Blogger Magic - Custom Domain Publishing And Search Engine Reputation

There's a lot of confusion seen in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about our blogs, and how they are treated by the search engines, after being published to a custom domain URL.Does the Page Rank transfer to the new domain?andIs the blog automatically indexed after the change?andWill my readers be able to find my blog after the change?Each of those questions has a simple answer - but each simple answer leads to interesting detail.The basic facts to consider are quite simple.Search engines index our blogs, and calculate page rank, by domain / subdomain...

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Account Recovery, Authentication, Contact, Privacy, And URL Availability Are Related Issues

Every day, we get various impassioned pleas from blog owners (active, former, and would be), in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, requesting assistance.How do I get access to my blog, that I published 10 years ago?andHow do I keep my blog from being visible in Google?andHow do I contact the owner of a blog that was published 10 years ago (and never updated)?All of these are valid concerns - and answering one question sometimes involves referring to various other concerns.Blogger Support, some time ago, confirmed our right to privacy, as blog owners.Our...

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Why Can't Blogger Just Tell Me The Email Address, When I Ask For It?

We see the pain, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, of blog owners who do not understand the need for keeping the name of their Blogger account a secret.I forgot the email address that I was using. Why can't Blogger just tell me the address??and some askHow did this unknown person "xxxxx xxxxx" get control of my blog?Years ago, the local police would have to convince home ownersPlease, stop leaving a spare key under a rock, near the door!Both many blog owners (today) - like some home owners (years ago) - had the same basic problem - naivete.Like...

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The Comment Notification Option Is Subject To The Realities Of Authentication, And Cookie Filtering

Some blog guests cannot understand why they can't get notifications, when someone leaves a comment after them, attached to a post comment form.Why don't I see the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"?or maybeI selected the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz", but I don't get any reply notifications. Why am I being mistreated by Blogger?These people do not realise that comment follow-up notifications are subject to the same problems as the embedded comment form.Many people, preparing to post a comment...

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Getting Traffc To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed

This post has been renamed, as Getting Traffic To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed....

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Getting Traffic To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed

We continue to see evidence of frustration about getting a blog indexed, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.I can find the blog using the URL - but my visitor log shows nobody is reading the blog!People who report this problem do not understand that getting traffic to the blog involves more than getting the blog indexed, using the URL of the blog.Getting your blog indexed, so you get useful traffic from the search engines, requires effort.You have to get the blog indexed.You have to get the blog indexed, in searches where people actually...

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Publishing Your Blogger Blog Post To FaceBook Fails

During the past weekend, we started seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who participate in FaceBook, and who can't publish their blog posts to their FaceBook Wall. The problem appears to be common to both publishing using the "Share to FaceBook" button in the blog post (within Blogger), as well as the Wall posting wizard (within FaceBook).We have a problem rollup in Blogger Help Forum: Something...

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Switching Back To The Classic Blogger GUI, And "400 Bad Request"

Those Blogger blog owners who continue to use an older browser, and who have decided to check out the New Blogger GUI (2011), may be familiar with the ominous adviceYour browser is no longer supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems.If you are having problems, try Google Chrome.Some of you have opted to check out the New GUI, even when faced with the warning - and have been faced with a cold reality.I mistakenly clicked on the "Try the updated Blogger interface" link and now I just have a blank...

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Removing Blogs From Your Reading List

One of the strangest cases of confusion, exhibited in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, comes from people who only want to remove a blog from their Reading List, using the "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard.I can't remove a blog from the Reading List - there is no trash can in the Manage wizard!Here, I'll advise you, simply, to not look for a trash can icon.To remove blogs from your Reading List, start with the blue Manage button (Classic GUI) or the gear icon (New GUI). The "Manage Blogs I'm Following" list contains an inventory of all Followed...

