The Real Blogger Status

Blog owners are always changing the URLs of their blogs - then asking why Blogger does not provide automatic redirection, to the new URL. We see the occasional query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I redirect my readers, to my new URL? And this is a need that will likely go unfulfilled. If Blogger provided automated redirection, spammers would abuse it, as part of a spam publishing strategy .

Some blog owners delete or rename a blog, without proper planning - and later regret their action. Some spammers track blog name availability - particularly with blog names that contain "English" (and some non English) language words. If a spammer discovers that a given blog name has recently become available, he will publish a stub blog to that name - and later, add spammy content. Why is a spammer interested in recently available names?

Renaming a blog is not difficult - but it can produce unwanted side effects. We've seen a few problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I renamed my blog, last year - and I have had no new visitors, since then! or I looked at the old URL, and it's got my posts, and lots of spam! These blog owners did not plan the renaming process.

Every month, we see a concern about content theft or impersonation, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I deleted my blog last year! Now, I see it online again, using my name - but it's not in my dashboard! or I renamed my blog, last month! Somebody else is publishing it, this month!! These former blog owners have discovered the unpleasant reality of never ending spammer activity. URL recycling (a feature begged for, by many), plus blog content and feed caching (a reality, with most blogs), can lead to spammer harvesting and resurrection. And in some cases, to identity theft.

One of the simplest - and most user friendly - displays that you can add, to your blog, is a custom "404 Not Found" display. A standard Blogger blog, by default, provides a terse advice, for invalid URLs. Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist. Would it not be more user friendly, to use relevant slang, maybe. Sorry, bro - that's not on! You can do this - and more - with a little imagination.

Occasionally, we see concern, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , about continuing to serve the readers of a blog, after renaming or replacing with a new URL. How do I let my existing subscribers read the feed, with the blog published to a new URL? This blog owner is planning ahead - which is a good idea whenever renaming a blog .

From time to time, we see questions about using a Blogger / Google custom domain, with publishing services outside Blogger / Google. Some Blogger blog owners want to combine their Blogger blogs, with non Blogger blogs and websites - and others want simply to move their blogging activity to non Blogger services. And a few think ahead, and wonder how adding or moving to another service will affect the ability of their existing readers to find their blog, and / or their ability to get new readers. As with using a Blogger blog with an existing non Google domain , this is not a simple project - and to do this properly will require research - and well informed decisions. Some assistance can be provided by Blogger or in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger - and other portions of the project will require advice or instruction from the support groups for the new service.

Like creating a blog , the task of renaming your blog involves one very important step - choosing an available blog name. When you rename your blog - as in change the blog address - you have to pick a name (address) that's not in use . Both creating a blog, and renaming a blog, suffer from one key detail - you can't identify an available address before you get started.

One example of agony, seen all too frequently in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , comes from new (would be) blog owners. I setup my new blog, using a great blog name, properly chosen - but before I could post, I got email from Blogger. Hello, The review of your blog at http://yournewblog.blogspot.com/ confirmed that the content violates the Terms of Service for: SPAM. In accordance with those conditions, the blog has been deleted - and its URL is no longer accessible. This was a new blog, with no posts! How can it be considered spam?? Unfortunately, this blog owner is the latest victim of the spam problem, and "friendly fire". If we consider the known lifetime of spam blogs , we can see that new non spam blogs are especially vulnerable to spurious classification as spam hosts.

I've been advising people to use a stub blog , when renaming (changing the URL of) a blog, for a few years. Hey folks, this blog has moved to http://mynewblogspoturl.blogspot.com. That's a stub post - and a blog, containing only a stub post, is a stub blog. A stub blog is a compromise, based on the Blogger anti-spam policy which prevents Blogger blogs from automatically redirecting from an old URL to a new URL. The stub post replaces the main page - not the individual post pages, not archive retrievals, label searches, etc. The stub post contains a minimum of information. The stub post is simply better than nothing. But now, maybe you can provide something a bit better than a simple stub post, to let your readers know that your blog now has a new URL .

