The CAPTCHA Continues As A Challenge

This month, we are again seeing evidence of recent security changes by Microsoft. We see signs of continued frustration, in the process of publishing comments - and publishing posts, as part of the Import process.

In the process of diagnosing an apparent comment publishing problem, I ventured into the comment publishing experience, yet again.

I temporarily tweaked commenting permissions for this blog, to allow anonymous comments and to require the CAPTCHA.

With CAPTCHA required, I published a test comment to my earlier post in this blog.

I did my best - which was not good enough.



CAPTCHA solving continues, as a challenge.

I entered a test comment, and made appropriate selections.

I got a challenge.

"Select all the food."

I did my best.

Apparently, my best was not enough.

"Select all images with a store front."

I tried again. Not all images here were completely obvious, either.

My second try was successful.



Hmm.

Select all the food.

Zoom in on the fourth image, above - and tell me which pictures, that I did not select, are food? To whom? Will zooming always improve chances of success?

CAPTCHA solving, as spam interdiction, will always lead to frustration.

There will be cultural issues - and resolution problems - with CAPTCHAs. This version of the CAPTCHA beats the one from several years ago - but still will cause frustration.

And need I again point out - will require proper filter tuning, on each computer used. Note that ongoing changes by Microsoft are currently affecting publishing comments - and publishing posts during the Import process.

And our experience may very, depending upon many different details, varying by blog, by computer, and by person. My sympathies to all who must deal with spam - and with spam interdiction.

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The CAPTCHA continues to be an unavoidable element in comment publishing and other episodes of #Blogger life. And like life, some episodes are more pleasant than others.

AdSense, And Blogger, Require Quality Content

We see questions about content requirement, in both AdSense Help Forum: Blogger / Host Partners, and in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

My blog was just deleted, as a spam host! I Don't publish spam!

and

Why can't I get my Earnings button activated? My blog is over a year old, and contains hundreds of posts!!

Neither blog owner publishes a blog which contains blatant unwanted commercial content - or hacking or porn. But neither blog is suited for hosting AdSense ads, either.

As the web becomes saturated with people publishing, without a proper plan for content source or for subject, Google is trying to encourage quality content.

Both AdSense and Blogger want people to publish blogs which are worth reading - because blogs that are worth reading get traffic - and deliver customers who view the ads published by AdSense. And AdSense wants to keep their ecosystem healthy, to encourage quality advertising.

AdSense wants the best content - to encourage the best ads, and the best ad compensation. And AdSense only places paying ads on blogs which contextually match available ads.

Blogger wants original, well written content. This encourages people to read the blog - and tell their friends about it. And more readers encourage more writing by the owner.



If you read through the AdSense Support Forums, you'll find mention details of other problems - not always stated in the AdSense Help references. Some blogs, of high quality, may not always get ads - because there are higher quality blogs, and not enough ads available.

• Ad placement and quantity.
• Adult / Mature content.
• Biography / fiction / lyrics / poetry.
• Classroom / coursework blogs.
• Cryptocurrency / financial advice.
• Diet / health / medications blogs.
• Food / recipe blogs.
• Get rich quick / MMF / MMH / MMO blogs.
• Poor grammar.
• Graphic violence blogs.
• Images / photos / pictures blogs.
• Job blogs.
• Mixed content blogs.
• News blogs.
• Prohibited content.
• Scraped / syndicated content.
• Stolen content.
• Tech blogs.
• Video (YouTube) blogs.

Ad placement and quantity.

AdSense has very high standards about how ads are featured on the blog - and how many ads may be present on the blog. The total number of ads - both AdSense and third party - should be limited.

Advertising and other paid promotional material added to your pages should not exceed your content. Furthermore, the content you provide should add value and be the focal point for users visiting your page.

And showing ads in popup windows, and other imaginative techniques, is strictly forbidden.

Your posts are what attracts your readers - not the ads. The ads are merely decorations.

Adult / Mature content.

AdSense is a family-safe service. If you're familiar with the MPAA Rating System, you should consider AdSense as firmly limiting content to "G" or "PG".

Google ads may not be placed on pages that contain pornography, adult, or mature content.

A blog with anything resembling "R" or "X" / "NC-17" is unlikely to get paying ads.


Biography / Fiction / Lyrics / Poetry blogs.

The beauty and usefulness - of fiction, lyrics, and poetry - is in the eye of the author. Neither biographies, fiction, lyrics, or poetry have any value for advertisements.

Fiction (content written by the blog author) follows the rules of the author, for content. Poetry follows the rules of the blog author, for formatting and phrasing. Lyrics (words, to accompany music) follow the rules of the music.

Neither fictional content, lyrics, or poetry can be properly analysed by the AdSense crawler - and paying ads cannot be assigned, to fiction, lyrics, or poetry. Fiction, music, and poetry - if it has any commercial value - is protected by copyright / DMCA, and can't be monetised.

None of this exclusion includes book reviews, however. Well written book reviews - content discussing poetry, fiction, and / or non fiction written by other people - are useful, when accompanied by substantial commentary by the blog author.

Classroom / coursework blogs.

Blogs which provide exam result lists, answers to previous exams, study guides, and / or promote sale of pre written term papers are loosely termed "coursework". This is mentioned, in Prohibited Content: Content that enables dishonest behavior.

• Sale or distribution of term papers, paper-writing or exam-taking services;
• Content that promotes fraudulent activity.

AdSense won't finance blogs which encourage people to waste money that is spent for education, on fraudulent activity.

