Add Your Blogger Blog To An Existing Domain

We periodically get queries from anxious blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

Can I use an existing domain, that I own for my website, to publish my Blogger blog?

The ability to use an existing domain, for publishing a Blogger blog, is one of the neatest features of Blogger custom domain publishing. It's also one of the least obvious options.

Publishing a Blogger blog, into an existing domain, is easy.

1. Add a DNS address, for the new URL, to the domain.
2. Publish the blog, to the new URL.
3. Manage the traffic, as part of any newly published custom domain blog.
4. The blog content is hosted by Blogger / Google.
5. The blog address is hosted by your DNS host / registrar.

The new domain URL will be most successful, if you understand the limitations.

DNS Addressing
Hoping that the "blog" domain URL is available, you would add a "CNAME" to the domain.

blog.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

That is the DNS address entry for the URL "blog.mydomain.com", which will point to "ghs.google.com.". This example uses an extracted Dig log to describe the required DNS address.

That is how you add a virtual domain host, for your blog. There will be a few limitations.

• You probably won't be able to publish to the domain root, or to the "www" host. Those addresses are generally used by the website.
• If either the domain root or "www" host is used by the website, do not try to address the other.
• If the DNS host does not permit "CNAME" referral, you won't be able to create a virtual host - and you won't be able to publish your blog to the domain.

Like the normal task of setting up a custom domain, setting up an additional host in an existing domain is exceedingly simple - if you understand the rigid simplicity. Just add one host, using "CNAME" referral. For best results, do not attempt innovative addressing techniques, such as publishing to the domain root or "www" host, if either is already being used.

Since you're adding a host to an existing domain, you may not get instructions to add a second "CNAME" - even if Blogger instructions imply that you will. If you don't get instructions, you don't need a second "CNAME".

Don't try to use an alias pair - the option to refer an alias to the published URL only works, consistently, for the domain root / "www" pair. Just add a single new host, using "CNAME" referral to "ghs.google.com".

Please note the format of "ghs.google.com." The "." after "ghs.google.com" is not decorative. Be aware of how you would enter "ghs.google.com,", properly, using the zone editor provided by your DNS host / registrar.

Blog Publishing
Having added the correct virtual host DNS address to the domain, publish your blog.

Traffic Management
Get to work and manage the migration of blog traffic. For best results, combine the blog and website.

Blog Hosting
The blog content continues to be hosted by Blogger / Google - with the existing address continuing to work, and with the content unchanged. The new blog address is hosted by the DNS host or registrar.

Make A Blogger Blog Cluster

If you're like me, and have a blog, maybe what you write about in your blog isn't all of what you are.

Most of us are more than one person. I'm a blogger, I work with Windows Networking, plus I have a private life. Really. I enjoy cooking, some miscellaneous humour and philosophy, and various other pursuits too.

If you're going to blog about your non-technical abilities too, would you put the non-technical stuff in the same blog as your technical stuff?

If you have different areas of your home, maybe different blogs make sense.

Do you park your car in your kitchen, or sleep in your garage? Hopefully not - you have separate areas of your house, each one for a different purpose. Maybe you should with your blog, too.

If you have one blog, with multiple topics, you can separate and index the various posts by using labels. But maybe you would like something different for each topic - maybe a topic relevant blogroll for each.

Different friends / readers deserve different blogs to read.

I have many friends with their own web sites. Some, I met through blogging. Others are experts in Windows Networking. And I know some folks with cooking blogs. It would be stupid to put a cooking blogroll on a web site about Windows Networking, though.

Some folks will tell you to use conditionally displayed widgets, so you can display one blogroll when a certain label search is active. If you want to hack the HTML Template code, you can learn how to do this. But, there's an easier solution.

You can publish as many blogs as you like.

Blogs are free - you can have as many as you can setup. I have a BlogSpot based cluster. Here's 3 of the blogs, in the cluster.

