Are You Blogger: Managing blogs

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Copying all the posts from one blog to another

Pasuruan IT Store November 02, 2015 Add Comment

This article is about how to copy all the posts from one blog to another, using Blogger. There is a separate article about copying individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another.

To copy all the Posts from one blog to another, you need to export them from the first blog, and import the file that was created into the second file.

Any Pages (see The Difference between Posts and Pages) in the first blog, need to be moved individually, because pages aren't currently included in the export file.

If you want to totally replace the contents of the destination blog with the contents of the source blog, then you should delete the existing posts from the destination blog before you import the file. (NB Delete posts by going to the Posting / Edit Posts screen, and pressing the Delete button that is beside the post. Don't delete the entire blog, or you will lose access to the URL).

Follow these steps to copy all posts from one blog to another

1 Log in to Blogger.

2 Go to the export tab from the Settings / Other tab.

3 Click on Export Blog.

Export-blog window on the old Blogger interface:
the new interface looks a little different, but has the same links

3a If you are using the new interface, click Download Blog on the confirmation message window:

4 Your computer will download a file. For Windows users, it will probably be put in the My Documents / Downloads file. Or you system may use another place, or it may ask you where to put it. Whatever happens, you will need to know where this file is saved to.

5 Open the blog that you want to move the posts to
(You may need to log out and in again, or perhaps just switch to different browser or tab)

5 Delete (using Posting / Edit Posts) any Posts that are already there, but which you don't want in the refreshed blog.

6 Go to Settings > Other and click Import Blog. When the box opens, choose the exported file that you made earlier, and enter the security-text.

Import file selection screen in the new interface:
the old version of Blogger is very similar.

7 Choose whether or not to automatically publish all imported posts.
Only tick the box if you DO want the posts automatically imported. If you don't tick it, the posts will be loaded, but with have status of Draft, so won't be visible by readers until you publish them.

8 Click Import Blog.

9 Check that the import worked successfully, by looking at the blog, and also at the list of posts under Edit Posts: are the right number of posts there, do they have the right labels etc.

Results

All the posts from the source blog will be copied to the destination blog.

Many of the post characteristics will be the same as in the original blog. This includes:

title
post contents
published-date and time
label(s)
post-author.

Any comments from the source blog will also be copied over - sometimes it takes a few hours for the links for them to be re-establshed properly.

The URL for each post will be based on the URL of the blog you have imported them into and the publication-date that the posts had in the source blog - for example:

www.YourNewBlogName.blogspot.com /2009/05/name-based-on-post-title.html

Any internal links in the blog will still point to the post in the old blog

For example this link points to a popular article in Blogger-HAT.

If I export-and-imported this post into a new blog, the link would still point to the same place, ie the post in Blogger-HAT - not to the post in the new blog.

Any pictures, videos etc in the old blog will still be in the same place that they were in (Picasa-web-albums, YouTube, Google Videos etc).

If you have imported more than the number of posts that Blogger allows per day (currently 50 I think) then to make any more posts today you will need to complete the captcha-test (ie entering the letters in the funny-shaped word). This will go away approximately 24 hours after you last enter more that the maximum-posts-per-day.

Importing to the same blog

If you try to import posts into the same blog that you exported them from, Blogger will not import any posts, and give you an error message.

If you do want to do this (eg to create a duplicate set of posts), then do the export, change some small detail of the original posts title or date/time, and then do the import.

The Difference between Posts and Pages

Moving individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another

Converting Posts into Pages

Moving some posts form one blog to another

Deleting blogs and blog-posts

Moving some posts from one blog to another

Pasuruan IT Store September 23, 2014 Add Comment

Pasuruan IT Store

This article is about how to copy some of the posts from one Blogger blog to another.

Previously, I've written about

They are in separate articles because the techniques used are quite different in each case.

If you only want to transfer some posts between two blogs, then you need to choose between:

Moving each post individually,or
Moving all the posts then and deleting the ones you don't want from the "new" blog.

Before you start, decide what should happen to any posts that are already in the destination blog: if you want to delete them, you need to do it from the Posting / Edit Posts tab (press the delete link beside each one). Don't just delete the enter blog (from the Settings / Basics tab), because that will remove your access to the URL.

How to decide

Choosing whether to most post individually, or moving all of them is firstly about maths.

You need to estimate the time needed for each option, ie

Time to move a post individually, multiplied by the number of posts to be moved

Time to export and import, plus (time to delete a post times the number of posts that will need to be deleted).

And then choose the smallest one.

Except - you may like to figure in the chance of making a mistake, or of wanting to make small changes to come posts along the way. Possibly you need to consider which approach you're most comfortable with - so it may not even be about maths at all!

Either way, remember that Pages (see The Difference between Posts and Pages) in the first blog, need to be moved individually because they aren't currently included in the export file.