Cryptocurrency / Financial Advice

Cryptocurreny is a recent trend which promotes high-risk financial products. Google, and other online content providers, is banning advertisements for high-risk products.

Financial advice, likewise, is not useful for AdSense. AdSense ads, lucrative as they may be for some blog publishers, pays far less than any qualified financial adviser makes.

Anybody whose income is noticeably improved by AdSense is not making enough money to qualify as a financial adviser. If the advice is truly useful, the blog owner would be busy using his own advice - instead of telling other people, and trying to get ads to finance his advice.

Diet / health / medications blogs.

Health and medical advice should be provided by certified and supervised professionals. Peoples lives depend upon proper medical advice, based on in person diagnosis.

AdSense won't encourage people to risk their lives, on advice that is impersonal, out of date, and / or unqualified.

Food / recipe blogs.

There are many food / recipe blogs - both hosted by Blogger, and by other services - all over the Internet. Many such blogs use content scraped from other food / recipe blogs. Ad managers require original content - not content found in other blogs and websites - to host their ads.

Get rich quick / MMF / MMH / MMO blogs.

Content which provides advice on getting rich is poorly advertised, in a blog which needs AdSense. If the advice is truly useful, the blog owner would be busy using his own advice - instead of telling other people, and trying to get ads to finance his advice.

There is no legitimate product sold, that benefits from ads hosted on a "get rich quick" website. Get Rich Quick / Make Money Fast / Make Money From Home / Make Money Online are subjects that will never qualify your blog for AdSense.

Poor grammar.

Advertising managers, who use AdSense for brokering their ads, require well written blogs, to host their ads.

If you cannot write properly, in your chosen language, why would anybody want to read your blog?

Graphic violence blogs.

Content which depicts or encourages violence is not family friendly - and is not desired by AdSense, or by their advertisers.

Images / Photos / Pictures blogs.

The AdSense crawler analyses blogs, and assigns ads, based on textual content. Images / photos / pictures blogs, without substantial amount of text accompanying the images / photos / pictures, can't be properly analysed.

However intriguing and photogenic they may be, blogs with only images / photos / pictures won't get paying ads.


Jobs blogs.

AdSense provides ads on sites with original content. Any commercial agency, company or governmental organisation, with jobs available, will have its own website.

A jobs blog is simply content scraped from various commercial agency, company and governmental organisation websites - and copied / scraped content is not permitted.

Mixed content blogs.

AdSense displays ads, based on content in each page displayed. A blog with ads on the various index pages - such as archive, label, and main page - needs a clear and consistent subject, for ads to be properly assigned.

News blogs.

Unless the blog owner manages or owns a real life news agency, with paid staff to research, write, and publish the stories, any "news" has to be copied from commercial news websites. Copied content won't be published promptly - since the copying can't be done, until after it is published in the commercial websites.

People who want to read news online won't bother with copied content, that is not timely. The blog won't get good search reputation, or search originated traffic. No advertising manager will pay to host their ads on a blog using content copied / scraped from commercial websites.

Prohibited content.

Some blog content is simply not compatible with a well maintained AdSense ecosystem.

Scraped / syndicated content.

AdSense requires original content. AdSense policy is based on financial and legal concerns.

Scraping content and passing it off as one’s own is not only wrong, but it also happens to be a serious violation of our policies. AdSense depends on maintaining a balance between user, publisher, and advertiser experience.

Blogger has long provided similar guidelines - but based on content quality.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own.

However you discuss it, original content is required, to host ads on blogs with any future.

Stolen content.

AdSense wont supply ads, for blogs or websites dedicated to redistributing cracked, hacked, or stolen content.

Blogger does not allow stolen content.

Also, please don't provide links to sites where your readers can obtain unauthorized downloads of other people's content.

Tech blogs.

There are thousands of various tech advice blogs and websites, all over the Internet - most simply repeating advice from other blogs and websites.

Again, original content is an absolute requirement - for both AdSense and Blogger.

Video (YouTube) blogs.

Some blog owners publish posts which contain only YouTube videos. This violates both AdSense Program Policy, and YouTube Terms Of Service.

YouTube videos may not be used in a monetised blog, as significant content. YouTube specifically forbids

the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page of an ad-enabled blog or website containing Content delivered via the Service, unless other material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and is of sufficient value to be the basis for such sales.

Neither photo or video blogs provide contextually related content. Without contextual content, the AdSense crawler can't assign paying ads.

The bottom line.

AdSense sells ad space to advertisers who want to publish available quality ads, on quality blogs and websites. They are very careful, to keep their ecosystem clean and well maintained - because that is how you encourage ads which offer the best payment rates.

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Both #AdSense and #Blogger, as part of #Google, have consistent standards of quality.

AdSense is the best paying advertising placement service on the Internet. To encourage the best ads, they are very selective of blogs and websites - and only accept the best, into their program.

Is There A Purpose To Referer Spam?

We've been experiencing - and discussing - referer spam, since 2011.

We still see unaware blog owners, asking in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

When I checked my stats for my blog, and looked at traffic sources, I noticed a link from a different country - and it just seems weird that Russian readers would then go to a US site.

When we explain that they're probably seeing another referer spam attack - and that clicking on the links is not always a good idea, we get a variety of responses. Some want to know if there is a purpose, to this noise.

Referer spam has a variety of purposes - ranging from commercial, to dangerous, to deceptive.

Garbage? Or a purpose?



Here are just 3 examples, from Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

• Advertise any paying customer.
• Lead you to a website with hacking content.
• Attack innocent third parties.

Advertise any paying customer.

