Ask Miz Ginevra - Using Your Own Domain With Your Blog

This is a feature we introduced in the month's TypePad newsletter - in which your intrepid community manager answers your most pressing TypePad questions.

How can I use my own domain (something without "TypePad" in the URL) with a TypePad blog? - Steven Hill, Hearts of Space

Hearts of Space is one of my fave long-running music shows, and I was delighted to find out they had a TypePad blog that serves as their news page. When working on a blog tune-up for them, they didn’t know this long-standing feature in TypePad for using your own URL. We hear this question all the time!

Using your own domain on TypePad is a great way to promote your blog, blend it in with your own site, and to give it a way to stand apart from the crowd, especially if you have a business blog. Some SEO experts also say that it's better for your search results to have your own domain.

One of the things I like the best about TypePad is that we handle the hosting for you - so you don't have to download and install some complicated program just to get your own domain.

For exactly how you'd do your own domain mapping, I asked Brianna, one of our TypePad One support team for the full breakdown. If you're a TypePad subscriber, you can always get our support team's assistance with questions you have about technical things like this, too. More how-tos on using your own domain after the jump:

Domain Mapping is a great TypePad feature for our Plus and Pro users. Are you taking advantage of this feature? If you aren't, and it's because you're not sure what Domain Mapping is, then let's get you acquainted.

Domain Mapping is the process of connecting your TypePad account, or a specific blog in your account, with a unique domain name. Still have questions? Check out our Domain Mapping FAQ.

Ready for some examples?

Let's say you have a TypePad account with the address knittingrocks.typepad.com¹. Congratulations! That's a pretty awesome TypePad address. Perhaps you want something a bit more unique, something without the "typepad" part of the URL? You decide to purchase a unique domain name, like www.knittingrocks.com², and now you want to use it rather than the one you registered with us. It's okay, we won't be offended. This is where one of our favorite features, Domain Mapping, comes in handy.

You can find the Domain Mapping settings by clicking "Account" at the top right of your dashboard, then "Domain Mapping". Read over the Important Requirements; it contains useful information for before and during the process. If you're all set, and your domain has already been purchased, you can move on by clicking "Begin Here: Map a Domain Name".

Step 1: Enter your domain name

Step 2: Choose what you would like your domain name to load

If you set your domain to point to "entire site", then your domain name will become an umbrella for all of the blogs in your account. If I set www.knittingrocks.com to point to the entire site, then my blogs, "projects" and "stash", would then appear as:

www.knittingrocks.com/projects
www.knittingrocks.com/stash

This means your individual posts will load like:

www.knittingrocks.com/projects/2009/07/girasole.html
www.knittingrocks.com/stash/2009/07/wollmeise-surprise.html

If you set your domain to point to a specific blog, however, then your domain name will point to only that blog. None of your other blogs in your account will use the unique domain name.

This means your individual posts will load like:

www.knittingrocks.com/2009/07/girasole.html

If you plan on using your blog similarly to a website, with different sub-sections, then Domain Mapping to your whole account may work very well for you! Each individual blog will appear as a sub-section to the main account, all living under the umbrella of your unique domain name.

If you only have the one blog, or one particular blog related to your topic, then pointing your unique domain name to the specific blog in your account will be the best option for you.

We all want our blog to do well, find us readers, and land us that mythical book deal, but it all starts with standing apart from the average blog address. Choose something with a kick here at TypePad (eg: knittingrocks.typepad.com totally gives off the Rock Star kick) or give your blog a bit of punch (turn it up to 11!) by setting yourself up with Domain Mapping.

¹ - Like this TypePad name? As of right now it's still available!
² - Like this unique domain name? As of right now it's still available!

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Wow! its very nice to hear that many big names in the industry are using typepad blogs. Its very inspiring and it makes me proud being a typepad user. Plus, the features you provide to us is really outstanding and can never be found on other services. I also love your support team who is always there to assist 7 days a week.

Your support team even do the things for us that needs to be done.
Thanks a lot to Typepad. You ROCK!

[Account Deleted]

I've been using domain mapping for awhile now and its worked well for me. However, I've never figured out how to change the little icon that appears next to my URL in the browser from the Typepad icon to my unique icon. Can anyone help me on this?
Lyle

[Ginevra]

Hey Lyle - that's called a "favicon", and it's pretty easy to swap out. You can read more about how to do this and some other small changes for making your blog better on a recent Everything TypePad post here:

http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/06/simple-changes-that-can-make-a-big-difference-.html

[Account Deleted]

Hello Lyle, great to hear that. Own DN + favicon. Awesome combination for SEO. I guess i should try both. I only have the favicon. I want to buy a domain name but the sad thing is that, the domain name i've chosen is being owned already. Although i can still own the domain name using back order, i dont know how it will work. What does that really mean? Two the same Domain names?

