Blogger Blog Content Needs To Be Unique, And Properly Targeted

I've been studying spam, in Blogger blogs, for over 5 years.

This year, we've seen improvement in the automated spam classification process, implied by a noticeable reduction in spam review requests overall - and in a considerable reduction in the proportions of false positive classifications. During the past few months, blogs requested for review are 2 or 3 times more likely to be confirmed as legitimate spam blogs (true positives), compared to this time last year.

Of the blogs confirmed to be spam hosts, when I am able to examine cached copies of the content, 3 out of 4 of those appear to contain material scraped or syndicated from other blogs or websites.

• Content scraped (stolen), or syndicated (copied, with permission), from other blogs / websites. Content scraped or syndicated to other blogs / websites.

Google describes the problem, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger, quite simply.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

Long ago, spam blogs were first encountered as startup components in large spam blog farms.

Later, we explored the involvement of various "get rich quick" schemes, and of affiliate marketing.

• 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").
• Affiliate marketing (Please, don't confuse this with "affiliate networking"!).

Of these three broad descriptions of confirmed spam blog content - spam blog startups, get rich quick schemes, and affiliate marketing - the one common feature in most of the blogs, confirmed as spam hosts, seems to be the lack of unique content. One of the features of the Panda update to Google Search was described as "content quality" in search results.

The past year tuning to Blogger spam classification appears to be in keeping with Panda, in that it is targeting blogs which rely upon content intentionally replicated from blog to blog - whether "scraped" (stolen, without permission), or "syndicated" (copied, with permission).

The end result here is that Blogger blogs, to avoid spurious spam classification, need to contain as much unique material as possible. While some amounts of quotation of other blogs and websites is beneficial, the majority of blog content needs to be written by the blog owners and contributors, and properly targeted to the reader population.

>> Top

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.

>> Top

Comment Notification Email, And Spam Classification

Comment moderation, and comment notification, have long been optional features of Blogger Commenting.

The sequence of comment moderation email, and comment notification email, was simple.

• If comment moderation was selected, moderation email was sent to all blog administrators. Any one administrator could then select to Publish, or to Reject, a given comment.
• If comment moderation was not selected, each comment was simply Published, immediately.
• If comment notification was selected, notification email was sent to all recipient email addresses, when any comment was published.
• All blog administrators could Delete any comment, after it was published, at their discretion.

When the new comment moderation system was provided, in 2010, comment moderation changed. As the comment filters became trained, some comments were automatically rejected - and sent to the Spam queue - and that is where the current problem starts.

With the new comment moderation system, spuriously filtered comments never generated notification email - and this was a problem.

Comments sent directly to the Spam queue could be moderated, and Published, at the discretion of the blog administrators. Comments which were not Published remained in the Spam queue - and never generated notification email.

As the filters in the new comment moderation system became trained, false positives became a problem. Comments, spuriously filtered as Spam, generated no notification email.

Blog owners, accustomed to moderating comments after they were published, and receiving no notification email from comments which went straight to the Spam queue, complained of lost comments.

Listening to complaints from the blog owners, Blogger Engineering changed the sequence of the comment moderation and notification emails.

• If comment notification is selected, email is sent to all recipient email addresses, as soon as a comment is submitted for publication.
• If comment moderation is selected, moderation email is sent to all blog administrators.
• All blog administrators can Delete, or mark as Spam, any comment, before or after Published, at their discretion.

With comment notification email being sent immediately, this leaves recipients of the email occasionally confused. Comments immediately judged as Spam by the filters, or later by a blog administrator, will still generate email.

Recipients of comment notification email, not seeing a given comment published, who are blog administrators, can check the Spam queue - and in some cases, choose to Publish a comment which is spuriously filtered as Spam. This helps to train the filters - and later, see less spuriously filtered comments.

Recipients of comment notification email, not seeing a given comment published, and who are not blog administrators, will have to notify a blog administrator, who can check the Spam queue. In some cases, again, the administrator can choose to Publish a comment that is spuriously filtered as Spam.

As a blog owner, you need to properly select the moderation and notification options, to satisfy your personal needs. And, help to train the filters.

>> Top

Team Blog Ownership, And Abuse Classification

We see some people, posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, who have problems with blogs under team ownership, and abuse classification.

My blog was deleted as spam but I don't spam! BTW, one of the other administrators of my blog recently had his Google account blocked.

We've observed, a few times, that team blog relationships create interesting complications, with various Blogger issues - and this appears to represent yet one more complication.

In most cases, when a Blogger account or blog is deleted or locked, the owner of the account or blogs affected should see an online notification, and / or receive email informing of the action taken.

There are several reasons why notification - email or online - may not always be provided.

