What is Add-on Domain?
This seems to be a confusing issue for many people. They tend to confuse this concept of Addon domains with parked domains.
Addon domains are domains that are pointed to subdomains. This means that you can host multiple domains, with different content, in a single web hosting account. Not all shared hosting plans offer this option but many do.
Here's a quick example. You own tom.com and bob.net. Your primary account is tom.com. You create a subdomain named bob. The URL for the subdomain would look like bob.tom.com. But you really want the world to think that bob.net is a completely separate domain.
Using your control panel you create an addon domain for bob.net and point it at bob.tom.com. Once the DNS has resolved, people typing in bob.net will find contents of the subdomain and only the name bob.net will appear in the browser address bar. Now you have two sites instead of one.
Most versions of cPanel make this a very easy process if you allow the control panel to do all the work. Simply create the addon domain using the button in your control panel and the correct directory will be created for you. It will be named bob.net and will appear in the root directory of tom.com. All the necessary redirects will be created. All you have to do is upload your files to the correct directory and point the name servers at your registrar to your hosting account.
Since there are many different control panels you should review the information that your hosting company provides for a detailed explanation of how to do it with their control panel. Some are much easier than others but they all work when you get it properly set up.
This file was updated 11-17-2008