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

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About six months ago, I finally got around to setting up a new personal blog on my vanity domain.  At the time, I was inspired by Steve Rubel’s decision to move his extremely popular blog to the new Posterous platform, and thus followed in his footsteps.  While it was great for a time, I wanted to get more out of my blog, and Posterous just couldn’t keep up.

Specifically:

• I decided that SEO was important, after all, (go figure, right?) and could not survive on Social traffic alone.
• I wanted to incorporate other features, like a contact form, and multiple pages.
• I wanted to be able to grow a community on this blog, and felt that Posterous was not the best tool for that goal.
• I just couldn’t live with having the same design as thousands of other people.

What will I miss?

• Posting through e-mail.  Posterous really is the easiest posting platform on the web.
• The way it handles video.  When I do shoot video, it’s frequently on my iPhone, and Posterous is still the only video platform that I know of which will change the dimension of the player to support vertical video.
• Cross-posting.  Posterous is fantastic at cross-posting to my various networks.

I will continue to use Posterous as my lifestream, where I’ll share interesting content, and publish photos, videos, and other content that just doesn’t belong here.

Please do not take this as a negative review of Posterous – I think the platform is fantastic, and has quite a bit to offer, especially in the social media space.  It just wasn’t the right fit for what I want to accomplish with this blog.

Either way, welcome to my new site!  I would love to get your opinion in the comments!

Photo Credit

Related posts:

1. How To Set Up a Custom Domain With Your Posterous Site
2. The Time Strapped Professionals’ Guide To Blogging
3. 14 Day Social Media Challenge