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How to Set Up Domain for Outside AR Blog

By
Real Estate Agent with Myrtle Beach Homes Blog

As some have already noticed, Activerain recently gave the members an opportunity to have an outside blog page. This is a huge thing and an awesome idea. The best part about it, is that you can write your posts in Activerain and by just clicking one box, they are automatically added to your own personal outside blog. For the more advanced users you can purchase an outside domain name and have your outside blog point to that page. Since this release, I have seen many questions about how to set up your outside domain name, so I asked Brad if he wanted me to write a brief tutorial to help everyone else. My outside blog went active yesterday.

First thing is to visit GoDaddy.com and find a domain. You can see if your domain is available by searching at the top of the page, or in the middle there is also a search area. Type in exactly what you want the domain to be and click go.

Pick a Domain

If the domain is already taken, you will see this next screen come up.

Domain taken

If this happens, simply try another domain name, or you can pick one of the different variations which will be listed below. If the domain is not taken, this screen will appear:

Available Domain

Once you have found an available domain, you will need to set up an account with GoDaddy & go through the steps to purchase the domain. After you have purchased the Domain, you will need to point Activerain Servers to your new domain. Below is how to do that.

First, log into your account with GoDaddy & click on the tab on the left side that says My Products and then Manage Domains.

Manage Domains

After clicking on the Manage Domains link, a menu across will appear. Click on the image that says Nameservers.

Nameservers

You will then bring up a menu screen with multiple tabs. Click on the Custom Nameservers box at the bottom of the Default Nameserver tab. Then click the Custom Nameserver Tab.

Nameserver

After clicking on the Custom Name Server Tab, input these exactly:

Nameserver 1: NS1.AGENTSPACES.COM

Nameserver 2: NS2.AGENTSPACES.COM

Then click OK.


You are now set up on GoDaddy.com. You will then need to go to your Activerain page. Click on the Outside Blogs button. Halfway down the page you will see the box, Use an outside domain name (advanced). Here is where you will type in your new domain page. Enter it exactly the same as your domain name. Also make sure you click the enable box.

Enable outside Domain Name

The last step is to go to the bottom of this page and click SAVE CHANGES.


Save

After clicking SAVE CHANGES it will take up to 72 hours for the nameservers to be directed and for the page to go active. You have done everything properly. The only thing left to do is be patient and wait.

Enjoy your new outside domain name blog. Thanks ACTIVERAIN!

 


****UPDATE FROM BRAD ANDERSOHN****

Here's A TIP I just picked up from AR support:

If it has been more than 24 hours and your personalized domain is NOT WORKING:

Go into your AR Blog setup page, and disable the custom domain section and save.
(just uncheck the "enable" box)

Then go back in and re-enable it and save once again.  This will clear the bug issue
that was discovered over the weekend and stored in your browsers memory.

 

Make sure you don't add in the http://  or the www, to the domain name, just enter
the domain name ONLY:  ie: JeremyBlanton.com


So if you're one of those still waiting, this WILL be the process that will fix it.

 

*****UPDATE #2*******

Since there is going to be a lot of questions and tips/tricks coming out over the next few months, I made a group for outside blogs this evening.  Go Join Here

Comments(171)

Petra Norris
Lakeland Real Estate Group, Inc. - Lakeland, FL
Realtor, Lakeland FL Homes for Sale

Jeremy - I had the same question and I'm in my godaddy account now in the forward section, do I type in my outsideblog domain to Forward to:  Also, what is masking and do I have to include keywords in masking. I really appreciate your help if you can help me. Thanks

Sep 25, 2008 09:36 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Jeremy,

Good stuff. Did you leave the outside blog set by Activerain as well, or you can't forward to both, and does it make sense to try to do that?

Wow, sorry for so many questions

Sep 25, 2008 05:09 PM
Michael Sahlman
www.HomesForVIPs.com - Keller Williams Realty - Miami Beach, FL
e-PRO - Miami Beach Florida Luxury Homes

excellent post Jeremy. Need to re-visit this along with the other 100 things on my to-do list, but this is one is important. Thanks again for the guidance here.

Sep 25, 2008 10:05 PM
Shannon Gilmore, CRS
Long and Foster Real Estate - Warrenton, VA
Real Estate Sales Associate with Long and Foster

I am working on this and forgot I had bought a blog domain name until godaddy sent me a message... Thanks Jeremy - I am going to get this set up tomorrow!

