Blogger Magic - Supporting A BlogSpot URL Change

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.

Blogger wants to keep the Blogger infrastructure as free from spam, as possible.

Changing the URL is simple enough.

Just use the Publishing wizard, in the Settings - Basic page, and Edit the "Blog Address". Subject to availability, your blog will have a new URL - as you watch.


The change is not difficult. Just Edit "Blog Address".


But with a new URL, unplanned, you'll lose traffic.

Blogger does not support automated blog to blog redirection.

Trying to keep the Blogger ecosystem clean from spam, Blogger actively discourages automated redirection. Neither JavaScript or meta refresh redirection is recommended.

You can use passive redirection, though - and give your readers the choice, to read the blog using the new URL.

• Setup a blog cluster.
• Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Setup a blog cluster.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and pair the old and new blogs, actively. There are a number of possible techniques to use, to combine two blogs as equals.

You will need informative, interesting, and unique content, for both blogs, to get the most from this approach.

Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and add a single post, advising your readers about the change - with a link, taking them to the new blog. You can use a custom 404 display, to collect all existing links to posts in the blog, which will take your readers to the single post.

A Featured Post is perfect, as the single post in the stub blog.

You can redirect the blog posts feed, even though you can't redirect the posts themselves. Just redirect the old blog feed, to the new blog posts feed URL.

Combine the two approaches, if you like.

There's no need to consider the two approaches as mutually exclusive. You can use techniques from each, if you like. Simply pick an approach that suits your readers.

Just don't look for automated redirection. That's not likely to happen.

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Some #Blogger blog owners decide to change the URL of their blog - then ask how to setup automated redirection, from the old URL to the new. That is, however not likely to be an option provided, or even allowed, by Blogger.

A Domain Root, With Blogger And Non Blogger Hosts

Some blog owners publish a domain, and try to combine a Blogger blog, and a non Blogger website, in the domain root.

They publish one host to the domain root - and the other to the "www" alias.

This combination may be supported by the non Blogger host - but Blogger blog reliability will suffer. And the readers may become confused, when they click to view the blog, and get the website - or vice versa.

There is a special relationship between the domain root and "www" alias. Blogger takes advantage of this relationship, to provide improved reliability for a blog, when published to a custom domain.

Ignoring the special relationship, and splitting the domain root and "www" alias, leads to confusion - and decreased blog reliability.

Please don't publish two different hosts into the domain root / "www" pair.

Please, don't combine a Blogger blog and a non Blogger website, in the domain root / "www" alias duality.

There are 3 mutually exclusive configurations, for combining a Blogger blog and a non Blogger website in a domain, which will produce a reliable blog. Your readers will be happier - and the search engines will index the blog better - if you stick to one of the 3 supported configurations.

Taking the 3 supported Blogger configurations, we can add a properly published non Blogger website - and produce 3 more possible variants.

1. Non Blogger website published to the "site" alias.
2. Non Blogger website published to the domain root.
3. Non Blogger website published to the "www" alias.

Non Blogger website published to the "site" alias.

Here, the blog is published to the "www" alias, with the domain root redirected to the "www" alias - and the website is published to an additional virtual host, such as "site". This is a variant of the Blogger asymmetrical DNS configuration.

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.
site.mydomain.com 3600 IN A 162.210.101.54

Non Blogger website published to the domain root.

Here, the blog is published to the "blog" alias - and the website is published to the domain root. The website may or may not support redirection of the "www" alias to the domain root. This is a variant of the Blogger additional virtual host DNS configuration.

mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 162.210.101.54
www.mydomain.com 3600 IN A 162.210.101.54
blog.mydomain.com 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Non Blogger website published to the "www" alias.

Here, the blog is published to the "blog" alias - and the website is published to the "www" alias. The website may or may not support redirection of the domain root to the "www" alias. This is a variant of the Blogger additional virtual host DNS configuration.

mydomain.com 3600 IN A 162.210.101.54
www.mydomain.com 3600 IN A 162.210.101.54
blog.mydomain.com 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Your blog will be more reliably online - and your readers will be happier. And happier readers leads to better search engine indexing - and to more readers.

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#Blogger blogs published to custom domains use both the domain root / "www" alias, for reliable connectivity. Trying to publish a blog, and a non Blogger website, to the domain root / "www" alias, leads to confusion - and decreased reliability for the blog.

The "About Me" Gadget, And Google+

Some blog owners are accustomed to editing their Blogger profiles, from time to time.

Publishing a blog that presents oneself to ones readers, openly, is important to some blog owners. The Blogger profile becomes a blog component that is edited, periodically, to keep the blog reader friendly.

The Blogger profile editor produces content which is displayed in the "About Me" gadget, for single owner blogs. Multiple owner blogs, complementarily, display "About Us" - which provides a different display.

Google+ profiles are edited using the Google+ desktop - and Google+ desktop content does not display in "About Me", in Blogger.

"About Me" displays Blogger Profile content. Once you upgrade to a Google+ profile, you won't have access to the Blogger Profile Editor - and you'll have no way to edit Blogger Profile content.

If the blog has been upgraded, you won't be able to edit your Blogger profile.



If you can edit your Google+ profile, sufficiently, you'll be good. If not, you can work around the problem.

Just create your own custom "About Me" gadget, using a Blogger HTML or Text gadget. You can do this in under an hour.



Add an "HTML / JavaScript" gadget. That's how you start.



Use the Layout "Add a Gadget" page, add an "HTML" or "Text" gadget, and fill the gadget content with your profile. With a little work, you can make a gadget with as much detail as any Google+ page or profile.

• Desktop banner background / icon.
• Photos.
• Text.
• Video.
• Whatever interests you - and your readers.

With a little work and imagination, you can have a blog that looks like part of your Google+ desktop.

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Owners of #Blogger blogs that use Google+ profiles want to edit their "About Me" gadgets - but find no way to do that. With a Google+ profile edited using the Google+ desktop, no "About Me" displayed content is produced.

