How to Add Custom Domain Name (.com) to Your Blogspot/Blogger Blog

By default all new blogs at Blogger.com comes with .blogspot extension in their names. They work and look fine but mostly considered as non professional to some readers. Adding a Custom domain to your .blogspot blog not only creates a good impression over visitor but also generate a formal and positive impression of your blog in blogosphere.

Adding custom domain in your blog's url only remove '.blogspot' part from your blog's address and your blogger/blogspot blog's address you will change to something like http://www.yourblog.com.

If you buy and add a custom domain to your blog, your Blog will still be hosted on (free) blogger.com hosting. The only change is your blog's address your posts will be there but displayed at your new address.

To convert your .blogspot/blogger blog to a new (.com/.net/.org) domain name, follow simple steps below, divided into 3 parts.

Part 1 - Buying a Domain

1. Buy a domain name.

Sites that offer domain registration services are called "Domain Registrars". You can use any registrar that you trust or seek recommendations from your friends having their own domain names.

TLD (Top Level Domain) includes: .com , .net , .biz, .info , .org, .mobi etc

2. To buy a domain, go to any domain registrar site that you selected after recommendation or personal research & comparison.
See list of top domain registrars or complete list of all international domain registrars.

2. Search for the domain name that you want to register and follow the simple proceeding steps for payment.
Prices range anywhere from $7-$10 and all of the sites offer payment through credit card and paypal.




3. Carefully enter your domain name and double check the name and spelling before payment.

4. Wait for the registration confirmation email from your registrar with username and password in the email.

Part 2 - Configuring DNS Settings

DNS (Domain Name System), and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet.

1. Sign in to you domain registrar's site, using username and password (given in the confirmation email).

2. In the Domain control panel click the domain name to enter its settings page.
3. Find for "DNS" / "DNS Settings"/ "Total DNS" / "DNS Management" in your domain control panel and click it.



3. Find CNAME and add a new CNAME



You'll find three entry boxes under CNAME:
1. Name (Alias or Record Name)
2. Value (or Record Value)
3. TTL

Your domain control panel may call "Name" and "Value" with some other labels.

In Name/Alias, type: www
In Value, type: ghs.google.com
In TTL, type: 1800 (or leave the default value if already written)


4. Now find 'A'NAME and a new 'A'NAME or 'ARecord'.



Again you'll find same three text boxes;
1. Name (Alias or Record Name)
2. Value (or Record Value or IP address)
3. TTL

Your domain control panel may call "Name" and "Value" with some other labels.

Leave the Name field blank this time.
In Value/IP address, type: 216.239.32.21
In TTL, type: 1800 (or leave the default value if already written)

After entering above information in your DNS settings, Save your settings and you may log out from your domain control panel now.
This tells your DNS (domain) where to direct your new domain address. Wait for 24-48 hours until your Domain is configured and start directing to Google's (Blogger) server.

Part 3 - Introducing newly configured domain to your .blogspot blog

After waiting (for 24-48 hours) move to your blog, where you configure your .blogspot blog to direct to your new domain name.

1. Sign in to your blogger account.
2. Go to "Publishing" tab under "Settings" page.
3. Click on "Custom Domain"



4. Click "Switch to Advanced Settings"



5. Enter you domain name (including http://www)
6. After Word Verification Click "Save Settings".



After settings are successfully saved you'll see a checkbox under "Your Domain" textbox.

7. Tick mark the checkbox saying "Redirect mynewdomain.com to www.mynewdomain.com"

This will redirect the user to your new domain even if someone enters your blog's URL without 'www'

8. Enter word verification and Save Settings again.
9. View your blog and see the URL with new domain name.


If concept and procedure of adding custom domain is still confusing just think of a bridge connecting two edges. Here your new domain name is one end and your blog is the other end and you need to create a bridge between these two ends. Your newly bought domain doesn't know where to direct itself and on the other end is your blog - which doesn't know which domain name in this world is being configured for it.
Settings in part 2 and 3 is to create that bridge between your domain name and your blog.

Things to Remember

- Everything including your Posts, images, widgets, backlinks, Visitors' comments, RSS feed, Feed subscribers will be unaffected and remain there. (Even your RSS Feeds' URL will be same)

- You won't loose your previous posts' links and images as Blogger's service automatically redirects your old .blogspot URL to your new (.com/.net) address.