• Blogger accounts, based on bogus or inactive email addresses, will not provide email notification.
• A person who uses multiple Blogger accounts, accidentally or intentionally, will only see the dashboard for the account currently logged in.
• An owner of a Blogger account, recently unlocked after detected suspicious / unusual activity, will see only an empty dashboard, when logging in.

The team blog ownership relationship appears to provide one more reason for lack of notification.

• Administrators of blogs under team ownership may not see notification, when one of the team members has a Blogger account deleted or locked.

Both Blogger accounts deleted for non repentant abusive activity, and Blogger accounts locked when suspicious / unusual activity is detected, appear to present this complication, with blogs under team ownership.

When a Blogger account is deleted after the owner repeatedly produces TOS violations, all blogs owned by the account are apparently deleted. It's possible that, when a blog is deleted, team ownership issues are overlooked in the blog deletion process - and the blog simply disappears from the dashboards of the other team members. It's also possible that this is a predictable group action - comparable to affiliate network detection.

When a Blogger account is locked after suspicious / unusual activity is detected, all owned blogs simply disappear from the dashboard of the owner. Blogs owned by a locked account are under automatic security review, with no appeal by the owner being possible. Team administrators are unlikely to have any alternative appeal opportunity, for a blog under review when an owning account is locked.

The latter two scenarios represent two reasons why, if we see the complaint in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

My blog has disappeared from my dashboard, and is not online!

One initial question should be

Was the blog under team ownership?

>> Top

Repeated TOS Violations Are Punished Gradually

Some blog owners don't understand the serious nature of repeated violation of TOS Policy, in Blogger blogs - and how offenses are handled, by Google.

We've seen several reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who appear to be unclear about the consequences of repeated TOS Violations.

I got email from Blogger, about my Blogger account.

We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding a blog that you administer. Upon review of your account, we've noted that you've repeatedly violated the Terms of Service: http://www.blogger.com/go/terms. Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to disable your Blogger service.

How do I get my blog restored?

This example appears to represent the final step, in a multi step policy.

It appears that Google takes a multi step approach, towards repeated TOS violations - such as hosting of malware, porn, and / or spam - in Blogger blogs. This is similar to the DMCA Violations punishment process.

1. Unlike DMCA violations, individual posts are not deleted.
2. Deletion of offending blogs.
3. Deletion of offending Blogger account(s) (and blogs).

With a TOS initiated blog deletion, the blog owner is expected to have the blog reviewed. If the review determines the blog to be unrighteously deleted, the blog is restored - though there may be side effects.

If the blog owner does not wish to have the blog reviewed, he / she is allowed to start over, with a new blog - but will have to publish to a new URL. Content lost must be recovered by the owner - and the owner should be more careful with future blogs.

If the blog owner continue to publish blogs which violate TOS, any Blogger accounts involved, along with any other blogs owned by the deleted accounts, will be deleted.

We see that an appeal is possible.

Next steps for suspended accounts: If you believe your access to this product was suspended in error, contact us.

With any blogs published to a non BlogSpot domain, the domain URL(s) will remain in use, in the Google database - though the domain owner is free to use the domain outside Google address space. If the offender wishes to start over, both new BlogSpot and non BlogSpot URLs will be required.

As with other issues with email delivered warnings, there will be cases when the owner may not receive warnings in a timely fashion. Even so, the owner is responsible, when he / she offends, repeatedly.

Blogs under team ownership are apparently vulnerable to action taken against any team member. In some cases, blogs will simply disappear from the dashboards of the other team members, with no appeal or review request being possible.

It's possible that legal notice, provided by Google through email, will supercede ongoing forum advice - even if email sent is not received by the owner.

>> Top

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.

>> Top

Hacking / Malware / Porn / Spam Classification, And Effects Upon Search Engine Reputation

Occasionally, we see concern in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about the long term effects of Blogger hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection.

My blog was deleted, because of spurious spam classification - and later restored to service. Did my blog lose search engine reputation, in Google?

Any time a blog goes offline, its reputation is affected, to some extent. How much effect a hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection has, on any given blog, will vary widely.

Every blog or website has different factors, which affect its reputation.

• Readers, and links in their blogs and websites.
• Readers, and inherent reputation.
• Search engines, and inherent reputation.

These factors will differ, from blog to blog, in almost infinite variety.

If your blog has readers who maintain their own blogs and websites, some will see you as a useful source of information, and will link from their blog / website, to your blog. As a readers blog / website is indexed by a search engine bot, and a link to your blog is encountered, your blog is indexed. This causes indirect search engine reputation.

Any time your blog is offline, even briefly, it loses reputation. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, look at the indexing logs. One event which you will see, from time to time, mentions "404 Not Found". Any time a search engine bot is indexing your blog, and it encounters a "404 Not Found", your blog loses reputation.