Fortunately, it's not difficult to produce a custom "About Me" gadget.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/Ifg3aW2yMrg

You Cannot Fit Your Entire Blog Onto The Main Page

Some blog owners would like their readers to view the entire blog in one page.

A small blog, with very limited size, can theoretically fit on one page. If you intend to publish a blog with any future, and page rank, you will have to publish content periodically - and the size of the blog will increase, steadily.

And eventually, thanks in part to main page limitation by auto pagination, older posts in your blog will be forced into archive pages.

For a blog with any future, and publishing activity, there are four possibilities for main page size.

• Segment main page, limiting post count.
• Segment your blog, using virtual blogs.
• Use a dynamic template, and "continuous scrolling".
• Use a non dynamic template, and Jump Break - and accept archiving.

Segment main page, limiting post count.

One of the simplest ways to make your blog reader friendly is to limit main page size, using a post count limit. This won't work as a final solution, however, if you're planning to publish the blog with any regularity.

Segment your blog, using virtual blogs.

If you can break your blog into multiple subjects, you can use a Pages tabbed index to access each different subject. You can fit each different subject, possibly using Jump Break, onto one page.

To complement the virtual blogs, you can have a static main page - providing a "welcome" message, and / or indexing the virtual blogs.

Use a dynamic template, and "continuous scrolling".

For public blogs, a dynamic template, with continuous scrolling, may provide a solution. Dynamic templates, unless you a very comfortable with editing the blog template, will never offer the accessory and customisation possibilities of non dynamic templates, however.

With a dynamic template, you won't be able to use Jump Break - though some dynamic views may provide a summarised main page view.

Use a non dynamic template, and Jump Break - and accept archiving.

Careful use of Jump Break will let you limit the size of the main page. If you continue to publish posts - which is necessary for a blog with any future - you will eventually have posts displayed on archive pages.

For best results, design the blog structure - and the posts structure - consistently, and accept archiving and pagination.

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Some #Blogger blog owners would like to display all post content in one page - and ignore page display size. They do not realise that not all blog readers want to read a blog with an unlimited page size, all at once.

Blogger, And Home / Small Business Blog Clusters

One topic of frustration, occasionally seen in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, involves home based business blogs, that may be victims of their own success.

We are not spam - we are a network of blog owners, in select cities all over the country. I am tired of hearing the apologies, this needs to be resolved.

The blog owner is being quite polite, but insistent.

Blog clusters, whether developed by home / small business owners, or malicious spammers, create problems for all Blogger blog owners. Home / small business blogs are clearly not intentional spam - but their structure makes them easy to mistake for spam blog farms.

Blogger values the creation of blogs with original content. Replicating original content across multiple blogs however, violates the Blogger Spam policy.

Blogger Content: Spam provides a good definition of the Blogger Spam policy.

Spam: Spam takes several forms in Blogger, all of which can result in deletion of your account or blog. Some examples include creating blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings, posting comments on other people's blogs just to promote your site or product, and scraping existing content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains.

The most recently observed home / small business blog cluster, which generated traffic in the Spam Review section of the forum, was a USA based coupon sharing club, that had expanded into other areas - such as dining, entertainment and local events.

We are MORE than a coupon group. Our network works with Disney, Nickelodeon, local restaurants, reviews and products and events locally.

Other blog clusters have involved an Australian blog franchise of electronic / tech products and services - and a California / Florida carpet / home cleaning business.

Home / small business blogs can be mistaken for spam blogs.

Each of these three examples appear to have started as home / small businesses, possibly with one blog - and grew exponentially, as franchises. And each of the examples present problems, with automated spam classification.

• Aggregation of blogs produces unfair advantage, over other small businesses using Blogger.
• Aggregation of blogs skews spam classification, by tweaking the heuristic spam filters.
• Aggregation of blogs makes detection of actual spam blog farms more difficult.

These three concerns produce side effects, in the Blogger spam mitigation program - and lead to periodic spurious spam classification of home / small business blog clusters.

As the size of the clusters increase, so does the chance of repeated classification.

• Blogger policy prevents whitelisting the blogs in the cluster.
• The more blogs in the cluster, the greater chance that one or more blogs will be classified, at any given time.
• The more blogs in the cluster, the longer it will take to review a blog, when classified.

Understand your role, in the spam classification / review process.

If you operate a home / small business, which involves blogs clustered on a geographic and / or product - service relationship - and your business is impeded by spurious spam classification, we'll work with you, and try to get your blogs reviewed.

Please, understand that your home / small business may be pushing the limits of the Blogger spam mitigation program. Try to minimise content which replicates through multiple blogs in the cluster - and content which is scraped from various commercial websites.

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Some owners / operators of home / small businesses, which use #Blogger as a backbone for their business, produce clusters of blogs, organised on a geographic / product / service basis. Rapid growth of the businesses may lead to blogs which share content too heavily - and may lead to repeated spurious spam classification.

Owners of the blogs should learn to expect occasional spam classification, and try to minimise blog features which lead to spam classification.

Don't Try To Split The Custom Domain Root URLs

Some blog owners publish both a blog and a website - and combine the two in the domain root / www host address pair.

This technique, while apparently reasonable, will eventually lead to confusion from the blog readers - and / or anguish by the blog owners.

Some readers, using a browser or DNS client that aliases the domain root and "www" host, will find that the website will come up, when the blog is referenced, or vice versa. And some blog owners may find, once more, another case of "Another blog ..." / Key already exists ...", when examining or publishing to the domain.

In neither case will the blog owners or readers be pleased.

We've known, for a while, about browsers and possibly DNS clients, that alias the domain root and the "www" host.

The domain root and "www" host are aliased, in some systems.

The practice of aliasing the domain root and "www" host has been common, with some webmasters, for years. Firefox - and possibly other web browsers and some DNS clients - have used the domain root, and "www" host, to back each other up.

