9.24.2013

Tutorial: How-To Renew Your Blog Domain!




Have you ever got the dreaded emails from Google saying, "please log in to your account and update your payment information. If you take no action, your domain will not be renewed"?

Well, it looks a little something like this...
 

My blog won't be renewed?! Is that what you just said? MAJOR YIKES.

You would think that this would a 3, maybe 5, minute task at the most, right? Just let me go in, update my payment information, pay for another year and I'm all set....

WRONG.

Oh-so wrong.

The reason why I created this tutorial is because of how hard they have made this process to be and because of all the other bloggers I have heard that have had the same problem. Some have even lost their entire blogs due to this. Hopefully I can help some of you with this!

If you haven't got these emails yet, your turn is probably coming, so Pin this tutorial (or bookmark-whatever you fancy) to save for the future!


Step 1. Go to admin.google.com

>>this is where it's tricky and was causing me all the problems. You are signing in under a different account-NOT what you use to log into your Gmail/Blogger accounts. So click where it says, "sign in with another email address".

The username (in most cases) will be: yourname@yourdomain.com. For example, mine is: katie@mykeepcalmandcarryon.com. Apparently, when you set up your blog this separate account was created, but obviously a lot of us can't seem to remember this. My password ended up being the same as my Gmail password. If you can't figure out your password, you can hit "can't access my account" to reset it.

Step 2. Once you are logged in > go to the Billing tab > then to the RIGHT under "Domain Registration" there is a "$" symbol that says "Verify billing information". Click this. Then click "Billing Settings" on the left hand side and update your payment information. I put in two forms of payment just to be sure.

NOT DONE YET.

Step 3. This is so important! Click to go back to the Billing page, or "back to subscriptions" it might say, and hit the "+" sign to the LEFT of "Domain Registration". Under Renewal Options, hit CHANGE then "AUTO-RENEW MY CONTRACT".

Now every year it will be set up to automatically renew. If you have to go in and update payment information in the future, this is how you would do so.

A saint lovely man named Alan, from Google Support, actually called me to verify that this was all correct and I kind of want to send him a Christmas present for going over all this and reassuring me that I am good to go. He told me this is such a big problem and he personally is sorry for all the troubles it's caused me and my blog friends (ha)...see? Man deserves a Christmas present. Where are all the other Google support peeps?!

I hope this tutorial helps some of you and you are able to update your blog domain without any problems in the future. This also means that in return I get to keep reading your awesome blogs and that makes me pretty happy.

Over and out,

**UPDATE: This is just for domains registered with Google! Also, as much as I would like to be able to help each person's unique situation or problem, I simply don't have the time to do so. If you have followed these steps and still are experiencing problems, I have had success with Google's support department. I would suggest sending them an email (found on the same screens where you are trying to log in) and they typically respond within 24-48 hrs. Thank you!

 


 

63 comments

  1. I had to renew recently too and I remember it being so hard to figure out! Great idea to post the tutorial!

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  2. I know my time is coming to renew my domain and I'm kind of dreading it because of all the fuss I've seen. Thank you!

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  3. Thanks. I need to do this. Do you back up your blog?

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  4. Thanks so much for this! I just updated my billing info but didn't click on auto-renew... you're a lifesaver!

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  5. this is amazing!! I can tell firsthand this is so hard, mine was coming up and I was FREAKING out over how to renew it!!

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  6. That is a bummer that you had so many issues :( When I purchased my domain a year ago I chose "Auto Renew" and I didn't have any issues this year when it renewed. My credit card had expired and I got an email stating that I had to go in and update my cc info, but other than that I had no issues. I think the key is to set it up for Auto Renew from the start, or as you mentioned go in and change it before the renewal process happens.

    Here is the one thing that also might have been different. Setting up my domain was a huge pain in the butt! I ended up having to have Google Support redirect my new domain (lifeloveandpuppypaws.com) to the original blogspot URL because the setup never worked and even they couldn't figure it out. I am still happy that I can share my personalized one and it still goes to my blog, but a little irritated that it then shows up ".blogspot.com".

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  7. Does this still apply if I got my domain through GoDaddy?

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  8. Definitely pinning this for when this comes for me! THANK YOU! :)

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  9. Great tutorial! I'm assuming this is just for those who registered their domain through google?

