Archive for the ‘blogger’ Category

Recent completed web design work includes multiple cms and blog conversions done for the Mountridge LLC family of websites including: AdamsHomeownerServices.com, MainStreamMemorabilia.com, and AdamsFloridaServices.com.

Both Adams sites were converted from static pages to a custom cms content management system which allows the owner to add, edit, or delete content 24/7. The MainStream Memorabilia online store website was updated with a bolder look. All 3 Mountridge LLC websites include custom matching WordPress designs that were converted from Blogger.

Visit each blog for news or advice about products and services from the following links, and then use top navigation to view the matching look of their main websites.

Adams Homeowner Services handles Florida vacation or long term rental property, the MainStream Memorabilia e-commerce store offers movie and tv star autographed memorabilia, and Adams Florida Services specializes in residential or commercial Orlando area landscape and lawn service.

For owners who have a Blogger blog design hosted on their server instead of Blogspot or a Blogger custom domain, the Blogger FTP publishing service to post and upload content to your server via FTP will cease on May 1, 2010.

If you have a blog that uses the Blogger platform, you should have received an email from the Blogger Team within the last 30 days announcing the date and reasons. The time to implement an action plan for Blogger blogs published to your server is NOW.

Google owns Blogger and explained that the small fraction of Blogger users who do publish via FTP does not justify the cost to maintain ongoing security to allow publishing to servers outside Blogger’s control. If you own a Blogger blog design hosted on your server, and you plan to continue being an active blogger, you MUST take action.

You still have two months to implement because the original deadline of March 26th in the announcement email was extended to May 1st. Act now. Plan now. Implement well before the deadline to avoid the risk of losing content.

This does NOT affect blog owners with free hosting on Blogspot who have a blog address like yourblogname.blogspot.com, or Blogger designs if you have a custom Blogger domain redirected to their servers.

If I designed your Blogger platform blog then you ARE publishing via FTP to your server and MUST take action. Here are the options to consider for affected blog owners:

1. If you choose to take no action you permanently lose the ability to add posts to your blog.
2. The most practical solution may be a technical setup moving to a Blogger custom domain.
3. An alternate solution is moving from a Blogger design to WordPress at significant cost.

NOTE: Other options may exist. The 3 presented are based on my experience and customer base.

Option 1 may be practical for blog owners who have not posted to their blog in 12 months, or more. Your blog most likely has zero ranking and if you have truly abandoned your blog, you could remove it or let it just sit. Do nothing and existing posts will remain on your server unless you remove them.

Option 2 is the most practical and perhaps cost effective solution for blog owners who want to remain active in publishing blog posts. The technical steps to move from your server to a blogger custom domain means redirecting existing pages to point to the Blogger server, and then future posts will go there automatically.

I do not plan on offering this one-time fix as a service. Instead, the following resources may be referenced when choosing to use the custom Blogger domain option. This means you may hire someone or choose do-it-yourself.

Information: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/
FAQs: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/p/faqs.html
Tutorial: http://www.newsome.org/2010/01/how-to-move…

NOTE: I am NOT offering this Option 2 conversion as a service because of the learning curve, limited time to act, and my choice of Option 3 to convert from Blogger to WordPress. I did not do an in-depth review of the above resources, so it may be more difficult than expected depending on your experience and circumstances.

My choice is Option 3 for the blogs I own. The “engine” that drives a blog consists of 100′s of custom programmed files that make the blog work properly including publishing posts, filing posts by month, or archiving them, and more. For Blogger designs this “engine” or blog platform resides on the Blogger server outside the control of the site owner.

WordPress platform designs begin by uploading their software “engine” to your server, so the security control does not require extreme measures because the system is allowing access by you to your server, not a third party server.

To convert a Blogger blog to WordPress requires a new template design, export of blog content from Blogger, conversion of that content compatible to WordPress, installation of the WordPress “engine” software and template on your server, import of converted content into WordPress, and finally file redirects of archives, tags and labels to WordPress format archives, tags and categories.

