You may be wondering by reading the title…..but this is one of the most frequently asked question to me and at most of the time I am null on the subject. When I was thinking to change my blog from blogspot to own domain, I had some queries bothering me and I approached Raks of Rak’s Kitchen to answer them. She gracefully answered them with in no time. But as most of you have asked me lots of queries on switching to own domain, I thought of approaching Raks for a detailed post on the subject. She has done a fabulous job by making an easy to understand post along with covering all the topics related to the subject. If in case you thought of shifting your blog to own domain then this is the most helpful post. Thank you Raks for the awesome post, though it is just theory then also I must say, it is useful and interesting. Read on!
I am so glad to write guest post for one of my favourite blogger and wonderful writer who I admire 🙂 I am not so good at writing. But hope I would be able to make understand you guys,who ever read this and hope it is helpful. And regarding the topic, I am going to share the experience,things I know when I shifted my blog to my own domain. I started my food blog in the year of 2007, September. Ever since I was sticking to blogger as I was comfortable and loved it. After few years, I always had a wish to change my blog to point my own domain. So last year, I thought of buying my own domain, through the blogger itself.
Advantages of buying our own domain through Blogger:
- I am well used to blogger interface and by buying my own domain through blogger I can still use the templates, interface and everything remains the same.
- Its very easy to do, we just have to simply follow the instructions we get as we do the process.
- We need not worry about the redirection, they do for us, just we have to choose the option of old URL redirects to the new one. In the below picture, you can see that my old Blogspot URL is being redirected to my new domain URL.
- Many of us get this doubt after changing to own domain, how our URL will be taken in search engines and what will happen to the old URL of our posts… But we need not worry, search engine criteria automatically transfers from our old Blogspot URL to our new domain URL. But it takes some time for sure.
- Another question, some friends asked me when they had a thought of buying an own domain is, do I need to design my page, should I know HTML for it and few other things like this. But if you do it through blogger, you just have to sit back and relax, nothing changes, from your dashboard to everything remains the same as you were having before. All you get is a fancy name, which ever you like, makes you feel you have a professional website.
- Then you may ask why I need to buy a domain on my own? Then the answer is you will sure get a better traffic through search engines. That’s for sure which I noticed personally.
Storage for our pictures:This also remains the same. As you use blogger to post, our pictures get automatically stored in our Picasa web albums. Its same as when we are using the free blogspot address, nothing changes basically.
So what are you waiting for? If you have a dream to buy your own domain, just follow the simple instructions and do it through the most friendly blogger interface! Its cheap too. Yearly you have to pay only $10 USD.
- In blogger dashboard, under Settings, locate Publishing.
- Click on the ‘Add a custom domain’ link. I have shown it in my test blog.
- Choose your dream domain name and check for availability.
- If the name you have chosen is already owned by some other person , they give other suggestions for your domain name. You can either choose from it or choose another fancy name by yourself.
- If the name is available, you can proceed to register the name for your site and it will take you to Google checkout, you will be needed to pay annual fee of $10 USD.
- You will get an email with receipt for the domain registration. And that’s it! You are done with the purchasing of your own domain!!
- It will take as much as 24 hours for your blog to link to your own domain, so you have to wait for it. Till then also you can go to your custom domain by clicking on your home page after you go to your blogspot address.
- So after that, your original blogspot address will be redirected automatically to your new custom domain , you need not worry.
- And all your old, pictures will remain the same and will be displayed as usual.
- Even you can use an external service for displaying your blog pictures like flickr or photo bucket. All are compatible.
- All the old links will work, where ever you have mentioned it. How cool it is ?! Right 🙂
I wont say “disadvantages”, but the things we have to keep in our mind :
- Yearly registration updates are required, that is we have to pay yearly $10 USD. You can either pay yearly using any of the payment methods, or put in auto payment option, so that from a chosen credit card, the money will be automatically paid.
- Some of my friends had delays for the comments to appear on the older posts. Say 3-4 days, though I had no problems.
- Picasa is a free storage service for our pictures, but still there are storage restrictions, so better keep an eye on your storage in your online albums. Make sure you have enough space. Resize your pictures properly and use the storage wisely. But there is always an option to upgrade your storage, by purchasing anyways.
