Share Posts, From Private Blogs, By Email

Owners of private blogs have, periodically, lamented the lack of options for distribution of comments and posts. We've seen a few queries, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

How do I let my readers subscribe to my private blog?

There's no good answer, to please everybody, here.

You can't use EMail, FeedBurner, or Reading List, for sharing private blog content. FeedBurner requires the blog comments / posts newsfeeds - and private blogs don't produce newsfeeds.

If you need to distribute content from a private blog, you'll have to use BlogSend.

Private blog post subscriptions require the dashboard "BlogSend" feature.

You'll have to use "BlogSend" to provide email subscriptions, for private blogs - and that limits you to 10 subscribers (1 who should be you). That's the "Email posts to" option in the dashboard Settings - Email page.

"BlogSend" aka "Email posts to" is the only option, for private blogs.



You can try to email specific posts, from a private blog.

You can try to use the Blogger post footer "Email Posts" feature.

Just enable the "Email Post Links" option in "Configure Blog Posts". You cannot enable "Show Share Buttons" - but you can enable "Show Email Post Links".

Use "Configure Blog Posts" from the dashboard Layout page.

Look under "Post Page Options" for "Show Email Post Links".



With the option enabled, and the icon visible, it's still a no go.

D'Ohh!



There's still no social sharing of private blog content.

Note the advice for "Show Share Buttons".

Sharing is available only for public blogs.

You can't share blog content, outside Blogger, if the blog is private. That protects private blog owners, from having their confidential posts distributed to the world.

We can't share content from private blogs, using EMail, FaceBook, Google+, Pinterest, or Twitter.

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If you publish a private #Blogger blog, you cannot email or share comments or posts. Your only option will be BlogSend aka the "Email posts to" dashboard option.

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Dynamic Templates, And "Follow by Email"

We see occasional concern about providing email subscriptions, from blog owners in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

How do I provide email subscriptions for my blog? Follow by Email does not work!

The blog in question is using a dynamic template - and it appears that the blog owner is out of luck.

The "Subscribe by Email" gadget does not work, with dynamic templates.

Add "Subscription Links" to a blog with a dynamic template.

For email subscriptions, and a blog with a dynamic template, you use the "Subscription Links" gadget. Here is my blog, Chucks Musings.

Use "Subscription Links" with a blog that has a dynamic template.



When you add "Follow by Email" to a blog with a non dynamic template, it sets up the "Email Subscriptions" service, in FeedBurner. "Subscription Links" is a collection of various subscription services - and won't activate "Email Subscriptions".

You may need to activate "Email Subscriptions".

You will probably need to activate the "Email Subscriptions" service, to use "Subscription Links" instead of "Follow by Email".



To use "Subscribe by Email" as a selection in "Subscription Links", be sure that the "Email Subscriptions" service is activated, from the FeedBurner dashboard.

Alternately, add "Subscribe by Email" in a linklist gadget.

Sometimes, you may not want to use "Subscription Links". So, just add the "Subscription Link Code", in a linklist gadget.

Here, we have a new sidebar accessory.

And when you click on the link, you get the familiar FeedBurner "Email Subscription Request" verification form.



So, either add "Subscription Links" - or make a custom LinkList accessory. One, or the other, will give you "Subscribe by Email", in a dynamic template.

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Owners of #Blogger blogs, wishing to provide email subscriptions, find that "Follow by Email" won't work with a dynamic template. Fortunately, "Subscription Links" will provide email subscription - though the necessary FeedBurner service has to be activated.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/lsAVQuj_FOw

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Private Google Groups Email Distribution Is Broken

Some blog owners have reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about broken email distribution.

There are various ways to distribute Blogger blog content, to email. For those unable or unwilling to use FeedBurner Email Distribution, one popular alternative is Google Groups.

One drawback of FeedBurner based distribution is that FeedBurner uses the blog newsfeed - and is unusable for private blogs.

Google Groups is the best content distribution medium, for private blogs.

The only scalable distribution medium, for private blogs, is Google Groups. Right now, Google Groups, for some owners, is not accepting incoming email.

This problem may not be unique to Blogger blogs. There are other reports of this problem, in the Google Groups Support Forum.

We are asking for details, in a previously posted forum Problem Rollup topic.

We have a previously discussed article, and a Problem Rollup topic, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - where we are requesting details, as phrased above, about the problems. If you have details to contribute, solution to this problem may result from your contribution.

Please help Blogger Engineering to help you - and make your responses polite, relevant, and responsive. If this problem is to be identified, and you are affected, resolution depends upon you. And also report your problem in Google Groups Support.

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Some #Blogger blog owners are reporting that distribution of private blog content, using Google Groups, is not operational. This problem may not be unique to Blogger blogs, as there is some discussion in Google Groups Support.

