The Real Blogger Status

We see the occasional query, about name changes, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . I just got married, and now I have a new email address, and a new name. How do I change my Blogger identity? And the usual advice was You can change youe email address, and / or change the display name (not the account name) - and you can transfer control of the blog to a new Blogger account, which bears your new name. But old posts will remain, with your old name. And there, we would have one more disappointed blog owner. But that does not have to be the final answer.

Occasionally, we have a would be blog owner, becoming confused about blog access, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I can look at the dashboard Posts page - but there are no posts listed. or I can't access the Template Designer (edit the template, add users to the blog, ... ). or maybe Why is Settings so small? These are bloggers who are confused over a blog where they are an Author , or have no access - as opposed to a blog where they are an Administrator . Along with knowing how to identify yourself , knowing what access you have to a given blog can be a key detail, when you are dealing with identity confusion - such as inadvertently created duplicate accounts , or possibly duplicated blogs .

Sometimes, you have to start over. If you edit your post too enthusiastically - or if you switch between Compose and HTML modes too much, while editing - you can corrupt the formatting. You can cause a cornucopia of symptoms, from messed up index pages, with dropped sidebars , to unreadable posts (and yes, pages). Even the old trick of doing nothing but toggling between Compose and HTML modes may not work, every time.

Several owners of large blogs (500 posts and up) are reporting problems with indexing, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I have over 2500 posts, in my blog. Each sitemap page, which should contain 500 posts, shows only 150 posts. This reduces my indexed posts tremendously! This blog owner did nothing to cause this problem. Upon investigation, we have discovered that both blogs using the classic feed based sitemap , and the current automatically generated sitemap , are missing sitemap contents, equally.

One of the more intriguing questions, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , is about blog accessories, and template antiquity. I feel the customization with HTML templates is a lot more unique - but I wanted a certain gadget, on my blog. I upgraded my template in order to add the gadget, and copy its coding. After reverting back to the Classic template, I placed the gadget into my HTML. How do I get the gadget to work? This blog owner does not understand the differences between HTML and XML.

Some blog owners - weary of the restrictions, and lack of options and features, decide that WordPress is not part of their future - and are moving to Blogger. An important part of changing from WordPress to Blogger publishing is the process of moving the existing blog content. You can import WordPress content into a new Blogger blog - or use an existing Blogger blog. If you are migrating a WordPress domain to Blogger , you'll want to transfer the content, first.

We see cautious blog owners, asking that question periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . Many home based, and small, businesses use Blogger blogs for selling various goods and services. Apparently, you're permitted to sell stuff, using your blog. That said, there are some common sense rules which you should consider, before you setup a blog to sell stuff.

Blog owners use many techniques for getting new readers - and for keeping existing readers happy. Some blog owners use techniques which work inconsistently, because they are not designed to work the way they are being used. Some blog owners becomes concerned when their blogs, listed in blogrolls on other peoples blogs, don't seem to be updated as regularly as they would expect. Blogrolls are good tools for getting new readers, in a casual manner. They may not be as good, for predictable, scheduled visitor activity.

Most of us who compose pages and posts in HTML mode are accustomed to the annoyance of the (Page / Post) Editor HTML syntax checker. Proper HTML syntax depends upon correctly paired HTML tags. You enter an opening tag, without a closing tag - and within seconds, the syntax checker pops up and alerts you to your mistake. You then enter a closing tag, and all is well. This might be a normal event, when formatting the page / post title . Until this week, the syntax checker gave us a brief one or two line advice, at the top of the page. Now, we see a full screen page of random text - and in some cases, no way to continue. The error message fills the screen, and we can't see the editor window - so we can't finish what we were doing.

Some blog owners, complaining of unfair spam classification, are still not considering the need for original, quality content. I have not broken any Blogger rules. Why was my blog deleted, as a spam host? Copied content, legal or not, is not quality content. Blogger blogs need original content, that's informative and interesting.

Occasionally, someone reports a problem with disappearing blog content, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . My posts disappeared, right after I changed my email address! This blog owner does not realise the problems caused by changing ones email address (but not the account name ), without thinking.

Your Blogger profile is the public part of your Blogger identity , that can be seen by others. You will want your profile to provide the best representation of you - but do not display too many details. Revealing account names and email addresses , for instance, can put your blogs at risk of theft.

Not all blog owners appreciate the effort by Blogger, to make anonymous comments a usable feature, in our blogs. Anonymous comments have a complicated form - and people don't want to comment. They have to select certain pictures, related to a subject. When using a mobile template, they don't see all the buttons needed - and there are many steps until you finally publish a comment. Could is be simpler? With no checking pictures, with just typing few numbers, or without any security question at all? This blog owner would prefer Blogger commenting, before 2015, when anonymous comments meant unending waves of spam.

