Writing is essential. And what better way to encourage writing than with an online journal. Whether you call it a blog or a diary, I've tested the best of the free options, and created a sample journal in each. Take a look and decide which one is right for you. Remember, not all blogs are written for a family audience, so be careful out there.
"Just write whatever you feel" are the instructions for creating entries in your Blog-City journal. If this isn't enough direction, Blog-City has a How-to-Blog guide that addresses questions such as "What is Rich Site Summary (RSS)?" and "Inserting an image." Readers can sign up to be notified whenever a blog is updated. Very cool and very simple.
Blog*Spot is the free hosting component of the popular Blogger publishing tool recently purchased by Google. The biggest benefit of Blog*Spot is the many upgrade options. You can begin with a free hosted journal (that displays advertisements) and later upgrade to one of four paid hosting plans or move your blog to any website of your choosing. Best way to start is the visual tutorial. You'll find the link in the box titled "This is your brain on the web." My sample blog is online here.
No mention of the b-word here; DiaryLand is all about personal diaries. A free account is ad-free (except for a link back to DiaryLand) but a paid account will get you image hosting, stats on who's visiting your diary, and the ability to create surveys for your friends to fill out. My biggest complaint is that URLs in diary entries are not automatically clickable. You must put them in HTML format. To learn how, follow the Diaryland Basics link under Help and FAQs.
With lots of bells and whistles, Xanga has more of a learning curve than the other blogging hosts. This does, however, translate into more functionality for advanced users. These high-end goodies include checkbox template creation, blog rings, comment posting, RSS and news headlines. On my sample blog I added my photo and news about children and families. Premium users get an ad-free blog, image hosting, a spell checker, email posting, and an advanced editing tool.
Buy Blogging Tools Printable for $2.00
or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Journal SpaceLive Journal | UpSaid |
Free Surfnetkids Newsletter ...Get educational website recommendations in your mailbox every week:Our Privacy Pledge: your email address is never shared with anyone. |
Headline Feed | Online Safety Feed | Newsletter Feed