This is the commercial possibility. If there's money to be made from publishing informative, interesting, and original content, there is probably lots more money to be made herding innocent third parties to ads on any website needing traffic - and lacking informative, interesting, and original content.

This may even represent a variation of GPT. And with the volume of referer spam that's possible, there are surely enough naive blog owners to make this a very lucrative activity.

Lead you to a website with hacking content.

This is the dangerous possibility. With hacking activity as a possible destination, clicking on a Stats link blindly is like playing "Russian Roulette", with your computer.

And, don't expect the website URL to provide a clue as to the destination. "www.innocous-name.com" could itself be hacked - and might unknowingly serve content from "www.hacking-website.com" - or redirect to "www.hacking-website.com".

Attack innocent third parties.

This is the deceptive possibility.

My blog was a "victim" of referer spam attack, in 2011. I have seen similar referer spam reports, that suggest this is not an unusual use of referer spam.

Protect yourself - if you must investigate your referers.

Surely, there are still actual people surfing - and some referer links are genuine. Eventually, you will want to check out some of the more intriguing URLs, in "Traffic sources".

If you decide to investigate one of the links, copy the text of the link URL - then use a proxy server.

Just don't investigate links, without protection. That's what proxy servers are for.

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Some #Blogger blog owners want to know if referer spam has a purpose - or if it is simply random noise. It actually has a variety of purposes - commercial, dangerous, and deceptive.

Blogger Magic - Comment Moderation Settings

If you publish a blog, and want your readers to comment, you need to decide whether to moderate comments.

Comment moderation, applied properly, help you to keep abusive and spam comments off your blog. If you want to publish a blog, and have real people commenting, you need to keep spam comments off the blog. People won't comment, if they have to compete with spam.

If you want to publish a blog, and allow Blogger Hosted comments, you really should moderate. If you don't moderate, prepare to remove spam comments after they are published. Remember that Google+ Hosted comments are moderated by the community.

You setup moderation, for Blogger Hosted comments, from the dashboard Settings - "Posts, comments and sharing" page.

Under "Comments", you have "Comment Moderation", with 3 settings.

• Always.
• Sometimes.
• Never.

Moderation settings are in the Settings - Posts, comments and sharing page.



Moderate Always.

Every comment, published by somebody who is not an administrator or author, will be moderated.

With "Always" or "Sometimes" selected, moderated comments will be sent to each email address listed in "Email moderation requests to".

Select "Always", "Sometimes", or "Never".



You - or whoever is addressed under "Email moderation requests to" - will have the ability to moderate from the email message received. You, or any blog administrator, can moderate from the dashboard Comments - "Awaiting moderation" page.

Moderate Sometimes.

You can selectively moderate comments for older posts, with newer posts not subject to moderation.

If you select "Sometimes", you provide a moderation threshold.

Here, we are set to moderate all posts older than 14 days.



Every post subject to moderation will receive the treatment, selected for "Always". Every newer post, not subject to moderation, will permit any comment to be published immediately.

Moderate Never.

Any comment, submitted to be published, will publish immediately.

Dashboard moderation offers three options.

With every comment listed in the dashboard Comments - "Awaiting moderation" page, you have 3 options.

• Publish.
• Delete.
• Spam.

Once one of these options is chosen, for any comment being moderated, you'll have similar - but not symmetrical - options.

EMail moderation offers similar options.

With each comment moderated by email, you'll have 3 similar options.

• Publish.
• Delete.
• Mark as spam.

Select "Publish", "Delete", or "Mark as spam".



Besides moderation, you can select CAPTCHA verification.

Besides moderation, you can reduce spam, using CAPTCHA verification. If selected, all non administrators and authors will be subject to CAPTCHA verification.

If not selected, anybody commenting anonymously - and not signed in with a Google account - will still be subject to CAPTCHA verification. The "Show word verification" setting applies to comments posted with the publisher properly authenticated.

Right now, the CAPTCHA used is a word puzzle - and has received mixed reviews.

The bottom line.

As a blog owner, you should choose a comment moderation policy - if you allow Blogger Hosted comments.

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If you allow #Blogger Hosted comments on your blog, you need to choose a moderation policy. Moderation is essential, to reduce spam, and encourage comments by actual blog readers.

Wording The Blog Title And URL - Same or Unique?

Some blog owners setup a new blog - and want to know if the blog title and URL may - or (alternately) should - be the same.

There is no policy for Blogger, about blog title and URL - either that the "words" in each can, or cannot, be the same. Some SEO experts suggest benefits from having relevant words, in the URL - and some blog owners confuse this advice, as suggesting having identical titles and URLs.

Be wary of advice that references websites, in discussions about blogs. There are subtle, but real, differences between dynamic blogs, and static websites. Rules that may be important for websites may not be relevant, for blogs.

The most obvious differences, between blogs and websites, are found in content - but blog design may have similar differences.

SEO strategies, for a dynamic blog, and a static website, will be different. Dynamic blogs have many exciting opportunities.



I have suggested that it may not be possible to make the blog title and URL the same, in all cases.

• Most subjects won't be unique. Many blogs will share a subject.
• The blog URL must be unique. Two blogs cannot share a URL.
• The blog URL will have restrictions, in characters allowed.

Most subjects won't be unique.

Any popular subject will have many blogs published to that subject. Every blog, about the same subject, will have a different URL.

If a blog is published, to a subject which has no competition, it will be a subject which interests nobody. A blog with no competition will likely have no readers.

The blog URL must be unique.

Two blogs cannot share a URL. One URL == one blog.

