Setting up a blog on Blogger with your WOU Google Apps Account

Updated April 4, 2012

As promised earlier, here is how you get started on Blogger, AKA Blogspot.

Before you go through this process, though, check to see if it works already; that's happened for some people, and it may work for more now that we have Google Profiles and Google+ enabled on our Google Apps domain.

1. Log in to the WOUPortal.


2. Go to gmail (Google's systems need to know you're online or this won't work.)


3. Go to http://www.blogger.com/.  If you get a server error, or are redirected to the Portal login page, then blogger isn't already set up for you and you need to do the workaround process below.


4. If you see the login page for blogger, try logging in with your WOU Google Apps account: "yourname@mail.wou.edu".  It is important to use "mail.wou.edu", not just "wou.edu"!

Here's a snapshot of the blogger.com login page, so you know you're in the right place:







If none of that got you in to blogger's control panel, here's the workaround to use:

1. Sign out of Gmail, which should return you to the Portal login page. This won't work unless you are actually signed out; just closing browser tabs is not enough.


2. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and click the "Sign up for a new Google Account" link in the upper right.  Enter your mail.wou.edu address, and the same password you use in the WOUPortal, then fill out the rest of the form.


3. Click Continue.  You will probably see a message like this:
   
   

   Blogger is not available for mail.wou.edu. Learn more about 
   Google products you can use with <username>@mail.wou.edu.
   
   Did you use this product with a different Google Account? 
   Sign out of your current Google Account and then sign in 
   to the account you want.

   
   The text might be different, but that should be the gist of it. This is actually a good sign, and you're almost done with the process.


4. If the text "Sign out" in the message is a link, click it. Either way, next go to the WOUPortal, where you should see the login form.


5. Log in, go to Gmail, and then go to www.blogger.com. Instead of the login screen, you should see a user profile including the option to create a new blog. If you do see the login form, click Sign In but don't enter any email or password. That should take you to the blogger user profile if you weren't there already.

That's it! From then on, as long as you're signed in to Gmail, you should be able to go directly to blogger and be logged in.