Domains can be confusing - so we've created this quick guide to help you make decisions and find clarity as quickly as possible! Here's a quick round of questions to go through to figure out what YOUR needs are with domains!
Click each question below to expand each section, which will walk you through making your own unique decision based on your businesses needs:
QUESTION #1: Do you even need to connect a domain to Ivorey?
QUESTION #1: Do you even need to connect a domain to Ivorey?
First of all, you may not even need to connect your domain to Ivorey (yet!). The only time you need to connect a domain is if you want to:
Publish an Ivorey website
Publish an Ivorey funnel
Publish a client domain (Note: Ivorey provides a generic URL that you can semi-customize, but if you want a completely custom URL for your client portal then you will need to setup a subdomain)
If you don't need any of the above to go live yet, then you don't need to connect a domain to Ivorey!
QUESTION #2: Do you have an existing website you need to keep online?
QUESTION #2: Do you have an existing website you need to keep online?
Your domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) can only point to one website at a time - so if you currently have a website on another platform like Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, Showit etc that uses your main domain.. then you need to understand your website WILL get taken down if you setup your domain with Ivorey. This is standard across any platform in the world - as domains can only point to one website at a time.
Many members come to Ivorey with an existing website that they want to keep live for a few more weeks while they are busy creating new things on Ivorey, and luckily there's a VERY easy solution to enable you to keep your old website live, and still get your new websites or funnels launched on Ivorey too 🎉
If you answered YES to both of the above, then you'll want to create a subdomain!
It doesn't cost you anything extra and the setup process is simple! Creating a sub-domain simply means that you put an extra word before your normal domain, which you can then use to host your new Ivorey funnels/website on!
Here's some examples of how we (Ivorey) use subdomains for our own business:
We use ivorey.io as our main domain to host our website
We use members.ivorey.io for our client portal
We use help.ivorey.io for our help center
Hypothetical step-by-step example of a member who wants to publish new funnels on Ivorey, without affecting her existing website on another platform (Click to expand)
Hypothetical step-by-step example of a member who wants to publish new funnels on Ivorey, without affecting her existing website on another platform (Click to expand)
Let's say Kate's website is built on Showit and coachkate.com. She wants to keep her old website live, while she waits to build a new one on Ivorey. However, she's just built a new sales funnel in Ivorey because she's launching a Mastermind, and now she is ready to publish the funnel live
Does she need a domain? YES! You do need a domain to publish any website or funnel. So should she setup her main domain (coachkate.com) onto Ivorey? NO! Because her old website would therefore come down. If she connects coachkate.com to her new Ivorey funnel, thats where all traffic would land when they visit coachkate.com
Instead, we would advise Kate to pick a subdomain (even if its temporary) to host this funnel on. So when Kate connects her domain to Ivorey by following our domain training video, instead of typing in coachkate.com - she would simply pick a word to add before her usual domain name, which is what magically creates a subdomain - how easy is that! Let's say Kate chose to type in offers.coachkate.com which now becomes her subdomain.
Whilst following the prompts to setup the domain in Ivorey, her screen will then display some "DNS RECORDS" to add to her domain provider. So Kate logs into who ever she purchased the domain from, and simply adds those new settings in. If Kate gets stuck, she needs to reach out to her domain provider since its a 3rd party that Ivorey has no access to or control over. Once the settings are added, she can see from Ivorey if they have been validated and confirmed.
Now that Kate has connected that subdomain to Ivorey and its all been verified, her old website coachkate.com will stay live on Showit, and she can now use her new doman offers.coachkate.com for anything on Ivorey! 🎉
Kate can now publish her sales funnel, and pick what URL she would like to use. Since Kate's funnel is selling a mastermind, she chooses to use offers.coachkate.com/mastermind. On the thank you page after someone buys, she chooses to use offers.coachkate/mastermind-success.
If Kate wants to create multiple funnels in Ivorey, she now always has this subdomain to use! If she wanted to, she could create even MORE subdomains too. Ivorey doesn't restrict how many domains you can setup.
Once Kate has built her new website onto Ivorey (or had our amazing team do it for her!) - THAT is when she can decide to now connect her main domain, since she wants her old website to come down and all traffic to go to her new Ivorey site instead. At this point, she can choose to go back into all her funnels and swap them onto her main domain, or she can leave them on her subdomain - either way works totally fine!