That does not mean that title and URL cannot share "words" - just that it's not possible that they will be identical, for all blogs.

There can be only so many ways to mention your favourite, top level movie star, in the title - and there will be even less ways to construct a unique URL. A less famous celebrity, on the other hand, will have less blogs to compete - and less readers also.

The blog URL will have restrictions, in characters allowed.

URLs can use only certain characters.

a sequence of characters beginning with a letter and followed by any combination of letters, digits, plus (+), period (.), or hyphen (-)

That syntax is somewhat limited, compared to characters that may be used in blog titles - and in the blog description and content. Less choice of syntax leads to less possibilities for uniqueness, while providing some clue as to the purpose of the blog.

A Blogger blog is dynamic - and you SEO using content.

Blogger blog content is dynamic. You get more performance, from a blog with regularly published, unique content, that's informative and interesting.

You get less performance, from imaginative naming strategies. Acme does not make an "SEO Kit", for Blogger blogs.

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Some #Blogger blog owners worry about the need to publish a blog with the Title and URL containing the same words. Some suggest that having identical words is necessary, others that having identical words is not permitted.

Fortunately, neither possibility is relevant to Blogger / Google Content or TOS regulation. Blogger and Google care about content quality - and prohibit scraping and spam.

Export / Import, And Page / Post Publishing Limits

Not all blog owners understand the connection between page / post import, and spam limitation.

We see the occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about page / post import, and daily publishing limits.

Why I can not import content, to my blogs?

Note that "Automatically publish" is selected, in the blog discussed here.

I've suggested a few times that use of "Automatically publish all imported posts and pages" is a bad idea, when importing many blogs - because it abuses the computer and home Internet connection.

Here, we see another reason for not using "Automatically publish".

Import, with "Automatically publish", will exceed the daily publishing volume.

Blogger limits daily posting volume. Any blog with more than 40 - 50 pages / posts, when it is exported then imported, will be a problem - if "Automatically publish" is selected during "Import".

"Sorry, you have exceeded the maximum number of entries."



If you import, and publish as you import, you will exceed the daily publishing limit. Your import will fail - because you are publishing more than the daily limit.

Without a daily limit, spammers could flood post their blogs.

If this limit was not in place, spammers could flood their blogs with pages and posts, by simply creating multiple blogs with multiple pages / posts, export from each blog, then import to other blogs - and publish while importing.

If Blogger is to control spam, they have to limit page / post publishing. With the daily limit of 50 pages and posts / 24 hours, that is slightly more than 1 page or post every 1/2 hour - allowing for no sleep, or other non blogging activity.

People have to be encouraged to do something, besides publish - or how do you get material, for the blog? If people are going to publish a blog - and do other things besides publish a blog - there has to be a daily limit.

Genuine blog owners have to not spend all their time publishing their blogs.

Blog owners need to be encouraged to publish blogs with informative, interesting, and original content - so people will read the blogs, and search engines will index the blogs. Automated blog content, a favourite way of "bulking up" a blog with spam, has to be discouraged, to give genuine blog owners a chance.

Without a daily limit, people who publish blogs with personal content would be at a disadvantage to spammers who publish pages and posts with automated content. Using Import, with no limits, would be an excellent way to publish spam in a never ending daily activity.

Use "Import & back up" in 3 steps, to avoid the limit block.

1. Export pages and posts, from one blog.
2. Import pages and posts, to a second blog.
3. Publish imported pages and posts, at a limited rate, selectively.

That is the best way for genuine blog owners, to use the Export / Import ("Import & back up") option.

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#Blogger has a daily page / post publishing limit, to encourage blog owners to publish blogs with informative, interesting, and original content. Automated page / post publishing is allowed - but subject to a daily limit.

Without a daily limit, spammers would abuse the Blogger infrastructure, with mass produced and scraped content - and Blogger would become one more spam haven.

Buyer Beware - Don't Buy Pre Published Blogs

Don't develop a blog, that's simply designed to host AdSense ads - and avoid pre published blogs, in general.

Blogs and websites that are blatantly designed as ad hosts are classified as "MFA" ("Made For Ads") - and are never accepted as AdSense hosts. AdSense, and Blogger, want blogs with quality content - informative, interesting, and unique.

Legitimate and useful blogs start with content that is important to the blog owner.

Blogger, some time ago, explicitly prohibited sale of blogs.

Either Blogger will delete the blog as spam - or AdSense will classify it as "MFA".

If you buy a blog, "blogspot.com" or custom domain, with content already in place, it will probably contain copyrighted material. If Blogger does not delete / lock it as spam, AdSense will probably classify it as "MFA" - and the blog will never display ads.

Blogger blogs are based on personal interest. When you buy a pre published blog / domain, you're buying somebody else's discarded personal interest.

Most people who sell blogs do so after learning that what they have won't host ads or get traffic. Pre used blogs are frequently subject to disapproval, by AdSense - or DMCA / Spam classification, by Blogger.

If you do the research, you'll find out why the previous owner sold it to you.

You'll probably end up with a disabled AdSense or Blogger account - and doing the research, you'll find out why the previous owner sold it. It's like a "lemon law" car. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is just that.

You would never, knowingly, buy pre worn underpants. Why would you buy a pre published blog? Start with an available URL, and add your own content. That's how you get content, reputation, and traffic.

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#Blogger blogs are supposed to be based on personal experience or interest - using content that's informative, interesting, and unique. Purchasing a previously published blog, with content left in place, violates that principle.

A smart blog owner starts with an empty blog - using an available URL, and adds content.

