I'm not quite sure where to put this post. Different type of question. When you use a blog to let the home front keep track of you -- who does everyone use -- what pros and cons to yours do you see. If you post pictures which do you see as best? I'm sure I can come up with a dozen questions on this subject and I am sure my 17 yr old can answer with what she uses but may not work for on the road. Thanks Anna & Gale
Luvglass said
07:16 PM Dec 6, 2006
Hi Gale, We use Mytripjounal.com, it's easy to use and relatively inexpensive (approx. $80 yr.. Takes all the pictures we want and is easy to send out updates. Downside is that it can't be expanded to add additional pages for recipes or budgets. All in all we find it satisfactory for now. We will probably migrate to something like Howard and Linda use in the future. Fred
Tmcblane said
07:47 PM Dec 6, 2006
We use blogger, it is free and does everything we need. I have a website and domain but blogger is a decent setup for blogging.
bjoyce said
09:50 PM Dec 6, 2006
We roll our own because we know how and pay less than mytripjournal for a domain name and web hosting plan with oodles of space. I am not recommending it, but you can pay $3.39/month if you pay by the year and as little as $4/year for the domain name and have tons of room if you know how to run a web publishing program. My numbers came from http://www.ezwebs4u.com/. They have blogging tools, picture tools, databases and you have complete control and are in charge. But you have to know something to get started.
Blogger is free and if you download Picassa from Google you can post pictures easily and free. I think it is a great way to start and find out if you really are going to keep up a travel journal since all you are out is your time. Blogger is full of blogs that only ran a short while including many RVers who stopped updating.
You can step up to something paid later if you want, be it a service like mytripjournal (which I think fails to work well once your journal gets very long) or typepad. You then put a link to your old blog in your new one and go on. You can also read some books, experiment and do it like I do. Howard actually does both since he has his websites and his journal.
ahoweth said
07:28 AM Dec 7, 2006
Hi Anna & Gale:
I am glad you asked the question. I have been thinking about doing something like that but haven't even known where to start. I have kept a journal since beginning full timing in December of 2004 and have a reader base that has grown to the point that sending it out via e-mail is becoming cumbersome to say the least. I think I would like to be able to expand to a full web site later because there are a lot of things I would like to do in addition to the journal. I will be watching the responses to your questions with great interest. Thanks for opening the line.
RVDude said
03:29 PM Dec 7, 2006
One approach is the complete web site in a box approach a. la. Howard which is a just-fill-in-the-blanks approach provided by services like Site-Build-It. But he is still blogging through typepad.com and Site-build-it links to his typepad.com blog.
Yet another option is to create a blog using travel focused blog tools like travelblog.org, realtravel.com, travelpod.com, myjourneyblog.com, myworldjournal.com, and on and on and on...
You can also create a myspace.com site to post your thoughts and meanderings. Contrary to what you may think, MySpace is NOT just for kids...
Another is to roll your own complete site. Can be just ever so slightly more "difficult" than Site-Build-It. Don't laugh, but godaddy.com is the largest domain registrar on the entire net and offers no wait real person phone access. You can get a domain and a couple gigs of space for $10/year, add blogging for free w/ their advertising or pay $~20/year for no ads, you can add site-build-it like tools for another $~20/year to make it fill in the blank, and on and on. I have used them for years and host a dozen or so domains of all different service offerings from them. Pick the "I Need Help: Building A web Site" option in the middle of their home page godaddy.com for more info.
The hardest part is figuring out what you really want to do on the web and then stay focused in doing it - so many gadgets to distract you. Howard has done this focus exceptionally well and I suspect his web site now takes several hours every day to maintain at this point.
Would anyone be interested in working on creating an RV specific web site community destination something that works like MySpace for personal RV blogging, grouping/sharing/listing our personal links to all our numerous RV blogs and RV sites, and the like all focused on RVing? (Note this is NOT in competition to what each of us may already have out there, it is just a way to individually be able to group our collective RV web stuff together on a page for our personal easy access and to share it with the community only if we want.)
Darrell and Judy said
04:13 PM Dec 7, 2006
I'm still working on my web site and haven't posted it yet. I am using NVU software to build it and looking at Bluehost for hosting. Nvu can be downloaded free and Bluehost cost $6.95 per month. You get domain names as part of the price and I think it is up to 14 gigs of space. For further information go to bluehost.com (Nvu.com for the software).
