Your Paperbell site’s home address
Your Paperbell site URL is automatically created as https://paperbell.me/[your-name]
You can change that [your-name] part to whatever you like (as long as no one else has it already)!
Edit your site URL in your Homepage Settings:
Use a custom domain for your Paperbell site
Connect your domain directly to your Paperbell site
Use your own domain as your Paperbell site address! This differs from the forwarding option below, because your domain remains in the address bar for visitors.
- Your current paperbell.me URL will still work with a custom domain in place.
- Your packages’ landing pages will keep their Paperbell URL, but when visitors click back to your main site, they’ll see your own domain.
- Depending on your DNS provider, you can set either an apex (lauraroeder.com) or a subdomain (coaching.lauraroeder.com).
- Some DNS providers don’t support apex setups, so in that case you’ll use a subdomain — GoDaddy is the main provider we know that requires a subdomain.
This premium feature is $5/month. Add it to your subscription from your plan page.
Once you’ve added the custom domain add-on to your subscription, go to your Website Editor >> Settings.
Click Use own domain.
Enter your domain address into the pop-up box, and click Add Domain.
The next screen shows you what info you’ll copy into the settings for your DNS provider.
Copy the values under name and value (click the little paper stack icon), and paste them into your DNS provider’s CNAME settings.
If you have a forward/redirect set up for your domain, turn that off!
Save the new settings, and we’ll check over the next 48-72 hours to see if the update has gone through.
When your domain is connected to your site, we’ll send you an email to confirm, and you’ll see your domain is connected when you go back to the Settings tab.
If it’s not working after 48 hours …
- Does your DNS provider allow apex domains to connect elsewhere? If you’re using GoDaddy, you’ll need to create a subdomain and connect that to your Paperbell site (or switch to another DNS provider). Or use a redirect instead (see below).
- Do you have a forward or redirect still in place? Turn it off if so, and try to connect again.
- If you’re stumped, send us a note at hello@paperbell.com and we’ll be happy to help 😊
Forward or redirect your domain to your Paperbell URL
If you’d rather not connect your own domain to your Paperbell site, you can redirect visitors to your domain URL over to Paperbell.
This means when someone types in your domain (like CoachLisa.com) it will redirect to Paperbell (and show your Paperbell URL).
Here are links to several different hosts’ redirect instructions: Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, HostGator, NameCheap, WordPress
If your domain host isn’t listed above, search your domain provider plus “forward,” “forwarding,” or “redirect” for instructions.
Mask your custom Paperbell URL
You may also want to “mask” or “cloak” the Paperbell URL, so a visitor would only see your domain’s URL.
To do that, you’ll first set up forwarding, and then follow your domain host’s instructions (GoDaddy, HostGator, NameCheap). The caveat is that masked domains often don’t display well in mobile, and can be funky on social media sites as well.
Some hosts don’t allow masking — Squarespace for example — so you’ll be best off just doing a simple forward/redirect if you use that.
Redirect a specific link to Paperbell
Maybe you want to keep your website on CoachLisa.com but you’d like to be able to send people to CoachLisa.com/coaching/ and have them land on your Paperbell website.
You’ll need to create a URL redirect that goes from a specific page on your site to a Paperbell page.
If you use WordPress, we like the Redirection plugin for this. Here are the Wix and Squarespace instructions.