One thing I always was hesitant about when I started blogging was having the “blogspot.com” in my blog address. Doesn’t eazycheezy.net or eazycheezy.com sound a little better than eazycheezy.blogspot.com? Plus, if you were in someone else’s shoes, which would you rather click on?

One of my goals since starting to blog has been to move Eazy Cheezy to a domain. I first tried it the hard way and it was very tough. I used GoDaddy, along with their tools and had trouble getting used to the interface. I ended up canceling my subscription, rather than waste too much time.

Then, I found that Blogger has a simple way to move to a domain. It costs a total of $10 for a year and it took me 5 minutes. Here is what I did:

1. Logged into my Dashboard.

2. Clicked on Settings

3. Clicked on the Publishing Tab

4. Click on the “Custom Domain” link

5. Typed in a domain name I wanted. eazycheezy.com was taken, so I chose eazycheezy.net. Then click Check Availability.

6. If that domain name is available, you can proceed to use Google Checkout and purchase your domain for $10. This will give you a 1 year registration. Google uses GoDaddy.com to register your domain with, but you can still manage your site from your regular Blogspot dashboard.

7. Once I completed the transaction, Google sent me an e-mail telling me the following:

• My domain with GoDaddy will expire Oct 8, 2009.
• They automatically configured my blog to work with Google Apps services.
• Gave me a link for my registered domain, http://www.eazycheezy.net/.
• Gave me a link to setup an administrative account for my domain with Google Apps.
• Once I setup my admin account, I had access to the Google Apps control panel. This is where you can view & edit any settings. It also tells you that your services will be activated shortly. My site was activated almost immediately. I haven’t tried any Apps yet.

I haven’t yet played with the Google Apps. My blog is now in the process of transferring. I’ll keep you updated.

Update: The message I get when I publish a post or edit and publish is below. It still allows me to accomplish both tasks, change my layout, etc:

Update 17 Oct 08:
During the transfer, the only difference I noticed is that I was unable to manage my site from the front page. For any modifications, I had to go into the layout from my dashboard. The transition was automatic. They do the work for you. It was a seemless transition and I still administer my site through Blogspot. The only difference is in the URL.

Help Links
Blogger Help to Transfer to Domain
Move your Blogspot Blog to your Own Domain