The Advantages of a Custom Blogger Domain
Blogger is Google's push-button publishing website. Once you register with Blogger, you can choose from the site's prefabricated templates and layouts -- or use your own -- to design a custom look for your website. Blogger sites have URLs that end with "blogspot.com"; Blogger also lets users switch to a custom domain name, further customizing and individualizing your website.
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Advantage #1: Ability To Use Blogger's Tools
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If you register a domain name and build your website yourself from scratch, you'll have to have substantial knowledge of HTML and JavaScript. Linking your custom domain name to Blogger eliminates this problem. By connecting the two, you can still take advantage of all Blogger's design tools, including its premade templates, graphics and gadgets. You'll also be able to take advantage of Blogger's stats section, which measures traffic to your website.
Advantage #2: Getting The Name You Want
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Blogger lets registered users select a domain name ending in "blogspot.com" when they sign up for an account. Sometimes, your preferred URL may not be available through Blogger -- but it might be available through ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is in charge of registering domain names. For example, maybe you want your blog to be called "This Mom's Life," and want to register the URL "thismomslife.blogspot.com" through blogger. Even if this URL is already taken you may still be able to find a streamlined version of it through an ICANN-licensed registrar, such as "thismomslife.com" or "thismomslife.net."
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Advantage #3: Attracting Search Engines and Advertisers
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Using a custom domain name can help you increase your blog's visibility to search engines. There are two reasons for this. First, a more streamlined URL is more likely to be copied and pasted by other websites, increasing the number of links to your blog and increasing the likelihood it will be found by a search engine. Second, when you select your domain name, you can add certain words to it to make it more appealing to search engines; for example, a custom URL with the word "motherhood" or "parenting" in it -- as opposed to a URL with your name or generic words -- will be more likely to be brought up by a search engine when someone looks for websites pertaining to either of those words.
And of course, the more likely your website is to be found by search engines, the easier it will be for potential advertisers to find your site as well. Google's PageRank tool measures the popularity of websites based on the number of hits they get, both by individual users and by search engines. The higher your PageRank (abbreviated PR), the more popular your site. Many advertisers base the rates they are willing to pay to sites based on PR; the higher the PR, the higher your potential income.
Advantage #4: Missing Files Host
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Occasionally, even the best website will have a server crash. If you publish your Blogger site on a custom domain name, you'll have another option for backing up your files and protecting your site from a crash: a missing files host. Blogger only lets users who publish on a custom domain name use a missing files host.
Additionally, if you have a custom domain name, you can also use a web hosting service in conjunction with your URL. Web hosting is where a company with a very large server leases you a small section of that server for your website. Blogger is a web host for all of its sites, but if you have a custom domain name, you can use a third party web host as a backup -- this is known as colocation, and is an added layer of protection for your site and the files it contains.
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References
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