[Reinventry]

I have several blogs but want to delink or separate one or more of them from the others. Is there a way to do this in such a way that someone to whom I send the relevant link will only have access to that blog and none of others? It seems that each blog is also a pathway to all of my other blogs (with the "about" section apparently serving as a portal). I realize I can password protect any of my blogs but I want the option of keeping each of my blogs discrete and separate with no permeable membranes through which the user can pass and without having to block access through password protect. I must be overlooking something quite obvious. I'd appreciate some help. Thanks.

[Dave McIntyre]

I've tried domain mapping, but the url always comes up with the typepad address. It doesn't seem to be as easy as it should seem to be ...

Also, "activating" it totally destroys my layout and design.

[Brianna]

Hi there! You can use the Domain Mapping feature if you're a Plus or Pro level user. This will help to make each blog in your account more distinct. Additionally, instead of using the default About page, you can create a new Page in your account and link to that as your About page. This will also help seperate your blogs and keep them from crossing.

Hope that helps!

[Brianna]

Hi Dave! If you're experiencing some wonkiness in your layout/design after activating, and you're still seeing TypePad in your address, then the Domain Mapping hasn't been correctly set.

Does the article above help at all? You'll want to review the CNAME article here: http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/cname.html

That should help you out a bit. If you still have questions, please feel free to let us know and we can help set you up.

[Dave McIntyre]

My domain is with HostPapa. The CNAME is correctly set according to your instructions, and the domain points fine to my Typepad blog, but in the URL window, the .typepad.com address still appears.

[Geo]

Two questions. 1)Would I be correct in guessing these instructions for the new interface? I'm still on the old user interface and do not see the 'account' and 'domain mapping' areas you are referring to. 2) Aren't there more steps involved in this? Last time I read through the domain mapping, two years ago when I bought my domain name, I recall being so confused by the directions that I haven't done anything with the domain except park it at the registrar.

[Andrew Ballenthin]

Great article. What happens with all the external links pointing in to your site? Will there be break in them? I'm dying to make the change... I've grown to 10 writers for my blog and they're pushing real hard for me to make the change too.

[Reinventry]

Thanks very much, Brianna.... I'll give your suggestions a try!

[Ginevra]

hi Dave - if you're still having trouble with this, just let us know, and we can help get you sorted out. Just wanted to check in to follow up!

[Ginevra]

yep, our guidelines here are for the new TypePad. Although, they should work for the classic TypePad too - if you want to get domain mapping set up, we can help you with that in our support tickets, since it's a bit challenging to work it out in comments. :)

[Ginevra]

Hi Andrew - you'd want to talk with our support team to make sure that you're setting up all the links and such correctly. However, if you've got people linking in to example.typepad.com and you change it to example.com, both should still take you to the right place, as far as I know.

Andrew Sullivan's blog on TypePad with the Atlantic, for example, is linked at http://andrewsullivan.com and http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com. Both get you to the same place, I'd just open a support ticket if I were you to make sure that there's not a separate step involved.

[Account Deleted]

Hello Geo, good day. I'm sure there's a domain mapping function in the old typepad. I've seen it once :)You just have to look for it. I know its there. I want to help you but i forgot already since i switched to the new typepad a few days ago. Anyways, i suggest you switch to the new typepad already and give it a try. It rocks! i tell you, and you will no longer have problem with regards to the compose editor:) I know you value writing so much :) you can keep that one while enjoying the new typepad features. Specially the SEO and the domain mapping feature.

I got 15 url indexed by google from the moment i switched to the new typepad. Im enjoying Typepad even more now :) I hope you'll find solutions pretty soon. Goodluck and more power to you. My last words.

Typepad Rocks! Even more now that its a NEW TYPEPAD ALREADY:)

[Geo]

I found the corresponding areas in the classic interface after some digging - they aren't where one would think to look. The directions are still pretty detailed, though, much more than I recall so, yeah, it looks like help ticket time.
Now if I can just get all of my other questions answered...

[Geo]

Thanks for the info. I don't know how much of these posts you have followed recently, but I actually have tried the new TypePad platform and gave up on it after a great deal of frustration and lost time. I am apparently the lone voice of dissent because I think it's terrible, as Miz Genevra is painfully aware from our various email conversations. But it is precisely because of the 'new' compose screen, and the image handling (which are just exactly the same as the current/classic platform, only with some colour modifications) that I sadly returned to using LiveWriter for all the heavy lifting. Glad you like it, though.

[Dave McIntyre]

Yes, I tried it a couple more times, but the typepad domaine keeps coming
up. Any ideas?

[rhoeg]

Hi Ginevra!

Great and useful post. I both mapped and redirected my GoDaddy domain (www.NorthstarNerd.org) to my Typepad blog (eContent.Typepad.com). Everything is working super. My questions revolves around the issue of whether there is a way to make anyone who uses my old domain (via saved bookmark, link, or typed web address) to have their entry automatically resolve to the new DNS. In these cases, the typepad DNS still appears. Thanks! I think I need to set up a forward on my Typepad DNS, but I'll be darned if I can find a menu item for taking care of that issue.