TypePad lets you use your own domain name for your blogs so that when someone types in www.yourdomain.com they actually see the content at yourdomain.typepad.com while still thinking they are at www.yourdomain.com. To do this, you need to do something called “mapping” your domains.  

We recommend using NameCheap.com as they are cheap and reliable. They also have a good reputation for being ethical. We will be using NameCheap in these instructions. We will also just be showing you how to map a normal domain that is not currently hosting anything, not subdomains.

Step 1: Access the Domain Mapping Section

In your Site Access tab in your Control Panel, click on the Domain Mapping link.

Read through the Important Requirements carefully. In summary, you need to have a domain name registered, you need to be very careful with your settings and you need to make sure your domain “resolves” first before setting the domain mapping to active (more on this last point later).

If you have any trouble or are confused, you should contact your domain registry. 

Step 2: Begin Domain Mapping

When you’re ready, hit “Begin Here: Map a Domain Name”

Step 3: Enter your registered domain address

You will get a pop up that asks you to enter your domain name – this is the domain name that you registered eg www.yourdomain.com – hit “Get DNS settings”.

Step 4: Read your Recommended DNS Settings

TypePad will look up your domain details and give you the recommended settings for your domain name.

Here is an example:

Leave this page open – you will need to set up your CNAME record at your domain registrar before proceeding.

Step 5: Set up your CNAME record at your domain registry

All registries have their own conventions for the following steps. We will demonstrate with our recommended domain registry, NameCheap but if you are with another registry, it’s likely to be different. If you are unsure what to do, it’s best to contact your registry for advice as they will know what to do.

In NameCheap, select Manage Domains to get to your domain management panel.

Find your domain name and click on it.

Once in your domain’s management, look for the Host Management section in the lefthand side column.

Click on “All Host Records”

Find “www” in the Host Name column, replace the contents of its IP Address/URL field with the “Points to:” address that TypePad gave you in Step 4. In the example this is “commerceshop.typepad.com”.

Find the “@” in the Host Name column, replace the contents of its IP Address/URL field with the “Domain” address that TypePad gave you in Step 4. This is your domain name with the “www” tacked on. In the example this is “www.commerceshop.com”.

It should look similar to below (obviously with your own domain names substituted):

Once you’re satisfied that these match with TypePad’s instructions, hit “Save Changes”

Step 5: Return to TypePad

Once you’ve done this, return to your open TypePad window from Step 4 and click “Complete Final Step”.

Step 6: Choose which blog you want mapped

You now have to choose which blog to map your domain name to. Some TypePad accounts let you have multiple accounts, all mapped to different domain names if you wish. 

If you just want your domain mapped to your main account which should also be your main blog then keep it at the default “My main site”.

But if you have more blogs, you can map a different blog by selecting “My weblog” and finding it in the dropdown.

You can also map your domain name to a photo album.

Hit “Add Domain” and you will get a confirmation screen which you can read then close.

Step 7: Wait until your domain name is mapped on the registry side

It can sometimes take 1-2 days for the internet to pick up on your changes. You can test this by putting in your domain name (eg www.yourdomain.com) and if you are transferred to your TypePad blog then you know it is working. Often it does take quicker than 1-2 days, but if 2 days have passed and nothing’s happening, contact your domain registry for help.

Do not do the next step until this step is working or else when someone visits your TypePad blog, it will no longer work (they will be transferred to a site that is not your blog like your registry’s holding page or an error page – not a good look!).

Step 8: Activate your domain mapping on TypePad

Back on your Domain Mapping section in your Control Panel, at the end of the page, you will have a list of any blogs you’ve set up or are setting up domain mapping for.

Find your blog and to activate the mapping on TypePad’s end, tick the checkbox for that blog in the “Active” column and then hit “Set”.

Remember to only do this step when your domain name is already goes to your Typepad blog. What this final step does is mean that whenever someone visits your blog they will see “www.yourdomain.com” in their browser address line, even if they typed in “yourdomain.typepad.com”. Typepad will still keep your Typepad address functional and preserve all the links.

(If you need to remove domain mapping for any reason, then you can do this by ticking the relevant Remove checkbox and hitting “Remove”. You will also need to change your settings at your domain registry to point to something else if you don’t want that domain going to your TypePad blog).

Remember 

If you have any troubles with the CNAME instructions, contact your domain registry.

Theoretically, you can have the ease of having a Blogger blog and still use your own domain using a technique called “mapping” where your domain name is made to point to your Blogger blog. So any posts at your Blogger blog will look like they are being hosted at your domain. 