The standard DNS setup for custom domain publishing, as provided by Blogger "Buy a domain", included a set of "A" addresses to define the domain root - and a "CNAME" to define the "www" host - whenever "Buy a domain" was provided as an option for Blogger blogs.

We've seen domain aliasing cause problems, with improperly domain root setup.

I have advised many custom domain blog owners, who have purchased domains directly from a registrar, to add the 4 x "A" records (when not defined - or when improperly defined), when reporting a "404" from the "www" host. Many times, the "404" has been resolved - even with the "www" host already properly defined, in DNS.

If you split your domain between a blog and a website, your readers may suffer.

If a domain is defined with a (non Blogger) website published to the domain root, and a Blogger blog published to the "www" host - and there is a problem accessing the "www" host - some browsers / DNS clients will automatically try accessing the domain root. This will happen, without decision by the computer owner.

If your reader is trying to access the blog (published to the "www" host) - and the browser displays the website (published to the domain root), this will lead to confusion.

It may seem like the domain root and "www" aliases are separately addressed domain components - but this may not, in reality, be true. The sanity of your readers many make this an important issue.

Besides the three supported Blogger configurations, there are an additional three variants, which support a non Blogger website combined with a Blogger blog. For best results, use one of the three identified configurations.

Add Your Blogger Blog To An Existing Domain

We periodically get queries from anxious blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

Can I use an existing domain, that I own for my website, to publish my Blogger blog?

The ability to use an existing domain, for publishing a Blogger blog, is one of the neatest features of Blogger custom domain publishing. It's also one of the least obvious options.

Publishing a Blogger blog, into an existing domain, is easy.

1. Add a DNS address, for the new URL, to the domain.
2. Publish the blog, to the new URL.
3. Manage the traffic, as part of any newly published custom domain blog.
4. The blog content is hosted by Blogger / Google.
5. The blog address is hosted by your DNS host / registrar.

The new domain URL will be most successful, if you understand the limitations.

DNS Addressing
Hoping that the "blog" domain URL is available, you would add a "CNAME" to the domain.

blog.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

That is the DNS address entry for the URL "blog.mydomain.com", which will point to "ghs.google.com.". This example uses an extracted Dig log to describe the required DNS address.

That is how you add a virtual domain host, for your blog. There will be a few limitations.

• You probably won't be able to publish to the domain root, or to the "www" host. Those addresses are generally used by the website.
• If either the domain root or "www" host is used by the website, do not try to address the other.
• If the DNS host does not permit "CNAME" referral, you won't be able to create a virtual host - and you won't be able to publish your blog to the domain.

Like the normal task of setting up a custom domain, setting up an additional host in an existing domain is exceedingly simple - if you understand the rigid simplicity. Just add one host, using "CNAME" referral. For best results, do not attempt innovative addressing techniques, such as publishing to the domain root or "www" host, if either is already being used.

Since you're adding a host to an existing domain, you may not get instructions to add a second "CNAME" - even if Blogger instructions imply that you will. If you don't get instructions, you don't need a second "CNAME".

Don't try to use an alias pair - the option to refer an alias to the published URL only works, consistently, for the domain root / "www" pair. Just add a single new host, using "CNAME" referral to "ghs.google.com".

Please note the format of "ghs.google.com." The "." after "ghs.google.com" is not decorative. Be aware of how you would enter "ghs.google.com,", properly, using the zone editor provided by your DNS host / registrar.

Blog Publishing
Having added the correct virtual host DNS address to the domain, publish your blog.

Traffic Management
Get to work and manage the migration of blog traffic. For best results, combine the blog and website.

Blog Hosting
The blog content continues to be hosted by Blogger / Google - with the existing address continuing to work, and with the content unchanged. The new blog address is hosted by the DNS host or registrar.

Using A Custom Domain Outside Blogger

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.

Start by deciding how the domain is to be used, with the new website.

Consider The Options

There are several ways to add / substitute a non Blogger blog / website, in a domain purchased for use with a Blogger blog.

1. Transfer domain registration, to the registrar, as required by the new hosting service.
2. Update DNS for the domain, to use name servers, as required by the new hosting service.
3. Update DNS for the domain, to use only addresses pointing to the new hosting service.
4. Update DNS for the domain, to use additional addresses pointing to the new hosting service.

Which of these options, that you are able to use, will depend upon requirements of the new hosting service.

WordPress provides detailed instructions, in WordPress Support: Coming from Blogger?. Not all hosting services will be so helpful, however.

Retain / Transfer Existing Traffic

Options #1 - #3 will require you to start a new URL, published by the new hosting service. Blogger will not permit blogs to be used as gateways. You'll have to get your new blog / website indexed, from the bottom up - with no automatic traffic from your Blogger blog.

Any followers or readers, that are associated with your Blogger blog, will have to be redirected to your new blog / website using visual instructions - or at best a clickable link, in a stub blog. You may be able to redirect subscribers - if the new host offers a compatible newsfeed.

You probably won't be able to publish your stub Blogger blog to the domain, though - so chances are, any of these options will leave you starting over - with no instructions to your existing followers and readers, excepting what you provide before moving the domain.

Option #4 will require you to add an additional host, in the domain with your existing Blogger blog. If your new hosting service supports, you may be able to make your Blogger blog and new blog / website equal members of a domain based cluster.

For a domain cluster to be really effective, you will need to maintain both the existing Blogger blog, and the new non Blogger website as separate entities - and have unique content, regularly updated for each.

Access The Current Registrar Dashboard

Whether you transfer domain hosting, or update the domain, you will need access to the current registrar's dashboard.

• For domains purchased using Blogger / Google "Buy a domain ..." or similar services, access to the registrar's dashboard will require access to the Google Apps / Control Panel utility.
• For domains purchased directly from the registrar, access to the registrar's dashboard will require an account / password that (hopefully) was setup when the domain was purchased.

You will need access to the registrar's dashboard to obtain the EPP code, required by Option #1 - or to make changes to the domain, required by Options #2 - #4.

