Going on Vacation? Configure Email and Mobile Options on Blogspot

When it comes to blogging, many say that you should be regular in making posts on your blog. As a matter of fact, this should be followed by all who are into serious blogging. The reason for the existence of this rule is quite easy to understand. The visitors of your blog expect new and fresh content from you. If they do not find this new content, definitely they are going to find other places where they will be able to get content. As a Blogger, you would never want this to happen.

But, we are all living in reality and there can be situations when you will not be able to make posts to your blog on the scheduled dates. So the question is “How Do I Handle such Situations?

In this article, I will be discussing about using the Email section of the Blogspot. If you get into the backend of your blog (the Settings area) you would find a tab - "Email & Mobile" clicking this tab will display you the form where you can set the emails.


On this page, you will find two categories -
A. Email Notifications

This is the area which contains elements to capture the following inputs -
 

1. BlogSend Address
This is the place where you can place the emails for those whom you want to send the article you have just published on your blog.

As a Blogger, what is more important to you? Getting online visitors to read your content! Great. This is fine for many of us who need incoming traffic to get benefits (Any benefit is welcome!). But there are situations when you want to deliver the Articles that you write, to your community. As an example, let me say, you have a blog for your family. In such a case, you are not bothered about the traffic; instead, you are interested in getting the post/article to reach to your family members. Now, your parents, or someone in your family does not have access to your blog or maybe the person doesn't feel comfortable hooking on to the blog to read. So how do you make the posts reach to them? To sort out these issues, Blogspot provides you with the facility of sending out the post that you have just made as emails to all the addresses that you have put in this box.

How to Setup the BlogSend Address
In the text box provided against this option, type down the email IDs of all those people whom you want to send your posts as emails. Currently Blogspot has ONE restriction - You can use this space to send emails to 10 email IDs only. 


Using BlogSend to send to more people
In case you have a larger list of emails that the posts have to be sent, you will have to create a group on some free site like Google or Yahoo that gets you an email allotted. You can add all those people, whom you want to send the posts via emails, as members and then you can use the email provided for this group to send your post to all members of this group.

B. Posting Options
1. Email Posting Address
This is the place where you are required to place a secret word that will complete the special email on the blogspot. Any email sent to this special email address will get published or otherwise (depends on your settings).
Once you have provided the secret word and completed the special email ID, any emails sent to this email ID will be used for Publishing purposes. Apart from completing the email address, you will also be required to select any one of the following options -


a. Publish Emails Immediately
Select this option if you are sure that any posts made to this email ID will be published without the intervention of any other person. If you select this option, you have to be careful that only those who should publish on the blog should be aware of this special email ID. Otherwise, anyone who comes to know of this email ID can send a post and it will get published automatically. The chance of moderation of such content is ZERO, though you can delete the posts as normal but this might be too late. So the tip is - "Keep this special email ID known only to yourself and other authors on your blog".
 

b. Save emails as draft posts
Select this option in case you want the posts via emails to be moderated before they are actually published. This is not very fruitful for those times when you are away from Internet or Blogspot as the submitted articles will just pile up and the visitors will not get new content to read.



c. Disabled
Select this option in case you want to remove the feature of publishing via emails. Select this option when you are back from your vacation and will be able to access your blog online.



2. Mobile Devices
This is the place where you setup your mobile handset and blogspot to work together. This is best suitable in situations when you are going out on a vacation and chances are that you will not be able to make posts using blogspot or email.


But, if you have a handset that supports sending MMS, then you can stay connected to your blog.
 

Configuring the Handset
Click on the Add Mobile Device link on the page. You will be displayed an applet where in you will be shown a code. All you have to do is to send this code to go@blogger.com.



In case your handset doesn't support MMS then you can send posts via SMS also. However, as of now, this facility is available to US residents only. Just click on the SMS link on the Applet to display the requirements for authorization.

A Few Words of Caution
1. Consult the manuals of your handset to determine whether it supports MMS
2. Consult the Service Provider about the amount you will be charged for sending MMS
3. If you want to place pictures on your post via MMS, Photos are currently limited to 250K each. If they exceed that size, you'll receive a bounce message letting you know so you can try again with a smaller picture. Note that your phone (or carrier) might have size limits of its own.


Sources:Google



Happy Blogging... And yes... Stay Connected!
Cheers



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