Moving Blogger to Google Apps for your domain

Like many people I’ve used GMail, Blogger and other Google products but until now they weren’t on the same account.

Google have for a long time now allowed users to setup email for their domain using the Google servers, called Google Apps for your Domain. Until recently, however, you could not use all their applications using that account, instead you had to have a separate Google account for some apps, like Blogger.

Now that a “Google Apps for your domain” user (referred to as ‘Domain account’ from now on) can access these features using their own domain account they could be left in a scenario where some of their data is scattered amongst other accounts. I had this exact issue with my Blogger account. The answer is to add the Domain account to the existing Blogger account as an administrator:

1. Log into your Blogger account as the ‘old’ user.
2. Select Dashboard, Settings, Permissions, click ‘Add Authors’, enter your domain email address and invite.
3. You will receive an invitation email containing a link to accept. If like me your main browser is set to login automatically to Blogger then copy this link manually to another browser that doesn’t have the login credentials stored: When the link loads you need to be able to log in as your Domain account, not your old Blogger account.
4. Having accepted the invitation as the Domain user, return to the Blogger Dashboard/Settings/Permissions page and enable admin privileges for the domain user.

NB: don’t delete the old Blogger account as it holds your images associated with old posts. Oh and don’t forget to change the credentials in any blog editors you use (like Live Writer).