A custom domain is a web address you've chosen and registered for your personal use. You can register domain names with a number of different registrars. It's a user-friendly, easy to remember name for a website, i.e. "www.google.com" or "www.amazon.com" or "www.meetup.com"

When you set up your own domain and add it to your Meetup Group settings, members can browse your Meetup Group pages as though they existed on your own website.

For example:

"www.my-meetup-group.com/members"

instead of

"www.meetup.com/my-meetup-group/members."

Once you have a domain name registered, you'll need to create a CNAME record.

A CNAME, or Canonical Name, record is an entry within the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies where a user can find your web pages, or any other URL. Yeah, it's pretty "techie," but basically you'll use this to associate your custom domain with Meetup Group pages.

You'll find step-by-step instructions for a few registrars here.

Keep in mind that changes to CNAME records may take several hours to take effect. Until then, your default Meetup Group URL will continue to work.

Once you have created a CNAME record directed back to www.meetup.com, you will need to go back to the 'Group Settings' section for your Meetup Group. From there:

• Enter your domain name in the 'Domain Name' field
  
• Click 'Submit'
  
• Once we verify the domain name, we'll send you an email
  
• You can click on the link in the email, and go to the 'Group Settings' section (make sure you are signed in)
  
• Click the 'Activate' button on the right