[Development Log] A gritty day from acquiring a custom domain to Cloudflare setup and anonymous CustomGPT sharing
I want to distribute a sharing link for a CustomGPT (my bot) via a paid note. However, I don't want my real name to be displayed as the creator.
To solve this problem, I acquired a custom domain and replaced my "real name" with the "domain name" using ChatGPT's domain verification—I will write about the gritty details of that entire process.
Background: Why the real name appears
When you create a custom GPT (GPTs) in ChatGPT, people who open the sharing link can see the creator's display name.
By default, your ChatGPT account profile name—in other words, your real name—is displayed as is.
You might not care if it's a free distribution, but since I'm distributing it as a perk for a paid note, I needed to balance:
The risk of exposing my real name on the internet
The credibility of "who created this GPT"
I needed to strike a balance between these.
Solution: Domain verification via a custom domain
ChatGPT has a feature called "domain verification".
When you verify a domain you own, the creator display of the custom GPT switches from your real name to the domain name.
In other words, if you own a domain like rehab-datasci.com, the creator display becomes "rehab-datasci.com"—your real name will not appear at all.
Step 1: Domain acquisition
I used Xserver's 1-yen first-year campaign to acquire a .com domain.
The acquisition itself took about 5 minutes. The problem started from there.
Step 2: Transfer to Cloudflare
ChatGPT's domain verification requires you to tweak the domain's DNS settings.
While DNS settings are possible with Xserver alone, settings are more flexible via Cloudflare (and free), so I switched the name servers to Cloudflare.
Points that were confusing at first glance
Honestly, this task was full of concepts I was encountering for the first time like "domain," "name server," and "DNS record," so I was quite confused.
What was particularly confusing was that:
what to do on the Xserver side (specifying the name server change destination)
what to do on the Cloudflare side (adding DNS records)
were done in separate management screens. I showed the screens to Gemini and proceeded by checking them one by one.
Waiting for the name server change to reflect
After changing the Xserver name servers to the ones specified by Cloudflare, it said it would take up to 24 hours to reflect.
In reality, it was reflected in a few hours, but this waiting time was frustrating.
Step 3: ChatGPT domain verification
After the Cloudflare settings were applied, I performed "Domain Verification" from the ChatGPT settings screen.
The steps are simple:
ChatGPT Settings → Builder Profile → Add Domain
Copy the TXT record displayed by ChatGPT
Add the TXT record on the Cloudflare side
Return to ChatGPT and press the "Verify" button
With this, the creator display for the custom GPT has changed to rehab-datasci.com.
Bonus: Setting up a redirect to my note profile
Since I now have a domain, I also set it up so that accessing rehab-datasci.com redirects to my note profile page.
By using Cloudflare Page Rules (or Redirect Rules),
rehab-datasci.com → https://note.com/rehab_datasci
this kind of redirect can be configured.
However, a problem occurred where it didn't redirect properly during the initial setup. I solved it the next day by adding one setting on the Cloudflare side.
What actually changed
Before
Custom GPT creator: (Real Name)
Real name is visible to anyone who clicks the shared link
After
Custom GPT creator: rehab-datasci.com
Clicking the link takes you to the note profile
Real name is not exposed at all
Now I can safely distribute custom GPT shared links as a benefit for my paid note.
Costs and time incurred
Summary
To distribute CustomGPTs via paid notes, I needed to anonymize them using a custom domain.
The three steps were: acquiring a .com domain for 1 yen on Xserver, switching nameservers on Cloudflare, and verifying the domain on ChatGPT.
DNS settings can be confusing for beginners, but I was able to get through it by showing my screen to Gemini.
Once you have a domain, you can also set up redirects, which can be used as a profile traffic funnel.
Being able to 'hide my real name' and 'create a profile traffic funnel' for just 1 yen in the first year was a very cost-effective investment.
📢 Announcement
I have shared screenshots of the specific settings screens used for this implementation and common pitfalls with DNS settings exclusively in my Discord community.
If you are interested in the implementation of medicine x data science, please join us.
[Discord join link]