The Real Blogger Status

Periodically, we see questions about email delivery, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I setup email delivery, for my domain? Long ago, this was fairly easy to setup. It won't be so easy for everybody, however. Email delivery starts with the required DNS addresses - which are domain and registrar specific. Email for BlogSpot URLs is not possible - and email for custom domains will require specific domain services. Not all DNS hosting services will, automatically, provide email.

Recently, we've been seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from people suddenly unable to login to Blogger and maintain or publish their blogs. It appears that more and more private network owners are converting their email and office applications suites, to use Google Apps / Docs. This gives the various employers and schools the ability to block people, using their email, from also using extraneous / unnecessary services like Blogger and YouTube - and encourages the employees and students to spend their time more productively. People with Blogger accounts, that are based on the converted email domains, are seeing problems accessing their blogs.

Recently, we've been seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from people suddenly unable to login to Blogger and maintain or publish their blogs. It appears that more and more private network owners are converting their email and office applications suites, to use Google Apps / Docs. This gives the various employers and schools the ability to block people, using their email, from also using extraneous / unnecessary services like Blogger and YouTube - and encourages the employees and students to spend their time more productively. People with Blogger accounts, that are based on the converted email domains, are seeing problems accessing their blogs.

We see occasional signs of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about custom domain publishing. Can I publish to a custom domain - and still use the Blogger dashboard? and Can I publish to a custom domain - and keep my comments and posts? and Can I publish to a custom domain - and avoid TOS restrictions? Some blog owners seem to see custom domain publishing as more than it actually is.

We're seeing some panic today, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from a few blog owners who have received email, which implies that their custom domain registrations are approaching expiration - and can't be renewed. I registered my domain several months ago, through Google. I have the receipt for the payment in my email, my Google Wallet account, and my credit card statement. Why am I getting this email now, some months after registering my domain - but well before my registration should be expiring? Our records indicate that the payment for registering your domain mydomain.com was unsuccessful. Payment failures happen for a variety of reasons (such as insufficient funds or an expired card). You can update your payment information to resolve the issue. Please log in to your account and update your payment information. If you take no action, your domain will not be renewed on . This confusion is especially unfortunate, given the recent discontinuation of...

Ever since Google ended its free Google Apps accounts , we've been seeing reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about problems encountered when setting up a new Google Apps account, to administer a newly purchased custom domain. Every time I try to login to Google Apps, using instructions in the email message, I get Server Error: We could not process your request at this time, please try again later.

Last week, Google dropped a bombshell on many small client developers. Starting on December 6, 2012 , Google will no longer offer new accounts for the free edition of Google Apps. Google Apps free edition is sometimes referred to as "Standard Edition." This announcement will bring changes to Blogger, and to custom domain publishing. Many owners of Blogger blogs published using the Google Custom Domain feature have learned to use various Google Apps wizards, to setup and to maintain their domains.

We're seeing problem reports from some confused blog owners, who are apparently customers of ISPs who have made the switch, from using a private email infrastructure, to using GMail based email (administered using Google Apps). When I try to sign in I get this message. Blogger has not been enabled by the administrator of the domain How do I administer my blog? We've known, for a while, that having a Blogger account based on a Google Apps provided GMail account may not be a good long term strategy - particularly if the Apps account is based on a domain which you own, and the domain was purchased to host one of your blogs . Possibly considering the latter scenario, Blogger / Google now requires that you enable the Blogger service , for any new Google Apps controlled domain - if you wish to use email addresses in that domain to host Blogger accounts. This is a safety measure, helping to prevent you from having a Blogger account that you can't control - or can't recove...

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We've know, for a while, of the downsides of having a Blogger account that's based on an email address that's provided by a Google Apps based domain . Some people are unknowingly using email that is based on Google Apps administered service - and they are not even the administrators. A few would be blog owners - or members (of a private or team blog) - are using Google Apps administered domains for their email. The dangers of using this ( obscure ) option never becomes relevant to them, until they try to join or setup a Blogger blog. When I click on the invite link, and try to set up a new Google account, I get the message. Blogger has not been enabled by the administrator of the domain xxxxxxx.edu. What do I do, now?

We're seeing some reports of panic, from a few Blogger blog owners who recently renewed registration of their "Buy a domain" purchased custom domains, with Google Apps informing them that their domain registration is now renewed - but with a back dated expiry. This appears to be a known Google Apps issue . Roberto of "robertosblogs.net", in Another Google Stuff-up , shows us the confirmation letter, that he recently received from Google Apps. This message confirms we have renewed your domain registration for robertosblogs.net with GoDaddy.com . Your credit card has been charged $10 and your domain registration is valid until April 5, 2011 . Some people, reporting this scenario in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken have been rather panicked, and fearful either that they had just wasted $10 - or that their domain now needs an additional payment (for 2 years?).

In every game of poker, there comes the time to call ("show the cards"). So today, we see a question, which I've seen a few times, reechoed recently I am planning to switch my Blogger blog to a custom domain. But before doing that I would like to know all the benefits and drawbacks of switching to a custom domain name.

Most bloggers who setup a Google Custom Domain do it purely to serve a web site. That's what Blogger blogs are, anyway - easily setup journal style web sites. As your web site grows in reputation, you may think about the advantages of having email with the domain name. Most corporations, that have their own email and web servers, do that - so why shouldn't you?