Testing Blogger: FAQ

Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts

Sunday, November 27, 2016

FAQ: New Dashboard on Blogger

Blogger has rolled out a new dashboard. You can read about it at this link on the Blogger Blog.

https://blogger.googleblog.com/2016/11/a-first-few-tweaks-toward-better-blogger_22.html

The new dashboard takes you directly to the blog that has the most recent updates to it, however you can go to any of your other blogs by clicking on the down arrow on the top left area where the current blog name is listed. See image.

As all changes do, this new dashboard might take some getting used to. You can give feedback directly to the Blogger team via the feedback link on the dashboard (lower right on page). We recommend using this link for feedback as it goes directly to the Blogger team.

If you are having issues with viewing the new dashboard or are getting error messages, please report them in the forum as you would any other issue.

NOTE: older browsers might have some compatibility issues with the new dashboard so trying to update your browser might be the quickest way to fix most issues.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

My FAQs for Blogger

Friday, April 4, 2014

FAQ: Do I Have To Use Gmail With Blogger? Updated 4/4/14

Update:

Found this url might be useful for setting up a brand new Google account without Gmail...and then you can add a Blogger to the account to it once it is established.

https://accounts.google.com/SignUpWithoutGmail
_________________________
This is a question that comes up almost everyday on the Blogger Help Forum...or I guess I should say the results of the confusion regarding this question shows up all the time. I can't even count how many times I have had to explain to users that use of Gmail is not a requirement for Blogger or any other Google product (other than Gmail).

Basically, if you are already a Google account holder (on a different email from Gmail), you can use that account with Blogger and not have to bother with Gmail. If you are signing up with Blogger for the first time, it will take you to a Google account creation page and on that page, it will force you to create a Gmail account but you can add your own email address (non-Gmail) to the account as an alternate, and then immediately cancel the Gmail account after you have everything set up the way you want.

I just did this myself for a new blog I created. I was forced to create a Gmail account when clicking on the Blogger invite, and then was able to add the yahoo address to the account that I wanted, used it to log into the account, and then canceled the Gmail account.

To cancel the Gmail account, you use this link, (make sure you have first added a second email to the overall Google account before you do this and checked that you are able to log into your Google account using that email address).

http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=61177

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Saturday, April 27, 2013

FAQ: Blogspot.com Is Blocked, What Can I Do?

There are times when an ISP or a government decides to block the blogspot.com domain, and the only way to view blogs on that domain is to use a free proxy to get around it. Normally this situation is only temporary. I thought I would put a list of some of the proxies I have used in the past...some of these might also be blocked too so you might have to try more than one.

Get Wall http://getwall.com/
Anonymouse http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html
HideMyAss http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/

These are just a few but you can do a search for "free proxy" on Google and come up with a list of ones that you can try if these are blocked for some reason as well.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Friday, February 8, 2013

FAQ: How Do I Report a Problem on BHF

How to report a problem - Help us help you!
To ensure everyone finds the information they need as quickly as possible, here are a few guidelines to follow when you'd like to post a question or report a problem to the group:

1. ALWAYS GIVE YOUR BLOG URL!!!!!! (e.g. http://XXXX.blogspot.com)

2. It's always helpful to post as much information as you can - a specific error message (e.g. bX-XXXXX), the steps you took before you encountered the problem, which web browser you're using along with version, and what steps you have taken after.

3. If you encounter an error code (e.g. bX-XXXXX) and would like to report the problem, please include a description of what you were doing when you encountered the error, any additional information that's given with the error message, and the URL of the blog that is affected. Note that the same error codes are caused by a single issue/bug and resolved by the same fix. So, if a fix works for one user who's experiencing issue bX-ABCDEF, it should work for any other user experiencing bX-ABCDEF.

3. Look around first. Browse previous threads in the Help Group, check out the FAQs, peruse through Blogger Help and do your research.

4. Chances are, someone else is experiencing the problem you are. So, make your post to the thread that is already discussing what you'd like to discuss. That helps us keep track of the various issues and know the scale of each problem. But only do this if you have the EXACT same problem...not similar, but EXACT.

5. Don't post your problem to every thread you find - it just clutters the group and makes things harder to sift through, which means it might take longer for you to get an answer.

Just a few suggestions but, if you follow them, it'd make a world of difference!

