[Help] Custom switch: From .blogspot to .com
Hi,
I have finally decided to move my blog from .blogspot to .com [hosted on google]. I have been reading about it on the internet but since I dont understand much about these things, am a bit scared that I will goof the process up. So, I am here asking for your help. Request you to please take some time out for helping me do the switch.
Things that I understand (and, there is only one 
):
- I have to buy a domain name for my blog.
Things that I ask of you:
- From where and how to go about buying own domain name?
- Once that is done, steps (in non techie languange) to set the blog up and running through blogger.
- Any other setting to be altered like feed subscribers, etc.
If there is a comprehensive forum thread covering this topic, please drop in the link below so that I can have a look. Any other extra information / helpful links (only those that have helped you personally) based on own experience are all welcome and everything will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 
if you required any trouble to follow those steps
.@Aditya I checked your thread. It's amazing, like a live tutorial. Thank you very much for sharing the link, very helpful indeed.
Arti you can refer to the Staggmanns thread there is a discounted coupon for domain name available which I have given there
@Vijay Can you please post the link to that discounted coupon here? I searched but could not seem to find it.
Yes, Arti you can. For first year, it is something around 1$. After that, it will be around 10$ per year. NameCheap is a good site and I bought my domain from there itself ( Subash bought it for me ) . But then, I moved to bigrock after the first year as I didn't have a credit card to renew my domain. NameCheap accepts only credit card, paypal and some other things. BigRock.in accepts net banking also.
check this thread out. People have discussed a lot of things about moving to custom domain as well as hosting too, here. http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=16804
I suppose Vijay was wereffing to this thread only.
Thanks, CyberKid. That thread seems to have gotten quite long and it looks to be very informative, will need some time to grasp all the information there.
From where and how to go about buying own domain name?
You can but it from many sites - hostgator, bigrock, godaddy, or right from your blogger dashboard.
Once that is done, steps (in non techie languange) to set the blog up and running through blogger.
See this page Arti. It contains information about the three things that you should do : buy domain, make some changes in your GoDaddy / HostGator / BigRock account and make some changes in your Blogger account.
Any other setting to be altered like feed subscribers, etc.
You can leave the feed as it is. It still works. ( If you want, you can update the details in feedburner ) . You can change your URL on IB.
You may see some drop in traffic for a few days / weeks after moving to a custom domain. But, it will return to normal very soon.
After deciding where to buy the domain name ( It doesn't really matter where you are buying it ), if you have any problem making the changes, leave a word here. I will be glad to help you. ( The instructions for step 2 depend on your domain registrar )
Arti Ranjith has given a detailed answer. I hope things work out for you. I shifted 3 months ago from wordpress and I was scared too but it is one of the best thing you'll do as a blogger!
Ranjith, thank you very much for these steps. I am following them and to start up, going for Godaddy.. good? Also, suppose I buy the domain right now, how much time will it take to get the new custom blog up and running?
Ranjith, ref. to your above reply on namecheap:
If I buy it from namecheap, which guideline should be used to create CName record from this page: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/58317?hl=en&ref_topic=12451
@Ranjith I just searched for myyatradiary on namecheap and it says available for $10.69. Which is actually higher than godaddy which is 10$/year. Am I missing out something?
@Ritu I hope so too that things work out. Thank you for your encouraging words, hope things will be well.
I moved my blog from blogspot to .com i want to change my url here as well on IB
i dont know how to do it
plz help
@ Arti On that page, click the Generate Code button ( big orange box on right ) I think you should use that code while paying.
Specific instructions are not present for NameCheap on that google page. You should follow the general instructions. I will post specific instructions for namecheap here tomorrow evening if you want. ( I'm sure that you'll need them 
)
It takes 5 minutes to set up the domain name. And around 1-2 days for it to become active.
@ SS You can add your new domain to your IB profile. AFter it is approved, delete the old one on IB. ( OR ) Ask IndiTeam to do the changes by opening a support ticket here.
I totally forgot to add. Please read about 301 redirect. I did not know about it when I moved my domain.
And this post might be helpful to you (not my link) http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.kr/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html
Hey Arti,
I know well that you like Blogspot! 
and would also like to use it in future.
But still I will suggest a move to Wordpress.org instead. And it is also easy to import your existing posts, images and comments from Blogger to Wordpress. You have a sea of choices of various plugins you can use to enhance the performance, features and visibility of your blog.
Yes, Blogger is simpler to maintain, Google takes more pain to work on the background and you do not have limitations similar to that of Wordpress.com, but Wordpress.org (self-hosted wordpress) gives you the flexibility to twist and turn the way you want it. See it as a Android v/s iOS prespective on a phone. Android is wordpress and iOS is Blogger. (role reversal? :P )
@ Hemal As far as I know, Arti gets decent traffic from google. If she moves to a wordpress blog, all the links that she has will become useless as she can't redirect a blogger blog to some other domain ( as far as I know )
Even if it can be done, she will have a tough time redirecting individual url's to match wordpress's format. Or is there a plugin for that too?
