The Real Blogger Status

I have suggested that properly sizing the Jump Break and Title sections of each post is an important decision, when publishing a post in your blog. Publishing this blog, using carefully sized post title and jump break sections, allows me to consistently publish posts, with maximum detail visible in main page view - and with the "Read more" link visible. Potential readers may read a post in this blog - instead of returning to a SERP , and reading another blog. This affects a key reader retention metric, the " bounce rate ". All of that considered, sizing of the introductory post sections won't always produce predictable results.

Some blog owners decide to include music, to accessorise their blogs - and the first thing they ask for is instructions. Please give me step by step instructions, to add music. They don't consider that adding music, for any blog, will be their personal choice - and a music player will be personal too.

Some blog owners are very anxious to have their blogs accessible, using SSL protocol. We see the occasional impassioned query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . I added JavaScript code in my blog, to redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, since I want my users to view the blog in HTTPS. I am concerned about indexing and Webmaster Tools. How do I move from HTTP to HTTPS? I would like my posts to be indexed, using HTTPS.

Some blog owners are not going to be able to provide SSL access to their blogs - even with SSL enabled . Blog owners who prefer to use the "www" alias of "blogspot.com" - and who have chosen to enable SSL access for their blogs - report "Invalid Certificate" errors, when trying to access. And other blog owners report problems, when they have photos, hosted by Google and Picasa, using "http:".

Blog guests and owners who wish to use OpenID, for posting comments, may need to logout from Blogger, before commenting. It appears that when commenting, someone logged in to Blogger or Google will use the Blogger / Google account for authentication, automatically - instead of an OpenID account - even when preferring to use OpenID, and the blog permits use of OpenID.

Today, Blogger / Google made a major announcement which has been coming, for a long time. Today we're expanding on the HTTPS Everywhere mission and beginning an initial rollout of HTTPS support for Blogspot. HTTPS is a cornerstone of internet security as it provides several important benefits: it makes it harder for bad actors to steal information or track the activities of blog authors and visitors, it helps check that visitors open the correct website and aren’t being redirected to a malicious location, and it helps detect if a bad actor tries to change any data sent from Blogger to a blog visitor. SSL access to Blogger blogs has been requested, by many blog owners, for years. The initial offer, which will roll out gradually, will only affect BlogSpot published blogs. It will be voluntary, to give blog owners a chance to upgrade the various accessories and applications.

With a static website, you use different sized headers to indicate sections of each page - and how important each section may be. That helps your readers search each page, and makes them happy - and making your readers happy increases SEO. With a Blogger blog, what makes your readers happy increases SEO, also. With a blog, you make your readers happy by providing content, for them to read . And you make them happier, by organising the content.

One odd question, that has intrigued me for a while, is about dynamic templates, and reader choice. We see the occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I prevent my readers from viewing my blog, using an unacceptable dynamic view? This blog owner is overlooking one of the major advantages to dynamic templates.

Much of what we do in life - and what we do when using Blogger - is based upon, and limited by, choice. Some choices we get to make, for ourselves. Other choices are made for us, by people who make their own choices. Some blog owners do not want their readers to have to login to Blogger, to comment on their blogs. Other blog owners do not want their readers to have to solve a CAPTCHA, to comment on their blogs. A few blog owners do not want their readers to have to do either. It seems anyone who wishes to leave a comment, will have to do some form of login, either via Google or a CAPTCHA, to do so! Is there a reason for this, would it not be easier, for anyone to just leave a comment? And the answer here is simple. It would be easier, if neither were required. But reality - involving activity by spammers , and activity to counter spammers - leaves some of us with less choices.

When the Blogger dynamic templates were first introduced, back in 2011, they provided choices . Besides letting the reader choose, on the fly, which dynamic view to use, it was possible to let the reader choose whether to view the blog using a dynamic view - or a non dynamic view . When dynamic templates were first introduced, they offered a dynamic view of the blog posts - and little else. Popular features like static pages were added later, and in pieces . As the various pieces of the dynamic views became better defined, the need to switch between dynamic and non dynamic views became less essential - and eventually, some choices were eliminated.

Over a year ago, Blogger introduced a useful template option for our blogs - mobile templates . Blogger mobile templates are mobile-optimized versions of our Template Designer templates. If you are using one of these templates, when you enable the mobile template option your blog will begin rendering using the mobile version of the same variant. Even if you are not using a Template Designer template, or using a heavily-customized version of one, you can still enable this feature to have your blog start rendering in a generic default mobile template that we have created. The mobile templates let computers with lower display size / resolution - aka PDAs, mobile phones, and smart phones - display the content of our blogs, without the unnecessary overhead which may be a part of our normal blog formatting. If you are viewing this post on your smart phone, it's likely that you are viewing it using a mobile template. As exciting as the mobile templates are, however, they will not repla...

Ever since Blogger installed auto pagination . Blogger blog owners have been asking How do I disable auto pagination? and Why can't I display my blog on the main page, without my readers having to use "Older Posts? The response, up to this year, has been simple. You cannot disable auto pagination. You have to allow sharing of network resources. Though technically correct, the latter response has not always been met with appreciation. The solution, for avoiding auto pagination, is now simple. Install a dynamic template , on your blog.

The dynamic templates have been available for just over 3 months , and for all their usefulness, there are a number of identified deficiencies . We see, every week, naive questions about one well known deficiency. How do I add a bloglist (Followers gadget, labels index, popular posts, what have you...) gadget to my blog, with it using a dynamic template? Adding gadgets to a dynamic template display just won't be a simple project. Not to be facetious, but there is really no space on the screen, for an accessory bar (also known as a sidebar). The dynamic views dynamically fill all horizontal space.

Last week, I issued my annual reminder to blog owners , to consider their blog holiday decorations with care. That reminder mainly focuses on the more controversial issue of blog hijacks, and computer hacking . Besides the long term and subtle computer hacking, your readers, visiting your blog decorated with the latest animation, will have a more immediate and obvious problem to consider - browser freezes and other computer overload problems.

One odd feature of the dynamic templates - giving your readers the choice how they want to view your blog - is a detail that not everybody seems to get. In the ongoing discussion What do you think of Dynamic Views? , we see some dissenting opinions. I don't like the fact that readers can change the way they view my blog. I want things to be viewed the way I set them up, and not have them be changeable by the viewer. Personally, as long as each view lets some people view my blog, I'm happy to let anybody select the template that lets them view the blog, as it pleases them.

Many blog owners are experimenting with multimedia, as part of their blogs. People who have 5 channel audio / 3D video systems, and various sources of content for each, look at their blogs and decide that the next frontier, for decorating their blog, has to be music. Any blog with a visual theme surely deserves an audible theme, also. Unfortunately, many blog readers like to surf the net, while listening to their favourite tunes. People who are listening to new age music won't appreciate surfing to a blog that makes their computer suddenly start to play grunge rock. Nor will classical music fans appreciate the latest rhythm and blues, or urban beat, hit tune. Unexpected music can create both a bandwidth annoyance, and an audible distraction. People surfing blogs in a shared environment - for instance a public library - won't appreciate any audio content , in any blog.