How to Fix "Google Error 404" for Blogger Custom Domain

Have you purchased from Google a custom domain for your blogger but a "Google Error 404: The Requested URL / was not found on this server" appears when opening your domain in your browser? At first, I cannot believed when it happened to me. I was able to use my custom domain before, so I was shocked when one time, such error occurred. I tried my best to trouble shoot and below is the solution I found.

♦ When you purchase a custom domain for your blogger using Google, it is bundled with Google Apps. Before proceeding, please check first your Google Account dashboard by opening it at

http://www.google.com/a/YOURCUSTOMDOMAIN.com

my account for example is...

http://www.google.com/a/freedomwall.net

and make sure you do not use www for your apps (see my screen shots below)

♦ If you used www for any of your apps such as your site (i.e www.yourcustomdomain.com) change it with either www1, web etc. (I assume that your host is blogger.com and not Google Sites)

♦ Log-in to your enom account to change or check your DNS records by clicking 'Domain Settings' tab, 'Domain Name' sub tab and then 'Advanced DNS Settings'. A new page will open and click 'Sign in to DNS Console' (see my screen shot below)

 

♦ Sign in to your enom account using your domain and password provided. Make sure to assign host www to ghs.google.com and to YOURCUSTOMDOMAIN.com. If such addresses are not assigned, click edit and add new. (see my screen shot for reference)

I hope this may help for those who are still experiencing such errors. Contact me for further assistance by leaving a comment below this post

How To change Blogger Favicon

First, what is Favicon? Favicon, is also known as Favorites icon or an icon found beside your URL in your browser.

For blogger users, the Favicon usually appears a bold letter "B" in orange color. But if you wanted to change or personalized with your own, then it is easy.

1. You must have your own picture (jpeg & gif formats) preferably equal dimensions on both side or simply a square (if your picture is rectangular, the whole picture may not appear as is or some part may be missing).

2. Host the picture from number 1 and copy the direct link. Several sites offer free photo hosting such as ImageShack®, Photobucket, Picasa, etc. If you want to use your profile pic in facebook, you may right click the pic and select copy image location. If you take the picture from google images, flicker or yahoo photos, you may also right click the image and select copy image location.

3. Sign in to your blogger account, click layout tab and then edit html.

4. Press "Ctrl F" and find the code below

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

5. Right below or beside the code above, paste the code below

<link href='YOUR IMAGE DIRECT LINK HERE' rel='shortcut icon'/>

6. Your code must look like this

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/><link href='http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/8031/
freedomwallnetoriginal.gif' rel='shortcut icon'/>

(note: the red colored link is an example of direct link)

7. Now you are ready to save your template. Sadly, you can only see the changes if you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser.

How to Increase Blog Traffic Using Facebook

Facebook is the top social networking site in the world based on Alexa traffic rank. You can connect directly with friends and friends of your friends making it one of the most powerful tool in driving traffic to your site.

By just adding a your blog feed in your facebook, you can directly inform your friends about your latest blog updates. Facebook will automatically update to your live stream on you new posts.

If you haven’t placed your blog feed to your facebook account, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to your facebook account, point to "Settings" tab on the menu bar (beside search after log out tab), and then select "Application Settings".

On the page appears, click the application of Notes.

2. Find Notes Settings on the upper right of the page, and then click "Import a blog".

3. On the page of Import an External Blog enter your blog feed address into the Web URL, example of my blog feed: http://www.freedomwall.net/feeds/posts/default or you may also choose http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreedomwallnetThinkingOutsideTheBox and check a little box then click Start Importing button. On the page appears, click Start Importing at the bottom of the page. See image below

4. You will be redirected to another page and click "Confirm Import" in upper right corner of the page.

5. Congratulations! Facebook will now start to publish your blog updates to the live feeds. You may also visit your profile then point to the plus (+) sign beside your wall, info and photo tab. Then click "Notes" to add your note on your profile.

Index Your Blog Posts Automatically to Google Search

Google is the most powerful search engine today. It is where most internet savvies around the world type and click and is ranked no. 1 by Alexa web ranking.

If you have a blog and wanted to create significant visitors to your blog, you must allow Google to crawl and index your blog posts and articles and be searchable. To be able to do this, try using Google Webmaster, a great tool that will automatically inform Google about your blog updates. By this, your articles will be indexed to Google search, making it available to all internet browsers worldwide.

Sign up to Google webmaster tools now. Then start adding your site's URL (make sure that you have submitted your URL to Google. If not Click here to submit. Take note that it make take up to 5 days for Google search to index your page). You can still proceed adding your site and make sure to verify ownership. You have an option to use a meta tag or by uploading an HTML file to verify. For blogger users, a meta tag is the only option.

In order to verify your blogger site, copy the meta tag provided. In a separate window or tab, open layout tab in your blogger account and click edit HTML sub-tab. Find this code <head> (you can use Ctrl F) and paste the meta tag provided by webmaster right beside or below the <head> code. The code may appear as shown below.