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Follow By Email, And Read More Solutions

Some blog owners use email, to distribute blog content - and like the post summarisation technique, Jump Break.

We see occasional hopeful questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, about Jump Break, in emailed post content.

How do I use Jump Break, in my posts email subscriptions?

This is one need that probably won't be solved, precisely as requested.

Jump Break is simple enough, to add to the blog - one post at a time. To work, from an index page, it needs 2 components.

• A summarised post segment, with the "Jump Break" token, <!--more-->, in the index page display.
• A post, with the "more" anchor embedded.

The "Read More" target URL is easy enough to pass, and to use, in email.

Here's the "Read more" URL, from a previous post.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/01/dear-followers-of-this-blog.html#more

The Jump Break token isn't easily interpreted, outside the Blogger environment.

The "Read more" URL is easy to pass, in email distributed blog feed. The "Jump Break" token, unfortunately, is not properly interpreted. Email displays can't handle control strings, such as

<!--more-->

or

<a·name='more'></a>

But you can use an alternate "Read More" feature.

If the blog can use FeedBurner Email Distribution, however, you can get FeedBurner to format a post summary. A post summary uses a truncated "teaser" post, truncated before the post is distributed - instead of Jump Break, interpreted when the post is viewed.

There are 2 possible ways to use "Read More", instead of "Jump Break".

You have 2 possible solutions here.

1. Setup a FeedBurner feed, based on the feed summary.
2. Setup a FeedBurner feed, based on the full feed - and use the Summary Burner option.

I setup 2 test feeds, from this blog.

1. The Real Blogger Status - Summary Option 1.
2. The Real Blogger Status - Summary Option 2.

You may click on either or both - and examine / compare the results. The first is based on the summary posts newsfeed, as coming from this blog, and simply redistributed by FeedBurner - and the second is based on the full posts newsfeed, as coming from this blog, and summarised then redistributed by FeedBurner.

You may subscribe to either, or both, feeds - and see what you get, in your Inbox.

1. Subscribe to The Real Blogger Status - Summary Option 1 by Email.
2. Subscribe to The Real Blogger Status - Summary Option 2 by Email.

Both "Read More" solutions are easy enough to setup, using FeedBurner.

Setting both feeds up was rather simple.

1. The "Feed Summary" solution is simply a standard FeedBurner Email Distribution, sourced from "/feeds/posts/summary".
2. The "Summary Burner" option is simply a standard FeedBurner Email Distribution, sourced from "/feeds/posts/full" - and "Summary Burner" activated, with a "teaser" of 400 characters.

Activate Summary Burner from the Optimize tab.



You activate the "Summary Burner" service, from the dashboard Optimize tab. If necessary, setup a second FeedBurner feed.

Option 2 (Summary Burner) lets you adjust the "teaser", and the caption. That's the only choices - and the only challenge.



If you compare the two options, you'll notice that Option 1 is simply a fixed "teaser" of 400 characters - and that Option 2 gives you an adjustable "teaser", plus a caption of your choice. With both options, the link to the full post is in the post title.

So, it's a toss up. I'd probably go with option 2, which is more adjustable - but it's your choice, for your blog. It takes less than a minute, to change from one to the other.

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Google+ Circles Is Replacing Following / GFC

Those of you who have been Following this blog, in the past, may have recently noted a new gadget in the sidebar.

Just below the "Follow Me" gadget, you'll see "+Follow Me". The latter gadget looks similar to the former - but has some subtle differences. Some differences are visible, others not so visible. And some differences are not visible to the eye - but will still affect your access to this blog.

The Google+ Circles gadget, which on this blog is labeled "+Follow Me", appears similar to the Following / Google Friend Connect "Follow Me" gadget - but appearances can be very misleading.

The larger pictures are one obvious difference - but that's not the most significant difference. Some difference need to be discussed now, rather than later, for maximum benefit.

Blogger Followers lets your Followers Follow one specific blog.

Following / Google Friend Connect lets your acquaintances Follow a single blog. I have several blogs, and a different group of Followers for each blog. The Google+ Circles gadget shows everybody in all of your publicly visible circles, merged together. The merged concept may, or may not, be to your liking.

Google+ Collections now let you separate different content - so you can share one blog to one Collection, and specific people can Follow ("Circle") one Collection. I'm not convinced though that all of my Followers understand this distinction.

Blogger Followers let you use email and newsfeed subscriptions.

With Following / Google Friend Connect, your Followers can use email, or any number of newsfeed clients, to read the complete content of your blog - including each complete post, if you setup the blog feed that way. Google+ Circle members can read a snippet of any blog post intentionally Shared, in their stream - but will have to click on the link to the blog, in the snippet, to read the entire blog post. If you have read this far, that's what you have already done.

