Blogger Magic - Three Card Monte

One of the reasons why The Shell Game / Three Card Monte is a legendary fixture, in some cities, is that it's a favourite feature in some magic shows. The magician uses sleight of hand to move the pea or Queen of Spades around, and confuse the audience. It's the same game, just in different settings.

• The street corner version is more exciting. You're trying to win some money, and the scammer is trying to steal your camera, purse, or wallet.
• The parlor show is more fun. You're seated, having a drink, and watching.

You pay for either show - just in different ways.

You can do this with your blogs and domains, too, by publishing or re publishing different blogs to different domains.

The basic trick here is simply to publish a blog back to BlogSpot, then re publish to the same domain.

1. Publish Blog 1 (currently published to Domain A) back to BlogSpot.
2. Publish Blog 1 to Domain A.
3. Done - wave your hand.

That's recycling the domain.

A variant on the basic trick is where you substitute a different BlogSpot blog, in Step 3, below.

1. Publish Blog 1 (currently published to Domain A) back to BlogSpot.
2. Publish Blog 2 (if currently published to Domain B) back to BlogSpot.
3. Publish Blog 2 to Domain A.
4. Done - take a bow.

That's swapping one domain, between two blogs.

A second variant on the basic trick is where you rename the current BlogSpot blog URL.

1. Publish Blog 1 back to BlogSpot.
2. Rename the BlogSpot URL of Blog 1.
3. Publish Blog 1 to Domain A.
4. Done - take a bow.

That's changing the BlogSpot URL, of a domain published blog.

Alternately, substitute a different domain, in Step 3, below.

1. Publish Blog 1 (currently published to Domain A) back to BlogSpot.
2. Publish Blog 2 (if currently published to Domain B) back to BlogSpot.
3. Publish Blog 1 to Domain B. If you don't own Domain B, buy it, to publish to it. Don't bother to ask for a refund, for Domain A.
4. Done - take a bow.

That's swapping one blog, between two domains.

And the fun trick is where you substitute blogs and domains.

1. Publish Blog 1 (currently published to Domain A) back to BlogSpot.
2. Publish Blog 2 (currently published to Domain B) back to BlogSpot.
3. Publish Blog 1 to Domain B.
4. Publish Blog 2 to Domain A.
5. Done - take a big bow. Curtain time.

And that's the grand finale.

It's the same trick, just different moves. Each blog that's published to a domain simply gets published back to BlogSpot, first.

• Each different blog involved simply requires that you select a different Settings link, from your dashboard.
• Each different domain involved simply requires that you paste or type a different domain URL, into the Publishing wizard.
• Note that both "Domain A" and "Domain B" can be domain roots or virtual hosts, in any domain that you control. If one or both is a virtual host, "Domain A" and "Domain B" can be part of the same domain.
• Note that it is not possible to publish one blog to two domains, simultaneously.

Other than those differences, just follow the Queen, if you can.