Loss of search reputation is similar to a person dying from blood loss. How fast the blood loss, and how long the loss continues, will affect how likely death will occur.

The longer your blog is offline, the more "404 Not Found" events will be logged, as the search engine bots attempt to index the various pages in the blog. Each succeeding "404 Not Found" represents your blogs reputation, leaking away, drop by drop. The longer your blog is offline, the more reputation loss it suffers, from indirect and direct indexing.

Until reputation is regained, your blog appears lower in search results, because of lower page rank. You suffer from less search engine generated traffic, and less new readers. This is a circular effect - less search engine reputation leads to less new reader traffic, which leads to less search engine reputation.

When your blog is reviewed and restored to online status, indexing resumes. Each time a search engine bot indexes the blog, and does not encounter a "404 Not Found", reputation picks up, again. Slowly, your blog regains its former reputation.

All 3 factors contribute to the loss of reputation, while the blog is offline - and to the regaining of reputation, when the blog is restored. This is similar to the effect of re indexing after the URL is changed.

How much reputation is lost and regained will vary, from blog to blog.

• Each blog has different readers, with differing links in their blogs and websites.
• Each blog has different readers, with differing inherent reputation.
• Each blog has differing search engine relationships, with differing inherent reputation.

The direct result, of all of this, explains the frantic posts, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

My blog was deleted by Blogger. How promptly can I get it restored?

If this threat concerns you, use Google 2-step verification, to protect your Blogger / Google account - and your blogs - from hacking. And be discrete in advertising and publishing your blog.

>> Top

Empty Or New Blogs Can Be Classified As Possible Spam Hosts

We're seeing a few recent reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from owners of empty and / or new blogs, about spurious spam classification.

Very few owners of empty or new Blogger blogs understand why their blogs should be classified as possible spam hosts, by the Blogger anti-spam processes. Most blog owners seem to think that only blog content is considered, in spam classification.

Spam classification considers many characteristics of a Blogger blog, in classifying any blog as a possible spam host.

Blog content is an obvious - but not the only - factor in spam classification. Given previously observed behaviour of spammers, many characteristics of blogs, besides simply the extracted and analysed content, are used in classifying possible spam blogs. Using fuzzy spam classification techniques, one might also consider

• Overall behaviour in Google, by the owner.
• Past posting habits of the owner.
• Previous classification of similar blogs.

Some spammers are active in multiple Google activities and features. It's possible that some spammers even try to make their spam in Blogger harder to detect, by spreading their activity across other Google functions. Some spammers may not realise that spammy activity in other Google areas can be tracked, and included by Blogger spam classifications processes.

Blog owners who use one or more techniques involved in setting up and maintaining spam blog farms may be classified as spammers - and their blogs then classified as possible spam hosts. The term "blog owner" must itself be considered fuzzily, as some spam blog farms contain blogs owned by multiple Blogger accounts and profiles. Some Blogger accounts, similar to known spammer accounts - even with no blogs owned, or with empty blogs published - may then appear as possible spam hosts.

Empty blogs, that appear similar to blogs in known spam farms, may themselves appear as possible spam hosts. Various details such as blog name, blog design, and use of various blog accessories and features, can make a blog appear similar to known spam blogs - with no other content.

Given the need for Google to reduce the volume of spam blogs, fuzzy spam classification might use any of the above details, in classifying any empty or new blog as a possible spam blog. This will, unfortunately, lead to spurious spam blog detection. Given the ability of spammers to publish multiple blogs in the Blogger name space, classifying empty and new blogs is necessary, in making it possible for Google to keep up with spammy activity.

>> Top

Blog Owners, Unable To Request Restore Of A Deleted Blog

One of the more intriguing issues, seen in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, involves people unable to recover control of their blogs.

I recently changed ISPs, and now I can't login to update my blog.

Occasionally, this issue becomes more complicated, because the blog is deleted - and the owner can't request that it be restored, using the automated review request wizard. Sometimes, the would be blog owner may to try to bypass the current blog recovery policy, by claiming special circumstances.

The blog has been deleted. I received no suspicious activity or password change notification emails, or emails of any kind related to my blog.

What is the story here? Can blogs just disappear from the Blogosphere, without the involvement of the blog owners - and be unrecoverable?

Recovery of a deleted blog starts with the requirement that only a blog owner can un delete a deleted blog - and this is where many mysterious disappearances start.

Since a Blogger blog is the property of the owner, and the owner is allowed to delete a blog any time required, it would not be right to let people who are not the owner un delete a blog - or demand that the blog be un deleted. To enforce this requirement, Blogger added the dashboard based Restore wizard.

Since only the owner will have the deleted blog listed in their dashboard "Deleted Blogs" list, only the owner can request restore of the blog in question.

The dashboard Restore wizard serves blog owners, with blogs deleted under various circumstances.