- When you switch to new domain, the page rank falls to Zero and it takes a while to gain our old traffic, but sure you will get more than before…
- But I am not sure what happens to the automatic transfer of search engine reputation from the blogspot URL to the non blogspot URL, if it will be repeated or not, if you decide to go back to the blogspot URL. This needs attention only if you are so much concerned about your traffic through search engines.
Aarthi says
very helpful postAarthihttp://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/
Sravs says
Nice informative post !!Ongoing event CC-Dish For Loved Ones
Jay says
thanks for the great post dear..really informative..and am curious to know, if the GFC and all the other widgets continue to remain the same..and wat abt the foodieblogroll and any other ads..do v have to update it again..?Tasty Appetite
Kaveri says
Definitely a very useful post…very well explained.
Anisha Ranjit says
Very informative… I've not really felt the need to buy a domain yet, but this post sure got me thinking… 🙂
Sum says
This is a useful post… Thanks Lubna and Raks for sharing.. 🙂
radha says
Will keep all this in mind, just in case I feel the need to shift. Thanks
RAKS KITCHEN says
Jay, all the widgets remains the same. But we have to update the foodie blog roll or any other like indus ladies about the URL change.
Sarah says
u truly have the most helpful posts in your blog. Thanks a million, Raks and Lubna!
Archana says
Thanks has me thinking.
picture says
helpful post…picturebite.com
Aruna Manikandan says
Nice informative post lubna :)Thx. to raji for sharing this.
Jay says
thanks Raks…:)very helpful tips..great job..!Tasty Appetite
Sumi says
good one..that clarifies lot of questions I had :)Thanks, Raks and Lubna 🙂
Rahin says
very helpful post Lubna, thanks for sharing the info , love how you have covered every detail
jeyashrisuresh says
even i recently bought my own domain following the sam instructions(from raks), pretty cool. Wonderful post.
Vidhya says
A very helpful post.
Home Cooked Oriya Food says
very nice post…thanks!
Cloud Server says
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this informative post.
It will really helpful for those who want to transfer their blogspot domain names to custom domain names.
SproutsOfSpring says
This information was helpful. I purchased my own domain name too and I am glad I did! I find blogger interface simple too!
Magic of Spice says
Excellent post!
maha says
great info….thank u so much 4 this.
Sarah says
Yes, I did it 🙂 Thank you so much Lubna and Raks! This is definitely the easiest way to switch to your own domain. I'm linking to this post from my blog as well…
Tammy Favata says
Thank you for this. You have inspired me to get my own domain. They say it also helps to get you sponsors. I purchased my domain name a couple of ays ago. But now it seems that I have 2 blogs. tammyfavata.blogspot.com and http://www.tammyfavata-hairstylist.com I am acyually getting paid on my adsense for both sites. I am not getting double paid because the amount is different… Will my blogspot ever disappear? will I always have 2 sites??Tammy Favata
RAKS KITCHEN says
Tammy, sure it will redirect to your own domain address in a couple of days
Siddharth Gandhi says
i decided to buy a custom domain after reading your article!and here is the result:http://www.gadgetsofindia.com/
Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj says
very useful post…VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA
Jay says
hy,could you specify how to make posting after shifting from blogspot to own domain.v have to post from our old blogspot dashboard..or some other choice is there..?
Kemi Iwalesin says
This post is God sent. I just changed from blogspot to my domain and it seems everything went down including the ranking too. Waiting "impatiently" for it to pick up. Thanks, the post is really helpful.www.joisaysblog.com
Tavashi Singh says
Hi,Thanks for sharing the advantages and disadvantages of transfer your blogger's domain name to custom domain names. your post will really help to take decisions about domain transfer.
Pavan Deshpande says
Pavan @(pavanh)Hi ,Thank you for a nice post , i started my blogging with subdomain and now i moved to custom domain i just wanted to ask you on moving from subdomain to custom , whatever backlinks which were achieved from subdomain will it be lost or redirected to custom domainWaiting for your replyThank you
Sadaf Afshan says
I just moved my blog to its own domain and this post was a big help. Thanks ! Now I am just wondering if I need to update anything else other than Foodie Blogroll.