The move to WordPress is the most time consuming and costly choice. While taking control is a key advantage of WordPress, maintaining control was really the problem at Blogger. They share enough of their software engine to publish only, so to protect the security of people interacting with their server they will no longer permit FTP access.

The Blogger decision to cease support for publishing to an owner’s server via FTP was unforeseen, and certainly out of my control. A blog is still the easiest way to “add original quality content often”. That phrase is the essence of how websites succeed, so I will continue to promote and encourage my customers to be active blogging.

If you have questions or need help understanding your blog or an action plan, email me soon. The deadline is approaching quickly.

A new page for Blogger custom blog design pricing has been revised to include a custom WordPress blog design price. In addition, the price page lists a new service for converting a Blogger template and moving to WordPress. Here is an excerpt from the new blog design price page linked above:

For owners of Blogger format blogs interested in converting a Blogger template and moving to a WordPress template and theme, we can provide optional services. For existing blog designs in Blogger to export from their format and import into a custom WordPress theme, our technique will capture all blog posts.

Visit this blog converted from Blogger to WordPress to see a live example custom WordPress theme and matching main website.

The custom WordPress blog design price page includes the optional service to export from Blogger to WordPress with details on the process involved to maintain all posts, labels, archives, and search engine friendly (SEF) file names.

A second custom integrated blog design launched this week for author Ben Furman of Black Hawk Press. Mr. Furman is an independent publisher and writer, and former FBI Counterterrorism Chief who writes two genres of fiction. The audience for his mature content blog on counterterrorism is adults, and the latest blog features information about his fantasy adventure series for young adults.

Each custom integrated blog matches the pre-existing web design and each sidebar features a custom logo graphic as shown above to illustrate the theme of each blog. The original blog included posts on both themes, and the new blog separates content based on the target audience. Included in the custom integrated blogger template design is an audio player so visitors may listen to book excerpts, also.

The main site has more information on all books including reviews and links to purchase online.

A new custom blogger template launched earlier this week for the publisher and author blog of BlackHawkPress.com. The new integrated blog design color scheme and graphics match the pre-existing web design for a consistent look. Adding a custom integrated blog to any small business website enhances search engine optimization, or seo, and helps attract search engines.

Black Hawk Press is an independent publisher of counterterrorism novels by Ben Furman, publisher and author, as well as another genre with an adventure series of fantasy novels for young adults. Mr. Furman provides an inside look of worldwide intrigue and suspense based on real world experience aimed at adult readers. The childrens series of fantasy adventures offers excitement while providing positive messages for young readers.

The Black Hawk Press blog will feature posts with audio excerpts from their books, insider information about counterterrorism, and professional writing tips by Ben Furman. Follow this link to the custom integrated blog design for Black Hawk Press author Ben Furman to compare the look to their original web design.

The demo blog of custom Blogger designs is a revolving look at custom blog template work in progress, and the demonstration was revised again. Readers may visit the test blog used for customer review and approval to see the current design.

The blog custom template, xhtml, css, and custom graphics change for each client, and it may be interesting to view the rougher look prior to approval and formal launch. While the current custom Blogger theme may change depending on when you view this post, at the time it is a custom integrated blog template to match the main site of Black Hawk Press, a publisher and author in Charlotte, NC.

Visit the main site of this publisher of adult action adventure and children’s fantasy novels to view the layout, and then compare their site to the custom Blogger integrated template that I created.

Once approved and launched, the next custom blog template project may have replaced the demo for Black Hawk Press. In that case, follow the above link to their main site and then view their blog to see how closely both the site and integrated blog match.

The demo section of custom CMS web design and Blogger template services of the Small Business Resource Center was officially released today. View actual customer designs being prepared for review and approval in this web design and cms demo showroom of customer web design projects including custom Blogger templates.

The web design demo section for custom web design services displays client project work in progress and finished web designs. The CMS custom web designs may rotate, yet for now there are 2 finished websites, and a new demo cms design in work. The custom blog demo includes 3 posts that demonstrate adding an audio player, a video player, and other basic options.