Diagnosing AdSense Account Problems

AdSense uses various techniques to protect their content quality - and when they take action, they don't always give you a lot of clues about their actions, or warnings before taking action.

Both AdSense and Blogger use fuzzy analysis to classify unacceptable content and practices. Neither AdSense or Blogger can publish definitive policy advice, each time they classify or suspend an account.

AdSense publishes policy guidelines - and prohibited content, to define the limits.

AdSense works best when staying well within the limits.

Like Blogger, AdSense requires blog owners / publishers to stay within the limits.

We want to maintain a strong ecosystem for both advertisers and publishers. As a publisher, you are responsible for maintaining high quality inventory and traffic.

People who stray outside the limits should not expect detailed coaching, which let them determine exactly what limits can't be exceeded.

When you exceed the limits, you may not like the results.

Bad news, seen by some too late.



Dodgy techniques and traffic cause problems with both AdSense and Blogger - and both AdSense and Blogger will take action.

For best results, read and follow required practice.

When an AdSense account is suspended, AdSense provides a Disabled Account FAQ. You can use the FAQ - but you'll do better to read the policies, and stay within the limits.

You can appeal, after correcting a problem - within limits.

You'll find limited support for appealing - even after identified problems are resolved.

Thanks for contacting Google AdSense. According to our records, you already appealed to us twice in the last 30 days. Due to the volume of appeals we receive and as indicated in our help center you can't appeal more than twice per month.

If your previous appeals have been unsuccessful please remember that our actions are the result of careful investigation by our team of dedicated specialists, taking into account the interests of our advertisers, publishers, and users. Though you might be disappointed with our decision, we are unable to reinstate your account.

If you have new information which may have helped us to reinstate your account then you are welcome to submit another appeal next month.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

An effective appeal requires two definitive details.

1. Acknowledge what you did wrong.
2. Describe what you are doing to prevent its recurrence.

The best action will be to read and observe published policies.

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Like #Blogger, #AdSense does not provide detailed advice, or advance warning, about unacceptable content or practice. AdSense publishers are simply expected to read their policy documents - and stay well within the limits.

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.

Blogger Support Won't Play Wheel Of Fortune With Us

Long ago, Blogger Support used to provide personalised account recovery service, to blog owners who had forgotten their account names and passwords - and give "hints" in open forum discussion, reminiscent of the popular TV game show, Wheel Of Fortune.

But reality intervened - and now, everybody who wants to recover access to a Blogger account / blog must use one of the automated account / blog access recovery tools- ignoring however defective they may appear to be.

We have seen several sad stories, played out in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Round #1

An unhappy "blog owner" would request assistance.

I forgot the password. Can somebody help me recover access?

Blogger Support would email recovery instructions to "whatever @ gmail . com", and advise the "blog owner"

I emailed your reset instructions to "w****** @ g**** . com".

Sometimes they would get the reply

That does not help me. Can I buy a vowel?

Blogger Support, always optimistic, would give it another go.

I emailed your reset instructions to "w***e*** @ g**** . com".

then

I emailed your reset instructions to "w*a*e*** @ g**** . com".

finally

I emailed your reset instructions to "w*a*e**r @ g**** . com".

Finally, the successful "blog owner" would reply

Thank you so much! I am so happyyyyyyyy!!!

But the story did not always end there.

Round #2

The next month somebody would report

My blog disappeared from my dashboard while I was in the hospital, in a coma. I now want to tell everybody how I am doing - but my blog is now full of spam, and nobody can read it!! Whatever can the problem be?

And the blog mentioned in Round #2 turned out to be the same as in Round #1.

Round #3

The final verdict would be that Blogger Support, while playing "Wheel of Fortune" in Round #1, had been playing with a hacker, who was then able to steal somebody else's blog.

Bonus Round

After that happened a couple times. Blogger developed the recovery tools, and wrote the final FAQ. And, stopped providing real time, personalised advice.

And that is that. You cannot prove that you are the owner of the blog, because you cannot communicate directly with Blogger Support. You have to use the tools provided - and / or search each email account, persistently.

Blogger Support will not play "Wheel of Fortune" any more. Everybody is urged to never reveal their email address, to the world.

In some cases, the blogs would be deleted, as new spam hosts - but ownership is seldom recoverable.

Bankrupt

Your best solution, now, is to start a new blog - then combine the two blogs, in a blog cluster.

Spam Review Requires Triage

If you are a fan of any TV medical dramas - or if you have any medical background, you probably know the term "triage".

In a medical setting, triage is applied to conditions where multiple patients are present, and far outnumber the medical staff available to provide immediate treatment. When a "triage" technique is needed, one doctor examines each patient, briefly, and places each in one of three categories.

1. Immediate care needed, and beneficial.
2. Immediate care not needed. Treat when cases of #1 priority are complete.
3. Immediate care not needed, or useful. Treat when cases of #1 and #2 priority are complete.

We have a "triage" dialogue, for spam review. The dialogue uses 3 progressive screenings, to place a blog in one of three Categories.

1. Spam review needed.
2. Spam review not needed.
3. Spam review not beneficial.

Each progressive reply determines what succeeding reply is appropriate.

Prescreening: Request automated spam review.
The triage process, and manual spam review, is most effective when preceded by an owner requested automated review, using the dashboard "Appeal" / "Restore" / "Review" buttons. This is most likely to happen when the blog owner is able to login, using the right account - and will be possible only when the owner account is not deleted or locked.

