When I switched my blogging platform from Blogger to WordPress, I also transferred my domain hosting service from enom to Bluehost.
This article describes:
- How to transfer your custom domain from enom (Google-supported) to Bluehost
- How to maintain Google Apps gmail for your custom domain
Why Bluehost?
I bought my domain through Blogger/Google, which meant that I couldn’t communicate directly with enom, the actual domain host and registrar, but instead had to go through Google Support, which meant somewhat slow and frustrating service. But, you get what you pay for.
With Bluehost, you get phone support 24/7 and a bunch of tools to go with it, including the ability to easily install WordPress.
This article covers the domain transfer. I wrote another article that documents the subsequent steps I went through to transfer my blog from Blogger to WordPress.
When I say WordPress, I mean self-hosted WordPress, the one you pay for, not the free version which provides a URL with the node “wordpress” in it. wordpress.com is for creating free blogs, whereas wordpress.org is your reference for creating self-hosted (and non-free) blogs.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Get a Bluehost Account
You can choose a different hosting service, but this article describes the process for Bluehost.
NOTE: If you wish to sign-up with Bluehost as your domain hosting service, and you haven’t done it yet, consider using my affiliate link: CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM
Tell Bluehost you want to transfer your domain
Login to your Bluehost account. There are a series of tabs on Bluehost’s main cPanel. Select the one marked Domain Manager and select “Transfer a new domain to your account”.
They will ask you to provide an EPP authorization code and to unlock the domain. If you bought your domain through Blogger (aka Google), then you have to request this information from Google Support Services (as opposed to enom).
Send request for EPP Authorization code to Google Support Services
Send a request to GoogleClients@enom.com with the following information: domain name, password and a brief description of your request.
To get your domain name and password, log in to your enom DNS account (by going to Google Apps, Dashboard [home page], Domain Names. If you can’t find Domain Names, click on Domain Settings then click on Domain Names). Then click on Advanced DNS Settings which will show you your domain name, and password. (More Info: Google Apps Help Page on How To Get your domain’s authorization code.)
Enter EPP authorization code on Bluehost
After Google Support Services responds with the EPP authorization code, enter it on Bluehost. (It took about a day to get the code from Google). Now you have to wait for enom to approve the transfer. For me, I had to wait 5 days. Meanwhile, you can assign the domain and add MX records on Bluehost.
Assign the domain on Bluehost
On your Bluehost cPanel page, click on the link that says “Assign a new domain to your cPanel account” and follow the steps to assign your soon-to-be-transferred domain to Bluehost. If you get stuck, you can always call Bluehost Support.
Add MX Records on Bluehost
The reason I had to add MX records (mail exchange records) was because I had a Google Apps account managing my email for nannygoatsinpanties.com and wanted to continue to do so. Google Apps requires that you add the following specific MX records:
| Priority | Mail Server |
|---|---|
| 1 | ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| 5 | ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| 5 | ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| 10 | ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. |
| 10 | ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM |
On your Bluehost cPanel, click on the MX Entry icon under the Mail section on the right-hand side of your screen:
On the MX Entry screen start adding new MX records according to the table above. For example, under “Add New Record”, enter a “1″ under priority and “ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.” under destination. NOTE: Be sure to include the period after “COM”. Click on the Add New record button until you’ve added them all shown below:
Remember, this step is only required if you have Google Apps handling your mail.
By adding the MX entries before the domain transfer occurred, my gmail service was never interrupted and I did not lose any of my old mail.
(More Info: Adding MX records for Google Apps mail handling.)
And now, you just keep waiting for the domain transfer to take place.
After the enom to Bluehost transfer
When you receive notification via email that the enom to Bluehost transfer occurs (and again mine took 5 days), your website will be down and a Bluehost page will be up in its place. This is because your blog’s content is not on Bluehost, it’s still over on Blogger. If you want your old blog up and running for your users to see without interruption, you can temporarily redirect your custom domain (now hosted on Bluehost) to your blogspot blog while you get your WordPress blog set up, or you can leave it down, it’s up to you.
Cancel redirect on the Blogger side
If you do decide to temporarily redirect your custom domain to your blogspot URL, this would be a good time to remove the redirect from the Blogger side that you presumable set up back when you bought your custom domain. If you don’t remove it, and you do add this temporary redirect from the Bluehost side, you’ll end up in some crazy infinite looping thing.
To remove the redirect on the blogger side, go to your Blogger Dashboard, to the Settings tab, to the Publishing section, and click on the link to “Switch to: blogspot.com”.
Create a temporary redirect on Bluehost
Now you can create a temporary redirect on Bluehost: go to cPanel and look for the Redirects icon under the Domains section on the right-hand side.
On the redirects screen, select “Temporary (302) for the type”.
There is a pull-down for you to select your domain to redirect FROM.
In the section labeled “redirects to –>”, enter your old blogspot URL:
http://www.yourdomain.blogspot.com
There is a lot of talk out there about “changing the nameservers”. I pulled my hair out worrying about how, when, and why to do this and it turned out that I never had to do such a thing. When I got on the phone with Bluehost support, they walked me through the step above to do the redirect as a temporary measure while I finished getting my blog set up on WordPress.
If you get stuck at any point while working in Bluehost, don’t be afraid to contact Bluehost support. It’s what they’re there for. Keep in mind, however, they are not WordPress support people, they are domain hosting people.
And that’s it! OK, your domain is transferred and your blog is back up and running. If you wish to learn how to move your blog from Blogger to WordPress, you can go to my article entitled: Blogger to WordPress: How to Make the Switch.
NOTE: Remember to remove the temporary redirect once your WordPress blog is up and running. You will be reminded of this if you go through my Blogger to WordPress article.
Via | Nannygoatsimpanties.com
