What happened to Method 1, Method 2 and Method 3?
As of January 31st, 2017 we are no longer recommending what we used to call “Method 1,” due to ongoing problems with the domain redirect systems of several major domain registrars.
Both GoDaddy and Namecheap have experienced the same problems, and because they are two of the biggest and “best” domain registrars out there we simply have no confidence in recommending this method of setting up a custom domain with any domain registrar anymore.
The problem with “Method 1” was that it relied on the domain registrar’s domain redirect system working properly 100% of the time. Over time we’ve found that they just don’t, and this was causing our customers to occasionally lose clicks that weren’t being redirected properly.
The problem occurred at least three times with Namecheap between June 2016 and January 2017, as you can read about on the ClickMagick Status Page, and after this most recent reoccurrence of the problem in January 2017 we simply can’t recommend using domain redirects anymore.
“Method 2” has been renamed “Script Forwarding”, and is still supported. We only recommend this method to users who already have their own hosting account and want to use this method.
“Method 3” has been renamed the “CNAME DNS” method, and this is what we’re exclusively recommending for all of our users going forward.
This is the industry-standard method of setting up a custom domain, and it eliminates the extra point of failure involved when using a domain redirect, so it’s much more reliable – and faster too.
In short, this method relies only on the global DNS network and you will never have any problems with this method (unless there’s a worldwide DDOS attack on the DNS system, in which case half the Internet won’t work and we’ll all have bigger problems!)
To set up your custom domain, please follow the tutorial below:

|  | What is the recommended way to set up a custom domain?

Please understand that none of this has anything to do with ClickMagick, and we really had to make these changes to once and for all put an end to the problems our users kept having whenever one of these 3rd-parties had problems with their domain redirect system.
We are working with our partners to get this new updated information pushed out, and we’re in the process of updating all of our FAQs and tutorials. We apologize for any confusion, and invite you to submit a ticket at our Help desk if you have any questions or need any help at all.
What if I already have a custom domain set up via the old Method 1?
If you’re not experiencing any problems it’s probably not urgent, but we strongly recommend that at some point you “upgrade” to using the CNAME DNS method. This will prevent any problems in the future, and your tracking links should also redirect a bit faster.
Upgrading from Method 1 to CNAME DNS does not require that you change your links in any way. Once you’ve upgraded your domain, all of your links will not only continue to work, but they will work even better and faster for the reasons explained earlier.
Keep in that while you can make the necessary changes in a matter of minutes, it can take several hours for the Internet to reflect the changes. That means that your domain won’t work while the Internet is propagating your changes throughout the network.
In short, don’t upgrade your domain if you currently have traffic running through it. Wait until your traffic dies down before upgrading.
Here’s a video showing how to easily upgrade from Method 1 to the CNAME DNS method:

|  | How to Upgrade From Method 1 to the CNAME DNS Method