Tame Blogspot!: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

On Comment Stealing

I wasn't always happy with Blogspot's prevention of comment editing, but I'm starting to see why this might actually be a positive idea.

I've seen Wordpress blog owners use and abuse their comment editing privileges. Some bloggers seem to think that it's okay to strip links from a comment on a whim. Well, it is not okay!

Stripping a comment from its link as a punishment of sorts, just because the expressed opinion is not isn your favor - it's childish and stupid. It's stealing. There is an unspoken arrangement, comments for links, and you're violating it.

If you don't like an opinion - don't publish the comment, it's as simple as that. Blogspot got it right.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Why Can't Comments be Edited?

I'm really bugged by my inability ot edit visitor comments in my Blogspot blog. It's so annoying. You can only publish or delete them, that's it.

A Googling quest shows that you could hack the comments once upon a time, but no more. That option was blocked by Blogspot way back in 2007. I hate this.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Writing HTML/XML in Blogspot

Sometimes you need to write code, but Blogspot doesn't make it easy on you, as it interprets your HTML/XML instead of displaying it. This is what you shall do:

Replace all the < in your code with <
Replace all the > in your code with >


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<note>
    <to>Tove</to>
    <from>Jani</from>
    <heading>Reminder</heading>
    <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Perfectly formatted code, just the way you wanted it!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Playing Around with Ad Locations

On my other site, I have Google Adsense ads. The ads were there since the beginning. Last three months I've finally been having a fair amount of quality traffic, a fair share of impressions... and not a single click.

I can only hope that's because those ads are located below the fold, rather than the other option - that my audience isn't interested in what those ads serve.

Experiment time! I'm going to place the ads (one skyscraper unit), above the fold. Keep it there for another 3 months, then report back. Still no clicks? Then the Adsense will have to go.

Setting Up a Custom Blogspot Domain with Namecheap.com

If you're a newbie to DNS management, setting up your custom domain that was registered on namecheap.com might seem like a pain. It's actually quite easy:

Getting there:

Log in into your Namecheap account
Choose the "Manage Domains" tab and click on the domain name which you want to connect with your Blogspot blog
On the left sidebar choose "All Host Records"

Configure your settings.

Important: If there are some default settings already set, change them to what you need, don't keep them as is.

Create a CNAME record. Use the following settings:

HOST NAME : www
IP ADDRESS/ URL: ghs.google.com
RECORD TYPE: CNAME

Create four A records. Use the following settings:

HOST NAME : @
IP ADDRESS/ URL: 216.239.32.21
RECORD TYPE: A

HOST NAME : @
IP ADDRESS/ URL: 216.239.34.21
RECORD TYPE: A

HOST NAME : @
IP ADDRESS/ URL: 216.239.36.21
RECORD TYPE: A

HOST NAME : @
IP ADDRESS/ URL: 216.239.38.21
RECORD TYPE: A

After saving the changes, your screen should look like this:

Namecheap Domain Settings for Blogspot

Set up your Blogspot settings:

Go to Settings -> Publishing -> Custom Domain -> Switch to advanced settings
Enter your domain name into the "Your Domain" field
Save Settings

That's it, you're done. Normally you can see your site on its new address within minutes, but it can possibly take up to 48 hours to properly appear on the internet.

Tame Blogspot!