• Deleted by the owner.
• Deleted by Blogger, as a suspected spam host.
• Deleted by Google, for TOS Violation.

Any deleted blog will appear in a special dashboard list, "Deleted Blogs" or "Locked Blogs" - when it can be recovered. If the blog is not recoverable by the owner, there may not be a link.

There are specific cases where a deleted blog may not be recoverable using the recovery wizard.

• The blog is locked, pending integrity check (following account lock for suspicious activity).
• The blog is owned under a different Blogger account, and is listed on another dashboard, under "Deleted blogs".
• A blog owner deleted the blog, long ago - and the blog is no longer recoverable.

A blog locked, pending integrity check, cannot be requested for restore. The owner has to first have the owning account unlocked. Similar to the account recovery process, Blogger / Google will require that the owner provide proof of ownership, before the account will be unlocked. With the account unlocked, security specialists will inspect each blog owned by the account, and verify that each does not contain evidence of tampering by a temporarily successful hacker.

While a blog is under integrity check, it won't be listed on the dashboard of the owner - either under "Deleted blogs", "Locked blogs", or "My blogs". Neither the owner, nor any third parties, will be able to do anything except wait, patiently.

Blogs found to contain malware can be locked as TOS Violations, with the owner later required to remove the malware found. This requirement will apply for malware installed by the owner (intentionally, or unintentionally), or for malware installed by a hacker.

With a blog locked pending malware removal, the owner is given the benefit of the doubt, and allowed to simply remove the malware, no questions asked. In some cases, Blogger may be able to assist by providing specific identification of the malware found - but this won't happen, consistently.

A blog owned under another account must be un deleted by the owner of the other account. Again, only a blog owner can have a blog restored - whether deleted by an owner, or by Blogger / Google.

A blog deleted over 90 days previously cannot be recovered. It won't appear on the dashboard of any (former) owner, since it can't be recovered.

It's dead, Jim.

The basic rule is simple. If your blog was deleted, and if you're able to un delete it (or request un deletion), you'll have a link on your dashboard. If a blog is not listed on your dashboard, you can't request, with any predictable success, that it be un deleted - any more than you can demand that a non deleted blog be restored to your control.

>> Top

Some Blogger Blogs Being Locked As Malware Hosts, Because Of Malicious JavaScript

For a long time, we've been dealing with various malware / spam mitigation issues, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Recently, malware detections, long simply identified as "Malicious JavaScript" in the well known Spam Appeal Guidelines, was given its own identity, and a separate classification / appeal process. We're now seeing several common types of JavaScript, included in blogs which are typically mentioned in forum reports.

It may be helpful to describe some examples of JavaScript code being seen, so blog owners can avoid making the same mistakes, by not including these scripts in their blogs.

There are 3 common types of JavaScript applications, found in many blogs with the owners requesting review / unlock action.

1. CPA / Cost Per Action.
2. Traffic Redirection, targeting other blogs / websites.
3. Traffic redirection, targeting the canonical URL for the host blog.

CPA / CPALeads / Cost Per Action, and similar online marketing terminology, involves providing a reward for viewing a blog, or for subscribing to the blog feed. Some CPA scripts may be used to collect email addresses, also known as "email address mining", later used for hacking activity or spam distribution.

CPA scripts present another problem. Since Blogger blogs are intended to reward the readers by providing interesting and unique content, blogs which use CPA may be improperly designed or maintained. Blogger wants the blog owners to publish blogs which entertain or inform their readers - not blogs which require artificial or ingenious techniques to generate traffic, and visitor activity.

Traffic Redirection, targeting other blogs / websites is a technique enjoyed by many hackers and spammers. The use of some blogs as gateways, leading to redistributors, which in turn lead to payload blogs or non Google websites, is part of many hacking / spam attacks. Google is trying to restrict the use of Blogger blogs as malware / spam hosts - and actively prevents scripts, which only shuffle readers from one blog to another, without choice.

Even though Blogger will not encourage you to move your blog, to Tumblr, Weebly, WordPress, or wherever, you are allowed to do this - if you feel the need.

Hello, faithful readers:

This blog is now hosted at my new blogging host. Please update your blog lists and bookmarks!

If you must do this, it's OK to post a notice, in your Blogger blog. You can even put a link, to the new blog, in the notice. You just can't use JavaScript, to automatically send the reader to the new blog.

Traffic redirection, targeting the canonical URL for the host blog, is a technique used by some blog owners who perceive Country Code Alias Redirection to present a problem. Some accessories installed on their blogs, and various non Google services which may be used to provide activity on their blogs, may not properly reference the canonical URL tag included in all Blogger blogs.

