Ok so I would like to figure out how to do a simple blog about our homeschooling for our family & close friends to follow. Our relatives are actually showing interest in what we are doing. Nothing fancy just a glorified e-mail / updates with pictures of the kids completing projects or school related stuff. Are blogs free? Would I have to "maintain" a certain number of entries per month? I haven't even googled it yet. I will do that next. I also like having a digital scrapbook so to speak of our HS journey for us to look back on. can you save blog entries for years ......say like 10 years ? Or do the entries "expire"? If its too much for me to do I may just settle for a group e-mail with pictures. Any suggestions? Are there specific websites you would recommend? Is a digital scrapbook basically like a blog? Thanks
I suggest you go to blogger.com and open an account. It's run by Google so you may already have an account if you have a gmail email address. And it's free. Then you need to think of a name for your blog, something like myhomeschool.blogger.com would be great, but may already be taken, so you'll have to try a few different names. The name of your blog will end in blogger.com, but if you don't want it to, you can pay $10 to have something like www.myhomeschool.com. In a similar way, what you want will most probably be taken and you'll have to choose an alternative. When once you start posting, you'll need to choose a theme, don't worry too much about that as blogger has many themes and you can change the theme whenever you like. A theme is just how it looks and feels, how wide the page is, what color the page is etc. And blogs are for ever. Unless you remove it. NOTE The name myhomeschool.com has been taken, I don't know who own it, I just used it as an example.
Tina has it right. I actually just started my own blog too, at Blogger.com. It was really easy to set it up. There is no minimum # of posts or anything, so you should be fine. You can check mine out at: http://morethanmommmy.blogspot.com/ And yes, it was totally free to do. If you want a special template, then I think that would be extra, but that would be more for a professional blogger.
Oh, and one of the cool things about Blogger.com is that you can see what countries have visited your blog.
Tina & Renae thanks for the tips! Renae I checked out your blog-- your husbands chili looks mouth watering. And my daughters middle name is Lenae so I always think of that when I see the name "Renee" spelled like Renae ( unless your name is pronounced differently?) Well I will see what I come up with regarding a blog or something close to it.
Regarding templates, you can get free ones, or pay for one. You should start with a free one for a while.
It is pronounced that way! Lenae is even more rare than my spelling! I have only heard of one other. Let me know when you get your blog up and running and we can follow each other or something.
Yes, as others have said, a blog is free. Personally, I purchased a domain name (very little cost) and pay a monthly fee for hosting, but there are free services out there. A free template will be just fine. Again, I paid just a little for a template because I liked the refreshing look - but I'm a perfectionist! Why not add Google ads to your blog and make some money too? That's what I've done here. Again, it costs nothing to do this (although it's possible that the blogger site does not allow it - I don't know).
Adsense won't let you add it until you have had your blog for a little while and you have a number of posts already...I already tried!
You can have adsense ads on a blogger blog, but it takes a long time to earn not much money. I think becoming an Amazon Affiliate is better, then you can talk about products you use and advertise them on Amazon. If someone buys, you earn money.
Renae- I have been going back & forth on it . Do you know what cozi is? Well I have an account with them & they have a feature where you can do a monthly family newsletter to whoever you want. I think you are allowed 1 picture per journal entry. Well this is kinda what I am wanting but super raw & basic. I def. would have more options & flexibility with a blog. It's kinda cool that you could potentially earn $$ from advertising stuff on your blog. I am still in the "contemplating" phase , just trying to figure out what will work best for what I am wanting. I will keep you updated on what I decide to do Thanks for checking in! Jamie
