Monday, December 26, 2011

Setting up a new Administrator for your blog

This article shows you how to set up someone else (ie another Google account) as an administrator for your blog.


What is a blog administrator

An administrator is a Google account (controlled by a person!) that has full rights over your blog: they can do anything that you can do, including write posts, edit anyone else's posts, change the template, add gadgets and formatting rules.   Also they can grant and remove author and administrator rights.

This last point is very important: if you add someone as an administrator, then they immediately have the power to remove you as an administrator. This means that you need to be very careful who you give these rights to.

How to give someone administrator rights

Firstly, give them author rights.
To do this, you may need to log in as the other person, or to wait for them to accept the invitation themselves. If you log in as them, then make sure that you either:
  • Use two computers,
  • Use separate browsers on the same computer (eg Firefox and Chrome, or Internet Explorer and Safari), OR
  • At least clear your cache and restart your browser between each login.

Then upgrade them by logging in to Blogger as yourself (ie with an account that has administrator rights already).
  • Go to the dashboard ("home" button), Settings > Basic tab.
  • Scroll down to the Permissions area. 
  • Every account that has accepted an invitation to be an author will be listed. Choose the one want to make into an administrator, and choose Admin using the drop-down arrow to the right of their email address.   (Note:  this is an immediate change, you do not have to click Save.)

fyi, there are also options here for removing administrator rights, and removing author rights too.


Make sure your changes have worked

If you are doing this before removing your own administrator rights, eg as part of transferring a blog from one account to another, then it is very important make sure that the transfer has been successful before removing yourself: you do not want to be in a situation where your own account is no longer an administrator, but you don't have access to the actual administrator account.

As before, ways of doing this include
  • Using two different computers,
  • Use separate browsers on the same computer (eg Firefox and Chrome, or Internet Explorer and Safari), OR
  • At least clear your cache and restart your browser between each login.


Other things to consider

Comment moderation

Only blog-administrators can moderate comments, so you may need to:
  • Set up comment notification so that the new administrator is emailed when a comment is left
  • Make sure that they know the policies that are applied to comments
  • Agree who is responsible for moderation at what times

Custom domain administration

If you have a custom domain, and the new administrator may need to be involved with this, then you need to tell them about the domain-administrator account that you set up after purchasing the domain.

Or if you are using a domain from an external domain registration company, they may need some other information about how to manage the domain.


Other blog settings

Because an administrator has full control over the blog, they can do a number of things including:
  • Editing posts made by other authors
  • Change the template, layout or gadgets
  • Edit any of the blog's Pages
  • Granting and revoking other people's permissions
  • Change the default language and date/time settings 
  • Changing the RSS feed settings in any way
  • Edit the Adult-content warning setting, or the blog's Open-ID URL.
You may need to agree how changes like this are to be done on your blog - including ensuring that backups are stored safely.






Related Articles

Making an author for your blog.

Transferring blog ownership

Setting up a custom-domain administrator account

Using a custom domain from an alternative registrar

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13 comments:

  1. Well as part of transferring a blog from one account to another, I removed myself before!!!! And now I have no idea how to regain admin rights! the blog is hosted on a private domain...but now no one has full admin rights! any idea how to change this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For a long time people thought that what you've described wasn't possible. But I do believe I've heard about situations where it happens because other administrators delete their accounts. I'd suggest posting in the Blogger Product Forum (and if you don't get an answer in 2-3 days, bump your post until someone notices) - it may even need some intervention from Blogger to help sort it out for you.

      Delete
  2. I cannot access my blog as the only administrator. I can sign into google accounts but there is no way for me to make a new post or changes to other posts. Please help. This all started with the last big change to blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I get an email asking me (ie another account) to accept the invitation, which I do, and then I click the final button on the Blogger site, but my other account still does not show up in the list of admins....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After accepting the invitation, Sing in to blogger with the original administrator account, Go to Settings and the new account will be listed as an author. From here, you can change them into an administrator.

      Delete
  4. Can someone help me with the steps of adding a new admin account to my blog

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've added an admin freelancer to my blogger he removed my e-mail which was linked to this blogger and google account, i don't know how this was possible, but i could convince him to give me my blog back he added another e-mail and i regained access to my blogger, how can i avoid this to happen again if i hire another freelancer? Is there a way to make impossible to remove my e-mail? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, there is no way to stop it, apart from only letting your freelancer be an author not an admonistrator.

      Delete
  6. "Set up comment notification so that the new administrator is emailed when a comment is left" How is this done please? Can I add their email address to mine? And how do I separate them? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. That gear sign underneath the mobile pic example doesn't show up when I choose theme. All it shows is the desktop version with the customize and http button underneath and underneath the mobile pic is nothing. Does anyone know why?

    ReplyDelete
  8. How is there not a level BETWEEN author and administrator? I'd like to add somehow who could add their own posts as well as edit others but NOT have full-on administrator privileges.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I haven't logged on in a long time. Long enough that it prompted me to create a new blogger account. But somehow when it did, it did not grant my blogger account administrator access. Now, the only administrator for my blog is a Google+ account that can't be accessed. My husband and I are both authors, but neither of us is an administrator, and we can't seem to figure out how in the world to get the administrator access back. The only administrator is a phantom account that nobody can access. Help, please!

    ReplyDelete