How Do I Choose A Custom Domain on AmebaOwnd?

So choosing a custom domain for AmebaOwnd is a fairly simple progress. You’ll need access to either your domain registrars DNS settings, or if your on Cloudflare this is a super simple process. Either way with both your just looking at adding a Cname to your DNS anyways so it’s easy as pie.

Precursor: I actually don’t use a Custom Domain with this website. The main reason for this being is that if you do, Ameba won’t let you publish this website over https, although there are other ways to pull this off, I don’t quite understand why AmebaOwnd would want anyone to have a website that’s just http, as the majority of websites now are on https and not having your website is terrible for SEO and will be setting you back before your even started. So it’s up to you and that’s you personal choice, this is just a guide of how to set up a custom domain but I felt I should explain prior to getting started.

So basically we’re going to make changes in both AmebaOwnd on our desktop, or use a app like puffin or browser on iOS so you can access the desktop view. Most websites on iOS don’t actually respect the desktop request on iOS, which is annoying AF but we’re going to need to deal lol.

Go to your DNS settings in either Cloudflare, or your domain registrar. 

That’s just an example of a rando Cloudflare site but the layout is going to be similar really across any registrar. So what we’re going to do is add a “CNAME” record. A example of a cname would be like “www” or this can obviously be anything you want it to be. You can’t use a root domain as a custom domain on AmebaOwnd. It has to be a Cname.

So just in Cloudflare for example click add a new record. Then select the type which is CNAME. Depending on your registrar or if it’s Cloudflare your going to see several fields to fill out.

For name your going to fill out the actual CNAME you want to use. Ex, blog or blog.example.com. If your on cloudflare just put the blog part and Cloudflare will automatically recognize that as blog.example.com

For content your going to want to fill out the address as per the Japanese instructions, so custom-domain.amebaowndme.com

Leave the TTL and other fields as is and click save or go or whatever the field is to submit your new record on your registrar.

So it takes some time for the new record that you’ve added to actually update across DNS servers worldwide. You can use some service like WhatsMyDNS if you’re impatient like me and want to know when the new CNAME is gone through. Although really like it doesn’t make a difference. It normally takes about 2 minutes on cloudflare, but depending on your registrar it could take up to 24 hours. I’ve never had it take that long lol.

Anyways after you’ve waited max 24 hours, go to AmebaOwnd on your pc or on mobile using a desktop app. Click on the settings on the left panel. You’ll then see your current address on the right underドメイン. Then click the button underneath labelled “独自ドメインを設定する”. Which means like setup your own domain.

This box will pop up, enter the new CNAME according to the record you entered in your registrar or on cloudflare. So if that was Blog, add blog.example.com and click the box underneath to change to your new domain address. If the records have successfully gone through in Japan at this point, your change will be successful, that box will then disappear and you’ve completed this guide successfully.

If you get an error message, then obviously something didn’t go right or your change hasn’t reflected across DNS servers at this point.

To view the original instructions in Japanese, click here.