Creating Add-On Domains / Subdomains

You can host multiple domains under a single Birdhouse account (as determined by your plan level). Here’s how to set up domains beyond your “main” domain:

First, terminology: An add-on domain is a domain totally separate from your main domain. A subdomain is something like “fleegle.yourdomain.com” - the domain name stays the same, but a new hostname appears before the domain name.

Note that cPanel internally sees all additional domains as subdomains, so a corresponding subdomain is automatically created when setting up an add-on domain. However, you’ll generally only see these automatically created subdomains in the Web/FTP Stats section, where you’ll find separate traffic reporting for your add-on domains.

How To Create an Add-On Domain

  1. At your registrar, make sure the DNS entries for the new domain point to: ns1.birdhouse.org and ns2.birdhouse.org (same as for your main domain).
  2. Log in to cPanel and click Site Management Tools / Addon Domains. Enter the new domain name (without http://).
  3. In the “UserName/SubDomain Name” field, cPanel will suggest a name based on the domain name. The string you choose here will serve two purposes: 1) It will become the name of the folder on the server containing the new domain, and 2) It will become a subdomain of your main domain used for web traffic reporting purposes. Therefore, you may want to edit the name cPanel suggests. Our recommendation is to use something like “fleegle” if setting up the add-on domain “fleegle.org.”
  4. The password that’s requested in the next field will be for FTP access to the new folder. If you’re the master account owner and using SFTP, just type a garbage string here - you’ll never need it. If you want an employee or someone else to be able to FTP files into the site, enter a password for them to use for FTP access, and click “Add Domain.”
  5. cPanel may give you some odd error messages - these do not necessarily mean the addition was unsuccessful. To confirm that the addition was successful, return to the Add-On Domains page and see whether the new domain is listed.
  6. Via FTP or SFTP, look in your public_html directory/folder. Within that, you’ll find a new folder named for your new domain (as above). Place content for the new domain inside this folder.
  7. Once DNS for the domain has resolved, you’re live!

How To Create A Subdomain

Subdomains, e.g. fleegle.mydomain.com, are created similarly, but use the Subdomains section of cPanel rather than Add-on Domains. Subdomains do not require a password. Subdomains also allow for redirection, so you can, for example, have fleegle.mydomain.com function as a simple pointer to some other URL.

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