Easy change: From .blogspot.com to my Domain Name – in 5 minutes!

I was considering for a while changing my blog URL from “ninopopa.blogspot.com” to a more meaningful Domain Name.

The classic steps would have been:
1. buy a Domain Name ($12 / per year)
2. buy hosting ($6 to $10 per month)
3. figure out how to redirect my blog existing traffic from “.blogspot.com” to my new Domain Name (i.e. for the good people who bookmarked my blog’s URL)
This is so much hassle and too expansive for a personal blog.

While I did my research around – going through various options like considering Movable Type or TypePad, looking at various hosting services, Yahoo small business, etc I found the right answer right here at home: IN MY BLOG.

Using the setting in my blog, I could:
1. search for a Domain and buy it straight from my blog’s “Settings / Publishing / Custom Domain”
2. the Domain Name registration is $10 per year (thru a Google partner called eNom))
3. the hosting for the blog stays free as before
4. all the setting for the blog are available as before.
5. Further more I got free access to Google Aps. where I could have cool things like setting-up email addressed like someone@mydomain.com etc.

It took me 5 minutes to jump from http://www.ninopopa.blogspot.com/ to http://www.hightechjapan.com/
(DNS settings may take up to 3 days for some cases)

For more instructions on how to do it check out this link to Blogger Help.

Not too bad for $10 a year. Well done Google!