Market Your Blog, To Those Who Are Interested

We see many questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about blog content, and (lack of) appreciation by the readers.

Occasionally, people become concerned about activity of the people reading their blogs - why they get so many new visitors (but nobody returns later, to read more), or why the main page is so well read (but nobody reads the archived posts).

In other cases, they wonder why the blog was deleted - even though it had the required warning protecting it. And sometimes, they may wonder why so many people read the blog, but nobody comments on the posts.

If your blog just uses Stats, to provide you reader activity statistics, you'll probably be only concerned with visitor activity, and pageview count.

If you use an actual visitor activity log, like SiteMeter or StatCounter, you may also look at new / return visitor ratio, or pages read / visitor count. In both cases, you're examining visitor interest.

Visitor interest starts with how you advertise the blog. You get good visitor interest when you advertise the blog where it will be welcomed, and in a style where your advertisements will be welcomed.

People who don't like your blog may read the first page, then go elsewhere. If they read more than the first page, they will probably be doing that so they can report the blog, for TOS Violation or similar. This is why some blogs are unrighteously clasified as abusive.

No matter how objectively you may write a blog discussing alternative lifestyles, if you advertise your blog where Bible Belt USA Conservatives may gather, the best result that you may see is "single pageview" visitors.

Occasionally, we'll see a problem report that starts out with a common complaint.

Why was my blog deleted? I don't spam.

When we're able to retrieve a cached copy of the blog, we'll agree with the owner.

Some blogs, deleted as abusive, will have a little known problem.

Commercially funded adult content.

Other times, the problem will be more subtle.

I set the "Adult Content?" flag to "Yes"! Why am I getting complaints? (Why was the blog deleted?).

The problem here starts with the nature of the "Adult Content" warning.

Not every blog owner realises that the warning is only advisory. Anybody, no matter their age or religious preference, may (by accident, or intentionally) click on "Agree". Having clicked, they may be subject to a faceful of content which is not in their best interest, or which they do not appreciate.

If a link to your blog appears in the wrong forum discussion, or on the wrong website - either a Bible Belt forum or School Children's website - don't be surprised if your blog continues to get content complaints. And in some cases, we'll see you in the forums.

Why was my blog deleted? I don't spam.

Be sensitive to both the stated, and unstated, policies where you post. If your blog contains controversial material, be very conservative about how and where you advertise. Publish properly targeted posts, with unique content, for the best future of your blog.

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Hacking Detection Is (Generally) Not The Fault Of The Blogger Account Owner

We've been helping Blogger blog owners deal with spurious fuzzy content classification, for many years.

We started out, long ago, with blogs deleted because of spam classification. Later, Blogger added malware classification - and most recently, porn classification ("adult content", with objectionable advertisements). These three classification categories involve fuzzy blog content analysis.

A fourth category, which similarly results in blog(s) being deleted, I describe as "hacking detection". This category complements the other three, because the primary symptom of all four are remarkably similar.

Help me! Blogger has deleted my blog!!

This is a frequent complaint, seen in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

One problem with using the term "hacking" is that some account owners take this diagnosis personally.

Why do you mention hacking? I am not a hacker!

And in almost all cases, the owners are correct.

Blogs are deleted by Blogger, currently, because of several different reasons.

1. DMCA Violation.
2. Hacking detection.
3. Malware detection.
4. Porn detection.
5. Spam detection.

I list the different categories, collectively, because they are frequently reported, using the common symptom.

My blog was deleted, and I did not do it!

DMCA, malware, porn, and spam are generally based on what the blog owner did (though in many cases, what the owner "did" was simply to publish a blog). Hacking, on the other hand, is generally based on action by someone other than the blog owner.

DMCA, malware, porn, and spam classifications are based on content analysis (automated), or complaint (manual) - and these classifications can be somewhat avoided by the blog owner. Don't steal content or publish a blog containing malware, porn, or spam, to reduce your chance of having the blog classified.

Hacking detection, on the other hand, is based on analysis of Blogger account traffic - and this classification can not be avoided, as easily, by the blog owner. Hacking generally involves use of a cloud of computers, to systematically break into a Blogger account owned by the victim.

Though frequently, a hacking attack starts with unintentional disclosure of personal information by the victim, actual hacking activity is typically not initiated by the victim.

Detection of hacking attacks is best conducted by Google, because they can look for repetitive activity against multiple Blogger / Google accounts, from multiple computers located worldwide.

• Most account owners can login to their accounts in one or two tries.
• Very few account owners will, intentionally, attempt to login to their accounts, concurrently, from computers in Argentina, USA, and Zaire.
• Very few computers will be used to access Blogger accounts owned by people in Brazil today, in China tomorrow, and in Denmark next week.

Recovery from hacking detection requires willful action by the victim - though Blogger makes the required action so simple, its purpose becomes transparent. The victim, or account owner, is simply required to change the account password, solve a CAPTCHA, and / or verify account ownership by providing various personal details.

Having initiated hacking recovery, the account owner is able to login to Blogger - but is greeted by an empty dashboard.

You are not yet the owner of any blogs. Create a blog, and get started!

This is where the confusion starts.

Not all Blogger account owners personally publish a blog. Some people setup Blogger accounts simply to comment on, and / or Follow blogs published by other people - and won't, necessarily, publish a blog using the account in question.

