Use your domain name instead of blogger’s

This article will address the following questions on your mind (if you have)
How to set up your blog with your own domain name? How to set up your domain name with blogger?
There are lots of content management system (CMS) or platform to host your blog. But I will just continue to explain how to start blogging with Google blogspot. As the next step to configure your blogger for your domain name.

Google blogger is the most convenient, fast and easy set up blogging environment for those who already have Google accounts. But the blog name you selected will be represented as “SelectedName.blogspot.com”. It will  be like a subscription in blogger. This is called sub-domain. A domain name under the blogger domain. This means you can reach your blog page as “http://SelectedName.blogspot.com”.  Later on you may want to have your own domain name such as “www.SelectedName.com” instead of blogger sub-domain. Here are some suggestions for the bloggers who have the question of “How do I access my blog using my own domain name?”

Considering that you have a Google account and blog set up ready. If you don’t have, you should obtain one. Easiest way is to have a gmail account, which will enable you to have a blogger with this account.
Login gmail. You will see the following black strip on the top of the screen.

Go to “More” and select “Blogger”. From the blogger screen select “Settings”, “Basics”, and “Add a custom domain” will bring you following screen.

Here you can buy a domain name from Google partner domain name system (DNS) provider. All you have to do is to click “Check Availability” button to see if your “www.SelectedName.com” is available. Then follow the instructions. This is the cheapest and easiest way of registering your domain name. There are currently two DNS provider listed and selectable in the Google blogger site. But this service  doesn’t include storage space. You are limited with Google’s free storage capacity.
One may want to register some other hosting providers than these two. If you need a storage space, you should definitely go for same or different hosting providers for a storage space and other services. In this case you buy your domain name from a hosting provider and all you have to do is to link your blogger name with your own domain name.  Google has a support page for some hosting service providers. This support page explain in details how to do the configuration.
I will try to simplify the necessary settings of how to use your domain with blogger. No need to confuse with the meaning of A record or CNAME etc.

Settings must be done in both blogger and your own domain provider.
Blogger side settings:

1. Go to blogger main page.
2. Select “Settings”, “Basics”,
3. Click “Add a custom domain” will bring you following screen
4. Click “Switch to advanced settings”
5. In the advanced settings screen write your purchased domain name in the available box (circulated)  and click “Save” button (circulated) as shown in the picture below.
6. After clicking save button you will have an error message from blogger as follows: We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 12.
7. This is normal. No need to worry. Write down or better to copy three highlighted items in the picture below to a notepad. (not MS word) We will need them in the hosting side settings.

I will explain hosting side settings with a non explained Hostgator example. Hostgator has took its place within top 10 hosting companies in 2012 and 2013 by all comparison compilations. According to some comparison site, Hostgator has a market increase trend. Hostgator case is not explained by Google support site. So I wanted to explain how to do the blogger settings in Hostgator. Please read my next post to complete settings. Any comments or questions are welcome.