Oct 05, 2008 07:06 AM
Robert Hammerstein -
Christie's International Real Estate - Hillsdale, NJ
Bergen County NJ Real Estate

Jeremy -  I'm finally going to use one of our names we bought many years ago from godaddy. My renewal just came up which reminded  me that I even had these to play with. Thanks for the tutorial. Bob H

Oct 19, 2008 09:35 AM
Team Honeycutt
Allen Tate - Concord, NC

Thanks for the post and great information.  We are new and still learning.  This was very helpful.

Oct 19, 2008 10:31 AM
Sharon Paxson
Sharon Paxson, Realtor® EQTY Forbes Global Properties - Newport Beach, CA
Newport Beach Real Estate

Jeremy - this is an awesome tutorial. I completed it and will wait for my 72 hours. This is a great tutorial, and thank you so much. I appreciate how much this has helped!

Oct 21, 2008 02:25 PM
Sabrina Kelley
ERA Herman Group Real Estate - Woodland Park, CO
Woodland Park Colorado Mountain Homes and Land

Good tutorial. It was very clear and I haven't found any glitches in our advice. Thanks.

Oct 21, 2008 02:37 PM
June Watson
Weichert Realtors, ProSouth - Florence, AL
Realtor , NW Alabama

Ok - sounds great! I've bookmarked this blog for later. Now, to just think up a premo name..... (Actually, that's probably going to be the hard part!) LOL

Oct 21, 2008 03:14 PM
Brian Lee Burke
Kenna Real Estate - Lone Tree, CO
Broker & Advising Expert-Kenna Luxury Real Estate

Awesome - I followed all directions :) got everything set up in about 4 minutes and it is already working (10 minutes later!) wow, that was fast. ~Rita

Oct 22, 2008 05:02 AM
Kerry Jenkins
Prime Properties - Crestline, CA

I was wondering what the outside blogs things was...hadn't had time to look into it!  Thanks!

 

Oct 22, 2008 10:33 AM
Thomas Tolbert
Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate Legacy - Savannah, GA

Great tips Jeremy......thanks!

Oct 22, 2008 12:06 PM
DeAndrea "Dee Dee" Jones
Samson Properties - Manassas, VA
DMVRealEstateChick

Thanks for the info I followed your instructions word for word.  I will check back to see how its working.  Thanks for the info.

Oct 23, 2008 12:01 PM
Mike Hughes
Hughes Residential - Newton, MA
Services Newton, Brookline, Lexington, Waltham & W

Hi Jeremy,

Great tutorial ... another fantastic website for domain purchases is www.1and1.com  They offer domains for $6 a year.  You can point to any HTML page (link).  I have multiple domains that point to the same spot - they're cheap ... so why not :).

Thanks again,

Mike

Oct 26, 2008 12:48 AM
Winter Baserva
Seasons Realty Group of Atlanta Communities - Atlanta, GA
Realtor -Homes For Sale, Atlanta, GA

I'm SO happy I found your post. I was JUST wondering how to set this up. Many Thanks.

Oct 30, 2008 02:31 AM
Terri Visser
Desert Sky Real Estate, LLC - Redmond, OR
CRS - 12 Years Selling Central Oregon Real Estate

Hey Jeremy.  Thanks for this great tutorial.  I followed it to set up two domains for my outside blog on Nov. 1.  As of now I still can not get them to work.  Last night I went thru the disable/enable process as suggested in your tips.  This is the msg I'm getting: 

Page Not Found --- !ruby/exception:NoMethodError message: private method `gsub' called for nil:NilClass

Any thoughts?  Trying to get up and running so I can submit a blog for the contest.

Nov 04, 2008 02:39 AM
Marcia Kramarz
Re/Max Executive Realty - Medway, MA
CDPE,LMC,CBR

I'm back reading this - I'm pretty sure I read it before - but thanks to your 103 or 107 ways to use Activerain, I'm back again - This time I'll give it a try...!  THanks!

Nov 15, 2008 11:28 PM
Scott Guay
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services PenFed Realty - Ocean Pines, MD
Associate Broker. Ocean City and Ocean Pines MD

Just joined the group.  I know I need to do this.  Just need to do it!!

Nov 15, 2008 11:36 PM
Tami Vroma
West Michigan Real Estate Specialist-Five Star Real Estate - Grand Haven, MI
Realtor, Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

Jeremy - do we have a new tut for the new way the blogs are set up-it is all different now.

Dec 19, 2008 07:24 AM
Margaret Woda
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. - Crofton, MD
Maryland Real Estate & Military Relocation

It's time for an update or a reblog on this...  'Don't know thata it is "all different now" but I do know there are people setting up outside blogs that weren't around when this was first posted.

Jan 04, 2009 05:50 AM