kilheeny.com

It has been long overdue but I should officially announce that my blog is now http://www.kilheeny.com/. I have started my blog with Blogspot for over a month now and I have decided to dotcomize my blog. I have read that registering your own domain will have its advantages especially when you plan to monetize your blog. I know it’s a given but why not enjoy the perks while you are at it. It’s all about your own choices and options right?

I have chose Blogspot as my blog publishing platform for its recognitions. Besides offering useful tools and great features to publish your own blog, there are numerous resources from season bloggers sharing their expertise in personalizing Blogspot blogs. In fact I have spent time working on my template ever since and rather then restart I should to continue learning. Not only I have gained extensive knowledge and experience from it but I thoroughly enjoyed all the work and play in the process.

Now back to the topic in mind, I find the transition of switching was made simple, easy and smooth. Blogspot not only offers to host all my contents as before but have it displayed with my own domain. I only need to get the domain name and I don't have to pay extra for hosting service. It’s good enough for me at that time at least I know have a year long to experience.

Registering my own domain

Once I have come up with my unique domain name, I proceed to login to my Dashboard and go to Settings > Publishing. Here I will find that my blog by default published by Blogspot. I clicked the Custom Domain link for the option to buy a domain. I checked the domain name that I had chose was available and register it with .com, instead of .net, .org, .info or .biz as other option. Registering the domain was made through a Google partner and cost USD$10 for one year. I will also get Google Apps as part of registration. Besides that, it was comforting to know that my original Blogspot address will also be automatically redirected to my new domain. I have made the purchase with Google Checkout costing me exactly MYR$34.88 and the domain was successfully registered with Enom.com as the domain registrar.

It took 4 days for my domain name to be activated. Prior to that, notice of transition kept appearing each time I updated my blog. It indicated that my blog was in transition of switching. My blog remains as the original Blogspot address although I notice all my contents have been converted to my new domain/post title. The links however does not work when I tried to copy and paste the new domain/post directly. I have to update the URL/post back to my original Blogspot address. At least it is safe to know that my blogs not lost and links or bookmarks to my blog still work.

It comes with Google Apps

Another good deal is Google Apps. I am familiar with Google applications like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs. Now I will able to use it with my own custom domain.

I have to login to Google Apps with my username @ my domain to access the control panel for my services settings. In the dashboard screen itself, it offers quick and user friendly features for editing. You have a total of 7 services at your disposal, mainly:

Start Page

• Personalize iGoogle Features
• Allows users to access Google services and other information from a single place.
• Allow users can customize the header, footer, color scheme and content.
• Edit URL from start.domain.com to anything.domain.com

Chat

• Personalize GTalk Features
• Chatting outside the domain (within the Google network)
• Chat with other Google Apps and Gmail users (Google network)
• Options available to chat with people using other messaging services.

Docs

• Personalize Google Docs Features
• Sharing options
• Edit URL from docs.domain.com to anything.domain.com

Email

• Personalize Gmail Features 2GB Inbox
• Email forwarding and mailing list
• Edit URL from mail.domain.com to anything.domain.com

Calendar

• Personalize Google Calendar Features
• Sharing options
• Edit URL from calendar.domain.com to anything.domain.com

Web Page

• Personalize Google Page Creator Features
• Alternative Webpage
• Edit URL from blog.domain.com to anything.domain.com

Primary Domain

• Personalize account information
• Advance DNS Settings and add domain aliases

In addition, you can create up to 200 users’ accounts to access the same features within the domain. This means you can share it with your family and friends. Now I am relief that everything is all set for me so I can focus on other things and hope I have made a good investment for now. Or does someone has not told me something that I did not know?