Friday, May 13, 2011

Auto-renewing your blog's custom domain

You can make sure that your custom domain name is (or isn't) automatically renewed each year, if you purchased it through Blogger or through Google Apps.


What is renewing a custom domain about?


If you have purchased a custom domain (eg www.fred-fish.com), then you have the right to use that name for however long you purchased it for.   How long that is depends on the contract with the domain-registrar (ie the company that you purchased it from).

If you purchase a domain through Blogger (and thus through one of eNom or GoDaddy), the only option you have is to buy it for one year.

After the term of your contact is finished, you need to either buy it again or switch your blog to use another domain name (perhaps your old blogspot name).   And if you don't buy the domain again, someone else will be able to buy it.

If your custom domain name is important to you (and it will be if your blog is successful), then you will want to make sure that you have done the "paperwork" to re-purchase well before it's due to expire.   Your domain registrar should send you a reminder email about a month before the registration is due - but it's sometimes very easy to miss details like this.

Luckily, Google makes it easier by providing an option to automatically renew your domain each year.


Using the auto-renew option

When you first purchase a domain, one of the questions is whether to automatically renew the registration each year.   I usually answer "no" because I don't want my credit card charged with something I didn't specifically authorise.

But there are some domains that have become very important to me, and I want to be certain that they are renewed.  So I'm prepared to turn auto-renew on for them.


Follow these steps to turn domain auto-renew on:


1  Go to Google Apps   (www.google.com/apps)


2  Sign in by entering your domain name, and choosing Domain Management.


Log in with the administrator account that you set up when you first purchased the custom domain - remember that this may now be called bloggeradmin, if you purchased it more recently.

If you see an "Account Management" screen after logging in, then you may need to Go to Google Apps   (www.google.com/apps) again - sometimes it may take you to the wrong screen if you were logged into a regular Google account at the start.


4  Choose the Domains tab from the Admin Console.


5  Make sure that the the Automatic Renewal check-box is set to on, ie ticked (or off / unticked if you don't want to auto-renew).


6 Press Save Changes  (which only appears after you have made a change on the page)




What happens next


If the Auto-renew option is ticked, then about a month before the renewal is due Google sends you an email to remind that that it's going to occur.  

After that, at the appropriate time, Google charges the credit-card associated with your Google Apps account (ie the one you used to purchase the domain) for a one-year renewal.

The one thing that you need to do is make sure that the credit card that you have linked to the Google account is still valid.

You can find more information about Domain payments on this Google help page.



Related Articles


Checking the credit card that is linked to your account

Setting up an administrator for your custom domain

Transferring Blog Ownership.

Understanding Google accounts

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16 comments:

  1. great. thats what i was looking for

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  2. Thanks, this post is very informative and helpful. I appreciate it so much. I can now make sure that the renewal of my domain will be done.

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  3. This is awesome, very helpful. Thank you so much!

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  4. Thank You so Much :} If you need any help with anything Im here for you.

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  5. they ask me for username .... but i dont hav any username i just hav email address .

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  6. Mani, you need to read the article about setting up your custom domain (http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-your-custom-domain.html): if you ever want to manage the domain, you're going to NEED an administrator account.

    If you didn't set one up initiall, then you'll need to find that email inviting you to set one up.

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  7. Good Step !!!
    i always facing the problem on forget about to renew my domain and hosting while i host my website and domain in different web hosting provider.
    One of the most important is , big hosting provider do not inform us when the domain name is going to expired soon . Thank for the solution. It better if do have hosting expired date reminder as well.

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  8. Thanks for sharing. But I had made the problem worse a year ago when I purchased my domain name and took the help of my friend, he bought it with his blogger a/c and the domain is now connected with his google ID. the domain is going to expire in two days and I have no info how to get it back. Should I wait to expire it and then buy it from godaddy or something else? I tried to contact my friend but he is busy in his work and not able to help me in it right now.

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    Replies
    1. Oh dear, that is not a good situation. In short, your friend owns the domain, not you. I do hope that he really is your friend, and has organized to renew the domain for you - and also offers to transfer it to a domain-registrar account that you own.

      If not, then as you say you could wait for it to expire, and then go through a redemption period, and then it will be available for you after that. This could take a while.

      Good luck.

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  9. Hi. My domain has been automatically renewed on dec 26, the expiration date of my domain was 2 jan 2013. now it has been extend to 2 jan 2014. but google has not charge my wallet card. I have to activate session of my waled card to allow transaction. is there any way that i can pay google so that i can throw this tension out.
    Can i pay for domain charges through "make a payment" option in transaction history? because i dont know when google will charge. or tell me approximately when google will charge, i have searched in internet and google says that they will charge at appropriate time for domain renewal. but no body know when will this appropriate time come. Kindly tell me a solution of this problem. In transaction history i have read that one can make payments to cover future charges and advance payment appear as negative in current balance. Can i do this? so that google can't have to explore my credit card. and just make transaction from my current negative balance?
    Medicotips.com

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  10. hi, please can you help me. I need to renew but it won't let me put in my email address - just a username and i dont know what this is. i tried the first half of my email address but no luck :( xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Im going throughout the same thing now. the name u need to enter is bloggeradmin@YOURSSITESNAME.com

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    2. this is sort of helpful, i actually did all of this last night.. the problem i had is one blogger or google changed the payment method, i was using, i had the blog for a few years now, and before i always got a few emails to tell me to renew for a year. this year i didn't receive anything at all. so the blog expired today I'm thinking (I had authors post on yesterdays date) it took hours of poking around trying to figure out how to get into the admin sign in. now I've made the autopay changes everything was accepted but the blog is still expired. In other words this post helps to not get expired, I really need to know what happens in my situation, the blog is expired, and now autopay is set up after expiration. how long until the blog is back up and running???

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