If you like to multi task when using Blogger, you probably keep a few windows and tabs open, in the browser. If you have lots of tasks running simultaneously, and you try to Share to Google+ from the dashboard Posts page, you may click on the "Share" link, the "Share on Google+" window pops up, you watch the window load - and just as the window is almost complete, it vanishes.

Sometimes, in the progress of integrating a FaceBook Wall with our blog , we may face a problem which involves FaceBook Open Graph code . FaceBook error displays can be as mysterious as Blogger error displays . But, there is hope - provided by FaceBook Developers.

Repentant spammers are not frequently seen, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When a truly repentant spammer reports a problem, it is difficult to know how to treat one appropriately. They are so rare, we have little experience. This is totally unfair. Actually, life is totally unfair.

We see questions of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about blog ownership recovery. I accidentally deleted my administrative access. How do I get my access back? There is only one legal answer. Have another administrator restore your access. But this story does not end well. The other administrator is on long term vacation! I really need to have my access back!! There is no easy answer here .

Periodically, we see complaints about "Next Blog" content, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When I click on the "Next Blog" link, I get sent to blogs from many, many different languages. Can I set this to send me to primarily blogs published in English? or "Next Blog" sends me to blogs about "xxxxxxx". My blog is about "yyyyyyy". Why can't I get more blogs about "yyyyyyy"? What these blog owners do not understand is that using "Next Blog" involves compromise.

Recently, in advising a blog owner of a (probably) unrelated problem, I discovered an unknown (to me) option, in both page and post editor. Pages and posts can apparently use bold and italic characters, in titles. This interesting option does not work transparently, however.

We see daily reports, in AdSense Help Forum: Blogger / Host Partners , about blogs with blank or empty ads. My AdSense was approved weeks ago! Why no ads, on my blog, even now?? The owners are certain that their blogs are mature and righteous - and that they received final approval for ad content. Looking at the blog - when the blog name is provided - we see one unfortunate detail, in many blogs. Blogs published to dynamic templates.

We see new blog owners ask the obvious question, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I help people Follow my blog? There are several tools for community building , or Following - and different people will make different choices, which to use. The choices depend upon the community that any blog serves - and the purposes for following .

Some blog owners, needing to take large amounts of post content offline, unsuccessfully try to use the Posts menu to "Revert to draft" posts, in quantity. Selecting all posts displayed, they click on "Revert to draft", and are given the bad news. You cannot modify more than 50 entries at once. This is annoying - but does not have to be terminal, to whatever project was underway.

One of the most versatile ways to improve your blog is by adding CSS rules. CSS stands for " Cascading Style Sheet ". The term "style sheet" refers to the template sections which contain style rules, which affect the appearance of the blog. The term "cascading" refers to how you manage the rules. With CSS, you have no need to edit existing style rules, to make a change. If you define your rules properly, you make higher level rules specific enough so they cascade over lower level rules .

I've been seeing the Pinterest "Pin It" hover icons, in various blogs, for a few weeks. Today I decided to try adding an icon to this blog. I spent more time reading the instructions, then installing the icon.

Google Domains describes their view of the domain transfer process, in Google Domains Help: Transfer a domain out . The transfer process supports different transfers. From a person with an account at one registrar, to another account at that same registrar. From a person with an account at one registrar, to an account at a different registrar. From one person, to a different person, at that same registrar. From one person, to a different person, at a different registrar. As a project, I found it best to define, size, and assign the complete transfer process in 6 tasks. The project can be adjusted for a domain served by any sending registrar - and targeting any receiving registrar - based upon formalities required by each registrar.

Last month, we observed that SSL, though generally available for blogs published to "blogspot.com", did not work for all such blogs . Owners of blogs who used the "www" alias of "blogspot.com", such as my BlogSpot mirror blog " https://blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com/ ", reported annoying error messages, when trying to access the "www" alias of the blog, using SSL. Your connection is not private For my BlogSpot mirror blog, you'll see the problem, when viewing " https://www.blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com/ ". The problem apparently involves the SSL certificate for "blogspot.com", which does not include the "www" aliase for the subdomains (such as "blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com").

For blog owners who have forgotten the Blogger account name or the password, the "Forgot your username or password?" wizard is an essential tool. You can try to recover account or blog control, by using either a BlogSpot URL or an email address. Both options work only under specific circumstances. Both options are blind recoveries. You enter a blog name or email address, with no assurance that what you enter will lead to a blog. Only when you enter a valid blog name or email address will you receive a recovery email.