The complexities of long term commitment: Moving to a private domain
Most of us start out with a casual relationship to our blogs, which can be anything from a one-night stand (one-post blog) to a love affair lasting a few months, before it peters out.
But on Indiblogger, we are a serious bunch. This is about those of us who marry their blogs by taking the big step- buying a private domain. I want this thread to be marriage counselling and support group for noobs like me who are thinking of tying the knot with their blogs.
Mainly, experienced people can share info on how to go about it, how you know when you're ready for this step, how much it can cost, which are the good registrars out there, what could go wrong etc. I know there's plenty of websites out there that deal with this but they aren't India-centric and word-of-mouth is much better any day.
Ok, everything is working perfectly. Can someone please tell me how to change the URL on indiblogger?
Let the old blogspot domain remain on indi and contact support here >http://www.indiblogger.in/contact/
Raise a ticket telling them you now have a custom domain. They will move it and delete your blogger one 
You can do one of the following two things :
- Add your url as a new blog. After they approve it, delete the old one from IB.
- Open a support ticket and ask the IndiTeam to change it.
Ok, so someone (me) has gotten a new domain name. Will I have to do some tech-fiddling with my Google Analytics? I added GA long before I got my domain name, and right now I'm seeing a lot of difference between Blogger stats and GA stats. I know it's normal, but sometimes GA stats seem to be outright wring, like showing 0 hits on a day when people have even left a comment on a blog.
So do I have to make some changes to Google Analytics to reflect the domain change?
I think you will have to ( not very sure ) because the GA settings have a field named URL so if that URL is different from the actual page on which the script gets executed, the views will not count.
SM add the GA code from WMT dashboard. In front of the domain name you will see manage site button, In that you will get GA property for the domain. Add that to your template and you would be fine 
Never heard of GA, so looked it up. It's showing this-
Site: http://www.staggland.com/
Linked Property: This site is not linked to any web property in your Google Analytics account.
Analytics Web PropertyAssociated Webmaster Tools site StaggLandd: Tales from the Infinite Pit This property is not linked to any site in your Webmaster Tools account.
That was your prob 
Link it now and you will get the correct readings of visitors
Vijay SM was asking about visitors count on GA differing from the stats in Blogger. Linking webmaster tools to GA shouldn't have any effect.
SM, at times, there may be a delay in GA stats, so that might be causing the visitors count for the current date to differ. Also, the starting time of teh day for GA and Blogger is different. That too might be a problem. Others times, it might just be some error. For me too, at times, the stats show zero visitors for the past day or the day before it. If I see the stats again after a few hours, they are normal.
GA stats are more accurate than Blogger stats.
Ranjith SM had not linked his custom domain to GA so he will not get a correct reading ever. He has to link it through WMT to the custom domain to get GA results which he can then test through realtime by going online through a different browser.
Linking blog to GA : You mean adding the GA code ( corresponding to the new domain ) to his blog after he moved to the new domain? Then yes, he should do it.
Linking GA to Webmasters : Not needed! 
Ranjith, mine is not a temporary poblem, I have been observing false numbers ever since I moved to a private domain. And the GA code I added was for the original domain name before I made the move to .com. Should I do the whole thing again with the new name as well? And do I still leave the old code corresponding to the old Blogger domain there?
Remove the old code from your blogger blog and add the new code ( corresponding to the .com version in your GA ) .
Is it possible to keep both? A lot of visitors still come through the old address, especially Indiblogger where I have to continue using the old address.
Even if someone visits your blog by typing your blogspot url, I think those visits will not be recorded ( I'm not too sure ) with your old code because the url specified in your GA code ( .blogspot.com ) and the url on which it is executed ( .com ) are not be the same. If this is not true, imagine what evil minds can do. Other people can insert your GA code in their blogs and your GA account will be recording the visits of some other website.
And going by this logic, if the GA code you currently have in your blog belongs to the GA account of your .blogspot.com adddress, then the viists shown in your GA stats should be zero for not just one day but for all days! But I don't understand why it is not the case.
To keep things simple, remove any GA code you have in your blog, create a new property in your GA account with the .com address and add that code to your blog!
Now, after searching on the net, I am confused about what I told is correct! 
Simply ignore it and to be on the safe side, do what I said in my previous reply. Also, don't delete your .blogspot.com profile in your GA account as you may find that data useful later on.
Ranjith if someone wants he/she can always keep two properties in GA one for custom and one for blogspot as far as I know.
ok, after a bit of searching, I came to know that the url specified in the GA properties doesn't matter and in fact, you can use the same GA tracking code on different websites. You can create a filter with hostname as the parameter to see the stats corresponding to a particular website. ( This does not stop the evil minds from trying to manipulate the GA data of other people because the hostname can be set programmatically if needed )
Ranjith if someone wants he/she can always keep two properties in GA one for custom and one for blogspot as far as I know.
Yes Yes. You can create as many properties as you want for a single website.
SM why do want to keep both, the old ones useless. GA will only tag the current one unless you make a separate property for old one.
Ok, so I'll simply go to the source code and remove the GA code? That's it?
Yep just check and match the GA code of your custom domain before deleting the blogger one
Ok, to generate the new code, do I go to Property Settings in GA and change the URL from Blogger to custom domain?
Its better if you go via WMT. Go in WMT and in front of your custom domain you will see a button called manage site. Under it you will see GA properties, click on it and attached it WMT go to GA and then copy the JS script in your template :)
I went to WMT, clicked on Manage site. It shows my existing Analytics Web Property is not linked to any site in my Webmaster tools account. Do I link that? Or do I click on Create GA Account, doing which takes me to my existing GA.
Yes link the property against your custom domain
Done. Anything else I have to do?
Now add the jscript from GA into a html widget in blogger
How do I generate the code? And won't it be the same code I have already added, with the same UID?
http://awesomescreenshot.com/0441sd6597 copy the jscript and put it in html widget in blogger
Ok, I found the code, but like I said, it has the original Blogger domain's tracking ID, and I already have the same code in the template source code from when I originally set up the GA account.
It will same property unless you change the property yourself. Dont worry copy that and go to GA. Open the realtime view, open the blogspot in another browser and see you appear in GA. If you appear you are done
Just to confirm- you want me to copy it again? The same code twice?
Also, I did the real time thing and I'm seeing myself when I visit through a different browser. But it continues showing me even after I have closed the browser.
No need to copy it twice Bro. It will show you online till the cookie or bot is wiped out from GA server. They are designed that way, IDK why but that will be no problem to you. Hope your query is solved now
I was just wondering if it affects the Average Time Spent stat, since the GA showed me as online for a good five minutes after I left the site. Anyway thanks a lot for your help and seemingly infinite patience
Welcome. There is GA code blocker extension available for Chrome, Firefox and Opera or you can disable Jscript on your browser.
SM Here is the link to the GA blocker extension http://www.igorware.com/extensions/block-yourself-from-analytics
Or you can use the official blocker from Google - https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout - This one blocks GA on all websites. The above one can be used to block GA on specific websites.
Ranjith what does that GA blocker do?
GA Blocker will stop tracking your own visits. Similar to the 'Don't track my pageviews' option in Blogger stats.
Ok, so whenever I check into the URL, GA picks it up. But when I got my friend who is living abroad to visit the URL, it's not picking him up in real-time
Your friend may be using a jscript blocker program, firewall or a ad blocker ok dont worry if you see yourself online your GA is perfect
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