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Blog Owners Reporting Inability To Update Various Template Gadgets

The dynamic templates have been available for just over 3 months, and for all their usefulness, there are a number of identified deficiencies. We see, every week, naive questions about one well known deficiency.How do I add a bloglist (Followers gadget, labels index, popular posts, what have you...) gadget to my blog, with it using a dynamic template?Adding gadgets to a dynamic template display just won't be a simple project. Not to be facetious, but there is really no space on the screen, for an accessory bar (also known as a sidebar)....

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The New GUI Template Editor, And Removing The "Blog Posts" Gadget

Since the most important part of almost all Blogger blogs is the posts, the "Blog Posts" gadget is an essential element in the template. Sometimes we have to remove the gadget though - maybe the gadget is corrupt - or in odd cases, we may have a duplicate "Blog Posts" gadget.In either case, the solution is known, and is quite simple.Remove (the / one) "Blog Posts" gadget.Unfortunately, not everybody, needing such advice, is able to do this. People using the Template Editor in the New Blogger GUI (2011) may find, to their frustration, that...

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Use A Dynamic Template, To Display The Blog In One Single Main Page Display

Ever since Blogger installed auto pagination. Blogger blog owners have been askingHow do I disable auto pagination?andWhy can't I display my blog on the main page, without my readers having to use "Older Posts?The response, up to this year, has been simple.You cannot disable auto pagination. You have to allow sharing of network resources.Though technically correct, the latter response has not always been met with appreciation.The solution, for avoiding auto pagination, is now simple. Install a dynamic template, on your blog.With a dynamic display,...

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Account Recovery, Evaluated Using Return On Investment

Too many Blogger blog owners, seeking recovery of a long dormant account, overlook the realities of the Blogger business relationship.I started the blog 10 years ago, I have forgotten the password, the email address is long gone - and I need the blog deleted now.When told that deletion is not possible, if you cannot provide proof of ownership, they next ask for personal assistance.But isn't there a person to whom I can explain my problem? Surely we can reach some understanding!The reality is that Blogger wants to help their customers - when...

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Some Confusion Over Use Of The CC TLD Aliases, By Search Engines And Visitor Logs

Some blog owners, possibly unaware of the recently added Country Code Top Level Domain Aliases, are seeing the aliases in their visitor logs / meters, and various non Google search engines - and are afraid that their blog has been hacked.My SiteMeter logs show that I've had incoming traffic from "mybloggerblog.blogspot.in". Clicking on one of the links in SiteMeter, I see my blog, "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com". Has somebody cloned my blog?In reality, the scenario is not so ominous.Those of us aware of the CC aliases, and how they are being...

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Dynamic Templates Becoming More Usable

 Possibly encouraged by less than positive reviews, Blogger has recently enhanced their dynamic templates.Dynamic Views are a set of templates that make it easy and fun to explore a blog. As you might expect, we’ve made the gadgets interactive too. Instead of appearing in a panel that consumes valuable real estate on your blog, gadgets now appear in a dock that slides in and out as you move your cursor over them.Now, at least some of the...

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Retrieving The PostID, To Recover A Deleted Post

One of the challenges of using the Blogger "Edit Posts" menu (in the Classic Blogger GUI) or the "Posts" menu (in the New Blogger GUI) is the too easy ability to delete posts, if you are not thinking about what you're doing. Fortunately, under the right circumstances, accidental deletion of a single post won't cause a terrible catastrophe - though you (the blog owner) will need to react properly.There are several ways to recreate or recover a post, after it's accidentally deleted from your blog. Only one way will let you recover the contents,...

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The Problem, With Publishing Our Blog Posts To FaceBook, Does Not Apparently Have A Simple Cause

The problem of publishing our blog posts to FaceBook, initially observed several days ago, has generated some controversy - and much confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Suggestions about its base cause are numerous - and variant.Initially and at first glance, it appeared to involved posts containing lots of pictures.Some folks have suggested that it involves use of the New GUI Post Editor.Other folks insist that it's the result of a FaceBook decision, that may have targeted Blogger as a spam host.Still others insist that it...