Blogger accounts with no owned blogs may still be under attack by hackers - and are subject to hacking detection. This makes the primary symptom so confusing.

You are not yet the owner of any blogs. Create a blog, and get started!

People who don't own any blogs (under this Blogger account) may, or may not, see this as a problem.

In cases where the initial symptom is a deleted blog, the blog owner must recover the hacked (locked) account, before the blog can be recovered. This is one more scenario where unplanned, anonymous blog ownership, just causes more confusion.

Having initiated hacking recovery, a blog owner is simply expected to wait patiently, until the blogs owned by the account are verified as free of content added by the hacker. Unfortunately, we sometimes see the blog owner, impatiently reporting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I had to change my password, and having done that, Blogger deleted my blog!

Sometimes, hacking detection starts with the Blogger account owner, repetitively trying to recover access to the account, by sequentially trying every possible password (sometimes trying the same password, repeatedly).

I know it's one of these! But which one? Did I maybe type the one, incorrectly??

This repetitive action looks the same as any malicious hacking attack - and that is why hacking detection is so hard to canonically diagnose.

Please, consider these details, the next time you post your problem report.

Help me! Blogger has deleted my blog!!

In some cases, I may respond with a mention of hacking detection. If I do that, please don't take my response as a personal attack upon you.

Why do you mention hacking? I am not a hacker!

Even though being the victim of a hacking attack is not the fault of the account / blog owner, that person may still have to bear some of the responsibility. In general, blog owners have to support themselves - learn how to protect themselves, and use 2-step verification.

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"Adult Content" Blogs, And New Blogger Monetisation Restrictions

This week, we're seeing some reports from a few blog owners who recently received a disturbing email message, mentioning their blogs and adult advertisements.

I received an email stating I have adult content on my blog, and that a new policy will cause certain blogs to be deleted. Is my blog vulnerable to deletion, under this new policy?

Like many spammers, these blog owners may be asking for a whitelisting of their blog - which is something that Blogger just won't provide.

The legendary email, recently received, is somewhat ambiguous in wording.

You are receiving this message because you are the admin of a blog hosted on Blogger which is identified to have Adult content.

Please be advised that on June 30th 2013, we will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the monetization of Adult content on Blogger. After June 30th 2013, we will be enforcing this policy and will remove blogs which are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements to adult websites.

If your adult blog currently has advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content removals.

The policy discouraging monetised "adult content" blogs is not new - we have actually been warning people about this for years, in the Malware / Spam Appeal Guidelines. We cite the Guidelines a dozen or so times daily, in various malware and spam review discussions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Blogger / Google has repeatedly stated that some blog content is not acceptable, because it constitutes or encourages abusive activity, such as hacking, porn, and spam, in the Blogger Internet space.

Here is the current list of examples, developed by Blogger / Google, and the Top Contributors of Blogger Help Forum.

• Affiliate marketing (Please, don't confuse this with "affiliate networking"!).
• Automated traffic redirection, to another Blogger blog, or to non Google hosted content.
• Commercially funded adult content.
• Content created with scripts and programs, rather than by hand.
• Content or links which reference account hacking / password distribution / password sharing.
• Content or links which reference code deconstruction / reverse engineering, to bypass normal use of proprietary
• software.
• Content or links which reference referral-based activities such as GPT ("Get Paid To"), MLM ("Multi-Level Marketing"), MMF ("Make Money Fast"), MMH ("Make Money from Home"), PTC ("Pay To Click"), or PTS ("Pay To Surf").
• Content scraped from other blogs / websites.
• Copyright Infringement.
• Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.
• Links to Illegal Downloads / Streaming / Torrents.
• Monetizing of adult content, aka porn spam.

The specific blogs, targeted by the email, are not difficult to identify. "Adult Content" blogs will generally bear an interstitial "Content Warning", awarded either voluntarily or involuntarily.

In odd cases, people may receive the email, but may not have any blogs affected by the policy - and in this case, they will simply have to ignore the email. Blogger Support can only review blogs, when they are actually deleted or locked.

In other cases, people may not receive the email. Just as with malware and spam classifications, all blog owners won't be contactable by email.

If the adult content classifier is designed similar to the malware and spam classifiers, it will use a fuzzy detection process to identify the undesirable "adult content" advertisements.

Since fuzzy malware / spam classification does not support whitelisting, porn classification won't either. Blog owners asking "Is my blog safe?" are unlikely to get any useful answers.

My suspicion is that owners of the most popular and productive "adult content" blogs will move to alternate hosting. Some of them may relocate to WordPress - until WordPress, similarly, rejects them.

Some owners, choosing to remain in Blogger, will take the warning seriously, and remove any ads.

If your adult blog currently has advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content removals.

Various possible "adult content" blogs, with and without "adult advertisements", remaining in Blogger hosting, will be classified and deleted, and will result in more reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why was my blog deleted?

We'll simply end up with more discussions with requests for review and reinstatement - and more uncertainty. Some blogs will be restored promptly, with others requiring careful deliberation. And some blog owners will simply be told

Sorry, your blog cannot be restored. It was recently confirmed as a adult content host, with unacceptable advertisements.

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