Use your own domain for your gallery
Have yourname.com open your gallery website. It takes about ten minutes of your time, and you do it yourself — no waiting on us, and no passwords shared with anyone.
Your tier
The steps are the same on every tier. What's different is below — pick yours:
Gold Star Family Honorees
Sponsored - free, as a gift- Your gallery is a gift at The Artist Colonnade, our top tier, and connecting your own domain is free too - nothing to pay us, ever. The domain itself is the only cost, paid to the company you buy it from - usually $10 to $25 a year for a .com. Ask your sponsoring organization: some can help with the cost.
- Your domain opens your own gallery website, showing every piece in your gallery - no limit.
- You connect it yourself, in your own admin page (signed in with your email and password). The link to set up your password comes from us or from your sponsoring organization. No link yet? Ask them, or reply to any email from us.
- Some families choose a domain in their own name; others prefer one that honors their loved one. Either is fine - choose whatever feels right. If you change your mind later, you can disconnect one domain and connect another.
- There's no deadline. Your admin page is always there, so take whatever time you need - and it's completely fine to have a family member or your sponsoring organization do the steps with you.
- Many domain companies let you add a helper as a "delegate" or "account manager" so they can add the record without your password. Never give your password to anyone - including us. We will never ask for it.
- When you buy a domain, turn on domain privacy (sometimes called WHOIS privacy or "private registration"). It keeps your name, home address and phone number out of the public domain records. Most companies include it free.
Step 1. Have a domain
Already own one? Skip ahead. If not, buy one from any domain company — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Cloudflare, Porkbun and IONOS all work. When you buy it:
- A .com is easiest for people to remember. Your own name, or your studio's, is a good choice.
- Turn on domain privacy (WHOIS privacy) so your home address and phone aren't public. It's usually free.
- Turn on auto-renew, so it doesn't lapse and stop working.
- Skip the extras they offer — website builders, hosting, "SSL certificates". You don't need any of them; your gallery and its certificate come from us.
Step 2. Sign in to your admin and type your domain
Sign in to your own admin page (<your site>/manage, with your email and password) and open My domain. Type your domain — just yourname.com, no www or https needed — and press Connect. The page then shows the exact records for your domain; the examples below use yourname.com.
Never set a password? Use Forgot your password on the sign-in page, or the set-up link we emailed you.
Step 3. Add the record at your domain company
Sign in where you bought your domain. Find its DNS settings (sometimes called DNS records, Zone editor or Advanced DNS) and add:
| Type | Name / Host | Value / Points to / Target | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Required www.yourname.com |
CNAME | www | customers.theartistcolonnade.com |
| 2. Bare domain yourname.com — pick one |
ALIAS (or ANAME, or CNAME on Cloudflare) | @ (or leave blank) | customers.theartistcolonnade.com |
| or, if your domain company has no ALIAS option: forward yourname.com to https://www.yourname.com (permanent / 301, masking off). | |||
Some companies want the Name as just www, others as the full www.yourname.com — either is fine
as long as it doesn't end up doubled (www.yourname.com.yourname.com). If the company adds a dot to the end of the value, that's fine too.
Don't touch your email. Leave any MX and TXT records exactly as they are — they run your email, and this change doesn't affect them.
Only one www record. If a record named www is already there, edit it (or delete it first)
instead of adding a second one.
Step-by-step for your domain company:
GoDaddy
- Sign in at godaddy.com and open My Products. Next to your domain, choose DNS (or Manage DNS).
- GoDaddy usually already has a CNAME record named www (pointing to @). Click the pencil icon to edit it rather than adding a second one.
- Set Value to
customers.theartistcolonnade.comand TTL to 1 hour. Save. - For the bare domain: go back to your domain, open Forwarding, and add a Domain forward to
https://www.yourname.com, type Permanent (301), with masking off.
This company has no ALIAS record, so the bare domain uses forwarding to www - that's normal and works well.
Namecheap
- Sign in at namecheap.com, open Domain List, and click Manage next to your domain.
- Open the Advanced DNS tab. Delete any existing records whose Host is www or @ (often a "URL Redirect Record" or parking page left by Namecheap) - but leave any MX or TXT records alone.
- Click Add New Record: type CNAME Record, Host
www, Valuecustomers.theartistcolonnade.com, TTL Automatic. Click the green check to save. - For the bare domain, add one more: type ALIAS Record, Host
@, Valuecustomers.theartistcolonnade.com, TTL Automatic. Save.
This company supports ALIAS records, so the bare domain works directly.
Squarespace Domains (including domains that used to be at Google Domains)
- Sign in at account.squarespace.com, open Domains, and click your domain.
- Open DNS (or DNS Settings). If there's a Squarespace Defaults or website-builder preset, delete it - but leave any email presets (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) alone.
- Under Custom records, click Add record: Type CNAME, Host
www, Datacustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. Save. - For the bare domain: open Domain forwarding (or Forwarding rules) and forward
yourname.comtohttps://www.yourname.comas a permanent (301) redirect.
This company has no ALIAS record, so the bare domain uses forwarding to www - that's normal and works well.
