Custom Blog Domain

**RicheemxX** · February 22nd, 2008, 11:42 PM

I know this is going to sound like a noob question or questions but I'm having a few issues deciding what and where. I've set up sites before so no issues there, I've just never worked with blogs

My blog is currently hosted on blogger, I can't use the current blog name as its already a domain, but I have found a domain I'd like to use. So here's where I'm at:

I know I need to register the new domain, but do I need to, or should I add hosting? 1&1 Godaddy ect I'm sure would be fine right?

If I add a hosting plan would there be any issue with pointing the domain to my blog and just using the space for things like files/photos ect to post to my blog?

My blog can stay on blogger for now, and AFAIK would need to for my archived blogs and current template to stay intact, would/could I possibly change that and move to a fully "self hosted" blog?

Any other thoughts would be helpful, as I've said other than posting to the dang blog I've never really worked with them that much.

**RicheemxX** · February 24th, 2008, 01:58 AM

Anyone with any thoughts, I'd like to get the new domian name up and running before Monday and I'm really indecisive about adding hosting or not. I know its not something I have to have but if it'll work I think I'd like to add it.

vass0922 · February 24th, 2008, 02:27 AM

let me see if I'm understanding right

You currently have a blog hosted on blogger
You'd like your own domain name specifically for your blog

You want to know if you should move your blog as well?

I think that'd highly depend on the flexibility of blogger
I apologize I know nothing about bloggers services

My question regarding them
1. Do they allow for custom domains to be pointed to specific blogs?
2. If you were to move your blog, do they have any services to help you export the contents of your blog?
3. Does the new site you choose have the ability to import content or to extract the contents of your previous blog directly from the previous sites website?

At least in my mind, these would be the critical questions.

TMK blogging is 99% text, with maybe some pictures or links to youtube etc (no custom scripting in background) so the importing site should be able to pull the information remotely
Whether or not they will is a totally different story

**RicheemxX** · February 24th, 2008, 02:43 AM

1. Yeah they allow custom domains so no issues there
2. I don't know if they support exporting, I'll have to look into that further.
3. I don't know, guess I'll need to check that as well.

Looks like I've got a little more homework to do before jumping one way or the other.

vass0922 · February 24th, 2008, 02:46 AM

may want to ask around about how well they import/export as well
Its easy to say you export/import.. but if it screws up all of the content formatting, it will take a lot of work to clean it up if there is a lot of formatting.

If blogger has a forum in the background for content providers, maybe ask around.
Same goes with your future provider.

EXreaction · February 24th, 2008, 03:12 AM

I don't think Blogger allows exporting of data, but you should be able to manually do it yourself with little trouble (at least as far as copying the blogs over).

Ignoring comments, you would just need to copy the blog text over, post it on your blog, then find the UNIX timestamp for the time it was posted and edit the record in the database to have that timestamp instead of just a bit ago when you posted it (I assume the blog system you will use uses a UNIX timestamp to record the posting time in the database).

I have my domains registered with Godaddy, but either them or 1&1 doesn't really matter (careful though, some sites register the domain themselves when you search to see if it is available with them so if you want it you have to pay more for it from them, godaddy and 1&1 do not do this)

Whatever you do, do NOT have the same company register your domain as the one who hosts your site. If you ever have a problem with your hosting company and they control your domain too, you are completely SOL if they lock it. If you have them separate you shouldn't even need to do anything with the company that registered the domain except at the beginning when you setup the nameserver.

**RicheemxX** · February 24th, 2008, 03:05 PM

Thanks guys, I've got a few things to look into now. From what I was reading last night, you can in fact import the posts to Wordpress without to much hassle. But it looks like there might be a few other areas that might be a PIA.

For now it looks like I'll need to do some more homework before trying to move hosts.

sr71000 · February 25th, 2008, 09:28 AM

you can get the domain now and point it to your blog, then just get the hosting at a later date if necessary. Would be a few extra bucks if you decide to host it yourself until you sync up and get the hosting/domain as a package, but there's no reason you can't get the domain now and the hosting later...

EXreaction · February 25th, 2008, 01:29 PM

Yes, a domain is only like $7/y anyways...which is like $0.02 per day.

**RicheemxX** · February 25th, 2008, 03:05 PM

Got it all covered now, I went ahead and bought my domains and a hosting package (just in case). I had a few issues with the setup but everything seems to be working now.

Thanks for the advice, and help.