Renaming a blog - republishing it to a new URL - is simple enough. Pick an available URL. We all know how to identify an available URL - pick it now. Once you know that it's available, you have it - and it's not available, any more. What if your renaming project also involves restyling the blog?

When we rename a blog, we use the Post Feed Redirect URL to redirect all feed references, from the old URL to the new feed URL. When we setup a custom feed for a blog, maybe using FeedBurner, we use the Post Feed Redirect URL to redirect all feed references, from the blog, to the FeedBurner feed. That lets us use a FeedBurner feed without having to change all of the feed links in the blog. Besides using the Post Feed Redirect URL to setup a FeedBurner feed , you can use the Post Feed Redirect URL when you re publish the blog to a new BlogSpot URL .

Your blog depends upon traffic for its success. Anything that affects the traffic to your blog, such as a change in the URL, affects the success of your blog. If you republish your blog to a different BlogSpot URL, as with migration to a custom domain , you will not lose any content. Both comments, posts, the template, and all custom settings, will stay with the blog. And if you plan the republishing effort, you can minimise the loss of traffic.

Occasionally, we have people expressing confusion about loss of Followers. I updated my template, and I lost my Followers! If you only update your template and nothing else, your blog should still have its Followers. You may lose various gadgets from the template, when you make changes - but even if the Followers gadget is lost, the existing Followers continue. Just look at the Followers community, from your dashboard, and you'll see the Followers.

When you were young, did you ever play with a dandelion ? I have - they are (in some places) easy to find, and free fun to be had (don't let your parents see you though). Did you ever blow on one, watch the pieces fly thru the air, then run around and try to pick the pieces up? That's your blog, all over the net. The only way to kill dandelions is while they are young, yellow, and solid. When dandelions get old, white, and airy, just touching one will make it blow into pieces. The pieces go everywhere, and next year, you'll have more dandelions everywhere. That's when your parents will have to deal with the problem.

The process of deleting your blog has been a challenging issue for some time. Prepare for the deletion first. Consider the issues. The implications of the deletion . An interaction with custom domains . The latency limitations of deleting a blog . All of these issues bear discussion, before you start. The deletion process itself is not complicated. Start from the dashboard Settings - Other screen. There's the link - "Delete blog" - right at the top of the screen. Easy to find, and to click on. Having clicked on the link, we get a good stern warning. Deleted blogs can be restored within 90 days before they are removed forever. Plain enough? And a link to let you export the blog contents, before deleting the blog. I'd export first, any time. Just note, you will be able to restore the blog for up to 90 days after deletion - and then, never. Note that the blog may disappear from your dashboard - but removing it from the search engines may take some ...

One of the neatest features of Blogger "One Button Publishing" is the "one button" design. Don't like the layout of the blog? Change the template! Don't like the colour of the background (the post area, the sidebar, ...)? Change the colour! Don't like the Title, don't like the URL, ... Whoa. Slow down. The URL, that is the Universal Resource Locator, is known all over the Internet. Or should be, if you're publicising the blog properly . That's your public name - don't be changing that on the spur of the moment.

If you create a blog, and work on it, eventually it will rise in value. Given enough work, and reader interest, it may even get a Google Page Rank of some decent value. Let's say you manage to make something of your blog, then tire of it. The normal thing would be to delete it . Delete it - it's gone - move on to something new. Simple, right? At one time, you could have just deleted your blog, using the dashboard Settings - Other - "Delete blog" wizard, in "Blog Tools", without thinking.

Occasionally, after you have your blog for a while, you tire of the URL. Maybe the blog content changed in focus, or maybe you discovered that the current URL is too similar to another better known one. So you decided to pick a different BlogSpot address. Whatever. So you selected an available URL, went into Settings - Publishing, changed the address, and republished to the new address. Fine. Then you discovered that you can still see the old URL. Not so fine. What you did was similar in effect to someone switching to external publishing . Like someone who switched to external publishing, you can still see the old blog. Hopefully, it still has your contents there.

What is a stub post? My first one was, originally, Drop Back And Kick . This is a better example. Just a simple post. No images, fancy formatting, or anything interesting. What is a stub website? One that contains just one stub post - or no posts, and just a Welcome message . You'll see stubs in the test forums. Test.