Category 1: Spam review needed
This category includes blogs that were deleted by Blogger as suspected spam hosts, are being reported by the owner, and are likely to be restored by Blogger Policy Review staff, when presented to them. Blogs in this category will pass all 3 forum screenings.

Category 2: Spam review not needed
Not all deleted blogs were deleted by Blogger, as suspected spam hosts. Blogs may have other status.

• Deleted by Blogger, for other reasons.
• Deleted by people, not Blogger.
• Not deleted, at all.

None of those blogs will benefit from spam review. The 3 forum screenings help us identify blogs in this category.

Category 3: Spam review not beneficial
Not all blogs, deleted by Blogger, will be restored - even if reviewed. The 3 forum screenings help us identify blogs that will not pass review by Blogger Policy Review staff, and give us the clues and details that can help us convince the novice spammers that continuing to publish a given blog - or requesting review of a righteously deleted blog - will not benefit them.

Screening #1
The first screening helps us establish 3 details.

1. The blog was deleted by Blogger.
2. The blog is a suspected spam host.
3. Review is being requested by the owner.

We can deduce these 3 conditions, given two crucial details by the owner.

• The BlogSpot URL.
• A screen print of the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list.

A thoughtful blog owner, including both details in the opening post in the topic, will avoid the first screening altogether.

I am sure that this is a frustrating experience - and I thank you for writing here, for advice. Impolite treatment of genuine blogs, however, is an unavoidable side effect of Blogger protecting all Blogger blog owners, against people who will try to misuse the Blogger service.

Please, read the linked articles, and help us to help you. This will give you a better idea of the basic requirements for abuse / malware / spam review.

[FAQ] Does The Blogger Abuse Mitigation Policy Violate The Rights Of The Blog Owners?

Screening #2
The second screening gives the blog owner a chance to review the blog in personal memory, and decide whether the blog may have actually been righteously deleted. It uses a set of FAQs developed jointly by Blogger Support, and Top Contributors.

Malware / Spam Appeal Guidelines - January 2015

If your blog(s) have been unfairly classified as a hacking / malware / porn / spam host, we apologise. Nobody gains, with genuine, non spam Blogger blogs being deleted or locked falsely. Given the fact that automated malware / spam detection is not yet a perfect science, Blogger Support is always willing to investigate any reports of false positive reviews, politely posted here in the forum.

That being said, before you request an appeal, it's worth describing a few examples of what Blogger regularly removes, as part of its zero tolerance policy to abusive / inappropriate content: Read the FAQ, for a list of examples.

[FAQ] What Blog Content Is Considered Abusive, By Google Spam Mitigation Policy?

Done honestly and properly, Screening #2 helps everybody avoid any unnecessary third screening and subsequent review request - and Blogger Policy Review staff, Blogger Support staff, Top Contributors, and blog owners can all spend their time more productively.

Screening #3
The third screening - when content from the blog can be found in search engine cache - gives the helpers and blog owners a chance to jointly examine blog content, structure, and style. We try to determine why the blog may have been deleted, and whether it will be useful to continue - and what details to provide to Blogger Support, that might encourage Blogger Policy Review staff to favourably review the blog, and restore it.

I found a copy of the blog, in cache.


Please examine the copy, by clicking on the link above - and examine screen prints, below. Is that typical blog content?

The Review Request
Having passed all 3 screenings, the blog is passed to Blogger Support with documentation - and subsequently, to Blogger Policy review for final evaluation. Following favourable evaluation, the blog is restored.

This is a long, and seemingly ceremonial process. In reality, it enables best use of available time, with all 4 groups of people involved.

1. Blog owners.
2. Blogger Policy Review.
3. Blogger Support.
4. Top Contributors.

The triage process will be the most successful, when everybody is polite, prompt, and responsive.

Don't Backup Your Blogs, By Duplicating Them

THis month, we have several reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue from owners who make backup blogs.

Why was my blog deleted, by Blogger, as spam?

Some blog owners innocently create multiple blogs, to back up their main blog.

Unfortunately, having multiple blogs with the same content may make the blogs look like a spam blog farm - and Blogger detects and deletes spam blog farms.

I've been advising blog owners, for years, that Blogger blogs need informative, interesting, and unique content, to survive as Blogger blogs.

Scraped blogs - whether you scrape your own, or another person's - are a bad idea.

The general focus on "unique" is intended to discourage scraping. Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger discusses spam blogs.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

In the past, Blogger has been focusing on blog owners who steal the work of other blog owners, ie, "scraping" - or who copy by permission, ie, "syndication".

Blogger Content policy defines scraping more explicitly.

Examining Blogger Content Policy, we see the problem expressed more vividly.

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.

Having backup blogs can look like "blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings". This is a technique, used by spammers. Why bother to write content? Just use some of the clones, as clones - both to backup each other, and to boost search engine results.

Duplication of content, online, hastens classification as spam.

Backing up a Blogger blog actually duplicates Bloggers efforts. Blogger / Google stores content - ie, your blog - in a cloud of servers, worldwide. If any one server goes out of service, the others are there, to provide immediate backup. You will, likely, never even notice if any one Blogger server goes down.

Alternately, a blog owner might backup a blog because of the spammer publicised unfair blog deletion policy. Here, the blog owner is playing into the spammers hands. If backup blogs were permitted, spammers could publish their spam blog farms with impunity.

Here, what the blog owner wants to plan for by having duplicates, unfair deletion, actually hastens the unfair deletion. This will happen, even if you make the "backup" blog private.

Classification of duplicate content, as abuse, isn't spurious.

