DotFam® ~ Family Computing » Sharing & Communicating

FAMILY BLOGGING 101

dotfam — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:54:31 +0000

Blogging is one of the most popular trends on the internet. Blogs can be used as a personal or family journal. Additionally, they can be used as a business tool or even as a way to add some jingle to your jeans (bring in income). You don’t have to look far to find someone who has a blog. In fact, it would probably be harder to find people who don’t have one. If you are thinking about starting a blog, you have tons of options in regard to who to have host it. Here is a list of just a few (THE BIG DOGS) but there are lots more.

Blogger.com is one of the most popular. It is free, and very easy to use.The draw backs are that it doesn’t have video support, and can only have one author. Beginers will not be overwhelmed, and find it easy to navigate. Professionals, however, should look into something a litle more in depth like TypePad.com.

TypePad.com has more features that let you really costomize the look and feel of your blog. They have hundreds of templates, widgets, and a podcast option. Of coarse, you have to pay for these luxuries. TypePad has plans that range from $4.95-$89.95 per month to annual fees that go from $49.50-$899.50.

WordPress.com is the middle ground for Blogger, and TypePad. It has a free plan, along with premium features that you can upgrade to and pay for. Some of the upgrades are custom domain names, extra storage, and unlimited users. WordPress has a cool feature called an Intograted Stats System. It’s designed to give you up-to-the-minute stats on how many people are visiting your blog, where they’re coming from, which posts are most popular, and which search engine terms are sending people to your blog. If you already have a blog and want to switch t WordPress, they can import your content from Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, or another WordPress blog.

Image and the product being showcased is being provided by bloggertee.blogspot.com.

PHOTO SHARING WEBSITES

dotfam — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:57:21 +0000

This is confession time. Back in 2004, our computer crashed and we lost about 2 years worth of precious family photos. Specifically, we lost 2 years of my precious baby/toddler daughter’s life. We did not have backup copies and were devastated to say the least. Today, photos can be uploaded to a photo sharing website of your choosing as a back up of sorts. Rest assured, your photos can remain private. Check out this video for more information:

PRIVATE BLOGS

dotfam — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:34:08 +0000

Many blogging services, including WordPress.com, allow you to request for your blog to be unlisted in the search engines.

You can also choose to protect your blog so that only the members YOU CHOOSE have access to it. If your blog’s main goal is to communicate to family and friends and you wish to avoid any collateral damage to your privacy, please consider using such a feature.

Lastly, if you host your own blog, you can also set it up to be password-protected, or to be visible only to individuals viewing it from certain computers.

Best,

Dad

FYI: Our family blog is a private blog, and with good reason. Some of the stories and pictures my wife includes don’t cast me in the greatest light!

CHAMPIONING THE FAMILY BLOG CAUSE.

dotfam — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:15:02 +0000

My three main selling points are as follows:

1. Keeping a family blog is in the same spirit as writing in a journal or keeping a scrap book etc. A family blog allows you to capture your family history in digital form for all future generations to enjoy.

2. A family blog is a great medium for sharing not just photos and video footage of your family and friends, but feelings that you may not normally express in person. THIS IS A BIGGIE.

3. Scheduling activities and vacations with family and friends has never been easier. For example, when planning a family vacation, simply post your itinerary for others to reference on your family blog. *Please note that this example is only recommended for blogs that are private to the public in general. We don’t want the world to know when our house will be vacant for a couple of days.

I encourage all families to star a blog today. The practice of blogging has caught on like wildfire amongst my wife’s circle of friends. My four year old son recently chastised my wife for being on the computer too long in the mornings. However, I can’t complain because every day or so, I get to enjoy another fun and humorous post about my little crew!

Best,

Dad