Following / Google Friend Connect works best for public blogs - and supports a reader audience of unlimited size. A Google+ Circle, likewise, supports a reader audience of unlimited size.

With a properly setup Google+ Circle, and a Blogger blog with a list of designated readers - and your readers properly accepting the emailed membership invitation, up to 99 of your designated readers can Follow your blog. As before, the limit for private blog distribution, as for any team blog, is still 99 members.

Anybody Following a blog, using the stream of any author of the blog, will see a snippet of each post Shared in their stream. To read the complete post, they will have to click on the link in the snippet. With a private blog, the reader will have to be a blog member, to read the complete post.

Many Blogger blogs have a lot of Followers, which will be missed.

Many publicly visible Blogger blogs have Following communities which vastly exceed my 4700 member population (my "Follow Me" gadget, as of April 2013) - and the possibility of losing those communities will not be willingly accepted by everybody. The integration of Following with the newsfeed subscription - and with the dashboard Reading List - is not automatic with Google+ Circles.

A blog with multiple authors (aka "team blog") will have either a Google+ Circles gadget for only one author - or multiple Circles gadgets, to fairly let people subscribe to the various authors Google+ streams. Neither solution will be exactly equal to the Following / GFC blog feed subscription - especially if the various team members are similar to me, and my range of interests.

Right now, it appears that a blog can have just one Circles gadget. How team membership blogs will use Google+ is another question to ask.

Many blog owners have multiple interests - and publish multiple blogs.

Similar to the team blog, we may wish to consider the multiple interests of each blog owner. I am one person, with a number of interests.

People who have intentionally subscribed to the newsfeed from this blog, and are specifically interested in my blog about Blogger blogs, may not be extremely interested in my blog about cooking - nor in my blog about jokes, pranks, and miscellaneous ramblings. Unfortunately, if you Follow my Google+ stream, you'll get a bit of each subject.

Some people may use Google+ Collections, to separate their different interests. It's possible that some Google+ Followers are now Following my RBS Collection.

Again, the Google+ Circles gadget appears to contain the total Followers for one person, for all interests of that one person. I have not yet found a tool that will allow me to analyse the interests of each of my Followers, and to accurately determine the specific areas of overlapping, between my own personal interests and theirs.

It will be impossible for many blog owners to keep an accurate Circle complement, and segregate each circle according to interest, so they may Share only relevant material with the specific members of each different Circle.

Integration of Blogger Follower, and Google+ Followers, requires compromise.

As the Google+ Circles gadget evolves, some significant improvements - and some compromises - will be required. Like the Internet, Blogger, and Google, are constantly evolving. This may require compromises by many Blogger blog owners.

We now have a rollup discussion, where each blog owner is asked to provide their thoughts about the above described issues - and possibly, others that concern you. Anybody who experienced the Blogger GUI upgrade of several years ago may, from experience, realise how much better off we may all be, with these issues discussed now - rather than later.

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Control The Email Settings, Relevant To Your Blog

Some blog owners don't always think about the various email settings, which are part of their Blogger blogs, and the possible effects to their email - or somebody else's email.

There are several settings, where a blog owner may enter an email address.

• Email posts to
• Comment Moderation.
• Comment Notification Email.

These settings don't require acceptance by the recipient, making for some interesting possibilities for causing problems in other people's email, as well as one's own email.

There are several Blogger dashboard settings - related to post publication and to various commenting activities - with differing effect to one's own, or somebody else's, email.

• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Email posts to" - aka "BlogSend" - generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses.
• Settings - "Posts and comments" - "Comment Moderation" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published - and allows moderation of the comment, while reading the email message - when the recipient has the proper authority.
• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Comment Notification Email" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published or rejected.

Since none of these settings require acceptance by the recipient, there are various possibilities for causing interesting email delivery.

Unlike various subscription services which use email, such as a FeedBurner Email Subscription service, an email address added to any of these three settings requires no formal acceptance. If a blog administrator should add an email address, whether their own (primary or additional personal email address), a willing friend or relative, or an unknown victim's address, there is no initial email sent to the recipient

You (or somebody else) has added this email address as a recipient of "Email posts to" / "Comment Moderation" / "Comment Notification Email". Do you approve of this additional traffic source to your email service?

or a similarly worded notification / approval. Given a clueless or malicious blog owner, it's possible that one (or all) of these settings could be used to harass an unwitting third party, or to (unwittingly) confuse oneself.

The "Email posts to" feature, also known as "BlogSend", generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses. This setting has been used, in the past, to provide distribution of newly published posts for private blogs, as well as a simple distribution for posts from public blogs.

Since it's limited to 10 entries, BlogSend does not provide a suitable service for any blog with a reader population of any appreciable size. For a blog owner with any technical experience, FeedBurner Email Distribution is a much better solution for post distribution - when the blog in question is publicly accessible.

