Custom Domain Setup

We recommend you only choose this option if you are a "techie" and understand domains, subdomains and CNAME records etc.  Using a Custom Domain will not improve SEO since the CNAME record redirects your members back to ProductDyno.com

You can add any domain or subdomain that you own for  your ProductDyno product. Please note: This CANNOT be the same domain/subdomain used in External Content

Using domain names

Domain names are purchased from a domain name registrar. Most domain registrars allow you to manage the DNS records for your domain name through their control panel. Some registrars offer more management options than others so if your registrar has a limited control panel, it is possible to move the management of your DNS records to a separate DNS management service.

There are two different ways you can use your domain name with ProductDyno:

1. Use a subdomain

Once you own a domain name, you can create as many subdomains for that domain as you like. An example subdomain might be  www.my-domain.com or members.my-domain.com.

This is the easiest way to setup a custom domain for your blog. See the section on  using a subdomain for more details.

2. Use the root domain

If you prefer, you can use  my-domain.com as your custom domain without a subdomain. This is a bit trickier to setup than a subdomain and has some caveats.

In order to use a root domain directly, the service you use to manage your DNS records (usually your domain registrar) must support CNAME records at the root level. This is a non-standard feature of DNS records, but more and more companies are adding support. See the section on  using a root domain for more details.

Using a subdomain

Note: www. is a subdomain and is  not a special case of your root domain. Configuring www. to point to your site will  not automatically make the root domain work.

To configure your product in ProductDyno to point to your site, you’ll need to add a CNAME record to your DNS records. The setup will look something like this - please bear in mind that this may be different for your host:

The CNAME record will need to look something like this:

Note :Do  NOT include the ‘https://’ within the target field when entering your site URL.

Using a root domain

Some services which support configuring CNAMEs for the root domain:

  • Cloudflare
  • NameCheap
  • 123-reg

The majority of these services use the symbol  @ (NOT www) to represent the root domain when configuring a CNAME record. For example, to configure your root domain using most services, the CNAME record will look like this:

Note: No IP address is needed to set up the CNAME. For Cloudflare, use DNS only instead of Proxied. 

If your domain is registered with a service that does not support root level CNAMEs, don’t worry: who you purchase your domain from (your registrar) and who manages your DNS can be different. We recommend moving your DNS to be managed by Cloudflare. For detailed instructions, see the tutorial   How to create a Cloudflare account and add a website



Wait for your changes to take effect

... this can take up to 48 hours although usually it is much quicker

Before you go forward with setting up your custom domain in ProductDyno, please check that your CNAME record has been set up correctly and propagated successfully.  You can do this at https://mxtoolbox.com/ Until this gives you a successful result, ProductDyno will not be able to "connect" to the custom domain

Alternatively you can check the status of your domain’s progress by visiting 
https://www.whatsmydns.net/#CNAME/yourdomain.com
editing this url you add your domain to the end.


Set the Custom Domain on ProductDyno

Have you checked your CNAME record has been successfully set up and propagated?  If not, please do so before proceeding

Now that you’ve got your CNAME record setup, you will need to associate the domain name with a product in your account. To do this, please follow these simple steps:

  1. Log into your ProductDyno account
  2. Click on the product you are dealing with, click on Domain & Access
  3. Click the Slider "Enable Custom Domain" (now anything in the "subdomain" field above will be ignored)
  4.  Enter your domain name 
    Make sure you enter your domain exactly as you set it up above.
    — If for your CNAME record you configured www.my-domain.com – enter that here.
    — If for your CNAME record you configured members.my-domain.com – enter that here.
  5. SAVE

Having problems?

If for some reason you’re having issues getting your custom domain set up for your product in ProductDyno, you can always contact your domain registrar and provide them with a copy of these instructions, they should be able to help you get everything configured properly. 

Note: If you are having problems setting up your CNAME record in one of the services like Cloudflare, please try setting the CNAME record in your original domain settings.

Customer feedback for setting up Custom Domain when using Cloudflare: Cloudflare seemed problematic.So I took it off Cloudflare altogether. When a sub-domain is created in cPanel, it creates an A record. The thing to remember to do before adding a CNAME record is you've got to remove the A record first. 

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