Moving all posts from one blog to another

Moving individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another

Converting Posts into Pages

The Difference between Posts and Pages

The Ten-Minute-Guide to starting a blog

Getting Started Managing blogs

Pasuruan IT Store September 01, 2014 Add Comment

Pasuruan IT Store

This article is a fast-and-furious guide to starting a blog - with a focus on getting started rather than researching to the nth degree.

Months ago, I started a properly researched article about "how to started with blogging". It's still a work in progress, and when it eventually gets finished it will have some great advice about researching blog-concepts and choosing great names.

But today I needed a quick-and-dirty version, for someone who doesn't need SEO or a fancy name. Here's what I shared with them.

How to get started with making a blog

Know your objectives

Think about what you want to do, what you want to write about, and what you want to achieve from it.

Write this down.

Be prepared to revisit these objectives every time you need to make a decision about something. Imagine you need to choose between a girly-pink looking template or rugged-outdoors one. Simple - just look at your objectives and see who you're writing for.

Choose a platform

There are lots of alternatives for tools that you can use. Mostly though, it boils down to Wordpress or Blogger.

Wordpress disciples will tell you that it is The Only Way, usually with a far-away look in their eyes.

Personally, I don't like zealots, and I think that Blogger is good-enough to get started with - and there are ways to change to Wordpress later on if you want to put the work into learning it.

Choose a name

Every blog needs a name. What that name is really doesn't matter that much. You just need one that you can live with: If you become wildly popular, then the rest of the world will love whatever you chose. If you don't, then it won't be due to the name you chose.

So go to the platform you chose, and start a blog with any old name that isn't taken already. Just make sure that you can remember what it is, and that you're not too embarrassed to tell your mother about it (this alone will stop you from choosing anything really stupid).

Do some basic setup

My guide to what this involves with Blogger is here.

Even if you don't use Blogger, you probably need to think about the issues covered there, especially about security vs public access.

Write

Start writing

Write two posts of 300+ words each. Link them to each other: for example If post one is about crossing Australia by camel, then post two might start "When we got to Adelaide after our camel ride, we decided to try ... - and you need to put a link from the words "our camel ride" back to post one: this is called cross- linking.

Write another five posts. Put cross-links between them. Don't link every post to every post. But make sure that every post has 2-3 links, and that every post is linked to at least once.

Write five more. Cross link them to each other and the first seven.

Then go back to your objectives, think about how hard it's been to get this far, and figure out if you want to spend any more time on this hobby. If you do - keep writing.

How to get readers

If getting other people to read your stuff is one of your objectives, then in no particular order:

Email a link to your mum or your dad. Ask them to visit every day, just in case you've said something new.

Put a link in your email signature.

Share your posts on Google+ (even if you just share to Public - it seems to make a difference)

Contribute to some forums / bulletin boards where you can put links to specific posts as part of an answer. But I really do mean contribute. Your other content should vastly outweigh your self-links, so you aren't seen as a spammer.

Set up a Twitter account for the blog, and do the same thing.

Set up a Facebook page. Invite all your friends to like it. Every time you post to the blog, post a link to it on the FB page too.

f you think that Google+, Twitter and Facebook are a waste of time - then that's fine as far as your personal life goes. But if you want to promote a blog or website, then you simply have to get over yourself and use social media for blog promotions anyway.

How to make your blog stand out from the rest

If you've got some big objectives about having lots of readers or being famous, then you'll need to make your blog really stand out. This is a never-ending process, but here are some good first steps:

Stir up trouble: Be controversial or outrageous in what you write. But do be sure you have the stomach and the stamina needed: People will discover that it's your who's writing the posts, even if you try to hide it. You will get abuse, and maybe legal threats.

Also, remember that writing 2 witty posts is easy, doing it every day / week or even month is a lot more difficult.)

Choose a niche, ie specific topic to write about, that no one else has written about. Or one that others have covered, but go for a different angle - eg if everyone else has described how they partied through Australia on the Oz Experience Bus, you focus on how befriended pensioners as you crawled through Queensland on the local bus, travelling only one town a day. Or something.

Spend some time googling possible niches before you start. But don't get caught in the trap of forever researching and never writing.

Read some other similar blogs, see what is successful, and do your own variation on that. Not the same thing - that's just plagiarism and you'll get caught. But something similar.

Prepare your posts in private, publish when they're pristine. No one wants to read your typos.

Use good photos or illustrations. If you don't have a picture to go with something, don't bother blogging about it.

Job Done!

That's it: getting started with blogging in one 10-minute stream of consciousness (+ editing time :-) )

There are about 494,432,987 million similar articles on the internet, so if you need more suggestions, Google "how to make a blog", and take it from there.

Happy posting.