P.S. You're perhaps more likely to receive attention from a Blogger employee, TCs and other Blogger users if you sincerely note the secret phrase: "I have read the Group FAQs, "How to Report a Problem" page and checked out docs in the Help Center."

Mishka
Blogger Top Contributor
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

FAQ: Spam Appeal Guidelines Updated January 2013

This thread should be started by the owner of the blog marked as spam and will only apply to that original poster. If you are another user and have this problem with your blog, you need to start your own thread so that we can send in the review individually.

Spam Appeal Guidelines:

Given the fact that automated spam detection is not yet a perfect science, the Blogger Team is happy to investigate any reports of false positive spam reviews, 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:

- Affiliate marketing.
- Content created wth scripts and programs, rather than by hand.
- Content scraped from other sources.
- Copyright Infringement (using photos of people without their permission)
- Content or links referencing GPT, PTC, PTS, 'Make money from home', 'Make money fast', or other referral-based activities.
- Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.
- Links to Illegal Downloads / Streaming / Torrents/ Games / Movies
- Links to Password sites/Account Hacks

If you are confident that your content doesn't fall into one of the above categories, and you have already requested a manual review in your dashboard, then you can request an appeal on the spam decision and Blogger will review your blog. Just reply here in this thread saying that you've read the Spam Appeal Guidelines and we'll pass your review to Blogger. Make sure you've included your blog URL.

**Please note though that the Blogger Team may look at other blogs on your account as part of their review. If you request an appeal and Blogger discovers other blatantly spam content during the investigation, you risk having all of your content permanently removed. Please consider this when requesting a review.

If your do not have any contact links from Blogger (this would be very unusual) in order to request the initial review, please see this help article to see if any of the links there might be of help before reporting back here.

References:

[1] I can't find my blog on the Web, where is it? - Blogger Help(Help Articles) www.google.com

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Saturday, November 10, 2012

FAQ: Google Accounts Help Page and Recovery Form Updated November 2012

Directions and link that gets you to the Google Accounts Help page with a link to the recovery form. Note that you have to follow the steps here...if you try to go straight to the url at the bottom, it will just make you start at the beginning so you might as well follow the directions.

Start here as directed:
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery

Enter the email associated with the account in the password recovery form.

That brings you to a CAPTCHA page. Enter the CAPTCHA.

That brings you to the Password help page.

On that page are two "Choose how to get back into your account" options with radio buttons:

• Answer my security question

• Get a password reset link at my recovery email

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

FAQ: Guide For Setting Up Custom Domain

This is the link on the Help Center that gives you the steps to set up a custom domain.

http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1233381&page=ts.cs

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger
FAQs For GooglePlus

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

FAQ: Blogger Country Specific Redirects

This is the help article on Blogger's Help Center explaining this new change for those that are interested and for my own reference.

http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2402711

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger
FAQs For GooglePlus

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

FAQ: Help Articles for New User Interface

This URL gets you to the help pages that explain some of the new features of the User Interface on Blogger.

http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1623800

A lot of users dislike the new UI, and there are things that still need to be fixed on it. I highly recommend users take advantage of the feedback link and give Blogger their feedback so we can have the best product out there.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger
FAQs For GooglePlus

Saturday, June 11, 2011

FAQ: How To Remove +1 From Share Icons

NOTE: These instructions are for those that are using the newest template designer templates from Blogger. I can't guarantee that this will work with third party templates and/or other versions of the Blogger template (layouts or classic).

At first I was going to leave the +1 icon in, but decided after learning more about it, that it wasn't something I wanted on my blog, even though I wanted the other "share" icons to remain. So yesterday, I started looking at the code and figured out how to get rid of just that icon and leave the rest functioning.

First off, you need to go to the edit html page of your blog Design area. This will bring up the template code window for your blog. Make sure you make a back up of your template at this time by using the link provided on the page. This is just so you can revert back in case you delete more than you should while following these steps.

Next, you need to click the check box near the top of the html window that says "expand widgets". You need to do this in order to see the code that has to be removed.

Now you need to scroll down until you see the area of the blog code that is inside this screen shot of my blog's template(click on image for larger view), and cut out the area highlighted in blue. Only that area, and nothing else. Make sure you save the template after you have cut the code out.

