“Blogger”

Blog is derived from the word Web Log, which essentially meant systematic information

published on the World Wide Web. Functioning as a forum, brand advertising platforms or

even personal diaries, Blogs are the shining light to which hoards of metaphorical human

fireflies swarm around. Blogging is proving to be a lucrative career option, with some of the

highest earning blogs around the world raking in about $800,000 per month. Closer to home,

Amit Agarwal, former IIT’ian earns about 30, 00,000/- through Labnol.org, a tech blog. The

advent of the blog generation was ushered in during the dotcom boom of ‘99.

Pyra labs, the firm that invented the term Blog, launched blogger on 23rd August 1999.Part of

the earlier blog publishing tools; Blogger was free to the masses. But without a fixed revenue

model and income sources, Pyra lab’s coffers began to dry up. Mass exodus of employees

took place due to dearth of pay, pushing the enterprise to the brink of extinction. ,co-founder

Williams managed to strike a deal with Trellix and paved the way for advertisement

supported Blogger. Major redesigns were introduced for the purpose of licensing it to other

companies. When start-ups begin to blossom and flourish, the behemoths come around

sniffing. In February 2003, Google completed its takeover of Blogger.

Blogger offers one of the cheapest entry routes in the world of website domain. Using a

blogging platform for website-building may seem unusual, but it has its perks and benefits.

Since Blogger is a Google product, every other Google service can be integrated with it.

Google Wallet, Google Analytics, AdSense, Picasa, multiple author support amongst others

is bundled with Blogger. The ease of updating content in Blogger, coupled with

modifications in 2010 allowing multiple pages with navigation on the website has been

tremendous in improving the platforms popularity. Availability of over 50 languages on

Blogger, features to customise themes and fonts without in-depth knowledge of HTML and

CSS and one of the most efficient spam filters (Google, after all) makes it a fore-runner in the

blogging world. Zero downtime, stability and multiple server farms around the world for

faster page loading are just icings on a pretty large cake.

“Google, Legend has it if you grow into a booming business, Google takes over”

How to create a website using Blogger

Register yourself at blogger.com using your Google ID. It is advisable to get a

professional ID solely for website purposes. Refrain from using teenage ID’s such as

dragonballzroxs.

Use a Blog Title that is catchy, relevant and unique. Common tags and keywords get

lost in vast torrents of web data. The address of the blog will end in ‘blogspot.com’,

indicating the integrated host of the blog and its availability will be checked by the

bar.

Templates can be used to various effects. Although a ‘newbie’ is recommended to

stick to simple and minimalistic templates this can be tweaked and changed at a latter

stage.

Gadgets powered by Google are one of the prominent features of Blogger. Data

Analytics, Real-time statistics are some of the numerous devices on display. Select a

gadget conducive to the webpage but it is advisable to keep the gadget count to a

minimum.

The dashboard is where you control your blogs, publish, draft or delete pages.

Essentially the control panel of your blog, this is the Bloggers homepage.

After publishing the blogs along with a couple of gadgets, the blog page will assume this

format.

This site would be hosted by Blogger under the canvas address ‘blogspot.com’.

Business websites generally tend to procure an independent URL, so as to give the site its

exclusivity. Shifting or diverting traffic from the blog to a custom URL may lead to a

decrease in the number of visitors on the site as well as its Alexa ranking. This surely can

enable more productive activities on the website in terms of customisation freedom and

marketability. Google had features pertaining to integrated domain services where the user

could obtain and register a domain within Blogger settings using a credit card. An annual

hosting fee of $10 dollars was sufficient for an independent domain provided by Blogger,

which included usability and access of Google Apps and gadgets. This feature was suitable

for small business units who could quickly obtain a domain and set up their website. After

Google disbanded this feature, the process became a bit cumbersome.

1. Registration Domain Service

“For further information ,Google ‘Kate Upton GoDaddy’”

Domain services provide URL’s which are free and available for use. The cost of the domain

can vary due to factors such as the length of the domain name, the number of words in the

URL and its extension (.com/.net/.org). Acquire the domain from a registrar service

(GoDaddy, BigRock etc).

2. Notify Blogger

Go to settings in Blogger and confirm the authenticity of ownership of the domain. Blogger

will check the validity of the domain. If the domain is authenticated, the URL of the website

will conform to the third party domain URL which is checked by Blogger.

Use custom redirects to fix any broken links that might occur due to the shifting of domain

while Blogger will take care of any traffic spikes that might take place by backing up the data

of the page.

As your website is up and running, the next objective on the itinerary invariantly

will be to boost the traffic on your webpage.URL forwarding is a corrective method which

can help increase the public buzz about your webpage. It is the technique used to redirect

pages under various different domain names to a singular URL i.e. Shifts the browser from

one URL to another.

URL forwarding is widely used for shortening of URL links, especially for easier

distribution. Similar domain names which can occur to due ambiguousness or typographical

errors can be addressed using URL forwarding, as obvious typos will lead to the same

domain. Redirects are also used fin phishing attacks where pop-ups might direct you to

malicious websites. In the scenario that a website is not in use and has been developed in a

new domain, URL forwarding can help redirect traffic to the new domain. Thus, the links can

be sent to the apt desirable location.

“Apps to convert your domain URL into fishy links.Why,we ask”

URL masking would indicate the redirecting of the domain to the destination website, whilst

the web address in the browser tab remains the same. URL masking is used to ‘mask’ the

destination page underneath the original domain name. The length of the URL or stringent

privacy conditions can be the reason behind URL masking. On occasions, the URL domain is

too long for comfort. Use of a short, concise domain name might boost the marketability of

the website.

Blogger has serious competition from Word press along with other website

hosting platforms. Yet, this effervescent Google product has managed to stave off

competition culminating in one of the popular blogging platforms in the world. And with the

juggernaut Google powering it, we have yet to see the zenith of this foray. This is the week

when Google decides to shut down Orkut after a decade. Blogger has a long way to go before

it dips below the horizon.