[Geekiness] Addon Domains in Cpanel

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Image by Ryan Roberts on Flickr

Thanks to a writer’s event, I’ve finally gotten off my ass to create my real-name website. In doing so, I’ve learnt a few things, some of which I wish I’d known before my dad passed away so I could have helped him instead of delaying things. That’s a guilt I’m never going to get over.

But anyway… I learnt of a quick and easy way to get multiple domains on a single hosting account. As it turns out, the answer was embarrassingly simple (and I am still kicking myself over not figuring it out earlier).

So, this addon domains guide is specific to Exabytes Malaysia and assumes the following:

  • You have two domains, one which comes with hosting
  • Your hosted domain is already set up
  • You have your cpanel login
  • You know how to change your nameserver settings
  • Your hosting plan has addon domains

If you have this, let’s get started.

Adding your domains

  1. First, log into your Exabytes Billing Area.
  2. Under Domains > My Domains > Manage Domains, click on the Spanner next to your hosted domain name (eg MyDomainWithHosting.com ) and select Manage nameservers.
  3. Copy your hosted nameservers into a text file.
  4. Now go back to My Domains, and check the nameservers for your non-hosted domain (eg MyNewDomain.com). If it is not the same as your hosted domain, paste the two nameservers from your hosted domain.
    a. AKA MyDomainWithHosting.com and MyNewDomain.com should both have the same nameservers.
  5. Click “Change Nameservers” once that’s done.

Note it may take up to 24 hours for the changes to happen, though mine was as short as 15 minutes. Once you’re done, it’s time to log into your Cpanel.

Addon Domains

  1. Log into your cpanel, i.e. MyDomainWithHosting.com/cpanel, or whatever your cpanel hosting is.
  2. Scroll to “Addon Domains” and click on it.
  3. Add your non-hosted domain name (i.e MyNewDomain.com), rename the subdomain you want to be associated with your new domain, and then click on Add Domain. AKA
    a. Use MyNewDomain.com in the New Domain Name section.
    b. Add a subdomain, which will actually be NewDomainName.MyDomainWithHosting.com
    c. Leave Document Root alone unless you know what you’re doing.

And that’s it! Once that’s done, you’re done with the initial setup! All you need to do now is to add a CMS (I used WordPress, if you couldn’t tell) and you’re good to go.

Some may ask, why do this in the first place?

For me, it’s a way to maximise my hosting plan, since I have all the extra space. Exabytes Malaysia also has Softaculous, so I can click on a button to install WordPress and other software as needed.

Happy hosting!