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Do You Really Want To Delete Your Custom Domain Published Blog?

Now that custom domain publishing is becoming progressively more popular, a different class of bloggers are using it - bloggers who are more concerned about the aesthetics or content of the blog, rather than merely the shiny non-BlogSpot URL. Occasionally, we see a report
I setup my blog, and published it to my domain. Then I decided that I didn't like what I was writing about (the looks of the blog, the way it was organised, whatever ...). So, I deleted the blog. Today, I decided to try again using my domain, just a different subject (style, design, ...), so I setup a new blog. But lo, when I try to publish the new blog to the domain, I get (drumroll, please)
Another blog is already hosted at this address.
Now what do I do?

In a perfect world, the Blogger script that processes deletion of a blog would include finding and removing all custom domain linkages. Having deleted a custom domain published blog, the domain entry in the Google database would be clean and shiny, and ready for another blog immediately. Blogger staff being human, that won't always (seldom) happen. The deletion process, run against a custom domain published blog, will leave database artifacts, that will later provide another example of
Another blog is already hosted at this address.

If you're going to delete a blog that involves a custom domain, do it properly.


Separate the custom domain reversal process from the blog deletion process.

Similarly, if you're going to change one published blog for another, in the same non-BlogSpot URL, publish the first blog back to BlogSpot, and make sure that it's working as a BlogSpot blog. Then, publish the second blog in place of the first, to the domain.

If you ignored my advice, or if this advice comes too late for you, and you just deleted your custom domain published blog, sorry. Now, and since you're here reading this, it's probably time to dust off the old "Another blog is already hosted at this address." reset procedures. This will be the case, too, for custom published blogs, deleted for TOS violations.

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