Since Blogger / Google wants all Blogger blog owners to benefit from improved world wide access to Blogger blogs, blogs which employ automatic canonical URL redirection may damage the effect of CC alias redirection. Blogs which host scripts which immediately redirect readers to the canonical URL, and are considered undesirable by any host government, may force an offended host government to block the entire Blogger service, in their country.

To prevent malicious misuse of Blogger by hackers and spammers, and to encourage effective long term use of Blogger by legitimate blog owners, Blogger / Google may detect any blogs which use these types of scripts as part of their general malware / spam classification strategy. Given the ability and willingness of the blog owner, to remove the JavaScript code in question, most blogs can be returned to service - but each blog will remain offline, until the removal is verified.

It's to everybody's benefit to identify, and to avoid use of, these scripts in our blogs, before it's too late. If your blog contains one of these scripts, why not remove the problem now, instead of waiting until you too have to post your problem report, in the forum

Help me! My blog was just locked for

MALICIOUS JAVASCRIPT

What do I do, now?

>> Top

Country Code Aliases Cannot Be Bypassed, Productively

Occasionally we see the innocent query in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about the recently introduced Blogger feature - country code aliasing.

Is there any way I can opt out from this constantly changing of the .com termination, into .be, .bg, or .ro, depending on where I travel?

Not many Blogger blog owners realise the benefits of country code aliasing, which is, like auto pagination, a feature which is not optional. There are publicly available workarounds, which may bypass the effects of country code aliasing - and which may cause more trouble than simple URL confusion.

Many spammers would love to setup gateway blogs, and automatically redirect their unwitting victims to other blogs (or non Blogger websites) which contain their actual hacking, porn, or spam payload. Blogger / Google, like some browsers and security programs, actively prevents automatic redirection of Blogger blog traffic.

Not all blog owners understand the effect of Blogger malware classification. Similar to spam classification, malware classification actively scans through Blogger blogs, looking for signs of malware. Here's an example - a very simple code snippet, recently discovered in the header of the template, in a blog which has been repeatedly locked for "Malicious JavaScript" / "Spam".

var·blog·=·document.location.hostname;
var·slug·=·document.location.pathname;
var·ctld·=·blog.substr(blog.lastIndexOf("."));
if·(ctld·!=·".com")·{
var·ncr·=·"http://"·+·blog.substr(0,·blog.indexOf("."));
ncr·+=·".blogspot.com/ncr"·+·slug;
window.location.replace(ncr);
}

To prevent malware detection here, I'm omitting the essential opening and closing tags, which would normally encase the code snippet.

<script·type='text/javascript'> ... </script>

If your blog contains similar redirection code, to bypass country code aliasing, you may get a notice, one day, that your blog has been deleted for "Malicious Javascript". In order to get the blog restored, so your readers may view it, you may have to remove the Malicious JavaScript - then wait until the blog can be reviewed, to ensure that it is safe for public visibility.

You will accomplish more, and cause yourself (and your readers) less pain, by learning to live with country code aliasing - and concentrating on convincing the various search engines and other Internet services to accept Canonical URLs, so country code aliasing will work, seamlessly, with the Internet service which interests you. Alternately, use better designed gadgets and Internet services.

>> Top

Custom Domain Publishing, And Spam Classification

We see the naive question sometimes, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about avoiding spam classification by publishing to a non BlogSpot URL.

Can I keep my blog from being deleted, by publishing to a non BlogSpot URL?

This is a complex question, because custom domain publishing provides several possibilities. But will the possibilities provide an opportunity for avoiding spam classification?

Custom domain publishing, in its simplest form, offers only one immediate benefit.

• The ability to publish to a non BlogSpot URL.

Even when the Blogger blog is published to a non BlogSpot URL, the blog is still subject to spam classification. The Blogger spam classification process, which looks for spammy content, will look for spammy content in any blog, regardless of published URL.

If your blogging activity is centered around several different subjects, as mine are, you may do well to make several different blogs.

• Blogger blogs.
• Cooking.
• Microsoft Windows networking.
• Miscellaneous jokes and musings.
• Reminiscences of days long gone.

Having created a cluster of Blogger blogs, you can aggregate a cluster more easily by publishing each to a different host, in a domain. This is merely one technique, used in a strategy to combine multiple blogs and websites.

Given the ability to separate blogs of different content, you may be able to avoid one known reason for spam classification.

Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.

If you host malware or spam in your Blogger blogs, however, you won't necessarily avoid classification. Since a properly published Blogger custom domain blog starts with a BlogSpot URL - and since the BlogSpot URL remains active, even with the blog published to the domain URL, the blog will still be subject to the spam classification process.

>> Top

Third Party Gadgets And Recent Malware Detected Blogs

Earlier this week, we noted an increased level of activity in reports about blogs locked as suspected spam hosts, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Upon review of the increased volume of spam referrals, with the majority of the cases found to be spurious, Blogger Support provided advice, about a new reason for deleted blogs.

