If you blog on blogger you'll be only too aware that Google moved all UK based .blogspot.com blogs over to .blogspot.co.uk addresses a couple of weeks ago. Unsurprisingly it's caused lots of issues including a huge drop in visitor numbers, loss of comments and posts simply not redirecting at all.
All of my personal blogs are on blogger but they all have custom URL's and as a result I haven't experienced any problems at all with the switch over.
The blogger forums are full of questions but not many answers, so one thing you could try is switching to a custom domain of your own.
I know this sounds pretty scary if you don't like to mess with the back end of your blog but since Blogger introduced the ability to buy a domain (through Go Daddy), it's actually really easy to do and you don't have to worry about messing up any coding.
Here's a step by step guide...
My blog address is currently www.sian-to.blogspot.com and I want it to be www.londonundergroundlover.com. Here's how to make the switch.
1. Open your blogger dashboard and go to Settings.
2. In Publishing click on Add a custom domain.
Type in the custom domain that you want to switch to.
The domains that you can buy through bloggers are limited to .com, .net, .biz, .org and .info so it's a good idea to do a search to see if yours is available before you start. You can search for available domain names here.
The domain that I want to buy is http://www.sian-to.com, it's available to I'm good to go.
3. Click Continue to registration.
4. Fill in your registration details and make sure the box for Automatically renew my registration every year is ticked.
Please do this because if you don't you will wake up a year from now with your url pointing back to Go Daddy...
I'm talking from personal experience here and it is a stress that you really can do without.
5. Click Proceed to checkout and pay.
6. On confirmation page click on Click here to retrieve your purchase.
This will take you back to your blog Settings page and you will see that my www.sian-toblogspot.com address is now redirecting to www.sian-to.com.
4. Fill in your registration details and make sure the box for Automatically renew my registration every year is ticked.
Please do this because if you don't you will wake up a year from now with your url pointing back to Go Daddy...
I'm talking from personal experience here and it is a stress that you really can do without.
5. Click Proceed to checkout and pay.
6. On confirmation page click on Click here to retrieve your purchase.
This will take you back to your blog Settings page and you will see that my www.sian-toblogspot.com address is now redirecting to www.sian-to.com.
And that people is it.
Sometimes it can take up to 48 hours for the re-direct to kick into place. This one was instant as I set up a new blog to walk you through the process.
Please note that Blogger domain registrations are limited to .com, .net, .biz, .org and .info and the registration price is $10 a year (about £8).
I had to start a new blog to walk through this step by step... so www.londonundergroundlover.com will be the new home to my Instagram tunnel fixation. I do hope you will stop by from time to time?!
Any probs give me a shout and I will endeavour to help.
UPDATE: If you've worked through this tutorial and you are getting the 'Another blog or Google Site is already using this address' error, you will find a simple fix here.