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  10. God BLESS you, Whoa Lady! (That should have been "woman" but WHOA LADY was much more fitting.) Because of your help on my blog today (or shall I say IN my blog?) , I shall repay you in the following:

    1 plane flight to the location of your choice (Ohio? Naples? Nashville? South Africa? Ok I wish that last one... Preferably Naples.)
    2 slaps on the ass the next time I see you
    3 #whoalady's
    4 pumpkin-whatever-flavored beers consumed by yours truly
    5 g Chat sessions regarding kick stands, family crests, you locking yourself out, and mean people at work

    Ok that's all. No more. That's all you get.

    Thank you.
    Have a nice day.

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  11. I literally just bookmarked this before I even read it. I almost had an anxiety attack in my hallway the other day when I realized this was coming for me in like 3 months.

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  12. I have tried to find this several times here lately so glad you posted this!!

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  13. Katie! I just stumbled across your blog tonight and I swear it was MEANT. TO. BE. My domain name is up next week and I was so lost. Pretty sure you saved my precious little blog! Thank you so much for this post. I am so excited to keep reading more! Thanks again. xo MOE

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  14. holy crap. way to save my domain. Seriously. Thank you.

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  15. Hi,
    I really like your post.
    Thanks for sharing such great information. It is very informative and provides knowledge of domain name registration

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  16. I wish to thank you so much for your tutorial. You started by saying that Google made the steps much harder than it should have been, but your post truly made it easy. I now have peace of mind.

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  17. Thanks a million for this simple tutorial. You have saved us from so much. I spent the past weeks trying to figure out how I was going to renew my domain. Thanks again :-)

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  18. Thanks a million for this simple tutorial. You have saved us from so much. I spent the past weeks trying to figure out how I was going to renew my domain. Thanks again :-)

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  19. i love you, i love you, i love you! last year it seriously took me less than five minutes but last night it took me four hours of anxiety, depression and anger. I am so happy my hubby found your post. Lifesaver you are! Now, I just need my blog to back up. ;/

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  20. I kinda missed that renew mail and now I lost my blog :( :( I can't log into the admin console, do u know what to do in this case? I've been googling for days now and can't figure it out! ;( Awesome tutorial though! Love reading your blog, xoxo

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  21. THANK YOU!!!!!! I am pretty sure that you are the ONLY person on the internet who figured this out. You are awesome and a small business lifesaver.

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  22. Thanks so much for posting this! I could not figure out how to renew on my own. I wonder why Google makes it so complicated!

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  23. Help.

    I have not created a account "name@mydomain.com". I have any tries "myname@mydomain.com" "myuserGmail@mydomain.com" in Admin.Google.com and says: This account not exist.

    What I have to do to renew?
    Please help!

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  24. you are a life saver!! er... blog saver. seriously. you're amazing!

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  25. Am I the only one this isn't working for? :-( I've tried for WEEKS to figure this out, so I finally find your blog post this morning (the day my domain is set to expire), and I'm stuck at Step One. I'm about to cry from frustration. NONE of the email combinations I try are working, or even exist, according to Google.

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    1. Thanks to Katie, I finally found the help form and the customer service rep contacted me immediately. Here's what happened to me:


      I understand you are unable to renew your domain registration through the Google Apps Admin Console, due to an incorrect username/password combination.

      The reason for this is that when you purchased your domain for Blogger your Google Apps account was automatically generated as bloggeradmin@YOURDOMAIN


      In order to restore access to your Google Apps account please follow these steps:

      1. Go to: https://admin.google.com/jessarusso.com/ForgotAdminAccountInfo
      2. Fill in the CAPTCHA
      3. On the next page you'll receive a hint about which secondary email we have on record. This should be the primary email for your Blogger account.
      4. Please follow the steps in the password recovery email that you'll receive on that account.

      In order to update the Billing info for your domain registration:

      1. Log into admin.google.com with the bloggeradmin account
      2. Click on the Billing tab
      3. Click on Verify Billing Information and enter a valid payment method such as a credit card.
      4. You'll have the option to set the domain to automatically renew each year

      The credit card verification should take no more than a few minutes, but the payment will not be made until the next Billing date. That should be the 1st of next month, but you can see the billing date, and other relevant information by clicking on the Plus sign next to the Domain Registration section in the Billing tab.

      You can find more information on payment options in this Help Center article:
      https://support.google.com/a/answer/1218673?hl=en



      I hope this helps some of you that weren't as lucky as Katie and didn't have your name as the contact info. Lol! I would have never guessed I was "bloggeradmin." Ridiculous. Good luck!

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    2. WOW what a nightmare that was! Thank you SO MUCH!!! This helped me a great deal!!! I don't know why this process is not simpler. With the way they operate billing/renewal, you would think they didn't want our money. Thanks for ending the frustration! :)

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    3. Jessa, THANK YOU! The initial instructions in the blog post did not help because it was not myname@, but it had to be ADMIN! You saved my blog and 6 years of work!

