As Posterous has grown in popularity, more people are using the powerful platform as the basis for their personal (or business) blogs.  While I think that using Posterous in this way is a great option, my inner SEO cringes when I see people using the standard “mysite.posterous.com” domain for their site.

Did you know you can use a custom domain with your Posterous site?  It’s not very difficult to set up, either.  Using a custom domain (like www.mysite.com), means that you have the opportunity to build up long term SEO value in a domain that you control.

This becomes invaluable if you ever want to switch to a more robust content management system like WordPress or Drupal, or if you ever wanted to sell your website.  Basically, no matter where you point your domain you can always take the backlinks and authority that you’ve built up with you.

Here’s how to set up a custom domain with your Posterous site:

1. If you don’t have one already, buy a domain from GoDaddy.com
   Tip: Use this link (affiliate) to save a few dollars on your domain purchase ($7.49 .com domains).
2. After purchasing your domain, go to My Account, then click on Domain Manager.
3. Click on the domain name you just purchased.
4. Click on Total DNS Control (it’s at the bottom of the domain dashboard).
   

   Total DNS Control Section

5. Edit the points to IP address for the A (host) Record and set this to the following IP: 67.207.139.81
   

   A (Host) Record Option

   

   Editing the A (Host) Record IP Address

6. Log in to your Posterous site and go to the settings page.
   

   Posterous Custom Domain Options

7. Enter your domain name into the custom domain field making sure the verify name server option is checked.
   

   Posterous Custom Domain Input Field

8. Save your settings, and voila! You now have a custom domain for your Posterous website.

Questions? Things not go according to plan? Leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to help!

Photo Credit

Related posts:

1. Why I Left Posterous
2. How To Set Up The Ultimate Listening Station Using Google Reader
3. Three Takeaways from Fox’s Lone Star Campaign