Reviewing our Part #1 story.
Our Part #1 story described how my traffic ranking dropped sharply when
I had to publish my blog on "BlogSpot.com's" servers. Blogger offered what seemed to
be a perfect solution. I would continue to publish using Blogger's "BlogSpot.com"
which is hosted on Blogger's servers, but Blogger would "point" or "publish" to my
domain name. Blogger has named this publishing method, "Custom Domain."
However, Blogger's Custom Domain routine would not work for me! I was forced into
remaining on BlogSpot.com.
Traffic rankings plummit.
Before my blog began to publish on BlogSpot.com, the
Alexa
traffic ranking of "vagabonders-supreme.net" [my website's domain name] was about 400,000.
This is pretty good for a one-person website.
As you read in Part #1, my Alexa traffic ranking began to drop. The current Alexa report
for March, 2008, shows my website's ranking at 1,173,180. This ranking includes a three
month report showing a further drop during this period of 227,374. A
terrible downward trend!
I am unable to explain the Alexa 3-month report trend. It appears
that more readers tune in to my other webpages, i.e.; MsTioga Magazine stories. But there is
no denying this Alexa 3-month trend report!
Using FTP.
During this period, I tried many times to use Blogger's FTP routine and got
mixed results. After New Blogger was rolled out, FTP was evolving. Blogger reported problems
with FTP that they were trying to fix. Several months after New Blogger rolled out,
Blogger announced that their FTP routine was working properly and I tried using FTP again.
However, when I published on FTP, the only Tioga-George Blog page that could
seen by readers was today's post. When readers tried to view past Tioga-George Blog posts,
only today's post came up!
Blogger rolls out Custom Domain.
For several months after New Blogger rolled out, Custom Domain was not available.
When Blogger came out with their new Custom Domain routine, I tried over and over again
to publish on a Custom Domain. However, only my Home Page would come up. Very peculiar!
I assumed that the problem might be with my Blogger template which does not conform to
the New Blogger standards. But I found out only recently, that this assumption wasn't
correct!
Blogger's Custom Domain routine did work. Only thing was, I did not know how to set up
Custom Domain properly.
My new Message Board.
During March, 2008, I stumbled upon a website offering a hosted Message Board service. This
service looked really neat, and I decided to give it a try.
While setting up this Message Board, I came upon a link announcing:
"Custom Domain Name" New!
Instructions were given detailing how to setup a custom domain! I was stunned! If this
Message Board service could do a Custom Domain, why couldn't I do it with my
Tioga-George Blog?
To be continued!
[This is Part #2 of a 3-part series.]