Yesterday, our malware detection system began receiving reports of malicious content on some blogs. While the blog content on many of these blog may be malware-free, 3rd party widgets on these blogs may contain malware.

When a blog is locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets, the blog will be present in the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list - and should be unlocked, on the spot, using the "Restore" option in the list.

The Known Issues advice continues, and describes a planned action.

We’re currently in the process of contacting all blog owners with instructions.

Until Blogger Engineering comes up with an automated contact procedure, owners of blogs which are deleted by Blogger may do well to check their dashboard "Deleted blogs" list, before asking for spam review in the forums.

Owners who find their blog listed, in "Deleted blogs" will be able to immediately restore the blog in question. Having restored the blog, it will be accessible in the "Locked blogs" list - where only the administrators can access it - and remove any possibly malicious third party gadgets, which may have been recently installed. So far, we've seen problems reported with

• Email address collection.
• Third party advertising.
• Traffic redirection
.

All of these are known to trigger malware classification, and cause locked blogs. While the blog is in "Locked blogs", it will remain offline, and inaccessible by readers and search engines.

Once all malicious / unsafe accessories and tweaks have been removed, the owner can submit the blog for unlock review, using the "Request Unlock Review" button in "Locked Blogs". Given a successful review, the blog will be returned to the main "My blogs" list, and restored to service.

Once malicious accessories and tweaks have been removed from the blog in question, it's a good idea to not reinstall them. Repeated detection will lead to Blogger account termination, similar to the penalty for repeated DMCA violations.

There are several reasons why all owners of such blogs may not see their blog listed, in a dashboard list. Owners of these blogs will still be obligated to report their problem in the forums - and to patiently wait while Blogger Support can restore their blogs.

The latter scenario will provide one more example while poorly planned anonymous blog ownership is not a good idea.

>> Top

Everybody Won't Get Proper Notification When Their Blog Is Deleted Or Locked

One problem that we're seeing in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners, who recently discovered their blogs deleted or locked, by Blogger - and without any notice received.

The account actions may be required with the blog deleted for a suspected TOS Violation, such as hosting malware, porn, or spam - or locked because of "suspicious activity" on the Blogger account.

Why was my blog deleted? I never got proper notice!

Too many people depend upon email notification - and may not receive proper notification, in all cases.

Blogger provides a dashboard based malware / porn / spam classification notification / recovery process, which may not be available for everybody. Similar to malware / porn / spam classification, there will be issues with DMCA violation notification.

This is also a problem when accounts are locked for "suspicious activity", and when blogs are locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets.

There are several reasons why some blog owners won't get notification of their blogs being deleted or locked, by the various Blogger / Google security processes. Besides notification limitations, nobody should expect to get advance warning of action being taken - as this would simply encourage the intentional spammers to never request review.

Intentional spammers, if permitted, would play 3 Card Monte, endlessly, with their spammy blogs. Both the notification, and advance warning, limitations contribute to confusion about the various Blogger / Google security recovery options.

All email based notifications may not be properly delivered. The owner of any email account, which may not deliver email properly, is still responsible for reading any important email messages.

Too many Blogger blogs are owned by Blogger accounts which are based on inactive or nonexistent email addresses. Owners of these blogs will never see email notification, when they - intentionally or not - make themselves anonymous.

In other cases, some people may get the email notifying them of problems - but their email program may misfile the email, in a folder which they may not check, regularly. In some odd cases, somebody other than the owner may get the email.

In team blog ownerships, any blog owned by the team is subject to action against any team member accounts. Blogs affected will simply disappear from the dashboards of all team members - with no opportunity provided for appeal or review.

Finally, too many blog owners maintain multiple Blogger / Google accounts, and are not completely sure which Blogger account may own a given blog. These owners may not even see the dashboard based "Deleted Blogs" button / link, because they will be logged in to the wrong Blogger account.

Not all of the above scenarios are entirely the fault of the blog owners - but the blog owners are the ones who will have to make the effort to resolve the resulting problems.

>> Top

Adding AdBrite Ads To Your Blog May Cause Spurious Spam Classification

For several months, we've been seeing reports from various Blogger blog owners, about yet another possible source of spurious spam classification.

I just received the email:

Hello,

Your blog at http://yourblog.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: MALICIOUS_JAVASCRIPT. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible. For more information, please review the following resources:

Blogger Terms of Service: http://blogger.com/terms.g
Blogger Content Policy: http://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy

-The Blogger Team

This happened almost immediately after I added HTML script recommended to me from AdBrite.

Use of the dashboard review request will generally repeat the originally offered verdict.

MALICIOUS_JAVASCRIPT.

In most cases, final review, when properly requested in the forum, will finally result in the blog being restored.