We say “theoretically” because we haven’t found Google’s redirect service to work that well, and a quick search of Google will confirm that this is quite a common problem. We did manage to get it to work, but after a few different attempts.

We’d recommend that you make the choice to use your own domain early on because if you can’t get the mapping to work, you can just use another blog service and you don’t have to worry about losing audience.

There are two ways of doing the mapping, you can purchase your domain directly from Google and they will do all the setting up of the mapping for you automatically or you can purchase your domain separately and do the changes yourself. We’ll go through both options.

OPTION 1: Buy your domain from Google

1. Login into your Blogger account. Go go to your blog’s settings and click on “Publishing”. Click on “Switch to Custom Domain”.

2. When you click on “Switch to Custom Domain”, you’ll immediately be given the option to purchase a domain from Google. It costs $10/year, comes with private registration and is automatically set up with email through Google Apps. But bear in mind that Google’s domain registration partner is GoDaddy.com and there has been some bad press about their policies.

This is the simplest option, you just need to enter a domain name, check it is available, fill in your details pay for it. It will then be automatically mapped to your Blogger domain and all your posts on your old somedomain.blogspot.com blog will be redirected to your new blog address.

If you do have problems, you should contact Godaddy.com’s support.

OPTION 2: You already own your domain

If you have registered your domain name then you’ll have to set up the domain name mapping manually. We tested a few methods and found the following to work, but follow it carefully as all the other methods did not work. If you have any problems, you should put in a help ticket to your domain registrar’s support.

Namecheap instructions

We are going to go through the steps using NameCheap because they are our recommended domain registrar, also Google doesn’t list them in their mapping instructions. If you are using another registrar – have a look at Google’s list of registrar instructions to see if they are there or else try using Google’s general instructions if not. Note that people have reported following Google’s instructions but haven’t been able to get the mapping to work. Just remember, you should be able to email your domain registrar for help – and if not, transfer your domain to a registrar that will give you support.

1. First we need to set up the DNS (Domain Name System) settings at your domain registrar – these settings tell the internet where to send your visitors when they type your address into their internet browser. 

So go to your domain registrar, in this case Namecheap and login.

2. Select your domain.

3. Once you’ve selected your domain, you’ll get a number of options to modify your domain in the right hand column. Select “All Host Records”.

4. You should already have a listing for “www” that is set up as “CNAME (Alias)” – this should be the parking page that NameCheap has set up as a placeholder for your domain name.

You will want to edit it so that the IP Address/URL field for “www” says “ghs.google.com” like so:

Make sure the record type drop down is set to CNAME (Alias) if it isn’t already. What this does is tells the internet that when someone types in “www.somedomain.com” they are to be sent to google (at which point google will tell them to go to your blog when that part has been set up). 

5. Note that this will only work when someone types in “www.somedomain.com” NOT when someone types in “somedomain.com” without the “www”. The “www” a little bit of redundant internet protocol that many people say should be removed but it hasn’t yet so some people will type in ”www.somedomain.com” and others will type in ”somedomain.com” – you want both these groups of people going to your website.

That’s where the “@” setting comes in – it just gives directions when someone comes to your domain without the “www” – that is, they type in ”somedomain.com”. By default, NameCheap should have the “@” setting to “URL Redirct” and the IP Address/URL to your domain name with the “www” – that is, “http://www.somedomain.com” like so:

Check this is the case and that it points to your “www” domain name (including the “http://” part or it will not work) – if not change it so that it does and make sure the record type is “URL Redirect”. 

Save the settings.

6. THIS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT STEP. Your domain registration should be now properly set up for the mapping but you may need to wait up to 48 hours for this change to be recognised by the “internet”. You should not ask Blogger to map your domain (Step until the internet recognises that you are pointing to the Google.

If you’re on Windows, one way of checking this is to click on Start and then hit “Run”.

You will get a popup, type “cmd” into it and hit “OK”.

Remember to breath from your diaphragm and don’t worry about what you’re about to see, yes it looks all codey, but just follow the instructions and everything will be okay.

When you get the pop up just type in “ping www.yourdomain.com” – of course, replacing “www.yourdomain.com” with whatever your domain is. It should look a bit like this:

Hit Return/Enter and it will activate the ping.

If you get something like this, where it says “Pinging ghs.1.google.com” or something similar with “ghs.google.com” in it then you know it worked.

If you don’t get this then your changes haven’t been recognised, so you’ll need to wait a bit longer.

If you’re on a Mac, here are some instructions on how to ping.

