Workspace Signup

scroll down to see the options. if you select "get started" from top of page you will not realize you are initiating the process with the standard option selected, not the starter option.

You can change it later but you might miss it if you don't scroll down first to see it all.

Get Started

NOTE: this is not available in China as of now and they have no equivalent at this time.

Contact Info (backup account and confusing screen)

this is the "backup email address" . if you are adding just one account it should NOT be the account you are adding.

this is confusing and should have been handled a lot differently. it should never have tossed up this warning . it should have just gone to the next screen.

Setup Using Existing Domain

per our instructions you should already own your domain prior to this sign up so you would click on the right option

Setup User Name (1st email address)

Select User Account Level

because we initiated the process from Starter it populated starter here. otherwise it woudl have populated standard and you would need ot use the "compare plans" toggle at the bottom to lower it.

To continue you have to hit the "try at not cost for 14 days" there is no way around the free trial.

At the bottom there is a small toggle for the 1 year option for slight savings.

Check out - Contact Info and Payment Methods

I opted for a yearly subscirption out of the gate because i konw what i'm getting. If you are new we highly suggest a monthly subscription first just to allow for changes if needed.

for contact information - legal name, just enter your name if you are not incorporated

highly suggest credit or debit card to avoid delays on initial sign up

Then you select check out... after which it then moves into a the domain ownership verification process

Domain Ownership Verification (includes DNS record entries)

you can either enter a TXT or CNAME record to your DNS Zone file for verification

these are "simple" text based records (plain text strings) that are entered at your registrar's website or wherever your DNS Zone Records are kept (at your webhost in some cases)

it doesn't matter if you do TXT or CNAME they work the same.

After you set one up at your registrar or DNS Zone host, you come back to this window and check the box at the bottom and ask to confirm. it will instnatly check to see if it's there. and if so you have confirmed ownership.

THEORY BEHIND THIS: They are relying on you to have the password and access to your registrar account and the abilty to add a record they can scan for publicly upon request.

EXAMPLE of adding record and Porkbun.com is below....

after adding it, switch back to the window with the instructions and check the bottom to tell google to check the dns zone file for your new record to prove ownership.