You May Need Google Apps Access

Most projects - but not all - which involve custom domains require Google Apps access - and establishing Google Apps access is the most common concern, when access to the registrar's dashboard is needed.

1. Get access to Google Apps.
2. That will give you access to the registrar's dashboard.
3. Retrieve the EPP code, or update the DNS addresses per instructions of the additional / new blogging host service - depending upon which Option you are taking.

In some cases, and if you are considering multiple non Google services, choice of what new service you go with may start with identifying migration / setup options provided by each different service.

Regain Followers, Readers, Subcribers, Search Engine Reputation - And Traffic

A domain moved to use outside Blogger will be similar to a new blog / website - with some characteristics of a renamed Blogger blog, and / or a newly published custom domain blog. Just as all Blogger blogs are unique, so will be any domain migration.

You may consider moving existing blog content, to the new service. This will require planning, and testing.

Both the actual movement of the content - and preventing Blogger spam classification, if you move the content - will be important.

You need to understand all of these issues, to regain traffic sources. Blog / website traffic is a complex subject.

Respect Your Existing Audience

If the question of existing / new followers, subscribers, and readers, and search engine reputation, resulting from the move, is a serious issue with you, you may want to plan your move from Blogger with great care.

You won't be able to blatantly redirect your existing readers to your new website - you will need a carefully planned dual website publishing strategy.

Start With The Support Group For The Chosen Service

If you are going to host a blog or website outside Blogger / Google, you must start with instructions from the support group for the new blog / website. DNS is a key issue, in any domain migration - whether BlogSpot to non BlogSpot, or non BlogSpot to non Google.

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Occasionally, a #Blogger blog owner decides to move their blog to a non Google website. Starting with advice in Blogger Help Forum, the owner learns that many necessary decisions, related to a hosting change, require support from the new website host.

Not every blog owner realises why setting up and publishing a Blogger blog is so simple, until they have to make decisions about hosting outside Google.

Use Google Drive For Team Document Development

Ever since AutoSave was developed, and added to posts being edited, people have been having problems when editing un published posts.

We see periodic cries of anguish, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I had been working on this post, for weeks! Just as I selected a portion to delete, AutoSave kicked in, highlighted the whole post, and saved an empty post!!

and

I was working on this post, along with another member of the team. We keep making changes, and erasing each others changes!!!

Blogger allows long period editing of un published posts - and they provide team blog ownership - but you'll do better to not use either possibility, with any important projects.

I've been warning people, for a long time, that Blogger is not a Content Management System.

Blogger provides neither Draft mode edits, nor team membership, as compared to a CMS. Both Draft editing, and team blog membership, provides potential for loss of content, that only you (the original blog owner) will be able to recover.

AutoSave, And Editing A Draft Post
We've known about AutoSave, and it's ability to destroy carefully edited posts, for years. AutoSave is known for it's tendency to cause the entire post to be highlighted - and, after you just pressed delete, to save a newly deleted, empty post.

If you, as the author, have been working on a post for days - or weeks, and you save an empty post, your work is now gone. And Draft mode provides no consistent ability to recover previous versions of the post.

Team Membership
Team membership provides either authors (who can only edit their own posts), or administrators (who can edit, and destroy, everything). There is no middle ground.

If you want to have people able to collaboratively edit a post, you have to make them all administrators. When you do that, every team members absolutely must be someone whom you can trust.

If one team member takes it upon herself (himself) to take over the blog, and remove the other members (and you), this is a problem that you must handle - since you made the decision to give control of the blog, to that person. Blogger Support cannot get involved, legally, since it is (was) your blog.

And, even if team members play by the rules, two people, editing the same post, can easily interfere with each other. The Blogger post editor provides no ability for two team members to edit the same post, simultaneously.

Use Google Drive For Collaborative, Long Term Editing
Having noted the limitations, Google has provided a solution. Google Drive provides a real, Content Management System approach to long term, group development of documents, with version based recovery.

Just start a document, and invite people to help you edit the document. When the document is ready, embed it into your blog. You, and your team, can work on the document - and your only very trusted blog administrators can work on your blog.

If you don't like the embedding options, you can download the document as Rich Text or Plain Text, then copy the text into a new blog post and format the post as you like. If AutoSave misbehaves, you have the original Drive document, as a backup.

You can keep the blog, and the document, separate. When you embed the document, you can let some people continue to edit, while others can read the blog / document, as developed - and the general public can, as you like, be unable to view either one. And your trusted administrators / webmasters can develop the host blog.

Blogger and Google Drive, together, provide interesting possibilities. Imagine the possibilities. Use Google Drive, For Team Document Development Use Google Drive, To Develop Important And Group Documents Use Google Drive, To Develop Important And Group Documents

Please, NEVER Share Your Blogger Account!

We see signs of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. too often.

I gave my boyfriend (girlfriend, former spouse, Internet acquaintance, whatever) my account password - and now, I can't access my account.

This is a problem which Blogger cannot resolve, in any way.

Please, never ever share your Blogger account. Blogger accounts, like Blogger blogs, are free.

If someone who you know would like to read your private blog - or contribute to your team blog - add that person as a blog member, and let her / him use his / her own Blogger account (new, or existing).

There is absolutely no need for you to ever share your Blogger account.

Use private / team blog membership, when applicable.

Shared Blogger accounts carry all of the risks of team blog ownership - and more. Do not share your personal Blogger account to provide private blog membership, or team blog ownership.

Blogger does not provide an option to protect blog content, using a shared password. If you want to password protect blog content, make the blog private, and add readers. Let your readers use their own password (with their own Blogger account).

Split a blog into a security cluster, if necessary.

If you want to password protect a portion of a Blogger blog, break the blog into two portions - the public portion, and the private portion, and provide the private portion as a private blog.

Private blogs, with large reader communities, will require imaginative setup.

If you must have a private blog with more than 100 members, and you cannot use Google+ as an email based distribution medium, setup a read only account to access the blog - and let the members share that Blogger account.