If you think about it, a blog classified as spam, because of multiple clones, isn't actually spuriously deleted. If your blog gets a spurious classification, as a possible spam host, you have to appeal the classification. Creating a new blog, with identical content, just makes you look like a non repentant spammer - and increases your vulnerability.

If you want to retain comments and posts, export to an offline file. Just don't spread duplicate content across the Internet.

Spam Review Requires Ownership Verification

Part of the spam review process involves verifying that a spam review request is needed.

Not every blog owner understands the reason for not requesting spam review, needlessly. A blog has to be owned under the Google account being used, and locked as a suspected spam host, for a spam review to be useful.

A spam review, when properly conducted, starts with the "Restore" / "Review" buttons, in the "Deleted blogs" section of the personal Blogger dashboard. As of December 2014, the "Restore" / "Review" buttons are not working for everybody - and this is causing some confusion.

Dashboard restore / review requests, when submitted by the owner using the buttons in "Deleted blogs", provide two functions.

• They provide some level of convenience, to the owner.
• They provide some level of assurance, to the owner and to Blogger Support, that the blogs need spam review.

The buttons provide convenience to the blog owner, because the owner can initiate a restore (for a blog that they was previously deleted, within 90 days), or request automated review (of blogs deleted by Blogger, for suspected TOS violations). This allows the owner to recover a deleted or locked blog, without spending time in Blogger Help Forums.

The buttons provide assurance to the blog owner, and to Blogger Support, that no blog deleted, by Blogger or the owner, will be released by request of someone other than the owner. The appropriate button, for any deleted blog, is only present on the dashboard of the legal blog owner, who can then initiate restore or review.

There are several cases, which don't require a spam review.

• The blog was deleted, as a suspected spam host, but under another account.
• The blog was deleted, because this account was locked, as a hacking victim.
• The blog was deleted, because another account was locked, as a hacking victim.
• The blog was deleted, because another account was locked, for a TOS Violation.

Only one specific case requires a spam review.

• The blog in question was deleted or locked as a suspected spam blog, and is owned by the Google account being used to request restore / review.

All other cases, which involve deleted or locked blogs, result in the owner waiting for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a long queue - and if we refer problems to them, that they cannot resolve, their queue gets longer.

Ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is required - but it's a necessary inconvenience. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.

Verifying ownership is a righteous task - even if it makes the spam review preliminaries longer, and seemingly pedantic.

>> Top

Dashboard "Deleted blogs" Buttons Are Broken

We have numerous problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about a problem with the "Deleted blogs" section of the dashboard.

I can't restore my deleted blog!

and

I can't request spam review!

These owners are concerned, because the "Restore" and "Review" buttons appear to be broken. Nothing happens, when clicked.

Right now, we are starting immediate manual spam review, for blogs deleted as suspected spam hosts, when properly requested by the owner.

People who have "intentionally" deleted their own blogs, and who want to restore, may not be able to easily do that. There is no manual "restore my blog" process, that is appropriately part of Blogger Support Forum.

There are an array of cases, which can result in deleted or locked blogs. Only one case requires spam review.

Any other case leaves the owner waiting, needlessly, for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a normally long queue - and with the currently broken buttons, it's an even longer queue.

Without use of the buttons, ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for both the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is necessary. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.

We now have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting demographic and technical details from each blog owner reporting inability to use the "Deleted blogs" buttons.

This malfunction has been reported to Blogger Engineering, for their resolution. Since we are at end of year, and the holiday season, it's unlikely that the problem will be resolved this year.

While we wait for their action by Blogger Engineering, everybody experiencing this problem is strongly urged to contribute their details to the Rollup Discussion. Problem diagnosis being as it is, any one person, contributing their details, might contribute the one essential detail that leads to successful diagnosis of the problem.

>> Top

Gambling Blogs Are Not Allowed In Blogger

Recently, we've had a few unsatisfied blog owners, with blogs deleted for TOS violation.

When able to research cached content, we see various posts with large, mysterious spreadsheets - and flashy ads with affiliate links.

When we look closer at the content, we see the spreadsheets appear to provide betting odds - and the ads link to various online betting services. The blogs in question are providing gambling services or bookmaking. Some blog owners prefer to call this "sports betting".

There are several problems with blogs which focus on gambling activity.

• Gambling is illegal, in many areas of the world.
• Even where legal, it is a regulated activity - and Blogger has forbidden it, as content in their hosted blogs.
• Blogs which focus on gambling tend to provide odds, in large mysterious spreadsheets. The search engines may see this as empty / static content.
• Blogs which focus on gambling tend to have links to other similar blogs, generally using referer links. This is called affiliate marketing.

Even if gambling is legal where a blog owner resides, Blogger blogs are viewed all over the world. Regulated activity, such as gambling, is not legal, in every world region.

Even if gambling is a legal activity in the region of the blog owner, it may not be so in that entire country. Even the well known Blogger feature of country code alias redirection is useless here. Gambling is a regionally accepted activity - and country code alias redirection is not active, for all countries of the world.

Blogger has forbidden blogs which focus on gambling, and other regulated activity.

Regulated Goods and Services: Do not use Blogger to sell or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services, such as alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.

Blogs with empty / static content have been a problem, for a while. We see blogs with no content / random low quality content, classified as spam hosts, frequently. The odds spreadsheets do not provide usable content, for search engine indexing.

Blogs with affiliate links have similarly been a problem. Affiliate marketing has been a classification category, for many years. Many ads - such as those with affiliate links, and / or pictures of enticing content - are not acceptable, in Blogger.

