The Real Blogger Status

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...

I've been writing about the joys and tribulations of both custom domain publishing, and FTP publishing, for many months. I've provided a rough comparison about the two hosting options, as well as my opinion about the future of FTP publishing . Now Blogger has provided a live forum , where you can make your concerns and questions heard. A Q&A forum for comments and any questions you may have about the hosting options on Blogger (FTP vs. Custom Domains vs. BlogSpot) The forum is a worthy complement to a possible shift by Blogger regarding the future of FTP Publishing. Rick Klau, the new Blogger Product Manager, offers a comprehensive analysis of the future . If you use FTP today, I'd like to start a conversation about whether this is the right approach for your blog. I've been talking with bloggers over the last couple weeks on this subject, and have found most users, when presented with the option of hosting their blog using Blogger's Custom Domain option inst...

If you currently have a blog published to a remote server, using FTP, and you want to change the blog to publish to a custom domain hosted on a Google server, moving the blog to a Google server isn't terribly complicated, but it does take a small amount of planning. One of the small details, which may affect your success in the move, involves a possible change in the URL, for the individual posts. If the blog has a BlogSpot URL of "myblog.blogspot.com", and it's published to "mydomain.com/blog", there's a "301 Redirect" for "myblog.blogspot.com" , to "mydomain.com/blog". If you move to publishing to "blog.mydomain.com", "myblog.blogspot.com" will be likewise redirected to "blog.mydomain.com". From the quick look there, any move from FTP to custom domain publishing should be transparent. And it is, if only the root of the blog / domain is considered. If you use Permalinks, each post has its o...

Many Bloggers, currently publishing by FTP to external servers, need to plan for a somewhat immediate move of their blogs back to Blogger and Google servers. No matter how you look at it, this is a manual process. This week, an FTP Publishing Migration Tool, stated to be available 2/22 , developed to support the immediately required migration , will mitigate some of the tedium and uncertainty that's described below. Start from the Settings - Publishing screen. See the advice for "Blog URL"? "nitecruzrtestftp.blogspot.com will redirect to your FTP blog." That's the current BlogSpot alias, and soon will be the only URL. Just select "Switch to: • blogspot.com". Endure yet another CAPTCHA . You're done. You're publishing on blogspot.com. And see the Blog*Spot Address? Just don't try hitting "Save Settings" again. Home again. Now, if you like, move to a custom domain. Or not. >> Top

Some time ago, in my comprehensive comparison of Custom Domain vs FTP Publishing , I suggested that 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. This week, we have a new, annoying problem with FTP publishing, which, regardless of what may or may not be stated by Blogger , does not seem to be solved. And we have a possible reliability improvement in custom domain publishing, with the dreaded "404 Not Found" problem, recently, becoming less frequently reported. It's possible that my prior suspicion may become reality sometime in the near future. Some of you, currently publishing your blogs using FTP Publishing, may do well to consider changing to Custom Domain Publishing. And in doing so, you should consider several key issues. If you initially published your blog to the FTP server prior to November 2007, it's possible that the original BlogSpo...