How To Use Your Own Domain With Blogger
I had started a few blogs in the past, all on Blogger.com. I found blogger easy to use and also you can have your own ads on it unlike having a blog at blogname.wordpress.com (that is having a free blog). It was really fun to post and seeing the post count increasing weekly but how I would love to have it on my own domain.
Now, I do not mean that having my blog at blogname.blogspot.com is not good but having your own domain adds your personal touch to it and it also make the blog address more professional. I made this little tutorial as it was not very easy when I tried using a domain on one of my blogger blogs. Also, I assume that you bought your domain on godaddy.com as it is where I bought mine, not sure if the setting is same for other registrar, this may be useful if you are not at godaddy. You also have the option to buy a domain directly via blogger, this is the easiest option as they will set everything for you automatically.
Here is what you should do, it is as easy as 1, 2, 3 
1. Login to your godaddy account
2. Choose the domain that you would like to use for your blog
3. Click on “Total DNS Control and MX Records”
4. Now click on “Add New CNAME Record”
5. Enter your domain name without the “www” and “ghs.google.com” as above and click ok. I suggest you do not put www, as you will have the option to redirect it the www version later from blogger.
6. Go to your blogger account, then Settings and then Publishing.
7. Once you are there click on “Custom Domain” which will lead you to a page that looks like this:
8. Add your domain in the space provided in this format “www.domain.com” and save settings.
9. Do not forget to tick the box that says “Redirect domain.com to www.domain.com” and save settings again.
10. Done already? Yes! I hope it saved you some time.
Everything should be working like a charm now. Also you should not worry about losing your previous readers as your old blogger address will redirect to your domain.
10 Useful Plugins for a Fresh Wordpress Installation
I still remember the first time I installed wordpress, I was all excited and started posting. The post looked great but where is the option to reply directly under a comment? Why I can’t see avatars next to the commentator names like other blogs have? I am sure you also asked yourself a few questions when you first installed wordpress… I did! I had to spend a lot of time to look for all the plugins that wanted.
Wordpress is great already even with the default template, one of the reason why I moved from blogger is that here I have the freedom to do whatever I want, plugins are what make wordpress even better.
To save you some time I have put together 10 plugins that might be useful if you are installing wordpress for the first time, also I will keep this post as a reference for myself if I have to install wordpress again. I will list the plugins in no particular order.
Like I was saying above, I have been looking for an option where I could reply to a comment directly below it rather than having to quote everyone who commented and all being completely down the page. This is one of my favorite plugin.
I personally do not like having my archives on my sidebar. After 1-2 years it will take a lot of space there. The plugin is what solved everything for me. Now all my previous posts are on this archives page.
This is one cool plugin that redirects all your wordpress feeds to feedburner. I had a hard time trying to figure out how some blogs had their feed url in the address bar to point to their feedburner feed. It makes it much easier to know how many readers you have on your blog.
Very easy to setup and does the thing, the contact form does not ask for much details from whoever is trying to contact you. You can check my contact page, it is this plugin that I am using.
If you are like me and love checking your blog statistics every time, this is one great plugin that gives you details about the 50 recent visitors on your blog, top search keywords from the search engines, well some basic stuffs. I know there are a few other plugins for stats but this one is my favorite. Of course this is not the only way I track my visitors, I also use Google Analytics.
If you want to add a youtube video safely to your blog without breaking the whole layout, this is the plugin you need. I remember I added a youtube video to one of my blog but when I checked the post my sidebar was completely down (I had copied the code directly from youtube). With the plugin you can choose the size you want the video display size to be and also the color of background to fit your needs. Very easy to use, you just need to add “v” in the video link you want to add “httpv://”. E.g.
This is one cool little plugin which allows your top commentators to have a link to their blog or site in your sidebar. It is a great way to encourage people to comment on your blog. You can see the plugin in my sidebar.
If you tag your posts, this plugin will display a list of related posts. This is great as you are sure your older posts will be read by new readers.
9. MyAvatars
This plugin give you the option to add mybloglog.com avatars to your comments. When someone add a comment they will have their image displayed next to it. I find this plugin really nice as in some way it bring some life to how a post is displayed.
10. WP-Polls
No need to explain about this one, it is to add polls to your posts. Like below:
Loading ...I Still Have a Lot to Learn About Bum Marketing
If you have read my last post “Obsessed with writing perfect posts” you know already that I am trying to earn with affiliate marketing. Surely it is not easy and I am applying those techniques that I have read here and there. In fact I am trying the bum marketing method, a method that many affiliates are using these days as it is free.
I have already heard about the bum marketing technique in the past, also read how some have tried it but it did not really work out for them. I think if it did not work then it means they have not been trying hard enough. I am finding it hard to start myself, definitely PPC is a better option but I do not really want to spend money on this. It is very hard to stay motivated too when there is no one to tell you exactly what to do, I had to set up some kind of plan for myself to know what I will work on daily. A bit like I do for job, it is probably the fact of working for others that makes it difficult when I have to do things for myself, I will have to work on changing that mindset.
I have use the title “I Still Have a Lot to Learn About Bum Marketing” as I will have to change the way I look at things. I already mentioned that I read about bum marketing method before, in my mind it was just writing articles and submit it like crazy and you are done. It fact it is not exactly that, you surely need to write articles but you need to know how to do it right and I am sure this is the main reason many have failed at it. I am definitely not good at it yet to explain what is wrong or right since I actually have only 2 articles live at ezinearticles.com. Both articles have got around 50 views and I have 8 clicks to the urls I have added in the articles.
This is only the beginning but I will not give up any time soon maybe if things are not working out in 3 to 6 months then I will just move to other techniques that I am already trying along but article marketing is my priority right now. I am sure I will learn a lot during this long journey and will update this blog more regularly with what I am learning. It is actually a good thing that I started affiliate marketing, I am getting more things to write about and my post posting regularly is important will actually make sense (to me at least).
image source: learning
Obsessed with Writing Perfect Posts
I have not been blogging much lately but still I have tons of posts in drafts, that left me thinking why I have not yet fully written the posts yet and published them? Reading through the blog again I think my problem is that I have the need to make my posts look perfect and have a bit of a professional look. I do not know how and why but this has affected the way I blog in a way, since I am now posting less regularly and I have the feeling that what I write is not really good enough to be blogged about.
I did not really discussed about the issue with anyone but I think everyone would suggest me to write about whatever comes to my mind which is what I usually do but it is just the way I want the post to look that cause a problem… I am obsessed with perfection! I know how fun it can be to write daily or as often as possible and seeing comments coming it, I really enjoy blogging but I also need to change my blogging mindset.
Also while writing I am not sure about the length of post, here also there is no limit but I need to have an average, all these thoughts are killing this blog slowly and I need to find a solution fast so that I post more regularly.
Okay enough bragging about what is killing this blog, I have been a bit busy setting up a few stuffs about affiliate marketing. I am not sure if it is my thing yet but I will not know unless I try right? So, hopefully if everything works out fine, I will be glad to write about my affiliate marketing experience in future posts to come.
And if by chance there are any of my readers who are already into affiliate marketing and have tips to share are most welcome.
photo credit: perfection
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