If you wish to provide or advertise gambling activity, in online content, please don't use Blogger blogs to host your content.

Why Do You Publish A Blogger Blog?

One of the more intriguing questions, that we see in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, involves the Blogger / WordPress dichotomy.

Should I migrate my blog to WordPress, where they provide SEO optimized themes, and various plugins?

My answer to that question starts with the suggestion, that the blog owner should ask himself

Why do I publish a blog?

This question has many possible answers - but I will focus on two possibilities.

To me, the choice of Blogger vs WordPress starts with asking why the blog is being published.

Blogger blogs are personal websites - and provide the best results when published with informative, interesting, and unique content. People read Blogger blogs, because they are written by people, who have something to say - and the readers provide the SEO activity.

WordPress offers a cornucopia of SEO enhancements, from clever themes, to plugins - and support groups that encourage the novice owner to develop a blog with little to no content or planning.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I'll suggest that, if you wish to publish a blog with little to no original content, you should move the blog to WordPress - and make use of their SEO optimized themes, and various plugins. Leave Blogger blogs to people who actually have something to say.

But, that suggestion has a downside.

One day, Google will take the next step beyond Panda, and further emphasise content over clever marketing schemes, and traffic enhancement techniques. As that happens, people who build blogs and websites based on themes and plugins will find their blogs and websites getting less traffic from actual people.

As actual people tire of reading cleverly marketed blogs with no content or focus, the owners of these blogs will turn to more innovative techniques for getting traffic. Hopefully, the WordPress Support forums will be more sympathetic to the novice spammers who ask

Why was my blog deleted by WordPress?

or

Why does my blog not appear at the top of the search list?

Blogger blog owners can organise their blogs, dynamically - based on how they want to present the content, and how their readers can choose to read the content.

Help Blogger to encourage the spammers to move to WordPress - and the people who have something to say can continue publishing Blogger blogs.

Confusion From Non Operable Dashboard "Restore" / "Review" Buttons

This week, we're seeing a few reports from anguished blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

My blog was deleted for spam, and I can't request review because the dashboard button doesn't work!

This blog owner is being hit by a double whammy - first, a spurious spam classification; and second, inability to request review of the blog, falsely accused, using the dashboard.

It's possible that this problem is just the latest symptom of intrusive security on the personal computers, used by the owners of blogs falsely accused of hosting spam content.

Like every other feature in Blogger, that requires authentication of owner status, the dashboard "Restore" / "Review" button can only be used by the owner of a given blog.

Knowing that almost every computer on the Internet is subject to unnotified security updates, it's not un imaginable to see a recent security update having caused this problem.

This problem has been forwarded to Blogger Support, for their consideration. While we wait for a response from Blogger, it's up for the owners of the blogs falsely accused, to provide some details about their computers.

We noe have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue. If you are affected by this problem, please provide details there.

>> Top

NeoWorx, And The Redirecting NeoCounter Gadgets

This week, we're seeing the anxious query, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Is my blog for sale? I try to view my blog, and I see

This Domain Is for Sale

Have I lost my blog?

Fortunately, in most cases, the answer is "No, your blog is not for sale." - and "No, you have not lost your blog!".

In mid 2014, NeoWorx, the publisher of popular gadgets like NeoCounter, closed up shop. Back end code for their gadgets, installed on thousands of blogs and websites, had been served from their private libraries. Having closed their domains, the gadgets stopped working.

Initially, "neoworx-blog-tools.net" was purchased by a squatter.

The squatter apparently had hoped to capitalise on the traffic to the domain, provided by the blogs and websites that used the installed gadgets. In late 2014, the squatter gave up (or possibly, sold to another squatter), and "neoworx-blog-tools.net" is now showing a very plain parked page.

This Domain Is for Sale

Either the squatter made a profit on his purchase, by serving ads to the would be viewers of the host blogs and websites, and decided to cash in - or he lost his investment, and decided to cut his losses and move on.

In theory - and by early Internet rules of etiquette - anybody purchasing a domain that has accumulated traffic from the efforts of the prior owner, and expects to be receiving traffic from unwary people like our blog readers, should put advice on their home page.

Sorry, NeoWorx (publisher of NeoCounter and other blog / website accessories) is no more.

or

Looking for NeoCounter? Try their new website.

The advice, to at least accompany the ads displayed there, would provide a brief hint to the unwary reader, that what he sought (i.e., blog content - or a given gadget) is no longer available (as suggested by the first advice). If NeoWorx had renamed themselves, or been bought out, the second advice would have been useful.

The initial purchasers of "neoworx-blog-tools.net", in defiance or ignorance of etiquette, simply served a page full of ads, and no advice. The ads did not target the owners of the blogs and websites - they simply confused the unwary readers - and provided no hints of why they were there, instead of viewing the blog or website.

Subjected to waves of complaints from angry readers, the blog owners had earlier posted in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Why is my blog directing to a page full of ads?

And we would examine the blog code in our browsers, find the gadget which references "neoworx-blog-tools.net", and instruct the blog owner to remove the gadget.

Now, instead of angry readers, who complain of ads, the blog owners suffer questions from confused readers, asking if the blog is being sold. And we continue to advise people to remove the misbehaving gadgets.

To the former owners of NeoWorx, and the subsequent domain owners:

Blogger blog owners are not cash cows.

We appreciate accessories, if you can support them. But please, don't produce gadgets that require your program libraries, run up huge volumes of traffic to your library domains, then sell out to spammers.

Here, we have one very real example why adding gadgets from third party developers may not always be in your best, long term interest.