Owners of private blogs have, periodically, lamented the lack of options for distribution of comments and posts. We've seen a few queries, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.
How do I let my readers subscribe to my private blog?
There's no good answer, to please everybody, here.
You can't use EMail, FeedBurner, or Reading List, for sharing private blog content. FeedBurner requires the blog comments / posts newsfeeds - and private blogs don't produce newsfeeds.
If you need to distribute content from a private blog, you'll have to use BlogSend.
Private blog post subscriptions require the dashboard "BlogSend" feature.
You'll have to use "BlogSend" to provide email subscriptions, for private blogs - and that limits you to 10 subscribers (1 who should be you). That's the "Email posts to" option in the dashboard Settings - Email page.
"BlogSend" aka "Email posts to" is the only option, for private blogs.
You can try to email specific posts, from a private blog.
You can try to use the Blogger post footer "Email Posts" feature.
Just enable the "Email Post Links" option in "Configure Blog Posts". You cannot enable "Show Share Buttons" - but you can enable "Show Email Post Links".
Use "Configure Blog Posts" from the dashboard Layout page.
Look under "Post Page Options" for "Show Email Post Links".
With the option enabled, and the icon visible, it's still a no go.
D'Ohh!
There's still no social sharing of private blog content.
Note the advice for "Show Share Buttons".
Sharing is available only for public blogs.
You can't share blog content, outside Blogger, if the blog is private. That protects private blog owners, from having their confidential posts distributed to the world.
We can't share content from private blogs, using EMail, FaceBook, Google+, Pinterest, or Twitter.
If you publish a private #Blogger blog, you cannot email or share comments or posts. Your only option will be BlogSend aka the "Email posts to" dashboard option.
We see occasional concern about providing email subscriptions, from blog owners in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.
How do I provide email subscriptions for my blog? Follow by Email does not work!
The blog in question is using a dynamic template - and it appears that the blog owner is out of luck.
The "Subscribe by Email" gadget does not work, with dynamic templates.
Add "Subscription Links" to a blog with a dynamic template.
For email subscriptions, and a blog with a dynamic template, you use the "Subscription Links" gadget. Here is my blog, Chucks Musings.
Use "Subscription Links" with a blog that has a dynamic template.
When you add "Follow by Email" to a blog with a non dynamic template, it sets up the "Email Subscriptions" service, in FeedBurner. "Subscription Links" is a collection of various subscription services - and won't activate "Email Subscriptions".
You may need to activate "Email Subscriptions".
You will probably need to activate the "Email Subscriptions" service, to use "Subscription Links" instead of "Follow by Email".
To use "Subscribe by Email" as a selection in "Subscription Links", be sure that the "Email Subscriptions" service is activated, from the FeedBurner dashboard.
Alternately, add "Subscribe by Email" in a linklist gadget.
Sometimes, you may not want to use "Subscription Links". So, just add the "Subscription Link Code", in a linklist gadget.
Here, we have a new sidebar accessory.
And when you click on the link, you get the familiar FeedBurner "Email Subscription Request" verification form.
So, either add "Subscription Links" - or make a custom LinkList accessory. One, or the other, will give you "Subscribe by Email", in a dynamic template.
Owners of #Blogger blogs, wishing to provide email subscriptions, find that "Follow by Email" won't work with a dynamic template. Fortunately, "Subscription Links" will provide email subscription - though the necessary FeedBurner service has to be activated.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/lsAVQuj_FOw
Some blog owners have reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about broken email distribution.
There are various ways to distribute Blogger blog content, to email. For those unable or unwilling to use FeedBurner Email Distribution, one popular alternative is Google Groups.
One drawback of FeedBurner based distribution is that FeedBurner uses the blog newsfeed - and is unusable for private blogs.
Google Groups is the best content distribution medium, for private blogs.
The only scalable distribution medium, for private blogs, is Google Groups. Right now, Google Groups, for some owners, is not accepting incoming email.
This problem may not be unique to Blogger blogs. There are other reports of this problem, in the Google Groups Support Forum.
We are asking for details, in a previously posted forum Problem Rollup topic.
We have a previously discussed article, and a Problem Rollup topic, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - where we are requesting details, as phrased above, about the problems. If you have details to contribute, solution to this problem may result from your contribution.
Please help Blogger Engineering to help you - and make your responses polite, relevant, and responsive. If this problem is to be identified, and you are affected, resolution depends upon you. And also report your problem in Google Groups Support.