For distribution of a private blog to more than 10 readers, one may use Google+.

The "Comment Moderation" and "Comment Notification Email" settings, used together, can generate interesting duplication of email to one's own (or somebody else's) email service. If these settings are made without thinking, some interesting confusion can result. Email addresses can be added to each of these settings without consideration of the relationship or level of authority enjoyed by the owner of the email address, relative to the blog in question.

Comment Moderation Email is presumed to generally be a function performed by blog administrators - but email resulting from this setting will be sent to anybody addressed. A blog administrator / member - or other non administrator of the blog or an unwitting stranger - will receive email suggesting several options,

Publish
Delete
Mark as spam
Moderate comments for this blog.

If the recipient is not an actual blog administrator, the links in the email provide confusion, and no result.

Comment Notification Email might be generally addressed to blog members - but is not necessarily limited. Since notification of comments is sent separately from moderation, recipients of a notification can become confused when they fail to find the comment, mentioned in the notification, present on the blog.

A blog administrator, using either an email moderation message - or using the blog Comments wizard, may or may not decide to Publish - or to designate a comment as Spam - regardless of a notification message having been delivered to each designated recipient.

Comment notification email may look similar to comment moderation email, less the comment processing options - possibly causing more confusion. A blog owner, adding his own email address to both comment moderation and comment notification, may see the combination as unknown duplication. And blog owners may confuse the proper use of comment moderation and comment notification email.

A blog owner, transferring ownership of a given blog, may overlook updating of the email settings. A new blog owner, receiving a blog being transferred, may likewise overlook these settings, and may lack the associated email, until the omission is corrected.

Either the previous owner, or the new owner, may be confused temporarily - and may wonder why they are still getting email / not getting email, until they examine and correct the setting in question. Alternately, if someone's email address was added maliciously, by a blog owner intending to harass somebody, one can see interesting possibility for conflict.

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Use Of Google+ For Networking, And Keeping Your Blogger Account And Blogs Safe

One constant activity in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners whose blogs were deleted - either righteously or spuriously - as part of the ongoing battle against spam, in Blogger blogs. Generally, the problem comes directly from the blog content.

Sometimes, the problem is more subtle.

When I tried to login to Blogger, I got a screen that said my account needed to be verified, due to "unusual activity on my account". Having verified my account, I see that my blogs have been deleted.

This is part of one of the more intriguing episodes, in the never ending fight against hacking and spam, in Blogger.

Some Blogger blog owners participate in comment based discussions, and provide their email addresses there. Some state their email addresses openly, in the body of the comments, for the world to see when viewing the comments. Others post comments using their Blogger accounts, knowing that the blog owners can see their email address in the comment moderation / notification email messages - and can contact them using email.

Spammers use comment based networking, to their advantage. They subscribe to any comment thread, using the "Notify me" option - then wait while blog readers comment using their Blogger accounts. As the email comes in, from blog readers commenting, they scrape the email addresses from the email content. Since most people commenting either openly state their blog URLs in the comment bodies - or link to a list of their blogs - the spammer now has two essential ingredients, to be used for hacking someone's Blogger account, and gaining control of the blogs owned by the account.

Google now provides Google+, where we can network with a designated audience, and avoid spam in our email. Using Google+, our email addresses are not revealed, and spammers have less incentive to use Google+ for email address harvesting. This protects our Blogger accounts and blogs against hacking, and relieves us from email based spam.

For people who update their Blogger accounts to use Google+ based profiles, but continue to network using Blogger comments, Blogger now protects us by using anonymous email addresses in all comment generated email. This leaves people who continue to comment, using Blogger accounts with native Blogger profiles, vulnerable to ongoing email address harvesting, and account hacking.

Blogger account hacking, using email addresses harvested from Blogger blog comments, will typically involve brute force password guessing. Blogger, detecting brute force attempts against a vulnerable Blogger account, will lock the account and the blogs. Once we verify ownership of our Blogger account - and hopefully change the Blogger account password to something less vulnerable to guessing - the blogs owned by a possibly compromised account remain locked, until they can be examined for signs of tampering, by Google security / spam analysts.

We also must consider the possibility that not all brute force password guessing attacks are being detected by Google - and some Blogger accounts are being deviously, and temporarily, hijacked.

People who setup Blogger accounts based on bogus email addresses - or who have accounts based on old email addresses which they can't use - continue to present a challenge here. These people will never receive essential email advising them of a problem in either verifying their Blogger account - or their blogs. This will continue to make our initial spam lock advice relevant.

Can you login to Blogger? Do you have a dashboard link "Deleted blogs"? That's where you start.

You wait 24 to 48 hours after submitting a Restore request - then you post back here, and we take the next step.

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