If you setup a shared Blogger account as a blog member (read only), you'll need to maintain a separate mailing list of all shared members. Use BCC to email everybody (don't share everybody's email address with everybody else), giving them the shared account name and password. Save the mailing list, carefully.

With 100+ shared account members, chances are that one day, somebody will change the password on the account, and lock out everybody else. You'll have to then setup a new Blogger account, make that account a new read only blog member, cancel the old member, and email everybody with the new shared account name and password.

If you must have a community, of over 100 members, and let everybody share (not just read), use Google+ - or setup a wiki based website. Your needs are far beyond the ability of Blogger.

When another person works on the blog, they can use their own account.

If you need someone else to work on the blog, make them a blog member or administrator - with their own Blogger account. If their usefulness is temporary, when they are done, revoke their access to the blog - then verify that they did not leave any back door code behind.

Your account name and password is your personal identity.

In any case, keep your account and password (and the blog ownership) private, to you.

Use common sense. Do not share your Blogger account.

• Do not share your Blogger account with your boyfriend.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your girlfriend.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your husband.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your wife.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your boss.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your employee.
• Do not share your Blogger account with your collaborator.

I've warned everybody that team blogs are security risks - but they are way safer than team Blogger accounts.

• Do not wear other peoples underpants.
• Do not share your Blogger account.

Both are rules to live by.

The Domain Root ("Naked Domain") May Not Be Optional

One of the most consistently seen complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, involves blog owners who can't get their blogs working, using custom domain publishing.

Thanks to undertrained tech support staff, a common feature at too many registrars, the most common cause of custom domain problems involves failure to use "CNAME" referral - or "CNAME" referral targeting the wrong destination. Both use of forwarding, and "CNAME" referral to the domain root, is seen too often.

www.mydomain.com.  1800  IN  A  64.202.189.170

or maybe

www.mydomain.com.  1800  IN  CNAME  mydomain.com

Please, don't use either of the above address models!

Unfortunately, even with the blog properly published to the "www" alias - and with the "www" alias using "CNAME" referral, targeting "ghs.google.com" - we still see problems. With neither of the above mistakes made.

The most essential requirement, for a stable custom domain, is "CNAME" referral, targeting "ghs.google.com".

www.mydomain.com.  3600  IN  CNAME  ghs.google.com.

or alternately,for Google Domains and similar setups,

www.mydomain.com.  3600  IN  CNAME  ghs.googlehosted.com.

or possibly

www.mydomain.com.  3600  IN  CNAME  www.mydomain.com.ghs.googlehosted.com.

Please, use this address model! This is where a properly addressed domain starts.

Properly setup DNS addresses won't avoid all DNS related problems.

Some domains have properly setup DNS addresses - but still have problems. DNS is a complex - and essential Internet service. Even with DNS addresses properly setup, all DNS servers, worldwide, won't be constantly operational.

Here's one exercise, using my domain, as an example. Click on each of the following URLs, one by one - and examine the map.

https://www.whatsmydns.net/#A/nitecruzr.net
https://www.whatsmydns.net/#A/www.nitecruzr.net
https://www.whatsmydns.net/#CNAME/www.nitecruzr.net

You'll hopefully see a lot of green check marks - and you'll probably see one or two red "X" marks too. Those red "X" marks represent a DNS server, somewhere, returning "404 Not Found" for my domain. Your domain will return similar (probably not identical) results, at any time.

If your domain is properly setup, your potential readers, hopefully near one of the green check marks, should be able to read your blog. The red "X" marks, unfortunately, are a normal part of Internet life.

We may see obvious problems, when looking at the domain root. Mistakes setting up both the domain root, and the "www" host, are well known. But why do mistakes with the domain root seem to affect us, when we access the "www" host?

Some browsers automatically use the domain root and "www" alias, equally.

If Firefox is involved, an improperly setup domain root can be involved in problems. We've known, for many years, that Firefox aliases the domain root and the "www" host. If the "www" host has a problem, Firefox will attempt use of the domain root. When there's a problem with the "www" host, if the domain root is improperly setup, the blog will be offline.

Whenever any problem is reported with a blog published to a custom domain, I routinely check both the domain root and "www" host - even when the blog owner explicitly reports using Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari - and even when the blog owner reports publishing to the "www" host.

99% of the time, when the blog owner is able and willing to fix discovered problems with DNS addresses for the domain root, the problem at hand will be solved. That is when we see the benefit of having the domain root and the "www" host aliased, and backing up each other.

Why do we see problems with the domain root, with the "www" alias involved?

Why does a problem with the domain root seem to affect use of the "www" host, for multiple browsers - not just for Firefox? Pick one.

• Other browsers - not just Firefox - alias the domain root and "www" host.
• Some operating systems alias the domain root and "www" host.
• Some DNS servers alias the domain root and "www" host.

Whatever the case, I suggest that DNS addressing of the domain root should not be treated as an option, when setting up a custom domain. If you want a stable custom domain, there are but 3 DNS models, that you can use reliably - instructions provided by Blogger not withstanding.

Having setup either the "Symmetrical" or "Asymmetrical" DNS models, always remember to select the "optional" domain root redirect.

Blogger Magic - A Blog Within A Blog

One of the most fascinating features of Blogger blogs is the various options to organise our content.

Long ago, I wrote a simple article, Adding A Blogger Blog To A Website. That's become one of the most consistently popular posts, in this blog. Most blog owners have multiple interests, and like to organise their different interests, by subject - and have a different blog, for each subject.

Some people like to have a blog, and a website - and host both the blog and website in one Blogger blog, under one URL. For a small blog / website combination, that's an easy way to start out - and a good alternative, to having multiple blogs / websites.

It's easy to create a Blogger blog, and have the blog host multiple virtual blogs and / or websites.

The simplest "blog" uses a static home page, and the posts accessed from Pages, as "Blog".

A static home page - and all posts accessed as "Blog".

First, redirect the Home page to a static page.