The demo blog features an audio program with a podcast episode about adding Integrated Blogs for Small Business Websites, and the video is a tutorial showing advanced methods of creating web graphics. The blog post content will not change, but the look will. The color scheme and graphics of this demo Blogger blog template will change often to match new customer projects for approval prior to launch.

Visit the CMS Web Design and Blogger Template Demo home page to view web design and custom blog projects for launch in the near future, as well as finished designs.

A new custom integrated blog template design and site addition launched recently for Pacific Rent A Car, a car hire rental company in Cyprus. The new Blogger template for this international client matches their main website except for the addition of a new blog button in the top navigation. Here is a graphic of the matching blog top header and navigation buttons shown smaller than actual size:

The company manager made several comments about the completed car rental blog integration:

I am totally happy. Thank you for the great job. I worked with two different companies from India and they were not able to finish it. You are so professional. I am glad that I trusted you. Thank you very much.

Berkan Ocal, Manager, Pacific Rent A Car, Kyrenia Cyprus

The matching website integrated blog graphics and color scheme are nearly identical and passed tests for cross browser compatibility. While confirming my custom integrated blog design matched their main pages correctly in all major browsers, I reported that their main website only displays properly in IE.

Depending on when they correct their code, readers comparing my design of the Pacific Rent A Car blog and main site are reminded that I only created the custom integrated blog which was done in xhtml with css and displays well in all browsers. Their main site may not depending on your browser. The customer has contacted their original site designers to correct the cross browser compatibility.

A special thanks to Mr. Berkan Ocal for placing his order and confidence with me for a custom integrated blog. The trust of an international client more than 10,000 km (6600 miles) away for custom web design services is certainly appreciated.

The latest podcast show comparing blog formats from Blogger and WordPress was launched today with advice for small business owners. If you’re undecided about the benefits of blogging, or which format to select, the show gives comparisons of format, ease of use, and other features on these top blog formats.

The show features a review of a new custom matching blog done in WordPress for one of my personal sites, and features bonus tips for advanced plug-in options and themes or templates for WordPress. An integrated blog custom design to match your main site is one of the best search engine optimization techniques I can recommend. Contact me at any time for no obligation free advice about blogging for small business.

One day, perhaps, website developers will be able to create the perfect template to display blog pages that comply to W3C standards with perfect XHTML in Blogger blogs. The goal is currently impossible because of how the blog “engine” generates blog posts at the instant you publish.

Content generated external to the template and css that web developers design for blogs is the reason. This content includes hidden code that identifies the blog as shown below in this snippet of results from the W3C XHTML validation service for just one post on my blog:

g?blogID=38647469&postID;=5457517960262

The highlighted and underlined content above is the culprit. The ampersand symbol is a special reserved character in XHTML, and to display properly without creating a code error it must have it’s full ASCII 5-character code and not just the single character as typed from your keyboard. The highlighted text of &postID; should read &postID to be correct per W3C.

Unfortunately, this small problem generates multiple instances and errors on each post, and it is completely out of the control of you or your blog designer. The only solution will happen when the technical team and programmers at Blogger choose to modify their system to insert the ampersand with the full ASCII 5-character code. Don’t hold your breath. It’s like pushing a glacier.

Does this really matter? From a technical point, no. From a practical point, yes, because the solution is easy. Your blog will look fine with 250 code errors, yet if browser companies and web developers are driven to comply with standards for zero code errors, it would be nice to have Blogger get on board, too.

Finally, if you follow a permalink to any individual post on this blog, and then validate per W3C, there are 28 code errors. Unlike my main site which displays the Valid XHTML 1.1 and CSS2 badges with zero code errors, the blog is doomed for now to being nice, not perfect.

The blog issue and other external factors used to create multimedia content use deprecated code, so my goal of perfect code has been revised to accept the reality of designing with near zero errors.