(Click image to see actual size)

This may not take effect instantly, but will be very useful for your future posts to be indexed and crawled in Google search. Enjoy blogging, feed others mind and share your ideas to anybody who always wanted to earn new ideas.

Blogger Template Customization Made Easy

One reason why many visit one's blog, aside from the interesting posts is the appearance of the blog. It should be inviting, easy to navigate and has a good layout. Classic templates offered on blogger don't usually give too much space and size and some latest applications are not compatible to it. And one great solution for this is to customize your template into a more pleasant to see and more spaces and columns for your third party tools.

Here are the easy steps you must follow. The steps below are basically designed for the newbies and those non newbies but wanted to say goodbye from their classic templates.

1. First, you must download a template you want. Many website offer free blogger templates such as btemplates.com and bloggertemplatesfree.com. Choose the templates that is best suited from your posts and topics you tackle in your blog. Click on the templates you like and you will be directed to another page where you have the option to download or preview the template. If you have decided to use the template, download then save it. The file that will be saved is a zip file of folder. Open the zip folder and look for the file with dot xml (.xml) extension and copy it into a new folder or storage that is easy for you to find. If there is no options to copy the open your 'My Documents' folder then drag the xml file into it.

2. Proceed to your 'layout' tab and make a back-up of all your tools and widgets (html and javascripts) in your side, bottom, or top bar. Copy their respective html/scripts into your notepad or word pad.

3. Under the 'layout' tab, click on 'edit html' sub tab, then click browse and hit upload. Click 'confirm and save'. A warning will show up but don't worry if you have lost these tools/widgets. You can still add it anytime since you have a back up from all of it as what is instructed from procedure 2.

4. Click 'SAVE TEMPLATE' bar at the bottom of the page and then your new template is ready. You can go back to your page elements by clicking 'page elements' sub tab under 'layout' tab. Add your widgets again from procedure 2 to your desired column.

If you like to change your favicon, CLICK HERE. For those who have previously changed their favicon, you have to repeat the procedure.

If you have some questions about blogger to clear, just leave it in the comment form below. I will do my best to find you an answers. Who knows, someone who may read it might give you the clarifications. You can also subscribe to my email list below to receive updates. Answers may be posted as new articles

How to make a Marquee Text for Blogger

The scrolling or running active text or links you have seen on most magazine type websites are called the marquee text also known as marquee effects. The good example for this are the text scrolling below my menu bar and above this post that is running from right to left. Those texts are active that when you click it, you will be redirected to another page of this site (try to hit one, don't worry, another tab or window will open).

Free Blogger Tutorial   »   Free Customized Blogger Domain using .co.cc - How To change Blogger Favicon - Index Your Blog Posts Automatically to Google Search - How to Increase Blog Traffic Using Facebook - Blogger Template Customization Made Easy - Earn $100 Through PayPal Wishlist on Facebook

If you want to get one for your blog, I hope the details below may help.

The marque codes below are the codes of the marquee text you see scrolling in this post.

<marquee align="center" direction="left" onmouseout="this.start()" onmouseover="this.stop()" scrollamount="3" width="100%"> Free Blogger Tutorial <b>  »  </b> <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/10/free-customized-blogger-domain-using.html" target="_blank">Free Customized Blogger Domain using .co.cc</a> - <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/how-to-change-blogger-favicon.html" target="_blank">How To change Blogger Favicon</a> - <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/index-your-blog-posts-automatically-to.html" target="_blank">Index Your Blog Posts Automatically to Google Search</a> - <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/facebook-is-top-social-networking-site.html" target="_blank">How to Increase Blog Traffic Using Facebook</a> - <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/blogger-template-customization-made.html" target="_blank">Blogger Template Customization Made Easy</a> - <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/earn-100-on-paypal-wishlist-on-facebook.html" target="_blank">Earn $100 Through PayPal Wishlist on Facebook</a> </marquee>

Copy the code above and change all in red colors with your own URLs and change the colored yellow with its corresponding titles. The number in pink is the number which you can alter in order to change the speed of the running text

If you want to add new URL and title copy the code below and insert it just before the </marquee> code.

- <a href="http://www.freedomwall.net/2009/11/earn-100-on-paypal-wishlist-on-facebook.html" target="_blank">Earn $100 Through PayPal Wishlist on Facebook</a>

Use exactly the same code format from above if you want to delete one entry.

Now, if you have change the URLs and their corresponding titles, Go to your Blogger account's 'layout' tab and 'page elements' sub tab. Click on 'Add Gadget' on a column you want it to place and paste your copied-updated codes then save it. You can also drag the said gadget above the body or anywhere you wanted it to appear.

For question, leave it in the comment form and subscribe to my e-mail list. Answers may be posted as new article of this blog.