Custom domains allow you to point a domain

Custom domains allow you to point a domain of your own to your Bandcamp site, removing the “bandcamp.com” from the URL and multiplying your site’s that already impressive veneer of respectability. Domain registrar is a third-party company that sells and registrar’s domain names. Bandcamp is not a domain registrar. Setting up a custom domain requires some advanced DNS finding which is not for novices.

A domain name that you or someone else registers with a domain registrar, base domains contain no extra dots. E.g. example.com is a base domain. But www.example.com is not, because it contains an extra dot. Another example example.co.nz is a base domain, Like com or co.nz are not base domains for our purpose because you can’t registrar them.

A base domain with one or more parts added to the beginning as extra dots.

By default domain name you chose when you signed up for Bandcamp.

A base domain or sub-domain that you control and point to your Bandcamp site. Your fans will see the custom domain in their browser instead of your Bandcamp sub-domain.

The domain name system (DNS) is the magical collection of gears and pulleys which allows a web browser to translate a domain to a website. So you need to tell DNS that your custom domain now should point to Bandcamp.

The way you update DNS varies depending on your domain registrar is general the process goes something like-

Ø  Log into your domain registrar’s website.

Ø  Select the base domain you want to modify.

Ø  Find the section for managing DNS entries. The name of this section varies, but is usually something like” DNS Configuration”, “DNS records” Advanced DNS, Host records etc.

Ø  Now the instruction branch depending on whether you’ve chosen a base domain or a sub-domain

Domain verification

The domain verification is an essential step to ensure that the added domain is valid, not expired and you have sufficient privileges to manage the email service of the domain. It also proves that you have access to the domain or the domain’s DNS manage and have the information about the users of the domain and other significant information required to change the email hosting.

There are several way to verify your domain. But in case you have registered the domain with a provider and changed the domain name servers to a different provider, then the DNS records should be changed in the other provider. Basically when DNS records are looked up from your domain’s name servers, you may get clarified with your registrar of where your domain’s name servers are pointed to.

Once you have verified the domain, the CNAME or the HTML file can be removed and is no longer necessary. Once your domain is in verified state, in case you switch your DNS provider you need to check the MX records of the domain alone. Most DNS providers reset the MX entries during DNS shift or change.

If you are a multi-tenant user and manage sending domains for your own users, you’ll need to work directly with your users to verify their sending domains. E.g. to verify a domain you need to have login access to your email account where the sending domain is stored.

Optimizing parked domain

It’s  difficult to conduct a statistically correct split test of the landing page of a parked domain. But that doesn’t mean not to test. It just means doing the best you can. Just don’t give up if you get a few visitors and nobody clicks –that’s not enough traffic to base a decision on! Ultimately it depends on your traffic, but bigger the number of results, the more statistically significant they are.

So make one small change, wait a few days, and then review the results. E.g. here are a few things that will impact on your conversions and are worth testing. The keyword or key phrase you’ve chosen for your parked domain.

Alternatively, go down to your local store and view a couple of magazines related to that niche. Test various color combinations until you’ve found the highest earning one. Basically, the more you understand your target market, the faster you’ll  be able to short cut some of your testing and optimize your domain. So get inside the heads of your targeted visitors. Who are they? What are they really looking for when they visit your site? Imagine yourself as one of the members of your target market.

Correspondingly, including animations, video, audio or anything that distracts a visitor from clicking on your offers should be avoided. However, you want to subtlety direct the visitor to your ads. Avoid asking them to click as this is probably against the terms and conditions of your parking company and the advertiser. But do guide them to your offers so they virtually have no choice but to click on them or exit the site altogether

Registring and using multiple domains

If you’re thinking about registering more than one domain name, you’ve got the right idea. Registering and using multiple domain names are great for building your business, protecting your brand name and creating a dynamic online identity.

When you register multiple domain names, you can keep your competition from registering similar domain name drawing customers to them. Promote the different products and services. Drive more traffic to your website. Enjoy more opportunities to market to be listed in search engines, create distinct advertising strategies reaching different target markets. Provide customers more ways to find you when searching the internet. Capture common misspellings of your domain name, instead of sending visitors to an error page protect your brand and online identity.

Getting a domain is easy and cheap. For the price of a few cups of coffee, you can register a domain. Unless you’ve extremely uncommon last name, you’ll be unlikely to find it available and even you can use other domain suffixes of find a name that is still useful. Remember, most people find Wad sites via searches so don’t worry if you can’t get your exact name. You need an online home, a place where you tell the world what you you’ve done. Where you post your  own work, or at least some of it.