Loading...Google’s Blogger is one of the most feature rich and popular blogging platforms. Although being free, it offers a wide range of options that aren’t provided by other free blogging platforms such as wordpress.com or posterous. As we all know, blogger gives a custom subdomain for each blog we register. Not just that, it also lets us point the blog to a custom domain like www.example.com.
To use blogger on a custom domain, you need to modify the CNAME records of the domain with the ones provided by blogger. But many domain sellers don’t allow you to modify the CNAME records. This is especially the case with domain resellers. They provide you with an account that only lets you modify the nameservers but don’t offer option to modify the CNAME records. If you have come across such a situation here’s how you can use custom domain on blogger blog even if your domain provider doesn’t allow modifying CNAME records.
To do this, you will need to sign up for a free DNS hosting provider. DNS hosting providers are third party websites that allow you to modify CNAME , A records, MX records etc. once you point your domain to their server. There are many free DNS providers online but here we will be relying on PointHQ(www.pointhq.com).
Go to PointHQ and sign up for an account. Once you sign up you will get options for adding your domain name. Now go to your domain’s control panel and add PointHQ’s nameservers. You can add any two or all of these:
dns1.pointhq.com
dns2.pointhq.com
dns3.pointhq.com
dns4.pointhq.com
dns5.pointhq.com
Now go to pointHQ’s control panel and add your domain. Next, click on it to modify its settings. You will see an “Add New Record” Button. Click on it to bring up a box for adding CNAME or A records. From the dropdown, select CNAME and add the details as follows:
Record Type: CNAME
Name: www
Leave the other fields blank. Once you have set the above options, save it. You might see some values change automatically; you can simply ignore them. You will now need to add the A records. Now click on “Add new Record” again and add the following details:
Record Type: A
Data: 216.239.32.21
Leave the other fields blank and save it. Now add these other three A records in the same manner.
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Once you have added all these, your domain should point to Blogger’s host. Just wait a couple of hours and you should be able to see your custom domain pointed to Blogger.
Thus, even if your domain control panel doesn’t allow adding CNAME or A Records, you can use a custom domain with a blogger blog using Free DNS Hosting providers like PointHQ.