Like, if somebody enters link to any of your posts, say;
http://www.myownblog.blogspot.com/hello-there.html

...it'll be redirected to new address automatically.
http://www.myownblog.com/hello-there.html

- Your Search engine rankings won't be effected but you WILL loose your page rank.

- It is highly recommended to re-submit your (new domain) Blog's sitemap to Search Engines.


Hope you got all above steps. So if you are planning to buy a new domain for your blog or if you have bought but facing any problem in configuration, leave your queries/comments. I'll try my best to assist you.

Resolve BitDefender 2009/2010 "Update Service Unavailable" Error

During update process, BitDefender Anti virus 2009/2010 sometimes faces an error of "Update Service Unavailable". In which Bitdefender's update service becomes unavailable even if you restart the system and all the options get disabled.

This happens when some conflicts occur with the last update or with any other security software recently or already installed in your system.



To resolve this issue:

1. Download "BitDefender Update Unavailable Patch".

2. Run it and wait until it completes (the tool will update and clear the issue - internet connection required; the process can take some time - 5 to 20 minutes)

NOTE! The patch might not function correctly on systems with UAC enabled. Make sure you disable UAC if you experience any issues.

3. Reboot the computer after the procedure is finished;

4. Check if the BitDefender Update Module is working properly.

Note: This Patch works on both BitDefender 2009 and 2010 Anti virus, Internet Security and Total Security.

Download BitDefender 2010 Anti virus/Internet Security/Total Security with CRACK!

Yahoo Search Pad: Save Links/Notes Online While Searching

Web Searching is the most frequent task we do on internet, but sometimes searching something requires a lot of saving. You need to save links you visit, take notes while searching and organizing the links for later view. Either you bookmark the links for review or you open a notepad file in behind to save the text/links from your search results.

What about an online notepad that not only automatically saves the links you visit while searching but also allows you to save notes? And What if the notepad is right beside the search results within the browser? Sounds interesting.. isn't it?
Yahoo! Search is the first one to thought of this and came up with a online notepad with starts working as soon as you search anything on Yahoo Search! called "Search Pad".

Part of New Yahoo! Search, Search Pad is a note taking application built into Yahoo! Search that automatically assists you in saving websites you visit and taking notes as you search. Search Pad helps you collect, edit, organize, save, print, and email your notes for immediate or future use.



Search Pad is helpful in completing tasks and making decisions that require collecting information over multiple search sessions such as making a large purchase, planning a vacation or gathering information on a health issue.

Now you can save, organize, and take notes on your searches. Access your saved searches from anywhere and also Share/email your notes with others.

Learn more about Yahoo! Search Pad

Now Go and Start Searching anything on Yahoo Search! and Explore Yahoo! Search Pad.

Blogger Play: Play Slide-show of Blogger Images

Blogger Play is a cool real-time slideshow of recently uploaded photos by Blogger users to their blogs. It's a fun to watch and great snapshot of what people are thinking and posting about, right now!



Images on Blogger Play come from blogs that are public and listed on the web. You'll find new interesting images and also blogs of your interest.

If your blog is listed in "Blogger Listings" then images on your blog can also be seen by other users viewing Blogger Play. Visit the site and keep it open for few minutes you'll notice the images keep changing after every few moments as millions of images are continuously uploaded at blogger every second!

Visit: Blogger Play

Want to hide your blog's images from Blogger Play?

By default all blogs are automatically added in this blogger listing to show images in Blogger Blog. But if you you want to remove your blog from listings perform following steps:

1. Sign in to your Blogger account.
2. Go to "Settings" and scroll down to the mid of the settings page.
3. Find "Add Your Blog to our Listings?" and Change it to "No"

Upgrade Thunderbird to a Full Personal Information Manager

If you are a user of Mozilla Thunderbird then you must be aware of the fact that it doesn't has any calendering and task scheduling feature by default just like Microsoft Outlook.

If Thunderbird is your primary mail user agent and you would like to manage your daily schedules and tasks withing Thunderbird then you must try installing a recommended add-on for this - "Lightning". An add on which tightly integrates with Thunderbird, upgrading it to a full personal information manager and allows you to easily perform email-related daily schedule events and tasks just like Microsoft Outlook.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the add-on from the download link below.
2. Open Thunderbird, open the "Add-ons" in the Tools menu.
3. Click the "Install button", and locate, select the add-on you downloaded and click "OK".
4. Close and reopen Thunderbird to finish the installation.