Some #Blogger blog owners are reporting that distribution of private blog content, using Google Groups, is not operational. This problem may not be unique to Blogger blogs, as there is some discussion in Google Groups Support.
Ever since Blogger gave us the ability to have team blogs, blog owners have been askingHow do I track what my authors are posting?
as if Blogger blogs have an audit trail option. The unfortunate truth is that Blogger is a website publishing platform - it is (or was, at one time) calledBlogger One Button Publishing
Blogger, quite simply, is not a Content Management System.
However, even if Blogger does not provide a packaged audit trail, which would be a standard feature in any CMS, this does not mean that we cannot set one up, with very little work. If you publish a team blog (or a single owner blog), you already have this option.
The display medium, for a Blogger blog audit trail, is quite simple - your email Inbox. Both Comments and Posts, when published, can post to your Inbox. How to generate the audit trail depends upon whether the blog is public, or private.
Any blog, public or private, can provide an audit trail using email from comments (aka "Comment Notification"), and from posts (aka "BlogSend").
A public blog, which publishes a blog feed, can alternately provide an audit trail using FeedBurner email distribution. Formatting options for FeedBurner email distribution are much more flexible.
Whether your audit trail starts from BlogSend / Comment Notification, or FeedBurner email, just setup a few email filters, and store all Blogger audit trail email in a properly named folder. And there's your audit trail.
>> Top
Recently, we've seen a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about email distribution of blog posts, from private blogs.I previously used a Google Group, to send an email to more than 102 people. This is now no longer working - my Google Group is not notified of a new post, automatically. Any idea what could have changed or be going wrong?
Here, we see signs of the use of Google+ becoming more necessary.
Some months ago, Blogger, responding to a security vulnerability in BlogSend, changed the email address used by BlogSend. This required many owners of private blogs, using Google Groups to distribute BlogSend based email updates, to add "noreply@blogger.com" as a Group member. This requires the use of the Groups administrative control, to add a new member without consent.
The ability to add a new member, without consent (without requiring return confirmation from the new member), carried with it a warning, to Groups administrators.If you misuse this option, your use of it may be revoked.
This ability, when provided, was an excellent tool for spammers, to maintain a spam victim mailing list.
Recently, and possibly involving the misuse of "noreply@blogger.com" as Groups members, the option to add Groups members without consent was removed from the Groups "invite members" wizard. Now, any new Groups memberships require return consent from the new member.
This change leaves owners of private Groups unable to add "noreply@blogger.com" as a Group member - which leaves Groups unusable for distribution of private blog content. Private blog owners now have only one option - Use Google+, and properly restricted Circles, to selectively distribute blog post updates.
Note that owners of publicly accessible blogs can use Google+ also, in addition to the also popular option to use FeedBurner Email Distribution. Or, if you want to continue using Groups for distribution, set "Who can post messages?" to "Anyone can post", in the "Group settings" Access tab.
Google+ will also be useful as a replacement for Private blogs, where membership has grown past the 100 member limit. This will, unfortunately, require that each member setup a Google+ account - and become less anonymous. One feature of Google+, which not every blog owner or member appreciates, is the loss of anonymity. Google+ accounts are based on our actual legal identity, by Google policy. Not everybody wants to be identifiable.
>> Top
Ever since Google+ was released, blog owners have been asking how to post blog updates to Google+. Previously, there was only the possibility of publishing from Google+ to our blogs - and that option was not well designed. Last week, Blogger released this option, in Draft Blogger.Today we’re excited to announce the first way you will be able to leverage Google+ -- by making it possible to replace your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile.
In addition to giving your readers a more robust and familiar sense of who you are, your social connections will see your posts in their Google search results with an annotation that you've shared the post.
As long as you are prepared to use a Google+ profile with your Blogger account, you can send blog updates to your followers.
After you login to Blogger, simply edit your profile. There, you'll see the advice
Connect Blogger to Google+ : Use your Google profile and get access to upcoming Google+ features on Blogger. Learn more Get Started
After you upgrade Blogger to use your Google+ profile, go to the dashboard Settings - Google+, and select "Prompt to share after posting", for automatic sharing. Or, you can use the Posts link "Share" for any post, when convenient.
I suspect there will be several possibilities with this new feature, so watch this space for updates.