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    4. You have both just rescued me from 5 days of anguish...thank you so much!!!

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  26. So I am in tears ... I wish I would had seen this a week ago!
    My domain has expired now and I cannot figure out what to do!!!!!

    I cannot get any username to work!!

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  27. Nothing I do seems to work. my domain expires tomorrow!:( so annoyed.

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  28. Thank you so much for this - it worked :)

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  29. Thank you! I was having the same problem with logging in. In my case it was bloggeradmin@mysite.com, not my name that I logged in as. I do have a sheet where I had written it down, but I didn't remember until I searched and found your post.

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  30. Thank you! So Much. This was a nightmare and your post and the comments helped me finally figure it out. Whew!

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  31. Thank you Jessa Russo your way worked for me , it's easy when you know how to do it !

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  32. omg, my domain is now expired, i'm also stuck in step one, i can't get the right combination of my username and password. pls. help me! my domain name is www.itsjulieann.com but usually i just entered itsjulieann.com and it's automatically redirected to www.itsjulieann.com. my www.itsjulieann.com is still working but if i entered itsjulieann.com it says that "your domain name registration has expired" i was afraid it happened to me last year that's why i change my domain name. i don't want to change it again. pls help me guys.

    It’s a GIRL Thing

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  33. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. I got my email notification this week letting me know if it was time to renew, but no matter what I did and what email account I used, Google Apps was giving me an error saying that I had some other mystical email address that would grant me access to all of my blog information. I googled the problem, found your blog, realized they generated a myname@myblog.com and was able to renew and keep everything flowing without interruption. Seriously, THANK YOU. I was almost in tears trying to figure this out!

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  34. ta!

    you've saved me I was getting grumpy!

    almost enough silliness in all this to make me do the switch to Wordpress!

    ;-)

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  35. Mine was apps-admin@mydomain.com- amazing :S thanks to all of you I was able to find that out!

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    1. i am stuck with this too! When you say apps-admin@mydomain.com do you mean that literally or the name of your domain? I know it sounds stupid but i have literally tried every single combo and cannot figure mine out!

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    2. Also...HOW DID YOU FIND THAT OUT??? I have been working on this for hours! Not fun! ;(

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  36. SUCH a pain in the butt!!!! Thanks for the tips! :) My login was bloggeradmin@mydomainname.com Once I figured that out, your tutorial helped assure me I'll be good to go next week when my site renews. :) Thanks!!!!

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  37. Thanks, with the help of this post i could stop my domain name from losing it. It happened after I read and followed this post. Otherwise already 3 of my domain names i have lost in last 3 months.

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  38. How did you all figure out your sign in names? Who did you contact and how? I have literally been trying every combination for hours! I am exhausted and super frustrated!

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  39. Katie, I can't get past signing in. The e-mail is correct and I reset my password and it will not accept the new password and allow me to sign in. So I reset it AGAIN and I can get on the blog (it has expired but is not yet deleted) but cannot sign in to google in order to pay them. Do you have any suggestions?

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  40. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  41. I'm so grateful to find this post. I think google should include in all their emails about domain name renewals. This has been a hugely frustrating thing but it did prompt me to back up my posts. Bless you!

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  42. Ah, amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

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  43. I had same problems with Step1. I couldn't access to my domain-account, which I didn't even know to exist. I asked from google e-support via e-mail, what was my first name (I really didn't know) when my account's last name (address) was my domain. I got the answer and after that the domain renewing and billing systems were easy to refresh.

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  44. Hi there,
    What number did you call to get help? I'm completely at a loss here and in danger of losing my blog. Please help!

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  45. thanks for posting this - was VERY helpful!

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  46. Jessa -
    THANK YOU! A million times, thank you. You will probably never read this, but I have been trying to figure this out for DAYS..hours upon hours. I randomly found this blog post and thank the Lord read through the comments. It makes me SO angry that Google is making this so difficult! For anyone who is having problems, my login ended up being bloggeradmin@(myblog).com and I couldn't figure out the password, so I had to reset it.

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  47. I can sign in, find billing and the only domain (of 3 I had) I see is the one I thought I had purposely deleted. the remaining two (which I wanted to keep) are not there! How can I renew them if they are not there?

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  48. I've been dealing with this issue for more than a week with the same run-around from Google. Your tutorial helped me figure out that my username was admin@ with my domain name .com. THANK YOU!

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  49. I have had to pull up this post for the last two years. I can not thank you enough for this! I don't even blog anymore which is kind of funny!

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