7. Once you are sure that the changes have come through (and don’t try before!) you need to tell Blogger to map your blog to your domain name. 

Go back to your Blogger account. Go go to your blog’s settings and click on “Publishing”. Click on “Switch to Custom Domain”.

When you click on “Switch to Custom Domain”, look for “Already own a domain? Switch to advanced settings” and click on that link.

8. Enter your domain name in the form “www.yourdomain.com?”. (While these instructions DO NOT cover setting up subdomain mapping, note that you can use subdomains like blog.somedomain.com but you can’t enter the address for a subfolder like www.somedomain.com/blog.) 

If you have a new blog, keep “Use a missing file host?” at the default “No” (this setting is only useful if you had files on a subdomain of your blog domain – don’t worry if you don’t really understand this, if you don’t then this is probably not relevant anyway).

Save the settings.

9. Once, you’ve saved, you might notice Google giving you the option to “Redirect yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com” – whatever you do, DO NOT select this option!!! It will break your blog redirect and cause you untold amounts of pain.

You already set up a redirect of your domain without the “www” to the version with the “www” in Step 5. If you click this option, it will set up an infinite loop of redirects and just not work. 

So don’t do it, walk away slowly and don’t look back.

10. If you followed these instructions and waited in Step 6 until the redirect change was recognised, then when you type in your domain name (either with or without the “www”) you should see your Blogger blog.

If you don’t after a reasonable amount of time – put in a support ticket with your domain registrar.

Not everyone uses a feed reader but many people do and so it’s a good idea to make sure your blog has its feed prominently displayed.

The standard way to display a feed is to use the RSS feed icon – which is like a couple of broadcast waves coming out from a dot, generally on an orange background like so:

Be aware that web designers sometimes feature this feed icon in different colours and incorporated into different objects. Sometimes the feed icon doesn’t show at all and instead you’ll see the words “Subscribe to my blog”.

It can sometimes turn up in the address bar of some web browsers. Here is an example of it in Firefox:

However, don’t rely on it! It is important to make sure that there is a clear way for people to subscribe. I have seen too many poorly designed blogs where there is no obvious subscribe button anywhere.

Feedburner

FeedBurner is free (it is now owned by Google) and gives all sorts of tools to make your feeds that much more powerful. Of particular use, it lets you analyse your feed traffic as well as add advertising.

If you decide to go with FeedBurner, and you probably should, then switch over earlier from your blog’s default feed sooner rather than later so that you can ensure as many as possible of your readers are using your FeedBurner feed.

Full feed or Exerpts?
Either through Feedburner or your blogging software, you will usually have the option to allow people to subscribe to your full posts or you can just give your readers a small excerpt in your feed. If you only allow small excerpts to be published, then readers will have to visit your blog to read the rest of your post. There are pros and cons for both ways. It’s probably best that you err on the side of giving your readers convenience – after all, a primary reason for having a blog is about building a relationship with your reader. Excerpts can be annoying as it forces them to read you in a way they don’t want to.

There are other ways of getting people to visit your blog from an RSS reader – for example you can link to your other blog posts. You can also ask a question that encourages people to comment (and they’ll have to visit your blog to do so).

What is a blog?

Originally, “blog” was a shortening of “web log” – or a web journal. What differentiates a blog from a traditional website is that blogs facilitate the publishing of “posts” or stories in reverse chronological order. So you will see the most recent blog post first. Like a news feed, blogs meant that a reader could quickly see which entries were the most recent.  Also like news feeds and also like a journal, it is expected that blogs are regularly updated. While if a traditional website hasn’t been touched in a number of months, most people wouldn’t notice – if a blog has had no updates for the same time, it’s considered at the very best “dormant”, but most usually, it would be seen as “dead”.

Blogs are now an important component of online publishing. Major newspapers and many magazines have incorporated blogs into their websites. There are influential publishing companies like b5media and Weblogs Inc that are based solely around networks of blogs. 

That’s not to say that big companies have an advantage when it comes to blogging, they don’t, and in fact, the big media companies have been relatively late to jump on the blogging train. A big part of the popularity of blogs is linked to availability of blogging software which allowed blog authors (bloggers) to post entries to their blog with very little or no coding ability. The main thing that separates blogs is the quality of the writing, the dedication, the personality and the insight of the writer/s – not technical resources. This has meant that blogging has really levelled the playing field and it has provided, and continues to provide, countless opportunities for individuals.

Blogs have really opened up the world of independent publishing – now anyone from kids to grandparents can easily become web publishers.

Why Blog?

