Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Welcome to my custom domain: leomarsden.com!

It was done on impulse. I don’t know what hit me when I suddenly clicked on the Switch to Custom Domain link in my Blogger dashboard. Then I worked on the Buy a Domain for your Blog with Donna’s credit card. This was almost 3 weeks ago.


I thought it would be an easy process but I was wrong. It’s not all Blogger’s fault though. Donna’s credit card encountered problems so even if the order was completed, it didn’t push through. I was not informed about the problem so I just assumed that my blog is already in transition to the new domain. I was not able to access my blog for a couple of days, my blog was missing.

I seek Blogger’s help, I sent them emails and I frequented forums on how to resolve the problem. I encountered “error 404” and “can not find server” error messages. It was very frustrating. I started to get acquainted with DNS settings, CNAME and to Google Apps.

It was over a week when I received an email from Blogger informing me that the order was on hold because of an issue with the Credit Card that I used. Had they notified me earlier, I should have been spared of a lot of inconveniences and frustration. I had to use a new VISA card to complete the order. After a couple of hours, I then receive an email from Google Apps with the subject: Google Apps -- Domain registration confirmation. I thought my problems were over. But I was wrong.

I instantly created an account with Google Apps, I tried to update my blog so I could post using my new domain but I was surprised to get another error message: Another Blog has already hosted at this address. I tried to follow the steps from different forums but the link below has helped me tremendously:

http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help/web/how-to-fix-another-blog-is-already-hosted-at-this-address

It was not an instant fix, though. I needed to wait for about 3 days to clear the error. In fact, it only worked about an hour ago when I checked this blog after I got home from another stressful day at the office. It made my day complete.

So here it is, welcome to my new home!

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