The Real Blogger Status

We see the occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , about hosting blog content. How do I self host my Blogger blog, as I do with my WordPress blog? This blog owner does not understand that Blogger and Google provide far better hosting of our content, than any of us can individually provide.

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.

Long ago, Blogger blog owners would publish a blog as part of an existing website. With the website published as "www.mydomain.com", they would create a website subdirectory "www.mydomain.com/myblog", and publish the blog there. The option to publish a blog as "www.mydomain.com/myblog" required an externally maintained domain / website - and the Blogger feature "FTP Publishing". In 2010, Blogger, with many man hours spent fixing a constant stream of problems, retired "FTP Publishing" , in favour of "Custom Domain Publishing".

Recently, we've seen a few reports from unhappy blog owners who used to publish blogs using FTP, who tried to delete the FTP published blogs from their Blogger account, and now can't access their dashboard bloglist - or even login to their Blogger accounts successfully. I recently tried to delete an old FTP published blog from our account, I hit the "delete blog" button, and I get error code bX-dm6o9e. When I try to access my dashboard, I get the same error. The option to publish a Blogger blog to remote, non Google hosted, server space - known as FTP Publishing - ended several years ago . Now, people attempting to clean up their blog list, and trying to remove old, FTP published blogs will find a problem. We note that the dashboard utilities, in general, can still be accessed, using the navbar links - or the quick edit post links.

One sign of confusion, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , involves the use of FTP - and options for updating our blogs. How do I publish my posts using an FTP desktop program? and How do I upload a custom home page (sitemap, .htaccess, etc)? People who are used to publishing a website see these options as a normal feature in any website maintenance process. Blogger, however, is a blogging platform - and provides none of these options.

Some Blogger blog owners have been confused about the role of FTP, in the Blogger world, for some time. Here's yet another instance where Blogger is different from many other website hosting services, on the Internet. With many website hosting services, you develop (and even debug / test) a website offline, then upload it to the hosting service, using File Transfer Protocol . That's what FTP is - a network protocol for moving files from computer to computer. And a website is a bunch of files. Blogger provides an online development and test environment. With Blogger, you create your entire website using Post Editor and accompanying utilities ("Settings", "Template Editor", etc). When you're done, your website is there, hosted in Google. No need for using FTP, to upload a website , after you created it.

For a blog with any history, one of the most cherished features of your blog might be your search engine reputation - the ability of prospective readers to find your blog. Whenever people change blog URLs, that's one of the most anxiously asked questions in BHF: How Do I? . People preparing to move their blog from externally hosted (FTP based) publishing ask this question, too. To satisfy your personal needs for your individual blogs, Blogger offers you three choices when migrating , from externally hosted publishing to Google hosted publishing. To Blog*Spot. To a Google custom domain URL, different from the current domain. To a Google custom domain URL, the same domain host as the current domain.

Occasionally, it appears as if not all blog owners have gotten the message, just yet. For the record, here's my statement. FTP Publishing ended, in March 2010 . If you have a blog that is hosted externally, that you used to publish using FTP Publishing, your only option is to migrate to BlogSpot, or to Custom Domain Publishing . If you're interested in the search engine reputation, which is the product of most well maintained blogs with any history, you'll want to carefully consider the several options for migration . If you own a domain, and you have DNS control, then you can publish any Blogger blog to a non Blogger / Google URL, using custom domain publishing . >> Top

Many problems with custom domain publishing are transient, and can be fixed by republishing to the domain URL . When encountered by a possibly transient problem, my advice is very basic. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot, then re publish it to the domain URL. And recheck the redirect option. This is good advice, and generally easy enough to execute. One case, when this advice is not easy to execute, is with blogs that were previously hosted externally, and never published to a BlogSpot URL. A blog that was never published to BlogSpot can't be published back to BlogSpot. The FTP Migration effort, completed just recently, retained that option for many blogs. Blogs migrated from an externally hosted non BlogSpot URL, to a Google hosted non BlogSpot URL, won't necessarily have a BlogSpot URL. When this happens, pick any available BlogSpot URL, and change the blog temporarily from custom domain publishing to BlogSpot publishing. You won't necessarily use a BlogSpot nam...

