Note: Godaddy was used in this example. I'm a Godaddy Affiliate. If you found this how-to helpful, consider using this link to buy your domain name and send the URL to a friend.

Go from this:

http://homepage.mac.com/cherrypop/

To this:

http://apple-project.com

Apple Computer's .Mac, iWeb and Homepage are great, but they're not perfect. One of the questions I get often from friends has to do with the URL to a .Mac member's Homepage account. The often ask me if they want to use their own domain name (www.anythinghere.com) if they have to go to a hosting company rather than use their .Mac account. The answer is no, certainly not.

"http://homepage.mac.com/YourDotMacLogin/" is a long and clumsy URL to share with your friends and family. Wouldn't it be easier, and look a lot better on a business card or your email signature, etc, to have your own URL? It is, and it's very inexpensive. GoDaddy's fee for domain name registrations, makes it an easy decision.

MacDaddy (GoDaddy ;) offers domain registrations for as little as $6.95, and once you've signed up for a new domain, you can forward it to your .Mac Homepage account free of charge. Using my "How to create your own home page with a .Mac Account" you can host your site on .Mac, and with domain forwarding, you can use your own URL. Nice.

The first step is to search for your desired domain name. GoDaddy's home page has a search box where you can do this quickly (please use the Godaddy banner link at the end of this how-to):



If your desired domain is available, begin the registration process by clicking the "Smart Registration" button:



Next you'll need to create an account with GoDaddy (if you don't already have one). After you've created your account, you'll be presented with a half-dozen offers related to your domain, from hosting plans to ecommerce options, from spam filters to copywrite protection. Do not accept any of these offers; you're hosting your site "already" at .Mac, so all you need from Godaddy at the moment is the domain name.

After you've created your account and paid for your domain name you'll want to log into your account. Once you've logged in, you'll be presented with the following options:



Click, "Manage Domain Forwarding." When your list of domain names appears (you'll only have one if this is a new account with GoDaddy), put a check mark in the box next to your domain name and click on the URL (the domain name itself).

Now you'll enter your .Mac URL, where your new domain name will be forwarded to:



Look for the "Forward To" text field:



Here's where you'll enter your .Mac URL. You can copy the following text (or the text as it appears above) but you'll want to substitute "cherrypop" for your .Mac login name (less the @mac.com portion):

http://homepage.com.mac/cherrypop/

Again, you'll substitute "cherrypop" for your own .Mac login name.

Next you'll click the "Save Changes" button, and your finished:



It will take up to 24-hours for the forwarding to take effect.

Now you can share an easier URL with friends, family, and colleagues.

If you found this how-to helpful, please consider registering your domain name through this link:

Think others might like this How-To? Then send this URL to a friend.

Also check out my "How to create your own home page with a .Mac Account." It's a step-by-step guide to customizing your .Mac Homepage's home page; in fact, you can even create an entire site and host it on .Mac if you wish.

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Don't forget How to Buy a Mac.

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