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One Cause Of The Monolithic Error "No posts."

One of the most obscure Blogger error messages - next to "Another blog ..." - is the monolithic advice seen on main page display of some blogs.
No posts.
or maybe
There's nothing here!
What can you say, to a blog owner who has started a new blog, and spent days publishing blog content - only to view the blog, and see "No posts." - or "There's nothing here!"?

In some cases, a blog may actually contain no posts - even after days spent publishing content.

Some blog owners may confuse pages ("static pages"), and posts ("dynamic pages") - and spend days publishing blog content, as static pages. Other blog owners, though having just started their first blog, may be experienced webmasters with one or more websites published for years - and publish blog content as pages, by preference.

Whether owned by a true newbie, or an experienced webmaster, a blog which is constructed using static pages will display the main page as

No posts.

or maybe

There's nothing here!

By default, the main page display will only show posts. Pages were originally provided, as a Blogger feature, because some blog owners wanted some posts that were not indexed in an archive, label, or main page sequence.

When you are queried by an anxious blog owner

Why does my blog display
No posts.
Where are my posts?

What can you do?

You need to compare "sitemap.xml" and "sitemap-pages.xml". In some cases, you'll find "sitemap.xml" to be empty - and "sitemap-pages,xml" to list static pages. Occam's Razor wins again.


Some blogs may be truly empty.




Some blogs will only have pages for blog content - and no posts.



Some blogs will only contain static pages - and the main page will show "No posts.".

If your blog does this, you can redirect the home page to a given static page - and add links between the static pages. Or, republish the pages as posts, if convenient.

If you want a main page with multiple posts, maybe using Jump Break to make the main page look cleaner, you will have to publish your blog content as posts.


The monolithic error "No posts." causes extreme anguish, to a #Blogger blog owner who has just spent days publishing content. In some cases, there is a simple explanation.

Comments

cd__ said…
I am leaving you a comment about the new dashboard on blogspot. I was wondering what you and/or your readers opinion of it is? Always find your comments useful and helpful.
Admin said…
Hi Chuck
Can you please tell me if it's possible to redirect visitors from a custom domain back to blogger.
A) Originally had blogger
B) Purchased a custom domain (new)
C) Converted back to blogger (old)
D) All my custom domain searches and Main URL, turn up 404, instead of redirecting to my old, original blogger URL.

thank you very much!
Nitecruzr said…
Hi Shaw,

Thanks for the question! It's a frequent concern, in the forums.

When you publish to a custom domain, Blogger sets up a redirection from the BlogSpot URL to the custom domain URL.

When you click on the "X" and publish back to BlogSpot, Blogger has no ability to redirect from the custom domain URL to the BlogSpot URL. If you want this service, the domain registrar must provide forwarding from the domain to BlogSpot. Not all registrars will provide this feature.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/03/custom-domains-use-301-redirect-from.html

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/10/custom-domain-publishing-moving-back-to.html

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