The migration from FTP Publishing started several months ago. Last week, the migration reached it's official end, with the closing of the dedicated Migration Issues Tracker database . ***Note: The Issue Tracker is closed for new submissions. If you are having trouble with FTP migrations, please submit a report in our help forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/label?lid=027 1191b4249689a&hl=en So now, all new issues related to FTP Publishing are being handled with other Blogger problems. The closed tracker database was also noted with We will have all logged issues from this tracker resolved by Friday, May 21st 5:00PM PST. >> Top

As May 1 fast approaches, there are still a few FTP bloggers waiting to make the plunge, who ask What happens to my page rank, when I migrate? and How do I retain my traffic, if I move to a new URL? and these are not very simple questions to answer. The best result will be achieved by migrating to the same URL structure, under the custom domain. If you can migrate from your external, FTP published server, to an absolutely identical URL - for all posts - in a Google custom domain, then you can retain page rank, and traffic. If your URL changes, even slightly, then your page rank starts over at 0, because the content has to be re indexed under the new URL . Now, you ask whether the traffic can be automatically redirected, from the old URL to the new URL. If the URL changes, but the traffic can be redirected properly, then you can retain your traffic, and your page rank - though starting at 0 - will build up faster than it did when the blog was started. You'll see moderate total...

I've been writing about Custom Domain Publishing, and about FTP Publishing, and the relative advantages and differences, for several years now. In August 2007, I went out on a limb (for me, anyway) and I suggested that From an economic and support viewpoint, it makes more sense for Blogger to concentrate its attention on Custom Domain publishing, where they control everything but the domain directory process, and can eliminate the uncertainty of supporting communications with hundreds of third party servers, complicated by geographical and network distance issues. Blogger, in FTP vs. Custom Domains , last year, provided their view of why custom domain publishing has more future. As I've dug in over the last few weeks on issues relating to FTP, as often as not the problems were not Blogger-related but were a byproduct of a webhost implementing stricter security on FTP logins (only whitelisting certain IP addresses, for instance, or throttling access for certain users). These are...

If you're currently publishing a blog externally, using FTP, you've probably seen the handwriting on the wall - or maybe, on your dashboard. FTP publishing will no longer be available after May 1, 2010 You currently have blogs that are published using FTP. You must migrate your blogs to a new custom domain URL or a blogspot URL. To learn more, see our dedicated blog and help documentation . Start migration now So, get started. Read the Blogger FTP Info . If you have any problems before, during, or after the migration, add them to the FTP Migration Issues Tracker database, so your problems can be properly diagnosed and resolved. Remember, as I've said before , if you have a problem, and you don't report the problem, then you become part of the problem. So, report the problem, if you have a problem. When you migrate, you have several possibilities for the new URL which will be progressively more complex, yet be offset by a varying effect upon page rank, sear...

This week's announcement about the (lack of) future for FTP Publishing has started a shock wave of FUD and panic. Some folks in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? may be panicking unnecessarily. Am I in trouble? Do I need to switch back to BlogSpot - and if I do, can I keep my dot com name - mydomain.com? In this case, we look at other clues in the question , and check out the domain . mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.34.21 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.36.21 mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.38.21 www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com. That's a blog published to a custom domain , and that blogger has no need to worry. Custom domain publishing has offered an alternative to FTP publishing for a while - now, Blogger is exercising that alternative. So, should you worry? Look at the URL behind the "View Blog" link on the dashboard, and at the Settings - Publishing display. My blog "Nitecruzr New Template L...