Review of various discussions in Webmaster Central indicate that AdBrite is not well regarded, in anti malware circles. One helper there suggested that AdBrite has a problem with security, allowing spammers to publish into their service - which puts unacceptable content on the blogs showing their ads.

If you want to publish a Blogger blog which does not get periodically locked as a suspected spam host, you might want to consider using a different ad hosting service - and to remove any similar third party gadgets from your blog.

>> Top

The Dashboard Spam Review / Undelete Option Can Be Used To Your Advantage

Recently, Blogger added an improvement in the spam review process, to help shorten the review cycle. Blogs that are deleted or locked, as suspected spam hosts, are now listed on the dashboard, behind a "Deleted blogs" / "Locked blogs" button or link. Each blog, deleted or locked by Blogger, can be submitted for an automated review, by using the "Restore" button next to any blog listed.

Not all blog owners see the benefit of the new option. Some owners think this represents yet one more hurdle, in the endless protocol.

I just want my blog restored! Can you please just forward my review request, without the red tape?

Many blog owners don't realize the benefits of the dashboard based spam review request wizard.

• Many blogs, with review requested by the dashboard link, can be reviewed, and restored, within 24 to 48 hours.
• Blogs restored after dashboard based review request don't require the owner to spend time in the forum, requesting review.
• Blogs restored after dashboard review request don't require Blogger Support to spend time conducting a manual review.

Use of the expedited, dashboard based review process shortens the review process for everybody.

There's a special benefit during weekends. Blogs submitted for manual review will sit in the review queue for at least 48 hours, when no Blogger staff are available to conduct the review. And that 48 hours starts only after the review request is forwarded to the Blogger Support review queue.

Many forum based review requests are recognised, by the helpers, hours - or days - after the forum topic is posted by the blog owner. The forum based latency causes frustration for everybody, and further delays the forwarding of the request. And some review requests can be processed only when key Blogger Support personnel are available.

Use of the dashboard based spam review request makes it easier for everybody. And this helps the forums run smoother - and more blog owners and readers can be helped.

>> Top

Redirecting The Traffic From Your Blogger Blog

Some Blogger blog owners are confused about their ability to redirect traffic to, or from, their blogs. Sometimes this leads to problems, as in the need to report a problem with spam classification, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why was my blog just deleted, for "Malicious JavaScript"?

Other people will want to know why, after renaming their blog, all the search engine references now point to a dead URL. Still others may want to rename specific posts, and yet have the post URLs match the new titles.

Blog URLs, and Post URLs, are complex details, for Blogger blogs. By default, both are managed for you. Not everybody understands how to manage blog and post URLs, when necessary.

Not every blog owner understands that ones readers are not possessions, to be manipulated at will. Many spammers would love to use various Blogger blogs as gateways, redirecting their readers either to other Blogger blogs, or to non Google controlled websites. In order to discourage spamming activity, neither type of redirect is permitted, by the Blogger spam classifier.

Even if automated redirection was permitted, many redirection techniques may not work for everybody. Modern browsers, designed to prevent abusive activity like hacking and spamming, may have filters which explicitly block DNS settings, and scripts, designed to redirect traffic from one website to another. If you design your URL migration strategy to require automated redirection - and even if Blogger / Google does not delete the blog for abusive technique - you may still not see a consistent transfer of existing traffic, to your new URL.

You can redirect a Blogger blog, to a non BlogSpot URL, using properly setup custom domain publishing - "CNAME" referral. That is the only valid way to redirect a BlogSpot URL, to a non BlogSpot URL. Any other method will eventually leave you posting, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why was my blog just deleted, by Blogger?

If you rename your blog - and publish to a new BlogSpot URL, your only recourse is to publish a "stub" (empty) blog to the old URL, and visually redirect your readers.

This blog is now published as "blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com". Please update your bookmarks.

You can, if you wish, redirect the blog feed, after renaming the blog - but this should be done only when necessary.

There are several specific cases where the blog feed should not be redirected.

Blogger recently provided us the option to redirect traffic from one blog post to another - but the syntax used by the custom redirects wizard explicitly prevents redirection outside the base blog URL. That said, we have seen some imaginative redirections, between different URLs in the same blog.

Use of the custom redirect feature can generate interesting problems, not all of which can be prevented, easily. You can redirect some URLs - but you need to understand what you can, and cannot do - and why you cannot do everything that you would like.

>> Top

Blogger Blogs Showing "Possible Blogger Terms of Service Violations" Notice

Last week, we saw a fairly large number of reports from blog owners, reporting that their blogs had been apparently classified as spam hosts - but with a new symptom.

Possible Blogger Terms of Service Violations

This blog is currently under review due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations.

If you're a regular reader of this blog and are confident that the content is appropriate, feel free to click "Proceed" to proceed to the blog. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you're an author of this blog, please follow the instructions on your dashboard for removing this warning page.

