It has finally happened — since today all Pro users can enjoy the ability to use custom domains for Telescope projects. This feature is still in beta, so expect some minor problems and future changes to the way it works.
Custom domains is going to be our third Pro-only feature, together with theme support and extended analytics. All these three features in combination allow you to build a complete, beautiful, and standalone blogs while still enjoying the power of Telescope Editor.
How can I add a domain?
First of all, we've added a Project settings page and moved all the options to control and change the parameters of your project from the old good context menu to this page. We did it because it's becoming hard to keep the list of options short — thus, a context menu doesn't look like a right choice any longer.
Here is how this new page looks:
Do you see the new Manage custom domains link?
You just need to click on it, create a CNAME record for your domain and add it to the list. All the details will, of course, be provided.
Telescope also allows you to add several domains to one project, but in this case, you have to choose the default domain — the one that will always be shown to you in Telescope Editor.
What's next?
This feature was among the most requested Telescope features, and I am pretty happy it's now available. The availability of it means I have more time to work on some important fixes and new awesome features. For example, Telescope Editor doesn't really work on some Android devices, its speed can be improved, and I have several ideas of how to make Telescope even more private by eliminating some of our third-party dependencies.
Custom domains is a huge step forward, and for me this step also means a chance to choose the next steps carefully. Stability and the quality of Telescope are going to be the top priorities. After that, there will be a period of proper advertising and marketing. And the next significant feature that's going to be done is tags and categories. Yes, the idea is to not only to allow you to create content but also to make this content discoverable and help you to enlarge your audience.
Don't forget it — Telescope is here not only to stay, but also to make the writing, publishing and content distribution processes easier and more delightful.
How can I help Telescope?
First of all, you can subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter. Another great idea is to start using Telescope and reporting us what's wrong or should be done differently — Telescope is free and allows you to start writing in seconds without any need to register.
If you like Telescope, we also recommend you to support us by starting using Telescope Pro — it gives you more and costs you almost nothing.