Cloudflare
- Sign in at dash.cloudflare.com and click your domain. Open DNS → Records.
- Delete any existing A, AAAA or CNAME records named www or yourname.com (or @). Leave MX and TXT records alone.
- Click Add record: Type CNAME, Name
www, Targetcustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. Set Proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud). Save. - For the bare domain, add one more: Type CNAME, Name
@, Targetcustomers.theartistcolonnade.com, DNS only. Cloudflare allows this on the bare domain by itself.
This company supports ALIAS records, so the bare domain works directly.
Porkbun
- Sign in at porkbun.com, open Domain Management, and next to your domain click DNS.
- Delete the parking records Porkbun adds by default (an ALIAS for the bare domain and a CNAME for * or www, pointing to pixie.porkbun.com). Leave MX and TXT records alone.
- Add a record: Type CNAME, Host
www, Answercustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. Click Add. - For the bare domain, add one more: Type ALIAS, Host left blank, Answer
customers.theartistcolonnade.com. Click Add.
This company supports ALIAS records, so the bare domain works directly.
IONOS
- Sign in at ionos.com, open Domains & SSL, and click the gear icon next to your domain, then DNS.
- If there's already a record for www, delete it. Leave MX and TXT records alone.
- Click Add record, choose CNAME: Host name
www, Points tocustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. Save. - For the bare domain: back on your domain, choose Forward domain (or Redirect) and send it to
https://www.yourname.comas an HTTP redirect (301).
This company has no ALIAS record, so the bare domain uses forwarding to www - that's normal and works well.
Network Solutions
- Sign in at networksolutions.com, open My Domain Names, click your domain, then Advanced Tools → Advanced DNS Records → Manage.
- In the CNAME section, edit or add an alias
wwwthat points to Other host:customers.theartistcolonnade.com. Save. - For the bare domain: back on your domain, open Web Forwarding and forward
yourname.comtohttps://www.yourname.com(permanent/301, no masking).
This company has no ALIAS record, so the bare domain uses forwarding to www - that's normal and works well.
Wix, Shopify, or a website builder that sold you the domain
- Domains bought through a website builder are managed in that builder's Domains settings. Look for Manage DNS Records (Wix) or DNS settings (Shopify).
- Find the existing CNAME record for www and change its value to
customers.theartistcolonnade.com. Leave MX (email) records alone. - For the bare domain, look for a forwarding or redirect option and send
yourname.comtohttps://www.yourname.com. If there isn't one, the www address is enough - just share www.yourname.com. - This moves your domain's website to us. If you still pay the builder only for the website, you can cancel that plan once your domain is live here - keep the domain itself.
This company has no ALIAS record, so the bare domain uses forwarding to www - that's normal and works well.
Somewhere else
- Search your domain company's help pages for "add CNAME record".
- Add a CNAME with name
wwwand valuecustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. - For the bare domain, search their help for "ALIAS record" or "ANAME". If they have one, point
@atcustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. If not, search for "domain forwarding" and forward tohttps://www.yourname.com. - Stuck? Their support team does this every day — you can read them this: "Please add a CNAME record for www pointing to customers.theartistcolonnade.com, and forward the bare domain to https://www.yourname.com."
Step 4. Wait for it to connect
Most domains connect within 15 minutes to an hour; a few take up to a day while the change spreads across the internet. Your setup page checks by itself; you can also press Check again there. We also check every few minutes in the background and email you the moment it's live. Our side, including the security certificate (the padlock), happens automatically.
Step 5. Check it
- Open https://www.yourname.com — your gallery's welcome page should appear.
- Open yourname.com without the www — it should open your gallery too (or jump to the www address).
- If your site is still on private preview, both show "Page not found" to everyone for now. That's expected — they switch on by themselves when your site launches.
If something's not right
It's been more than a day and it still says "Waiting"
- Check the record for typos: the name is
wwwand the value is exactlycustomers.theartistcolonnade.com. - Make sure there's only one
wwwrecord, and that it's a CNAME (not an A record). - If your domain was just bought or just transferred, allow the full day.
- Then press Check again on your setup page — it restarts the certificate check too, in case it gave up waiting.
The www address works but the bare domain doesn't
Add record 2 from the table above — either the ALIAS record, or forwarding to https://www.yourname.com.
Until then, share the www address; it works on its own.
My browser shows a security warning
That can happen for a few minutes right after connecting, while the certificate is issued. Wait 15 minutes and try again. If it lasts longer than a day, press Check again on your setup page.
My domain used to show a Squarespace / Wix / GoDaddy website
Adding the record moves your domain's website to your gallery here. Your old website stops showing on that domain (it isn't deleted). Your email keeps working as long as you leave the MX records alone.
I want to use a different domain, or stop using mine
On your setup page, press Disconnect, then remove the records at your domain company. Your gallery keeps working at its theartistcolonnade.com address the whole time. You can then connect a different domain.
Someone offered to "help" and asked for my password
Don't share it. We will never ask for your domain company password or your admin password. If someone needs to help you, most domain companies let you add them as a delegate or account manager instead.