When the problem was forwarded to Blogger Support, they identified a recent change in the spam classifier as a cause - and suggested that they could review and reverse all such false classifications, en masse.

Later that same day, Blogger Support declared that the problem was resolved.

We've been seeing intermittent reports of this problem, recurring, since the latter declaration. We're handling them on an individual basis, starting from reports in Blogger Help: Something Is Broken.

If your blog shows this symptom, please start a new topic in Something Is Broken. - and indicate the "Possible Blogger Terms of Service Violations" in the Question title / Subject. We'll do our best to expedite resolution of your problem. Please be accurate, brief, and complete - and as always, state the URL of the blog.

>> Top

How Not To Make Your Blog Private

Blog owners have been asking, for years, how to protect their blogs against viewing by undesired or unknown readers.

How do I password protect my blog?

When told that Blogger password protection involves membership invitations, accepted using a Blogger Google account, some would be private blog owners decline the suggestion.

That's too complicated for my readers! Can't I just give everybody a password?

But Blogger does not use common passwords.

Some blog owners, who are technically astute, find add on template code, provided by third parties - which demands a password, in a popup window, to continue. This is where their problems start.

The addition of third party supplied JavaScript code, to our blogs, has always been a dodgy process. With third party JavaScript code used to provide password protection against unknown readers, this is even more hazardous to your blog.

This month, we have a blog owner who installed password protection code in his blog template - and subsequently found his blog locked.

I received email saying that my blog has been removed, and has been marked as spam. The email is as follows:

Your blog has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: MALICIOUS_JAVASCRIPT. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible.

Can you please review and unlock my blog?

But the story does not end there. Subsequent review of the blog was denied, by Blogger Support.

Your password prompt is not dismissable - and forces users to close their entire browser session, as the Cancel button does nothing. This is malicious behavior, and prevents anyone one on our team from even reviewing your blog content.

This leaves the blog owner with a deleted / locked blog, and no chance of getting the blog back.

Besides the potential threat above, which becomes actual only after spam classification detects the add-on code as malicious, any security expert will recognise two reasons why this solution is worthless.

1. JavaScript code can be blocked, by any reader with a well implemented security policy.
2. If not blocked, anybody can view source code and find the "password" right there, in plain sight.

This "solution" is therefore worthless for two reasons.

1. It is risky.
2. It does not work.

Why risk loss of your blog, for a risky solution that does not work? There's only one way to protect your blog from unknown readers.

1. Send each would be blog reader a membership invitation, using the Permissions wizard.
2. Instruct each reader to open and accept the invitation, using any preferred Blogger account.

>> Top

If Your Blog Was Deleted, It's Good To Know Why

Of the many problem reports that we see in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, possibly the most ambiguous might be

My blog was deleted. How do I get my blog back?

The confusion, evidenced here, is normal - but overlooking the reason for the deletion can waste time - and delay or prevent getting the blog restored.

Any time someone reports a deleted blog, it's good to understand - and possibly verify - the cause of the deletion.

1. Was the blog deleted by the owner?
2. Was the blog deleted by Blogger - as a suspected abusive content host?
3. Was the blog deleted - because the owning Blogger account was locked by Blogger / Google?

Each of these possibilities can have different consequences - different recovery protocols - and different prognoses. To avoid wasting time - and affect the options for recovery - it's good to triage the diagnosis.

A blog deleted by the owner must be recovered by the owner. If the blog was deleted because the owning Blogger account was deleted, the owning account has to be restored, to start. And the time limit, for restoring a blog, deleted by the owner, is limited.

A blog deleted by Blogger, as a suspected abusive content (malware, porn, spam) host, must be reviewed and restored by Blogger. The good news here is that the review and restore process has, theoretically, no time limit for either initiation or completion.

A blog deleted by Blogger because of a deleted or locked Blogger account, likewise, has no time limit. However, there are two possibilities here.

1. If the Blogger account was locked for "suspicious activity", the account must be unlocked, following owner request - then the owner must wait, patiently, for the blog(s) to be verified and restored to service.
2. If the account was deleted, because of ownership of other blogs suspected as spam hosts, all blogs suspected must be reviewed.

Here, having the Blogger account associated with an active email account is a necessity, for finding the warning notices from Blogger, and deducing which cause contributed to the deletion. And, we see yet another reason for limiting your use of multiple email / GMail accounts.

Bearing in mind the limited time window for getting an owner deleted blog restored, it's a good idea to first identify all owner initiated deletions. If we wait for Blogger to review the blog, as a suspected spam host, and they respond with

The blog was trashed by the owner.

this won't help the owner when he realises

Oh yeah, I may have deleted it - last year (and over 90 days ago!).

>> Top