, click on “My Account” and it should bring up this page.) 

If you have successfully purchased a domain you will see it listed there

If you aren’t seeing your blog in a list you can toggle views using the different view options in the upper right hand corner of the screen.


Click on the domain name and it will show you all your domain details.  You want to select the “DNS ZONE FILE” tab:

On that tab you want to click “Add Record”

A pop up window should open with a dropdown menu.  From that menu you want to select A (Host):

That will bring up a blank form where you will need to add the following information:

Host:  @
Points to: 216.239.32.21
TTL: 1 hour

Then click “Add Another”

That will give you a blank form and you will REPEAT that process only this time insert:

Host:  @
Points to: 216.239.34.21  <<<Notice this is slightly different
TTL: 1 hour

And again:
Host:  @
Points to: 216.239.36.21
TTL: 1 hour

And finally:
Host:  @
Points to: 216.239.38.21
TTL: 1 hour

These are the Blogger Hosting IP addresses and they are the SAME for everyone on blogger.   When you are doing your A(Host) record list should look like this:



Step 3:  Add CNAME Files to GoDaddy
Now that you have got the hang of adding records, it will get a little more complicated. Once again we are going to add a record under the DNS Zone file tab:

However this time we will select CNAME.

That brings up another form with the same fields.  This time we are going to need the records we generated earlier in step 1.)  These are specific to your blog and are found on your blogger dashboard.

The first one will be:
Host: www
Points to: ghs.google.com
TTL: 1 hourClick “add Another"
Lastly:

Host:  FROM YOUR DASHBOARD (see step 1)
Points to: FROMYOURDASHBOARD (see step 1)
TTL: 1 hour

Click “Finish”

Now we have to get rid of the default CNAME www setting.  You should see the original file in the CNAME list for:
Host: www
Points to: @
TTL: 1 hour.

CLICK the trash can next to that file name.  
It will cross out that file name and then don’t forget to hit “Save changes”

When that is done your final settings (both A (Host) and CNAME (alias) will look like this:

Step 4: Setup and confirm redirect for full and naked URL: 
Now we have to go back into blogger and save our new redirect settings.  Once you hit save you should successfully see your new URL listed under the publishing tab.  BUT WE AREN”T DONE YET!! 

You want to make sure that your new URL works with both the full name:  www.YOURBLOGNAME.com as well as with it’s “naked” URL (which is the web address without the WWW on it.)  To do that, click “edit” on your new blog address.  


Then make sure you have clicked the redirect box under third party domain settings.


And that is all there is to it.  You are good to go!

GoDaddy (and Google) typically tell you it can take up to 60 minutes for the domain redirect to work, but I haven’t found that to be the case.  Almost all the redirects I have ever done are live and working almost immediately.  If you aren’t seeing your redirect (or it redirects to a GoDaddy holding page) you want to double check that you have added everything correctly, and deleted the redundant CNAME file.

As a final confirmation test, you should be able now to type in any of these four addresses and it should redirect to the same place:
www.YourOriginalBlogURL.blogspot.com
ourOriginalBlogURL.blogspot.com 
www.YourNewBlogURL.com 
YourNewBlogURL.com


CONGRATULATIONS on the new domain!  I’d love to see them!  Leave a link in the comments and I’ll be sure to check it out!