SETTING UP A CUSTOM DOMAIN NAME FOR A BLOGGER/BLOGSPOT BLOG

This tutorial post explains how to setup a custom domain name for a blogspot blog i.e. if you have your blog at free blogspot subdomain (like technomedic.blogspot.com) and want to change it to your custom .com/.net/.org domain name (Like www.digipassion.com) (Without leaving Blogger platform).

There are two options –
1. Register domain name with a registrar other than blogger (GoDaddy, 1and1, register, yahoo etc).
2. Better still you can register your domain name with Blogger itself. Then it will be the only step required as blogger will automatically configure your new blog URL and DNS settings. To purchase domain name from Blogger
Login to your Blogger account
At Dashboard go to “Settings” (Of the blog you want to purchase a domain for) and in Settings select “Publishing”.
In Publishing menu select “Switch to Custom Domain”. At the opened page you can buy a domain from Blogger. No need to read further if you do so.

However if you purchased your domain from registrars other than Blogger then follow the steps given below to set up new domain for your blogspot blog:

1. Login to your account at the domain registrar site
2. At the “Dashboard/Control panel/Administration” find the option of “Domain management/Manage Domains/Domains” (Variable according to various registrars). Select the domain name you have registered.
Now find and select option “DNS Management/DNS Settings/DNS Configuration/DNS Control” or something denoting like that.
3. At “DNS management” page find and select option CNAME.
4. At CNAME page find and select “Add a new CNAME record” (However if there is one already, edit this record instead). Fill up the details exactly as follows:
In “Name/Source” field: enter “www” (Without inverted commas)
In “Host name/Address/Points to/Alias/Data/Destination/Target Host/Record Value” (Variable according to various registrar sites): enter “ghs.google.com” (Without inverted commas)
(If required) Set TTL value as 1 Hour/1 Day/Default (Whatever applies according to your registrar).
Click OK/Submit/Add record

5. Now go to “DNS management page” again (Point 3 above) and select “A records”. At A records page click “Add a record”. Fill up the details as follows for A Records
Host Name: www
Points To/Destination IPv4 Address: 216.239.32.21
TTL: As in point 4 above
Click “Add record”
Repeat the above procedure of adding new A records three more times, keep the Host name www but change the “Points to/Destination address” to following three different values in the three records (Enter TTL same as above)

This way four “A records” will be added (That point to Blogger’s different IPs)
Almost done!!!

Now the only step left is changing settings in your blogger account.
Sign in to Blogger
At “Dashboard” click “Settings” (If you have more than one blog then choose the desired blog settings). At Settings page select “Publishing”
Click on “Switch to Custom Domain”
At the next page select “Switch to advanced settings”
Enter your registered domain name (Including www) and word verification and finally “SAVE SETTINGS” and done.

That’s it!!! All set up, now time to spread the word about your new domain name.
Note: It is recommended that you use www with your domain name like www.digipassion.com (And not just naked domain digipassion.com) with Blogger as described in the above tutorial.
It may take some time for your new domain to set up and load when accessed from a browser. So don’t lose heart if 404 (Not found) error show up for a while after setting up the domain.

Update - Step 5 above is to redirect your naked domain to www variant and is optional. Some registrars (including Godaddy) do not allow to create the four A records giving error. In this case follow the steps given in this post.
S.Qs. – how to set up custom domain for blogger blogspot blog, transferring blogspot to custom domain name