Now when you view the blog, the rest of the share buttons still show (assuming you have them turned on in the blog post widget), but the +1 icon will be gone.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

FAQ: BX Error Reporting Form Link

This is the link for reporting BX errors to Google.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pDGYK68-cO4sA0J2wa9fYBQ

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Monday, April 18, 2011

FAQ: This Thread Is Closed

This discussion is closed. It could be closed for a number of reasons:

1. The original poster has had their question answered.
2. The original problem is no longer an issue.
3. This discussion is out of date and therefore not relevant.
4. This discussion is an FAQ for reference only.

Regardless of the reason, the discussion is closed to new posts, so if you have a similar problem to the original poster, it is recommended that you start your own thread (and only one) so that one of the volunteers here will be able to help you.

Please follow the instructions on how to post a question in this help forum. You can find that FAQ at this location.

References:

How To Report A Problem

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

Sunday, April 17, 2011

FAQ: What Is My Blog's Feed URL?

In order to subscribe to a blog's feed you need to know the blog's feed URL. A feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. It gives users a way to keep up with many sites on the web without having to visit each site individually to see if they have updated. Some users use their feed to check that their own blog is publishing correctly.

The feed urls for blogs on Blogger are:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Users should substitute their blog's name in for the bolded area in the URLs above.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: I Can't Find My Blog On The Search Engines!!

Contrary to popular belief, search engines do not index new content on the web instantaneously. It takes time and effort on the part of the webmaster of any site to get their site indexed and then decent page rank on the search engines.

There are several things you can do to help lessen the time it takes to get indexed and decent search results (in no particular order).

1. Make sure your blog is indexable by turning on the listing options in your blog settings.

2. Submit your blog url to the various search engines. For Google, go to this site to get started- http://www.google.com/intl/en/submit_content.html

3. Read this article from Google Webmaster Central that explains how they deal with content, indexing and search results. http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=39334&topic=8996

4. Add metatags with keywords, and descriptions to your blog template- http://mishkatestrun.blogspot.com/2007/04/meta-tag-example.html

5. Link to other blogs of similar content or interest.

6. Allow comments and backlinks on your blog and make comments on other blogs leaving your link.

7. Create and maintain interesting and accurate content on your blog to keep your readers entertained and returning.

8. DO NOT PARTAKE IN SPAMMY OR MALICIOUS ACTIVITY that would get your blog deleted and your account banned.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: How Do I Promote My Blog?

You can actually find an answer to this question in several different
areas of Blogger. It just takes a few minutes to find.

Help center on Blogger.com if you do a search for the word promote in
the search engine provided.
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42377&topic=12454

Many of the Top Contributors have written blog articles to help other bloggers regarding promotion and traffic. Here is just one example...
http://mishkatestrun.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-solution-for-getting-traffic.html

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: How Do I Find Other Blogs on Blogger?

Google's Blog search engine is a great tool. It not only has blogs from Blogger but blogs from all over the web. You can use it just like you would any other search engine but the results will be limited to blogs. http://blogsearch.google.com/

You can also use the "interests" links inside an individual blogger's profile to find other users on Blogger that have the same word in their profile "interests"

Another way is just connecting to other bloggers through the blogrolls and links of bloggers you already enjoy reading. Usually if you like their content and they like someone else's, you might like that someone else's too.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: How Do I Transfer My Blog From One Account To Another?

You use this article on the Blogger Help Center.

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41448

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: My Blog Looks Different From The Preview

All websites render a bit different. This is because each browser is different, each user has different settings on their systems they are viewing sites with, and their systems themselves are different. All of these factors and combinations of them can cause an infinite number of differences on a website between what one user and another user might see.

This applies to the preview screen as well. There is no way for Blogger to show a preview to each user that would be exactly how the blog post or site will look to everyone. It is just not possible.

This website, however, will give you a chance to check out your blog in several different resolutions and browsers so if you are "tweaking" your site, you can see what works and what doesn't. Those of us that like to design websites or even just troubleshoot them for other users, use this site quite a bit.

Hope you find it useful too. http://browsershots.org/

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger

FAQ: How Do I Change The Email Account Associated With My Blogger Account?

You have to use the directions in the Blogger Help Center on transferring a blog between accounts.

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41448

Mishka
Official Blog*Star
Testing Blogger