Most of the information also applies to any who purchased a domain from Key Systems / DomainDiscount24 / dd24 and wants to use it for a Blogger blog.
Why buy a custom domain from Google Apps
Although they advertising that pricing is "from $US8", when I finally used Apps to buy my co.nz domain, the actual cost was $US20. C'est la vie. And besides, anything to make the setup-process easier is welcome - and this is a feature of domains purchased using Google Apps.
One good thing that I noticed about buying a domain via Apps is that you set up a domain-administrator account as part of the process. Though it's a bit more "technical" than many Bloggers are used to, it's better to have the admin account set up to start with, instead of having to try to find it when you want to check the settings, access the email that comes with your domain, or use the URL for some other type of website.
Also, after the domain administrator account was set up, the details for logging on to my registrar account were emailed to me. This is a nice touch - it's possible to get the details from the domain-administrator account, but having them at hand during the setup process was handy.
What happens when you buy a domain through Google Apps for your blog
Once you have purchased a domain through Google Apps, the domain settings that are automatically configured for you are aimed at having the domain used with Google Sites.
(Does anyone actually build websites using Sites? I'm reluctant to, out of concern that Google are going to "spring clean" it out of existence!)
(Does anyone actually build websites using Sites? I'm reluctant to, out of concern that Google are going to "spring clean" it out of existence!)
This isn't exactly what you need, but it's a good start:
- The CNAME for the www "sub-domain" was pointed to ghs.google.com - which is what Blogger needs.
- The ANAME records that were set up had the correct values, as per Blogger's requirements.
So the only challenge is setting up the second CNAME record that is now part of the security verification for switching to a custom domain.
How to set up a 2nd CNAME record for a domain from domainDiscount24
In domainDicsount24 term, this is done by creating another sub-domain that is named after the host-value from Blogger's instrutions, and giving it a txt record with the 2nd value.
(NB I think that technically you are not actually creating a "real" subdomain - but that's the phrase that DD24 used to describe what needs to be done.)
Follow these steps
2 Click on the domain name
3 In the upper right is a drop down menu where you can access and create all sub-domains for your domain name (I was using a netbook so had to scroll to see it)
4 Choose Create New Subdomain from this menu,
5 Enter the "Name, Label or Host" field value from Blogger.
(See Using a domain purchased from another registrar if you're unsure where to get this information from Blogger - remember that it's specific to your blog, and each pair of values is valid for around 24 hours.)
6 Click Create Subdomain.
7 In the window that opens, specify the settings:
- Put the "Destination, Target or Point to" value from Blogger into the field called CName.
- Under DNS settings, leave Source set to "Not in use"
- Under Mail settings, leave Source set to "Not in use"
8 Save the dns settings, by clicking Verify Changes.
Job done - at this point, your second CNAME has been created, and you can log out from the domainDiscount24 site and go back to Blogger to continue he custom domain setup there, as described in Using a domain purchased from another registrar.
domainDiscount24 warn that, as always, may take several hours until DNS changes take effect - however recently I was able to re-direct my blog to the custom domain within Blogger almost immediately.
The only additional step that I needed to do was use the Apps dashboard to make the web-address work without having www at the front (Blogger has this option to tick, but it appeared not to be working.)
And I was pleased to notice that, after the domain purchase had verified properly, I did not have to enable accounts from my custom domain to use Blogger - it was turned on by default. (This didn't happen immediately, there was a time delay while the Google Apps purchase was verified. But it did work eventually).
About domainDiscount24
Of course I didn't work this out myself - I had to get help from domainDiscount24 to figure out how to do the 2nd CNAME record, since the word "cname" wasn't on the front of the domain management tool for my domain. They don't seem to have on-line help articles.
But when I clicked their Help button:
- I was sent to a nice web-form where I could submit my question.
- An answer arrived within 3-4 hours (even though I'd sent my query at 1am, German time).
- The answer was correct - and it showed that they clearly understood the question, had checked what was set up so far.
So overall, I'm a happy customer, and now I just need to work on building my new site.
And I think I'll keep domainDiscount24 in mind if I'm looking to buy more domains in the future, including some of the ones that Google Apps doesn't provide access to as yet.
Related Articles:
Google Apps now provide the ability to buy a range of domains not available via Blogger
Using a domain from another registrar for your blog
Making custom domains work without having www at the front
Allowing custom domain users to access Google's Blogger - the website making tool for the rest of us