Download

Download Lighting for Thunderbird

Register a Domain and get 500MB FREE Hosting

Affordable Multimedia is offering free hosting with the registration of a domain name. To get free hosting plan all you have to do is to register a domain with the site and get a 500 MB free web hosting plan for the entire lifetime of the domain with the support of PHP, MySQL, CGI and Email Forwarding.

Usually free offers like this one comes with forced ads in your site but best thing about this offer is that they never place any annoying advertisements or pop-up windows of any kind on your site(s).

After registering a domain, you get:

- No Ads
- No Banners
- No Pop-ups
- No required forum posting
- 5 GB Monthly Data Transfer
- 500 MB Disk Storage
- PHP 5, mySQL 5, CGI included
- POP email and webmail
- Fantastico script installer
- Free software
- 24 x 7 x 365 Tech support,
- 99.9% Uptime
- Easy to use Control Panel. See Demo

There is a long list of features that AFMU offers with the free hosting account.

Visit Affordable Multimedia's home page to see full details and complete list of offered features and CGI scripts and software.

Quickest Way to Add Hotmail/Live Mail Account in Outlook

If you're experiencing difficulties in configuring your Windows Live Hotmail account in Microsoft Outlook, then you don't have to worry anymore for that. With Outlook Connector, you can use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free without any manual POP3 & SMTP settings.

With Outlook Connector you can also access and manage your calendar, tasks and notes in Outlook (for accounts with a paid subscription).

Outlook Connector enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

- Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
- Manage your Live Mail Contacts.
- Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.

Now you can add multiple email account with ease without doing same steps for settings and configuration.

Adding Account with Outlook Connector

After installing Outlook connector:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Add a new (Live Hotmail) account from Outlook Connector menu.

3. Type your Email address, password, and Name of the account.

Hit OK and Exit Outlook on the prompt.

5. Open Microsoft Outlook again.

6. You'll be given a dialogue box asking confirming your password for newly added account, just Click "Sign in" button.

All your emails will automatically be downloaded for you in Outlook. You may have to wait for a several minutes if your account has too many emails in your inbox.

Enjoy hassle free setup of Microsoft Live Hotmail Account(s) in Outlook.

Download

Download Microsoft Outlook Connector

File size: 4.36 MB
Last updated: March 27, 2009

MouseExtender: A Lightweight Program Launcher

MouseExtender is a very handy utility with shortcuts to your favorite programs and folders. Once installed, a click of your mouse's middle button opens the MouseExtender window wherever your cursor happens to be. Then just click the program icon or folder you want to launch. Simple isn't it?

Adding programs to MouseExtender is extremely simple: Just right-click in the window and choose Add Running Program or choose File or Folder to add. And if you need your middle mouse button elsewhere, you can "exclude" MouseExtender from specific programs--meaning the middle button goes back to its regular function when those programs are active.

MouseExtender also provides three basic system buttons on its main interface : Control Panel, Restart, and Shutdown. Very handy!!

The beautifully looking little application allows you to improve your productivity. It is extremely simple and fully customizable.

Download MouseExtender

[filesize: 109 KB]
[Latest Stable version: 1.5.0.0]

Note: MouseExtender is based on WPF and requires dotnet framework 3.5SP1 to run

Download .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Submit an Article

If you have any informative, interesting article/website about any new software, computing or blogging tips, hacks or guides or anything matching the articles you see on TipsoTricks, just share it with me.

I'll not only publish after reviewing the sharing but also add a credit link back to your site and also a link to your twitter profile at the end of the article.

Use the contact form below and just send the link to the article/webpage that you wish to share, and link to your twitter/facebook profile page.


Also If you wish to write on this blog send me details with the following:

1. Reference URL so I can see what you have already published.
2. Your email for the author invitation


Link Exchange

Exchanging links of other blogs or websites with each other will help increase your Page Rank and the amount of traffic you can expect from Search Engines and from incoming links.

Therefore I offer Free Link Exchange here and hope that you make good use and will tell your friends and other bloggers about this Link Exchange (you can use retweet button on the right).

To add your blog's link below all you have to do is to first add a link of TipsoTricks to your blog roll.


Anchor Text: TipsoTricks
URL: http://www.tipsotricks.com



After adding my link to your site, use the comment form below leaving the following details of your blog:


Anchor Text:
URL:

Link to your blog roll (where you added my link) :


I'll immediately add you in the list below after confirmation.

Kindly share the page to others.

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