*This article assumes you are already logged into CPanel*
First of all, what is an add-on domain?
An add-on domain is a domain that is pointed to a sub folder within your main public hosting space. Before the addon domain will work, you must have it registered with a registrar and set the DNS settings to point to our servers.
How does it work?
With the addon domain feature in cpanel you can create a separate domain within your main account, and your add-on domain name will work entirely from within the new directory created when adding your additional domain name to your control panel. The HTML contents of an add-on domain goes into a subfolder of the /public_html/ folder in your account.
Every addon domain also creates a subdomain. An add-on is basically a subdomain that can also be accessed by the full domain and work like an entirely seperate website, independant of your main website address. So for the visitor it is transparent, because they only see the full domain in the URL bar.
A brief example is:
petshop.com (Main domain name)
=> dogshop.com (add-on domain)
Your add-on domain "dogshop.com" will create a sub-folder within your main account for all its files and can now also be accessed in 3 ways
dogshop.petshop.com (sub domain)
petshop.com/dogshop (Its a folder within your public web space)
dogshop.com (This is the primary method visitors will see it and how it will work)
You can also create email accounts and FTP accounts to use independantly with your new add-on domain name.
Make sure that you also update the nameservers for your addon domain at your registrar with the same nameservers as for your main domain (see welcome e-mail).
How to add them?
In cpanel, go to the icon labelled "Addon Domains" and click it, this takes you to the addon domain names page where you will need to enter only the domain name (without any www. or http) and create a username and password for this account within your main account.
For the box labeled as New Domain Name, this is where you will enter the domain which will be the addon domain, cpanel will then fill in the rest for you and you only need to choose a password.
Lastly, click the button that reads as "Add Domain" This will take you to a new page which will tell you that you have successfully created an addon domain. If the domain is already registered with a registrar and the DNS settings are setup correctly then it will be working within 1-72 hours.