From: /
To: /p/Welcome.html

Then add a simple dynamic "Blog" page, using "Configure Page List" - if you want all of the posts visible from the "Blog" tab.

Caption: Blog
Link: /search/label/

But, there are more possibilities.

Organised right, you can do without an archive section.

Done carefully enough, you can maybe display an entire blog without archive pages.

Have enough sections - and consistently use Jump Break on the posts - may let you fit a dozen or so posts onto one index page.

Some people organise blog content, using static pages.

The most obvious solutions for this need - to some people - is to setup static pages, one page / subject. But sometimes, interests / subjects overlap - and material that's published on one static page (as in one blog or website) might be relevant to another page (or blog / website).

I recommend basing the blog on dynamic content - and dynamic accessories.

The easiest way to make all of the content accessible is to add various dynamic indexing and search accessories. But some static structural accessories are useful, too.

Then, add a Pages gadget, if not already added. You can have a linkbar / tab index - or possibly a linklist, positioned anywhere convenient. Or both.

Start by labeling your posts.

First, add labels, to the posts. You can use either the posts index, or post editor, to add labels. You use the former, to add one label to many posts - and the latter, to add many labels to one post.

With the posts well labeled, decide how you want to display the pages.

Dynamic content lets you display one post, in multiple pages.

Using this blog as an example, this post could be useful in my "Labels", "Magic", and "Redirecting" sections of this blog, to start. Look above, at the toolbar. Do you see the "Magic" button?

Hover the pointer cursor over "Magic" - and see what's there.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/magic

From: /Magic
To: /search/label/Blogger%20Magic

There's my "magic" blog, within this blog.

Magic

Just as easily, I could have "Labels" and "Redirecting".

From: /Labels
To: /search/label/Labels

From:  /Redirecting
To: /search/label/Redirecting

You can separate the "Home" page from the "Blog" page.

Some people want to keep the blog and home page separate. They have 2 labels, "Blog" and "Home". All that they do is publish various posts, to either label - and setup 2 redirects.

From: /Blog
To: /search/label/Blog

From: /
To: /search/label/Home

And there's a blog

Blog

within a blog.

Making things simpler, if you want "Blog" to index all posts (as in an actual "blog"), you don't need to label the posts. Apparently, "... /search/label/ " retrieves everything, instead of nothing.

From: /Blog
To: /search/label/

There are several possibilities for "Home" page content, too.

As an alternate to redirecting the home page to a label search, you can always redirect the Home page to a single post - if that's your preference.

From: /
To:  /2014/07/blogger-magic-blog-within-blog.html

And that is a very basic blog, within your blog.

And you can still use static pages, for truly static content.

And one final detail - add one or more actual static pages. For non changing content, that you don't want ending up in a search engine hit page, add a simple static page.

You may have to add the Pages gadget, using "Add a Gadget".

Most blog owners will use the Pages gadget, to index their dynamic and static pages (such as "posts" and "pages"). If the Pages gadget is not already present in the blog, you may use the dashboard Layout page and "Add a Gadget", to add the gadget. Then, use "Configure Page List" to add the pages created.

Including Content From Other Websites In Your Posts

I use excerpts of articles from other websites, in a few of my posts - when the other websites provide more in depth description of the issue being discussed.

I use some websites, such as WikiPedia, more than others. It's good practice to at least link back to the originating website, when copying or quoting any significant amount of unique content. There are so few restrictions, in general, what content we may include in our blogs - so it makes sense to be polite when we include content from other websites.

In most cases, and to keep my posts relatively short, I prefer to simply quote a brief, relevant snippet of content, and link back to the originating website.

In WikiPedia: Occam's razor, we see the advice

the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

For best results, ask for permission from the legal owner.

Since every different blog / website, with a different owner, could be published under a separate content policy, it's always best to ask for permission, before copying. Without permission, you could find yourself here later, asking about various content related penalties.

• Some owners might appreciate the free publicity.
• Other owners might not want their content used in another website.
• Some owners might be paying a third party for the right to use their content.

You won't know, until you ask.

I like to add " target="_blank"" to any link that takes the reader to another website, however temporary.

In WikiPedia: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">Occam's razor</a></span>, we see the advice<blockquote>the simplest solution is usually the correct one.</blockquote>

Content such as Lorem Ipsum is ancient public domain, and it's available all over the Net. It may or may not be necessary to attribute that, for brief snippets.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

When you include original content from a specific website, however, it's good practice to attribute.

The text is derived from sections 1.10.32-33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils, or alternatively [About] The Purposes of Good and Evil ).[3] The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been as late as the 1960s. The passage was discovered by Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who is the publications director at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, by searching for citings of the rarely used Latin word "consectetur" in classical literature.[1][2]

The original version (with the excerpted items highlighted) appears in Book 1, sections 1.10.32-33 (pagination varies by publisher):

[32] Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.[2]

- From Wikipedia: Lorem Ipsum

Blogger spam classification looks for scraped content.

Blogger is now diligently screening blogs for "spam" and other forms of misbehaviour. One of their classifications of "spam" is termed "scraping". Many blogs consist, largely, of content scraped from various websites, minimally relevant.

Your blog needs more than scraped content - if you wish to continue.

People who publish blogs that contain material from other websites, simply must make it a consistent practice to distinctly attribute copied material - or face the possibility of spam classification by the Blogger bot.

Note that, however you attribute, yor blog will simply serve as a gateway to the other source blog / website. With the other website higher in page rank than yours, you'll just be sending your readers to theirs - and the SERPs will list theirs ahead of yours.

You're not going to gain much - except empty volume - by including their content.

You will be responsible for content from other blogs and websites.

Note that any time you include material from - or link to - another blog or website, what you include or link to must be abuse and malice free. You are responsible for the comfort and safety of your readers - and anything that you do, to possibly disturb their comfort or safety, can cause your blog to be locked or deleted, as abusive or malicious.

A connection to another blog or website - using a feed, iframe, or link - puts a portion of your blog under the control of the other blog or website. If an abuse / spam classification bot determines the other blog or website to be abusive / malicious, your blog will suffer the consequences.

