Connecting Your Domain to Tumblr

Tumblr lets you use your own domain name for your blog instead of a tumblr.com address, and Hover's Connect tool makes linking the two straightforward. This article walks you through connecting your Hover domain to your Tumblr blog.

How Connect Fits Into Setting Up Your Blog

Connect is a feature in your Hover control panel that automatically adds the technical DNS settings your domain needs to point to Tumblr. DNS (short for Domain Name System) is the internet's address book — it's what tells the internet which server should answer when someone visits your domain. Rather than adding those address-book entries by hand, you pick Tumblr from a list in Connect and Hover takes care of the rest.

Note: Connecting can take up to 48 hours to fully settle, even though the setup itself only takes a few minutes.

Before you begin

• An active Hover domain — the domain you want to use for your Tumblr blog.
• Hover's nameservers set on your domain — Connect only works if your domain uses Hover's nameservers, ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com. Nameservers are the servers that control which company manages your domain's settings.
• A Tumblr account and blog — you'll need an existing Tumblr blog to connect your domain to.

Warning: Changing your nameservers to Hover moves management of your domain's settings to Hover's system. Before you do this, make sure you're not relying on email or other services tied to your current DNS provider, since switching can disrupt them.

Step 1: Sign In and Select Your Domain

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen method of two-factor authentication (2FA).
2. From the Domains menu, select the domain you want to connect to Tumblr. If you only have one domain, it's selected automatically.

Step 2: Confirm Your Domain Uses Hover's Nameservers

1. On the domain's overview page, find the nameservers section and make sure the nameservers are set to ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com.

Step 3: Open the Connect Tab and Choose Tumblr

1. Click Connect.
2. Scroll down the list of Connect partners until you see the Tumblr icon, and select it.

Step 4: Confirm the Connection

1. A popup window appears with details about the connection. Read it carefully, then click Connect.
2. Your domain now shows as connected (pointing) to Tumblr in the Connect tab.

Step 5: Finish Setup on Tumblr

Note: Connecting your domain in Hover is only half the process — you also need to complete a matching step in Tumblr.

1. Follow Tumblr's support guide for custom domains to finish setting up your custom domain on the Tumblr side.

Next steps

• Troubleshoot a connection issue — see Troubleshooting Domain Connect Issues if your domain doesn't connect to Tumblr as expected.
• Learn more about the Connect tool — see Connecting Your Domain to a Host Using Connect for an overview of how Connect works with other hosting providers.

Questions? Contact Hover Support.