The Real Blogger Status

Many people who publish Blogger blogs also publish to FaceBook. Some have their own Wall, others post to friends Walls. We see occasional questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , about the desire to combine the two products. How do I publish posts from my Wall to my blog? and How do I link my blog to my Wall? Like any combination of Blogger and non Blogger content, there are techniques to combine a Blogger blog, and a non Blogger website. Some techniques don't work - and others may work, but won't be good for the blog.

Occasionally, a new blog owner will want to make a blog part of his website. Long ago, before custom domain publishing became a Blogger option, it was normal to publish a blog into a website subfolder. FTP Publishing let anybody publish a blog as "www.mywebsite.com/blog". But FTP Publishing ended, shortly after custom domain publishing replaced it. And now, publishing to a subfolder is not an option.

We periodically get queries from anxious blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . Can I use an existing domain, that I own for my website, to publish my Blogger blog? The ability to use an existing domain, for publishing a Blogger blog , is one of the neatest features of Blogger custom domain publishing. It's also one of the least obvious options.

Some people can't see the forest, for the trees. Occasionally, we see a query from a perplexed blog owner, seeking to publish to a custom domain. Google wants us to repeat the same IP address 4 times? 216.239.32.21 216.239.34.21 216.239.36.21 216.239.38.21 Uh, aren't they're the same? Why the needless duplication?

For various reasons, some bloggers want to have a BlogSpot URL that points directly to a web site not hosted by Google, with content not produced by Blogger. This is generically called a "gateway" blog. They explicitly want a BlogSpot URL, pointing to offsite content. Many bloggers wanting to do this don't know how to do this, nor are they aware of the consequences of doing this. To forward a BlogSpot URL properly, you need a server based DNS redirect - which you can't do in BlogSpot, since you don't have server based access. You could put a meta refresh into the blog header, and that might work, but depending upon how you do that, either the search engines will penalise your blogs for duplicate content, or the domain won't be visible to your readers . And some security minded folks have browsers explicitly configured to ignore meta refreshes. If you do get a "301 Moved Permanently" working, your readers will be seeing an "Offsite Content...

Having multiple blogs in a custom domain is a simple matter, with a custom domain array . Sometimes, you may want to publish just one blog, but use multiple domain URLs for that blog. There are several ways to do this , producing varying results with some subtle differences. Recently, I changed the domain URL for my church blog " Martinez United Methodist Church ", from martinezumc.org , to martinez-umc.org . I started out with a stub at the new location, and slowly added content. The new URL was fully operational last week, and over the weekend I finished the job. The blog now has 4 URLs The primary URL is martinez-umc.org . There are 3 secondary URLs The original BlogSpot URL martinezumc.blogspot.com . The original domain martinezumc.org . The current BlogSpot URL martinez-umc.blogspot.com . Each of the secondary URLs redirects, using a "301 Moved Permanently", to another URL. The original BlogSpot URL " martinezumc.blogspot.com " redirects to the or...

Having multiple blogs in a custom domain is a simple matter - but like all custom domain details, it's rigid in its simplicity . A custom domain array consists of a home blog, plus any number of alternate blogs. These alternate blogs are generally setup as virtual hosts, using "CNAME" referrals to "ghs.google.com" .

Having multiple blogs in a custom domain is a simple matter, with a custom domain array . Sometimes, you may want to publish just one blog, but use multiple domain URLs for that blog. There are several ways to get what you want - each represent subtle variations from the several standard custom domain models , that are occasionally confused with each other. The variations will produce completely different results, so consider these details carefully.

If you're like me, and have a blog, maybe what you write about in your blog isn't all of what you are. Most of us are more than one person. I'm a blogger , I work with Windows Networking , plus I have a private life. Really. I enjoy cooking , some miscellaneous humour and philosophy , and various other pursuits too.

Many people set up a Google Custom Domain simply so they can have a single Blogger, published to a non-BlogSpot URL. A custom domain can include more than just one blog, though. You can setup multiple blogs in one domain, limited only to your imagination, and the virtual hosts limitation of your domain registrar. Here, for instance, is how I setup my custom domain, " Nitecruzr Dot Net ". I setup a home blog for the domain, which will index all of the existing blogs. This was a new blog, "nitecruzr-dot-net.blogspot.com", which I published to "www.nitecruzr.net", using the "Buy A Domain" wizard for the new domain "nitecruzr.net". I defined additional virtual hosts in "nitecruzr.net". Each additional host, just as you may have setup the "www" alias , is another pair of "CNAME" referrals to "ghs.google.com" - added using the DNS management wizard provided by your DNS host or domain registrar. If...