Multi-Lingual Blogging Requires Language Selections

Occasionally, we see requests from folks who want to publish a blog in non English languages, and don't trust the Google Translator, or translated blogs using a Translator Gadget.

Every different world language has its own peculiarities - character set, font, grammatical constructions, even direction of type will differ from language to language. To support these peculiarities, Blogger has a language selection, for each language which they support. This roughly parallels the ongoing development of the Google Translator.

Use the Language selector for your blog, at Settings - "Language and formatting", and look at the Language pull-down list.

Select your own language, before you publish in the blog.

When you publish a non English blog, find and select the language of your interest, before you publish posts. This may present a challenge, to those who want to produce a blog in more than one language, simultaneously. Any blog can have one and only one language selection.

If you publish multiple blogs, merge them in a cluster.

If you want to publish in, say, English and French, you'll need two blogs - an English blog and a French blog, each in the right language selection. To publish in English, French and German, you'll need three blogs - an English blog, a French blog, and a German blog, each in the right language selection.

Having setup an cluster or set of blogs, combine and merge them into a cohesive set, so it all looks like one blog, to your readers. And use "hreflang" to aggregate the cluster, to the search engines.

A solid naming convention helps enable future expansion.

If I want to publish The Real Blogger Status in English, French, and German, I could have "de-blogging-nitecruzr.blogspot.com", "en-blogging-nitecruzr.blogspot.com", and "fr-blogging-nitecruzr.blogspot.com", each blog with its proper language selection. Since I publish in my own domain, "Nitecruzr.Net", I would have "de.blogging.nitecruzr.net", "en.blogging.nitecruzr.net", and "fr.blogging.nitecruzr.net".

I use the ISO 2 character Language Codes for all my multi-lingual blog names.

Adding A Forum To Your Blog

Once we get our blog working, with lots of steady reader traffic, we want interactions with our readers.

Eventually, we get tired of native Blogger commenting, and its inability to use comments to conduct casual and meaningful conversations with our readers. Sometimes, our thoughts turn to having a forum, where we and our readers can chat with each other.

One very light weight forum can be embedded in the sidebar.

CBox and Meebo are chat rooms embedded in HTML / JavaScript, and an IFrame. It's very easy to setup CBox or Meebo on your web site - just register and get the code for either, and add it to an HTML / JavaScript page element. You can see Cbox in action on my home blog, and Meebo on my Layout Test blog. ShoutMix is a similar, alternative product.

If you want a full featured forum, Google Groups lets you setup a forum - and then embed it into your blog - as easily as you can setup a blog. Or any other forum will do just as well. It all depends upon what you want.

A full featured forum, using industry standard software, will involve hosting a phpBB based forum.

• Load the phpBB software onto a suitably setup server.
• Configure the software to provide your forum, as fits your personal vision of your forum.

Having setup the forum which pleases you, it's now a matter of combining your new forum and your blog, just like any two web sites - using blog feeds, iframes, and / or links - and your imagination.

More Granular Security For Your Blog

I've been writing about Private blogs, and the ability to limit even the readership of the blog, for some time.

What if you want to have some posts accessible by a few people, and others by everybody? Or maybe you would like some of your administrators to have the ability to edit only a portion of your blog.

A content management system might provide security settings on a post by post basis, but Blogger is a blogging platform.

With Blogger blogs, you can set security only on a blog by blog basis.

The ability to set security on a post by post basis was one of the many issues discussed in the Appspot forum, in early 2009. It did not receive a large amount of votes.

But nobody said that you have to have everything in one blog. Having different security levels for different blog sections is similar to having different template objects for different blog posts.

Setup a second blog, as like the current one as you wish - but with different security settings, or maybe as a private blog. Then combine the two blogs for your readers.

To your readers, you'll have 1 blog. To you, you can have many blogs. And your blog members will have only the access that you want each one to have.

Different Template Objects For Different Pages / Posts

Some bloggers like something different, and want to expand the concept of the template.

Occasionally, we see the query

I want to have different pictures in the header, for different posts.

or

How can I have a linklist in my sidebar for some posts, but not for others?

and the immediate answer is

You can't. With a template, everything is the same.

One blog = many pages / posts = one template.

Even though you can have only one template in a blog, nobody said that you have to have just one blog.

You can have as many different blogs as you have different needs. Setup a second blog, give it a different header picture, as you like. Or put a different linklist in one blog. Likewise a third blog, and so on.

If you have any controversial pictures, likewise display them in a second blog. You can have all of the links that you want from your main blog. The second blog may get an "Objectionable Content" interstitial, but the first blog, which contains all of the content to attract the search engines and your readers, can be indexed and viewed freely.

Some people are multi-lingual, and plan to publish identical content, translated into two, three, or more languages. One way to do this is to add a Language Translator gadget to your blog. Another way is to have multiple blogs, each blog published in the desired language, combined with each other using "hreflang".

Sometimes, the proper language setting makes a difference in the way the blog contents are displayed - and can make a blog easier to read for your various readers.

Then, simply combine the different blogs using blog feeds, custom domains, IFrames, links / linklists, and / or template cloning. The limit here is merely your imagination.

To the readers, you'll have 1 blog. To you, you can have many blogs. And your blogs can all have different templates, as pleases you.

Mail-to-Blogger Can Provide Anonymous Ability To Post

In the forums, we see periodically the query

How do I let everyone in my company post to my blog, without requiring them to register?

and my answer is typically

You can let them post comments, but to post actual articles, they will have to register.

And as we have learned, there is a limit in the number of registrations - each blog can have up to 100 members - administrators, authors, and readers - and no more. Apparently, up to 100 people can post to any blog, and no more.

That's not completely true. To use the Blogger Post Editor, through your browser, to post articles, you have to be a registered blog member. But, if you setup a Mail-to-Blogger account, and give out the Mail-to-Blogger email address, anyone knowing the address can post using their email program. Although here, you can moderate any posts, before publishing, should you feel the need.