The best benefit a blog can bring is influence. The most popular blogs have audiences that number in the millions. A regular established blog can have thousands of visitors each month.

But it’s not just audience numbers, it’s the quality of the relationship that’s created. By making regular posts, you are in consistent contact with your readers and because blogs can allow readers to comment back on blog posts, a conversation is created. Just as you are more likely to put more value in the advice given to you by a friend than a salesman, people are more likely to trust blogs they read regularly than a website that they find just through a Google search.

From influence flows other benefits – authority and reputation, customers, market research, networking opportunities, staff attraction.

Blogs also can provide more value for readers and thus be more likely to attract more visitors on a more frequent basis. Think of it too from a reader’s point of view – what would you rather read and keep reading: a static faceless website that may change once a month or a blog that every day has some new bit of new interesting information where you feel you know the author? It’s pretty obvious why blogs have such an advantage in attracting audiences.

Blogs can also help your ranking in Google (thus be higher on the list when potential customers/clients do an internet search for your product/service). Search engines love regularly updated and commented upon blogs.

Examples of Blogs

There are some good blog directories and listings worth checking out:

• Technorati
• 9rules
• Delightful Blogs
• Blog Catalog

Also try typing “(your interest area) + blog” into Google search to find new blogs relevant to you.

Blogging Software – What is it?

Blogging software is a type of content management system (usually called a CMS). Content management systems make it possible for someone to create and update their website with little or no need to use code. There are plenty of blogging solutions that make it as easy to create a blog post as it is to create and send an email. 

Of course, some systems are easier than others for beginners. 

Hosted Blogging Solutions

A growing number of services like Blogger and Typepad handle all your blog’s hosting and software maintenance so that all you have to do is log in, choose your settings, type up your post and hit a button to publish. It’s about as easy as you can get. The trade off is that you don’t own your blog – it is hosted with someone else and so it dependent on their rules. You also don’t have as many customisation options for design and functionality.

Pros

• Easy to use
• No worries about programming
• No worries about maintaining and upgrading blog software

Cons

• Lack of control and ability to customise features
• May not be able to use your own domain name (though some let you have your own domain, usually for a fee)
• Often hosted services can have strict rules and you may lose your blog without warning if you break the rules inadvertently
• Some hosted services forbid commercial purposes

Examples
Blogger: Blogger is owned by Google and is free. It is very simple to use and has a huge user base. However, if something goes wrong you’re often on your own.  

Typepad: Typepad is owned by Six Apart (who also make LiveJournal, Vox and Movable Type). Plans start from $4.95/month. It’s very popular and said to be very robust. However, it does have limitations and has been surpassed by Wordpress.

Wordpress.com: Wordpress is an open source free software that you can download (see more in “Blog Software You Host Yourself”) but the same organisation also has a commercial option that does all the hosting and managing for you. It’s free to set up (with the option to pay for more customisation features). It does have rules barring commercial blogs on their free plans, however this doesn’t seem to be frequently enforced.

LiveJournal: LiveJournal is owned by Six Apart and while in the US, it is seen as an online diary service for teenagers, in Russia, it is apparently the most popular blog platform. It’s free.

Vox: Vox is also owned by Six Apart. It is a free, and very, very, very simple to use. Six Apart sells it as a blogging system even grandparents can use. It is designed to be for personal use.

Squarespace: Squarespace is a content management system that lets people with no coding ability build websites and blogs. Plans start from from $8/month.

Vox: A very simple way to blog and great if your blog consists of lots of links to other people’s content.

Blog Software You Host Yourself

Pros

• Able to be customised to your needs
• Often more commercialisation options
• Depending on the system you choose, you may have access to more powerful functionality through plugins
• You have full ownership over your website and its content

Cons

• Pay for your own hosting
• You may need to install it yourself
• Harder, may need a little bit of coding skills
• Must manage your upgrades and site maintenance

WordPress (Wordpress.org): The most popular with a huge community that provides support and free plugins (software extensions that make your blog do more). Makes for a very professional blog.

Movable Type: Movable Type is supposed to be more robust than Wordpress for large, popular sites (but there are ways to increase Wordpress’s robustness), however, its community support is not as large and it can be more expensive. While it’s now free for individual bloggers, for companies it starts at $395 for 5 bloggers.

Habari: Habari is relatively new so it says it is better able to handle things like comment spam and Digg overloads (if your site gets to the front page of Digg, the ensuing traffic could kill your web page’s server).

Drupal: Drupal is a free open source content management that does much more than a blog – it can create quite complex websites. It’s not for beginners though.