.
I accept with you that we can do a lot of customizations on Wordpress ( but only for developers and those who do not fear code )
While I was moving my blog, I had to set a lot of things straight.
The URL format (Permalinks), among them, was prominent. Mine was set for "YY, MM, title". So I ensured that my new Wordpress is set to follow the same.
Arti's My Yatra Dairy has the same format. So, the URL should not be a problem. Except for the .html bit...
http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/2013/08/iskcon-temple-in-kannur-kerala.html - domain, YY, MM, title
Arti has 230 posts (latest count) on her blog. Yes I agree, listing all of them will be a task that needs to be done. There are some online Link generators, however they do not help get the best results.
If Arti is setting a 301 redirect on her myyatradiary.blogspot.com domain, it will look like below.
Redirect 301 http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com http://www.newdomain.comRedirect 301 http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/ http://www.newdomain.com/
Then, comes the individual pages.
Redirect 301 http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/2013/08/iskcon-temple-in-kannur-kerala.html http://newdomain.com/2013/08/iskcon-temple-in-kannur-kerala
This is what she has to do for all the 230 posts.
I also see that additionally, she has a fan following and subscription. She will need to set up subscription on Wordpress using JetPack, and add these users there as well. Tedious, it sounds yes.
Self hosted wordpress needs hosting, which will cost her money. Another advantage of using Google Blogger.
Wordpress Customizations are easier to those who fear codes, unless you know the right tools to use them. Given Arti is using Blogger for ages (since 2009) she is accustomed to its interface and knows things better, it will take her a while.
I know above arguements are more in favor of Blogger, But Wordpress offers better SEO, better functionalities as compared to Blogger, and seamless and free upgrades to so many plugins that help make the life of a blogger better. And yes, better themeing too.
Additional: Once the listing of existing post links is completed it is easier from there.
Take one Excel workbook, any sheet, in column A, paste the list of links. Do the same on Column B.
Select Column A, CTRL + H, type in the domain name (http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com) and replace it with "Redirect 301" and run Replace All.
Select Column B, CTRL + H, type in the domain name (http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com) and replace it with "http://newdomain.com" and run Replace All.
Thrid step, Copy both columns and paste it into notepad.
Easy way to list all the old links and new links for redirection.
@ Hemal You can redirect http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/xyz only to http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/abc ( where abc and xyz are any sequence of characters ) ( as far as I know )
@Ranjith, only exception for Blogspot is that .html at the end of URL
If it is there, you cannot get a perfect match in URL
@Ranjith this is what that redirect will look like
If Arti is setting a 301 redirect on her myyatradiary.blogspot.com domain, it will look like below.
Redirect 301 http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com http://www.newdomain.com
Redirect 301 http://myyatradiary.blogspot.com/ http://www.newdomain.com/
@ Hemal Can't we have .html at the end of wordpress urls?
/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html
good idea, I can test this and tell you
Worked like a charm! :)
http://indianomics.co.in/2005/08/testing-the-permalinks.html
@ Hemal You can't set 301 redirects like that on Blogger, I think :
Blogger allows you to redirect oly from /abc to /xyz. The base for the redirects will be the original blog address.
Error message from blogger when I type a domain name in the Redirect To field :
The source and destination values cannot be empty or more than 256 characters and must start with /
That is really bad... I dont know how it works on Blogger since I moved my blogger about 7 years ago, and did really care about Blogger redirects.
Just one question before I start reading and scratching my head on all the above possibilities:
Can 'Google Friend Connect followers / widget' be retained if I migrate from blogger to wordpress?
@ Hemal Blogger don't wants to allow people move to other platforms, so it offers all that it can except allowing people to migrate easily.
@ Arti No Till a few months ( or something more than a year ) back, it used to be possible. But, not now.
whoao...wats all these..
.think i'll never understand all these in this lifetime
so i guess its blogspot forever
@EVERYONE in this reply l I read all your replies and I really appreciate all your help. Thank you so much for taking the time and helping me gain some insight in these concepts.
Hemal, I understand what you are trying to convey and I have a fair bit of idea that wordpress has a whole range of extra features that blogger does not. But I would not want to lose my google friend connect base right now. Hence, I was opting for blogger in the first place and not wordpress. May be, I might migrate to wordpress self hosted in future but right now... guess, will just stick to blogger for some more time.
Hey Arti,
I accept your arguement
However, if you thinking to move to Wordpress at a later point in future, then you should think about it now. Your current base may be smaller comapred to the future, and with increased numbers, it will be even difficult to decide.
Valid point, Hemal. I agree. Wordpress is better suited in SEO, flexibility, plug ins etc. and beats blogger in many highlighted departments any day. And I also know I will be provided support here in case I decide to migrate to wordpress. The thing is, my blogger followers have meant a lot to me and (right now) also mean something more to me than just mere numbers.