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Deletion Is Not An Alternative, If You Cannot Authenticate Yourself Or Recover Access

Some supposed blog owners, unable to login to their Blogger accounts because they forgot the Blogger account name or password (or never bothered to remember either), try to compromise. They figure that, if they can't regain access to the blog, then Blogger will be willing to simply delete the blog - and everybody will be happy. They appear to have overlooked the repeatedly stated policy, which promises us that our blogs will be ours, as long as we wish to own them.The problem is, blog deletions are as sensitive to illegal action as account...

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Setup An Audit Trail For Your Team Blog

Ever since Blogger gave us the ability to have team blogs, blog owners have been askingHow do I track what my authors are posting?as if Blogger blogs have an audit trail option. The unfortunate truth is that Blogger is a website publishing platform - it is (or was, at one time) calledBlogger One Button PublishingBlogger, quite simply, is not a Content Management System.However, even if Blogger does not provide a packaged audit trail, which would be a standard feature in any CMS, this does not mean that we cannot set one up, with very little...

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Identifying And Removing Deviously Engineered And Marketed Blog Hijacks

We saw the symptoms of the first carefully engineered blog hijacks, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, two years ago. During each succeeding holiday season, each attack has apparently become more and more deviously engineered.This season - each season starting in Fall of one year and lasting until Spring of the following year - we are seeing a hijack complement which appears to be devious in both marketing and installation technique, and which requires a complex search of the affected blogs. If you are receiving reports from your...

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Custom Domain Publishing - Moving Back To BlogSpot, Using The New GUI, Isn't Obvious

The New Blogger GUI (2011) has been available for just over 6 months - and we see new confusion about using it, daily, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.How do I cancel my custom domain redirect, in the New GUI?This is one specific question, that's been asked, recently.The answer to that specific question is actually right there, in front of us - we just don't see it.Blogger, like Google, likes to use overlay panels for some displays, such as how...

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The Involuntary "Adult Content" Warning Is Collaborative

Some blog owners find evidence of opinion from their viewers, but cannot accept the opinions expressed.Why is there a "Content Warning" on my blog?They don't understand the collaborative opinion being expressed, when this warning is displayed.Long ago, the "Flag Blog" link, in the navbar, was a misunderstood feature. The "Flag Blog" button was later replaced by the "Report Abuse" link, with multiple classifications of offenses.The text of the warning is somewhat self explanatory.Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe...

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What's The Canonical URL Of My Blog?

This blog is (for those of you not familiar with it) "The Real Blogger Status". The URL of this blog is currently "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net". As long as I publish the blog properly (as "blogging.nitecruzr.net"), I am allowed to advertise the blog using any combination of lower case and upper case letters, that I like. This blog can be accessed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net", "Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net", or even "BlOgGiNg.nitecruzr.net". We say that Blogger URLs are case insensitive.Even with my readers allowed to use any combination of...

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BlogSpot Published Blogs Being Accessed Using Country Code TLDs

Recently, some blog owners outside the USA have been asking about mysterious redirects which they (or their readers) are seeing, when accessing their blogs.Why is "xxx.blogspot.com" now redirecting to "xxx.blogspot.com.au"?andWhy was my blog address recently changed from ".com" to ".in"?Blogger will host our blog content using country code relevant aliases, according to the unique laws of each different country. The relevant CC alias will be accessed automatically, according to the network location of the reader in question. These aliases are...

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Make A Custom Pages Index For Your Blog

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature, blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs. When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget.There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.If you want a Pages gadget for your blog, that indexes more than just static...

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Make A Custom Pages Index For Your Blog

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature, blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs. When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget.There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.If you want a Pages gadget for your blog, that indexes more than just static...

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Problems With Dynamic Templates And The Menu Bar / Pages Index

We're getting a few reports today, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, from blog owners who publish blogs with static pages, that use the new dynamic templates, and that now have no ability to index the pages in the dynamic views. We're also seeing reports mentioning some blogs which have no menu bar visible, in dynamic views. Both problems were, reportedly, first observed mid morning today, Pacific time.Earlier this week, if you looked at this blog in dynamic view, you could see two static pages, from this blog, indexed in the menu bar. Both...

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