How to Change DNS Settings for Custom Domains?

Blogger offers a great method to change your blogspot address to a DOT COM address by buying a Custom Domain for only 10$ US.

Using a Custom Domain gets your blog a brand new address without losing traffic, search engine position or Google Page Rank (Page Rank is only lost temporarily).  Your blog is still hosted by Blogger free of charge with unlimited storage (for posts) and unlimited bandwidth and no security worries.

Your new domain is managed by Enom.com or GoDaddy.com and the 10$ US is paid to them. Blogger does not manage domains..........

Email From Google Apps.

After successfully completing the transaction for buying the domain you will get a confirmatory email from Google Apps. This is what it will say (For domain XYZ.COM) :

 

Hello Abcdef xyz,

Welcome to Google Apps!

Congratulations on completing your purchase of XYZ.com. Your new domain has been registered with eNom/GoDaddy and will expire on Month  Day, Year. Your domain will be automatically configured to work with the Google Apps services you select. We're excited to help you offer powerful communication and sharing tools to all your users.

If you haven't already created an administrator account for your domain, click the following link:

https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/setup/XYZ.com/BIG_NUMBER?hl=en

Once you have set up an admin account for your domain, you will have access to the Google Apps control panel. Here you can monitor the status of your services, manage your user accounts and email lists, create web pages, and customize the interface and services to your organization's needs. Through the control panel, you can also view and edit all your DNS settings, update your WHOIS information, and renew your domain before it expires. Please keep your WHOIS info up-to-date so that eNom/GoDaddy can contact you with important domain registration information. To access the control panel in the future, you can bookmark :

https://www.google.com/a/XYZ.com.

Your services will be activated shortly. You can now create user accounts to give your users access to all the great services you have signed up for, including email, IM, and calendar. As services are activated, your users can immediately start sending email and setting calendar appointments. It's that easy.

At any time, if you get stuck or if you want to tell us about your experience with this service, you can find more information and get in touch through our help center :

(https://www.google.com/support/a).

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

 

First Login at Google Apps.

To change your CNAME and A records for your domain you have to first create a Google Apps account. To do this click the link in the above email :

https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/setup/XYZ.com/BIG_NUMBER?hl=en

You will get the login screen at Google Apps :

For Username and Password enter the same as those you used for login at Blogger.com when you bought the domain.

Then select a username and password for your administrator account, and review the Terms of Service.

If you cannot login go here to reset the password.

 

Login to Domain Manager.

After successfully logging in at Google Apps. Dashboard click the Domain Settings link and then the Domain Names link. Lastly click Advanced DNS Settings to find the information to login to your GoDaddy or Enom.com account.

After login at GoDaddy or Enom.com change the CNAME and A records for your domain.

 

Free Google Apps. Goodies.

Google Apps. is free for use and offers the following goodies for Bloggers :

1.  Free Gmail email for your domain. For example I created one at  vin[at]blogdoctor[dot]me.

2.  A Start Page for your domain which is an iGoogle personalized page. Here is my start page.

3.  Google Sites.

4.  Google Talk :

To chat with me click above button and add :

 

as contact.  To add such a badge to your blog go to :

http://www.google.com/talk/service/a/MYDOMAIN.COM/badge/New

Replace 'MYDOMAIN.COM' with your actual domain.  Customize the badge and copy and paste the code in a Html page element in your blog.

You can also add the Google Talk Gadget to your blog :

 

To add this gadget go here, customize the gadget and copy and paste the code given in a Html gadget or in Edit Html tab of Post Editor.

 

Now visitors to your site can chat directly from your web page.

Enjoy!

Change EMail Post Icon.

At the bottom of each post there are standard EMail Post icon which looks like an envelope. You can make this stand out by adding an animated icon instead of the standard icon. This will attract the viewer's attention and prompt him/her to email your post to any of their friends, thus attracting more viewers to your blog.........

Your blog will also stand out more prominently in viewer memory for having an icon which stands out and begs for attention. See the bottom of this post where I have added an animated email post icon which simply begs for attention.

EMAIL ICONS

The first step is to choose an email icon graphic. For this go here. Right click the icon you want and choose Save Image as. Choose a location on your hard disk and the image is saved to your PC. Then create an account at Googlepages and upload your icon graphic to it as described in Upload Files to Blogger.. Copy down the link to your icon graphic.

MODIFY BLOG TEMPLATE

The next step is to modify your blog template. For this login to Dashboard and click on Layouts. Then click on Edit Html subtab at the top. First backup template to PC using the download full template link on that page. Put a check in the checkbox at the top of the Edit Template text box to Expand Widgets Templates. Scroll down to the foot of the Blog Posts widget code till you see this line :

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'>

Immediately above this is the code for the EMail Posts icon. Locate this line in the code :

<span class='email-post-icon'>& #160; </span>

Replace this line with the line below :

<img alt='Email Post' src='LINK OF YOUR EMAIL GRAPHIC' style='border-width:0px;'/>

Replace the CAPS with the link for your email graphic at Googlepages. Save Template. Refresh Cache and View Blog.

Technorati Tags:email, email post icon,

EMail Link Below Your Posts.

You can put your email link below your posts but it will be picked up by spam bots and then your inbox will soon be full of thousands of spam mails. It will be better to follow this method of putting it.......

First you will have to create an image out of your email link. For this go to :

Email Generator

OR

http://services.nexodyne.com/email

Follow the steps to make an image out of your email and then download it to your PC. Create an account at a freehost like Googlepages and upload the image there. Copy down the link of the uploaded image.


Login to Blogger Dasbhoard. Click on layouts for the blog where you want to add the link. Click on Edit Html tab at the top. First backup the template by clicking on Download Full Template link. Then put a check in Expanded widgets Template box and scroll down in Edit Template text box till you come to this line in Blog Posts widget :

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>

Paste the line below just under the code above :

<img src="URL OF UPLOADED EMAIL IMAGE" alt="my email" />

Replace the CAPS with the link of your uploaded image. Preview and save Template.

CLICKABLE EMAIL LINK

To make a clickable image link paste this code instead at the same position :

<a href="mailto:xyz@gmail.com?subject=Hello%20again"><img src="URL OF UPLOADED EMAIL IMAGE" alt="my email" /></a>

Instead of xyz@gmail.com put your own address. This method carries the risk of the address being harvested by spam bots. Save Template. Now clicking on the image will open the Compose Mail window with the address already filled in and the subject title as Hello Again.

Technorati Tags:email, post footer, blogger hacks,