When a Blog Blows Up in Your Face

As some of you may have noticed, Film Flap was down over the last half of Friday, all of the weekend, and much of today. There was some kind of error at Blogger, and since it was the weekend, nothing changed. I sent an email every day, but as with any free service, there wasn't someone I could drag out of bed and exclaim, "I'm paying you a lot of money--and for what!" Nope, I was stuck until Monday (today), when I hoped that my many plea-filled emails would be heeded.

The good news is that they were. Blogger did come through. I guess my wheel was squeaky enough that it got greased. I was a little worried as I have read stories of people losing everything on Blogger and not having any real recourse (you get what you pay for). I was comforted over the weekend as I could access my account and see all my content, I just couldn't see the blog. I'm glad that's over.

The bad news is that even a hiccup like this can take a huge bite out of your traffic, small as it may be. Check out my Feedburner number. Last week it hovered around 60, and today it reads 23. In four days I lost over half of my RSS subcriptions. That sucks! They may quickly return (you will return, won't you?) or they may not. Either way, I've got some rebuilding to do.

If this ever happens to you, I suggest you do what I did, and bug the heck out of someone, with at least an email a day. While it's hard to find, Blogger's "report a problem" email link can be found. Click here to access it. I also put URGENT! in the address line as often as I could remember to. I don't know if that helped, but the problem is fixed. My guess is that it would have been fixed faster if I didn't have the weekend to contend with, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

Of course, if you want to pay for server space, you'll probably get results even faster. It's a good idea for serious bloggers anyway (I'm just stubborn and cheap), and might be easier to get a hold of an actual person who could help you with your problem. Blogger (owned by Google, remember) offers no customer service number, and even that email addy is elusive. Good luck.