All good things come to and end, and FTP Publishing is subject to this rule. Back in June 2008, I suggested that the option to publish Blogger blogs to non Google servers would not be available forever . FTP publishing has a limited life span. From an economic and support viewpoint, it makes more sense for Blogger to concentrate its attention on Custom Domain publishing. The future, for Blogger publishing, has arrived. From Blogger Buzz: Important Note to FTP Users we see: In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users. For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. Blogger will try to ease the pain, somewhat. A migration tool will be available February 22, to automate the migration process. A dedicated blog will discuss what's happening. Blogger team members will...

This week, we have yet more reports of the chronically present old friend ConnectException: Connection timed out. for bloggers publishing by FTP. So far, the reports of this problem seem to be associated with server space provided by Aruba. If you are suffering from this problem, please provide diagnostic information: The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). When was the blog setup in Blogger? (If the blog was published immediately by FTP, say so). The blog domain URL. When was the blog setup for FTP publishing? The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting (name or IP address of the server), in use right now. What operating system, browser, and version of Java do you use? Where are you located, and what ISP do you connect through? If you have other blogs that are not having a problem publishing, the same information may be relevant too. Remember, we're looking for a solution for your problem, so be generous, and precise. >> Top

If you are still publishing your Blogger blog to an external, non Google server, using FTP , in spite of many recommendations , you are probably used to various advice, such as that which instructs you to contact the support staff for the host server , when problems are seen. Not everybody knows how to deal with server support personnel, though. The host server staff says they don't see any log errors. or I can update using FastFTP, with no problems. The problem must be with Blogger! These are common attitudes, which probably should be expected. Common or expected, they may not get your problem solved. The clues are in the server logs . What the host server support personnel see as "no log errors" may need to be interpreted properly. You pay them for service, so they work for you. FastFTP, and similar desktop clients, require a series of server profiles which you setup, by hand - one for each server. You have no problem with FastFTP because you configure FastFTP, spe...

Recently, we're seeing an assortment of complaints about blog feeds, either not working at all, or updating slowly. Whether presented in a browser display, in a Following Reading List / Google Reader, or in a bloglist gadget, the accuracy of the feed as displayed can be affected by a few issues. Custom feed redirection. Custom Domain redirection. Classic vs New feed URL, and Blogger vs BlogSpot / domain served feed. Feeds served by third party servers (FTP publishing). Feeds from private blogs (which don't exist). Cached feed content. Custom Feed Redirection A custom, redirected feed, redirected through FeedBurner or a similar service , will be affected by problems with the service. When you check out a problem with a redirected feed, it may be helpful to compare the redirected feed content with the non redirected feed content. Custom Domain Redirection A feed coming from a blog that's published to a custom domain will be affected by the custom domain DNS i...

This month, we have several reports from bloggers who, for one reason or another, have changed the FTP username and / or password on the domain host server, and then updated the username / password in their Blogger FTP settings . Much to their dismay, when attempting to publish their blog, they find the old username / password being sent to the remote server . I have verified it's saving my new username in the publishing settings and yes, I'm seeing the error based on the posting status. I get the following ... FTP login failed (server: ftp.domain.com, username: myoldusername, reason: 530 User myoldusername cannot log in. ) Are you seeing this behaviour, when trying to publish your blog? What is the blog URL? What is the FTP server setting? When did you make the setting change? Did you verify the problem, by examining the host server activity logs? >> Top

Occasionally, a blogger reports a problem with FTP Publishing, and it turns out to be caused by changes made at the host server . Rarely, the host server staff admits to the problem promptly, and we can move on. Today, we got an answer back, and positive results , in the same day. I called Yahoo again. I pestered them and found out that there WAS a change on their side of things. I was able to resolve the issue. then later The change they made was that they now require the entire email address as the user name (username @yahoo.com ) whenever you're going FTP something. In Blogger, I made this change under: Settings - Publishing - FTP username . If you have a blog published to a Yahoo server, using FTP, and your publishing has stopped working this week, maybe this is why you're here. Check the settings for your blog , and contact the Yahoo support team . Verify the change, then update your settings. >> Top