going your own domain route

[qureus]

Hi John,

I'm creating a new blog and was planning on setting up its own domain for it, and mapping it from BlogHarbor to the new domain. I have a few questions.

1) if I do that, does my blog still show up in BlogHarbor's recently updated list?

2) Are there any blog admin or other issues that I need to be particularly aware of, pro and con, by going this route?

Thanks!
Q

[john]

Your blog will still be displayed in our recently updated list even when you use your own domain name for your blog address.

There's really nothing I can think of that would a "con" when using a domain name for your blog. The only thing I would point out is that if you are using a *.blogharbor.com address you might be using the mail forwarding feature, which would not be available to you when you use your own domain name. Not really a drawback per se, since you would be able to use your domain as your email address, just something to be aware of.

[Wood]

Qureus:

If I could add my two cents: for domain registration you should check out Rackshare <http://www.rackshare.com/>. They're super fast and since they're the people who run BlogHarbor the process of converting your blog to your custom domain is plug simple. Once you've registered your domain and upgraded to a paid blog the rest is automatic. I've done this with two blogs now and I can't say enough good things about the process.

I don't represent either Rackshare or BlogHarbor in any way, I'm just a very satisfied customer.

[jtubbs]

How does the process work? I would like to transfer my domain name from my current host and use blogharbor/rackshare as the host. Can someone please explain? I currently have not upgraded to a pay account.

[Wood]

Simple as can be, my man. Just go to www.rackshare.com and register your domain. It's $11 per year and you can register for 1-10 years, whatever you decide. You'll get an email confirming your spiffy new personalized domain. Then you go upgrade to a paid blog with Blog Harbor. Once you've completed the upgrade to the paid blog you'll get an email from Blog Harbor confirming the upgrade. The email will instruct you to reply with whatever custom domain you want to use so they can update you (you don't have to use Rackshare for domain registration, btw, but I have no experience with this and I'll bet it's not nearly as fast and as slick). My experience is that the change takes place before I can even reply (I've done this twice now), without me doing anything at all. That's the benefit of using the same group of people for domain registration and blog hosting, I suppose.

And when I say this is fast, I mean, like just a couple of minutes fast. When I set up blog number two, I doubt the process, from domain registration, through blog setup and upgrade to the time that my blog appeared with my custom domain name, took even ten minutes.

For my money, Blog Harbor is a great service. Fast, reliable, and easy to use. The only way I can see to do it better would be to do it myself at a significantly greater cost and a hella steeper learning curve. And I just don't see any profit in that

[john]

[john]

Simple as can be, my man...

Thanks for the kudos, it is very much appreciated.

And when I say this is fast, I mean, like just a couple of minutes fast. When I set up blog number two, I doubt the process, from domain registration, through blog setup and upgrade to the time that my blog appeared with my custom domain name, took even ten minutes.

OK, we must have been really on the ball that day. We can't guarantee that it will always be that fast but it will rarely take more than 24 hours to go from domain registration at Rackshare to deploying the name as your new blog address.

For my money, Blog Harbor is a great service. Fast, reliable, and easy to use. The only way I can see to do it better...

Wow. That's a ringing endorsement. We may have to quote you on that.

[ojedapaco]

OK, but I have a question about email mapping...

If I use www.mydomain.com to set up my blog, I want users to be able to email me at info@mydomain.com, or requests@mydomain.com, etc.

Unless my morning coffee hasn't kicked in, I read elsewhere that email mapping is currently only available in blogs that end with blogharbor.com

Is that so? What is the suggested strategy here? I will register a new domain with rackshare and upgrade my blog harbor service by week's end but just want to make sure that I've covered all my bases...

Gracias,

Paco

[john]

Unless my morning coffee hasn't kicked in, I read elsewhere that email mapping is currently only available in blogs that end with blogharbor.com.

That's not exactly correct. Email accounts are available as an option for folks using their own domains and our nameservers, pricing is here.

Email forwarding is available only to blogs with a blogharbor address, more information is here.

[ojedapaco]

Ah, thanks for the links and as before, for your quick reply.

Fully caffeinated,

Paco Ojeda