This solution will have 2 caveats.

1. You are now opening the blog to anyone who knows the email address. Don't use an easy to guess private address component. And, establish a back door, for distribution of an updated private address component, when you do this. Plan to change the address periodically, and upon quick notice.
2. This will require that everybody posting use email. They won't be using the post editor. The people using this will have to check their email Inboxes after posting, and look for "undeliverable" notices caused by unexpected changes in the address (caveat #1).

Maybe this procedure will be more useful if you request your anonymous readers post a comment to a specified blog post, you moderate comments, and you can post their articles under your name.

This is not an excellent solution, but until Blogger extends the 100 members limit, maybe it's better than nothing.

Just note that posts composed and submitted, using email, won't be as complete and well formatted, as posts composed in post editor. You may have to add content and formatting, when publishing.

Mail-to-Blogger Author Settings

Recently, we noted the ability of blog Authors to setup their own Mail-to-Blogger access code to a given blog.

As a blog Author (aka "Guest" member), you will note a new Setting tab - "Email", where you now have the ability to setup your own Mail-to-Blogger address - with the public portion of the address set as your normal MTB public address. This is the same feature, that you may have enjoyed on your own blog, as an administrator / owner.

Presumably, you set the private portion of the address to a unique value, which then routes any MTB posts using the "public.private@blogger.com" (aka "account.password@blogger.com") email address to this blog.
We can now post to our blogs, and use MTB with Author identified, instead of anonymous (or name of the blog owner only). Remember, you can change only the "password" (private) portion of the address. The "account" (public) portion is set as a function of your Blogger account, and can't be changed.

Blog administrators have always had this setting, now blog authors have it too. It's right there, in Settings - "Mobile and email", under "Email" - "Posting using email". You can only change the "private" portion of the MTB email address ("secretWords"), then you simply email your posts using "public.private@blogger.com", where the combination of "public.private" is unique for every blog that uses MTB for posting.


This should give us a nice way around the Blogger limit of 100 blog members. Multiple Authors can share a single MTB address (maintained by the administrator), if the blog Member list exceeds 100 entries. Or, with all blog members having their own unique MTB address, everybody can post and be identified.



How you maintain an array of different MTB private addresses, given that you might use MTB for multiple blogs, will be another subject to be addressed.

Make A Blogger Blog Cluster

If you're like me, and have a blog, maybe what you write about in your blog isn't all of what you are.

Most of us are more than one person. I'm a blogger, I work with Windows Networking, plus I have a private life. Really. I enjoy cooking, some miscellaneous humour and philosophy, and various other pursuits too.

If you're going to blog about your non-technical abilities too, would you put the non-technical stuff in the same blog as your technical stuff?

If you have different areas of your home, maybe different blogs make sense.

Do you park your car in your kitchen, or sleep in your garage? Hopefully not - you have separate areas of your house, each one for a different purpose. Maybe you should with your blog, too.

If you have one blog, with multiple topics, you can separate and index the various posts by using labels. But maybe you would like something different for each topic - maybe a topic relevant blogroll for each.

Different friends / readers deserve different blogs to read.

I have many friends with their own web sites. Some, I met through blogging. Others are experts in Windows Networking. And I know some folks with cooking blogs. It would be stupid to put a cooking blogroll on a web site about Windows Networking, though.

Some folks will tell you to use conditionally displayed widgets, so you can display one blogroll when a certain label search is active. If you want to hack the HTML Template code, you can learn how to do this. But, there's an easier solution.

You can publish as many blogs as you like.

Blogs are free - you can have as many as you can setup. I have a BlogSpot based cluster. Here's 3 of the blogs, in the cluster.

• Chuck's Kitchen (nitecruzrrecipes.blogspot.com)
• PChuck's Network (nitecruzr.blogspot.com)
• The Real Blogger Status (bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com)

Had I planned my blogging activity when I started, I could have made a more organised cluster.

• Nitecruzr - Blogging (nitecruzr-blogging.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Kitchen (nitecruzr-recipes.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Networking (nitecruzr-networking.blogspot.com)

You can publish each blog to a non BlogSpot URL.

For a small fee - just $10 USD / year, for domain registration / DNS hosting, you can even have a non BlogSpot based cluster, published as a Google Custom Domain. You can host as many blogs as you wish in the domain, for that single $10 USD. If you already have a (non Blogger) web site, you don't even pay that - there's your domain, already setup.

Once you have a domain, just add one or more virtual hosts to your domain. Publish your blogs to the virtual hosts in your domain, one blog / virtual host pair.

• Chuck's Kitchen (recipes.nitecruzr.net)
• PChuck's Network (networking.nitecruzr.net)
• The Real Blogger Status (blogging.nitecruzr.net)

Just a single "CNAME", to define each one.

blogging.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
networking.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
recipes.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

If you already have a domain, with a web site, there's the start of your blog cluster. If you just setup your domain, you may wish to setup a home blog, similar to my Nitecruzr Dot Net. A home blog is an option, not a necessity. I could alternately use my Buzz blog as a home blog.

If you keep your domain registration active, your blog will last.

Either way - with a BlogSpot or non BlogSpot based cluster - what you setup will be yours forever (at least, as long as you pay the yearly fee).

So, I setup Nitecruzr Dot Net, my collection of Blogger blogs all in one domain - my own domain - not a part of "BlogSpot.Com". Each blog will be part of the whole, yet as unique as I like to make it. Setting the domain up took 30 minutes, and writing about doing it, another hour or so (not that I'm done writing).

And once you setup your blog collection, you can merge them.

Once you've setup a collection of blogs, there are a variety of possible ways to dynamically merge them, in relevant ways that your readers should appreciate. And there are variations of this setup - some righteous, others spurious - that you need to consider, carefully.

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Separate Your Blogs, Yet Keep Them Together
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/04/separate-your-blogs-yet-keep-them.html
Make A Blogger Blog Cluster