Using Blogger with a .com Domain through NameCheap *Tutorial*

I got my own .com domain and transferred over my blog from blogger through NameCheap!  I know lots of people are wanting to do this, so I thought I'd try to make a tutorial.  You won't lose followers or anything and will still access and post on your blog through blogger.  The only difference is that your blog can be accessed from both the blogspot and .com address.  It is basically forwarding your blogspot address to the .com site.

Disclaimer: I used the following tutorials to help me figure this out.  For some reason I had to read several to actually "get it" so if you have trouble maybe one of the tutorials on these sites will be clearer for you!  

BloggerYard

NameCheap

Komku

Also, I had never heard of NameCheap before (I've basically only heard of GoDaddy) but I did some googling before purchasing and they seem to be highly recommended and quite popular.

First, you need to check to see if your domain name is available and purchase it. Go to NameCheap.  Type in the name of your blog and see what's available for you to purchase.  If your desired name isn't an option, you might consider .net or changing the name a bit by adding an s or something like that.

As you can see above literacyspark.com is grayed out and there is no price. That's because I already purchased it. You'll have to pay $10.69 for a .com and it will have to be renewed each year. Find the domain that you want and add it to the cart.  Set up an account and make the purchase.  Once you've done that, no one else can take it from you, even if you don't have time to do the rest of the tutorial right now.

Now go back to blogger like you are going to write a post.  Choose settings from the lefthand bar.  Under publishing in the middle you will see your blogspot address (this is another blog I have but don't use...that's why the name is different).  Click on "Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog" underneath your blog address.

Under third party domain settings, type the name of the domain you purchased, including the www.  So I would type www.literacyspark.com and then click the orange save button.

After you click save, you will see what looks like an error screen.  You will need this information to input it on the NameCheap site.

Specifically, the information above in the two columns is what will need to be input to NameCheap in a minute.  Remember that!

 So now open a new tab and go to NameCheap.  Login with the account information you had to create when you purchased your domain.

 You should see a domain in your account (see the 1 above?).  Click view to see your domain.

 Now you should see your domain name in the middle of the screen.  Click on the hyperlink itself, not the box next to it.

The top of your page should say modify domain now.  Over to the left find where it says "all host records" and click.                                 

Under host name you will see @.  In the next column type your domain name (i.e. http://www.literacyspark.com).  Underneath the @ you will see www.  Type "ghs.google.com" in the next column.

 Underneath subdomain settings you need to copy and paste that information from blogger that I said to remember above.  There were two columns of random letters and numbers.  Copy and paste them into each of the columns in NameCheap like shown above.  Save the changes at the bottom.

Now go back to blogger and refresh.  Go back to settings and click edit next to your blog address.  (Note:  Your screen just might look like the picture below already since the setup isn't complete.  Not sure because I can't go back.  If it looks like below, you're good, just go to the next step.)

Check the box about redirecting underneath your blog address like above and then click save. 

It took about 15 minutes to start working for me so don't give up if you go to your new domain and it doesn't work right away.  Some sites say it can take up to a few hours.  Your blogspot address will continue working like normal in the mean time.  Eventually you should be able to go to either the blogspot address or the new domain and see your blog.  Good luck!

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