• Chuck's Kitchen (nitecruzrrecipes.blogspot.com)
• PChuck's Network (nitecruzr.blogspot.com)
• The Real Blogger Status (bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com)

Had I planned my blogging activity when I started, I could have made a more organised cluster.

• Nitecruzr - Blogging (nitecruzr-blogging.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Kitchen (nitecruzr-recipes.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Networking (nitecruzr-networking.blogspot.com)

You can publish each blog to a non BlogSpot URL.

For a small fee - just $10 USD / year, for domain registration / DNS hosting, you can even have a non BlogSpot based cluster, published as a Google Custom Domain. You can host as many blogs as you wish in the domain, for that single $10 USD. If you already have a (non Blogger) web site, you don't even pay that - there's your domain, already setup.

Once you have a domain, just add one or more virtual hosts to your domain. Publish your blogs to the virtual hosts in your domain, one blog / virtual host pair.

• Chuck's Kitchen (recipes.nitecruzr.net)
• PChuck's Network (networking.nitecruzr.net)
• The Real Blogger Status (blogging.nitecruzr.net)

Just a single "CNAME", to define each one.

blogging.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
networking.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
recipes.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

If you already have a domain, with a web site, there's the start of your blog cluster. If you just setup your domain, you may wish to setup a home blog, similar to my Nitecruzr Dot Net. A home blog is an option, not a necessity. I could alternately use my Buzz blog as a home blog.

If you keep your domain registration active, your blog will last.

Either way - with a BlogSpot or non BlogSpot based cluster - what you setup will be yours forever (at least, as long as you pay the yearly fee).

So, I setup Nitecruzr Dot Net, my collection of Blogger blogs all in one domain - my own domain - not a part of "BlogSpot.Com". Each blog will be part of the whole, yet as unique as I like to make it. Setting the domain up took 30 minutes, and writing about doing it, another hour or so (not that I'm done writing).

And once you setup your blog collection, you can merge them.

Once you've setup a collection of blogs, there are a variety of possible ways to dynamically merge them, in relevant ways that your readers should appreciate. And there are variations of this setup - some righteous, others spurious - that you need to consider, carefully.

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Separate Your Blogs, Yet Keep Them Together
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/04/separate-your-blogs-yet-keep-them.html
Make A Blogger Blog Cluster

The Making Of Nitecruzr Dot Net

Many people set up a Google Custom Domain simply so they can have a single Blogger, published to a non-BlogSpot URL.

A custom domain can include more than just one blog, though. You can setup multiple blogs in one domain, limited only to your imagination, and the virtual hosts limitation of your domain registrar.

Here, for instance, is how I setup my custom domain, "Nitecruzr Dot Net".

• I setup a home blog for the domain, which will index all of the existing blogs. This was a new blog, "nitecruzr-dot-net.blogspot.com", which I published to "www.nitecruzr.net", using the "Buy A Domain" wizard for the new domain "nitecruzr.net".
• I defined additional virtual hosts in "nitecruzr.net". Each additional host, just as you may have setup the "www" alias, is another pair of "CNAME" referrals to "ghs.google.com" - added using the DNS management wizard provided by your DNS host or domain registrar. If you setup your custom domain using the "Buy A Domain" wizard, you use the eNom or GoDaddy DNS Management wizard.
  • Recipes: Chuck's Kitchen.
  • Musings: Miscellaneous Musings.
  • Networking: PChuck's Network.
  • TechDict: MySpace and More.
  • Blogging: The Real Blogger Status.
• I published my existing blogs to the newly defined virtual hosts. Each blog is simply republished to the custom domain, using the "Advanced Settings" wizard.
  • Recipes: http://recipes.nitecruzr.net/
  • Musings: http://musings.nitecruzr.net/
  • Networking: http://networking.nitecruzr.net/
  • TechDict: http://techdict.nitecruzr.net/
  • Blogging: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/

You can do likewise with your blogs. The only limit here, IMHO, is your imagination.