Blogging with Blogger®
For those of you who previously had virtual accounts on the old Crosswinds server, blogger.com was just about your only option. Now, you have the ability to install your own blogging program*. But if you would like to stay with Blogger®, now that you have your own domain, you can publish your Blogger® blog directly to your website rather than leaving the pages on the blogger.com server.
*For a non-exhaustive list of some free or inexpensive blog and CMS packages we recommend, see our Recommended Utilities page.
Here is how to get your Blogger® blog running on your own domain:
First and most important:
Using Blogger® means you'll be sending sensitive FTP login info through blogger.com's website. Therefore, you are strongly advised not to use your cPanel account info for this, as you should never expose your hosting account login info to, or share it with anyone.
Instead, set up a dedicated FTP account just for Blogger, with its own login and subdirectory. (If you want your blog to also be your domain's home page, then skip setting up the subdirectory, and just set up a new FTP login for it. Then use your domain's URL as the Blog URL.)
First, create a new subdirectory (a folder) within your webspace (i.e. within the public_html/ directory). You can name it anything, but let's name it yourblog for this example. This is where your blog will reside. (By the way, although you can do this in cPanel's File Manager, it's easiest to use a good FTP program for doing the preliminary setup on your site.)
Next, set up a new FTP account in your cPanel just for publishing your blog. Go to CPanel -- FTP and choose FTP Accounts. In the window that appears,
| FTP username: | yourblog@yourdomain |
| Password: | yourblogpassword |
| Directory: | Choose yourblog/ from the dropdown menu |
Setting up at blogger.com
Once your blog folder and new FTP account have been set up, you can now go to the blogger.com website to configure your blog for Publishing to your domain. In the Blogger® Settings menu (dashboard - settings - publishing), make sure that the Publish option is set to via FTP. This is how Blogger® will connect to your domain and upload your latest weblog entry.
The Blog URL is the web site address where your blog may be read in a browser, for instance, http://yourdomain.net/yourblog/. If you want your blog to be the first thing seen when your site is entered, then the blog URL would be just http://www.yourdomain/, and your new FTP account would not require a subdirectory, just a new username and password. If you have a public blog, the URL you have chosen will be published on blogger.com's main page.
The Blog Filename can be anything you like. For practical reasons, you can use index.html, and then it will load automatcially when you go to the address of your new yourblog/ subdirectory. But if you want to call it something else, feel free. Just create a link to it from your home page.
Here are the settings for the Blogger® dashboard (Blogger dashboard » settings » publishing):
| FTP Server: | yourdomain.net |
| Blog URL: | http://www.yourdomain/yourblog/ |
| FTP Path: | / |
| Blog Filename: | index.html |
For security, the boxes for FTP Username and FTP Password should be left blank in the Blogger settings; it is unwise to store that information on any third-party server. The Publish feature on Blogger will then ask for the FTP Username and Password manually before each update. Simply enter the username and password which you chose for your new FTP account, shown above.
Once you enter your settings to Publish your blog entry, the files will be sent directly to your website. That's it!
For more information on Blogger®, visit Blogger's support page.
Happy Blogging!