Let’s try to look at it this way:
IB means to us more than just a blogger directory, right? Suppose if some abc directory (which has all the features of IB + some more) comes to you tomorrow and says “Leave IB and join us, we will give you the permanent top slot honor of a forum hero and much much more!” Will you leave this place and go?
You smart girl!
If someone needs to learn how to shut others mouth, go to Arti... 
First of all, badhaai ho. You have finally decided on your b*****ng.
Now coming to the domain part:
1. You can buy the domain anywhere. From India centric companies, I have found Bigrock to be economical and easy. So open an account there and choose a domain name for yourself. You can go for a .com or also choose .in / .my / .net etc. Make the purchase and it will get activated in 48 hrs.
or,
2. You can buy the domain with blogger. Go to Blogger Dashboard > Setting > Publishing > Add a Custom Domain Name and enter the domain name you wish. It will take you to Google Checkout and will cost you $10 (Rs 600). Rest Google will take care of. Will take 48 hrs.
3. You do not need Wordpress selfhosted. It demands some technical time to keep it going.
Ah, yes, this was long time coming. Finally got down to doing it. Thanks a ton for your views, Puru. Highly appreciated.
I wonder why B-r-a-n-d-i-n-g was censored by indiblogger @Purnendu B-Ran-Ding
I moved my blog from blogspot to .com i want to change my url here as well on IB
i dont know how to do it
plz help
You need to send an email to admin of Indiblogger and they will do it manually....that is what I did
Thnx Prasad
Went through the same process around October/November last year. A few things that I experienced
1.My Google traffic died ( As dead as dinosours for almost 6 months),
2. Most of my feed readers abandoned the blog due to one issue or another.
3. My indirank went to NA for a few months due to some issues ( No this could be because I am totally zero in technology and had to finally take help of my nephew who is all of 19 years age, its his birthday today by the way... Happy Birthday Abhinav :)
4. It was tough to find out from where the traffic is coming due to 301 redirect, as it will show that traffic is coming from my own blog while it may be coming from FB/Twitter or some of the links that point to me.
5. I am sure there is a solution for all the above points, only I did not knew them. Good thing that you are doing some research Arti.
6. There are a lot of wonderful blogs out there that have there own domain but still hosted on blogger/Google so choice will depend on how much of SEO and template changes you want to do once y ou move to wordpress. Wordpress once you get a hang of things looks pretty neat and easy. The plugins are wonderful.
Thanks for sharing your valuable experience, Prasad. In a way, it feels assuring to have people who have gone through all the same hassles present around you. There is really so much one can learn by sharing, and the fact that now your blog is very much running with flying colors reflects your dedication and hard work after the migration. I will surely keep all these factors in mind once I am done with the process. thanks for sharing the you tube video as well. I took my domain name from namecheap (costing me very cheap) as directed by Ranjith above.
Read this in more detail.
@Arti if you plan to remain on blogger for some time, just buy the domain from blogger dashboard, this will mean a bit costly compared to others but you will not have to worry about setting up A panel, c pane, redirects etc. Google will take care of most of the things and it will be hosted on Google itself so all your friend connect etc. will be with you. Go to seetings in your blogger dasboards and click on where you see add a custom domain, it will give you instructions as well as steps to follow check this video..
Arti so are you thru ?
Still working on it, Dhiraj. Have bought the domain name only till now, rest everything remains.
@ Arti See the instructions for namecheap + blogger here : http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/1243/78/
Thanks a lot, Ranjith. I will do this sometime soon. Thanks to Vijay also for the coupon code link. It surely did save me a lot of money. 
This is the link : http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/1243/78/
Yes, got that Ranjith. But please check below replies, I am not sure if I have set it up correctly.
If you are bying from namecheap then there is no redirection involved.
@arti good to know you have bought the domain... I was almost tempted to buy it and charge you lots of $$$$$ , just kiddig. All the best. The good thing with staying on Blogger for the time being would be you do not have wo worry about changing template, you can use your current template and change it whenever you want without any worry.
You can continue to study wordpress and then once comfortable move if needed.
Arti if you are buying domain from namecheap do remember it has a superb support chat. They helped me out even though I am neither their customer nor affiliate.
I have a doubt:
Enter the value listed under Name, Label, or Host field in "Host Name" field, verification string (xxxxxxxxxxxxx.domainverify.googlehosted.com.) listed under Destination, Target, or Points Tofield in "IP Address/URL" field and select CNAME from the "Record type" drop-down menu under "Subdomains Settings"
What does this instruction mean? I cant seem to find these values? 
Finished with that link, are there any pointers to know if it is set correctly?
Blogger is also giving some error:
- We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 12.
When I had moved to custom domain two years back, that extra CNAME record was not there. 
Thanks a lot, Ranjith. You made me complete everything. All your guidance and support was simply amazing, thank you sooooooooo much!
Great, I see it working ... congratulations...
Thanks so much, Prasad. Your presence was a lot assuring, thanks a lot for coming in and for your best wishes.
Sign in to reply to this thread