Howard said
07:59 AM Dec 8, 2006
I've been asked this question A LOT, so I might as well put my typical answer on the Forum.
We use Typepad.com as mentioned. We have all the bells and whistles for $150 a year, but they do have other packages for about $60 a year. Our Typepad package gives me lots of flexibility and features that others probably don't need, but their basic package includes quite a few templates and is pretty easy to use.
Most of our readers that have their own RV travel blogs use either MyTripJournal.com or Blogger.com. Those more familiar with website construction create their own.
MyTripJournal has a couple of levels, but the top level gives you unlimited photo uploading for about $80 a year. It is specifically made for travel journals, it is promoted by Good Sams, it is extremely easy to use, you can get your blog easily archived and sent to you on CD, and the owners are good to work with. However, it has little flexibility on appearance and their policy does not allow advertising if you get really popular and want to pick up a few bucks. We started with MyTripJournal and switched to Typepad when our needs changed.
As stated, Blogger is free and does a fine job for most folks. There are lots of templates and it does have some flexibility. You can put limited Google ads on in pre-determined locations and formats, but we wanted more flexibility. Still, there are some very, very nice looking blogs created with this free option.
Site Build It was mentioned and that is the software we used to create RV-Dreams.com. It is excellent for simple step by step building of a website from scratch, but it is not a good blogging software for novices. It is the support and instruction behind Site Build It that makes it a great commercial website building tool - especially for beginners and those that don't mind putting in the time.
I've looked at a few other blogging softwares, but I by no means have done any major evaluations. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish, how often you intend to blog, whether you want to add photos, digital movie clips, sound, etc., and whether you think you will want ads down the road. Just be sure that whatever you choose provides you with enough server space or that you can upgrade your space if you are willing to pay down the road. Also, I would recommend using a well-known company with lots of users that is less likely to shut down and take all of your work and records with them. Good luck!
bjoyce said
10:24 AM Dec 8, 2006
I meant to also say something about the readers of your blog or journal. Go out and look at various blogs and journals, a good place to find lots of them is Hitchitch at http://www.hitchitch.com/links.html . Look at the current content, how easy are the pictures to access (this is where I dislike mytripjournal, it takes multiple steps and the pictures load slowly as a reader), how easy is it to look at posts from a year back or when someone was in a certain spot (South Dakota as an example), and whatever else you want your readers to do. How often are your readers going to check the blog, daily, weekly, monthly, or when you send them an email? To get followed it must be easy for your readers and doing what you want, not just easy for you to create.
There are some blogs that are easy to use and read, some that look like art design projects that are hard to read or follow, some that are meant to be read today and forget yesterday, etc. Some are photo heavy, some are not, some are informative, some are mostly opinions. What do you want yours to look like? Find the ones you think your own readers will want yours to be like and you will have more success. You don't want your honest readers to tell you they rarely look at your blog because it is too slow, takes too long to download, doesn't tell them what they want to know, is hard to navigate, etc.
-- Edited by bjoyce at 11:26, 2006-12-08
Judy said
05:31 PM Dec 9, 2006
Hi Bjoyce thanks for the site you posted, I visited it and lots of great blogs there also so now it is in one of my favorites....
southwestjudy & Bob & 2blackdogs
galeanna said
06:13 PM Dec 9, 2006
Thanks for all the info.. Lots of research for us now...
mrsgeek said
10:56 AM Jun 26, 2007
I use both Blogger (for geeksontour.blogspot.com) and Wordpress (for wifisavvy.com). Both are free, but Blogger is easier. Blogger is what we teach in our 'Every RVer Needs a Blog' seminar. If you're attending the FMCA convention in Redmond, Oregon - come to our seminar!
Froggi said
11:06 AM Jun 26, 2007
Add me as a Blogger user. I started out early on with it and have stuck with it, changing from the old FTP upload to my domain to one hosted with them but looking like it's on my domain. http://lilypad.froggilady.com
Sandra said
07:59 AM Jun 29, 2007
I've been using blogspot (http://srmerrikinblog.blogspot.com/) for over 1 1/2 years now. It's free and it suits me fine. It's fairly easy to upload photos and you can upload as many as you want. Sometimes when it's really busy it takes a long time to upload on our internet satellite but I usually do it in the late afternoon so it works okay.
My husband has his own doman (www.gordonwolford.com)but he is a retired graphic designer so he knows about all that stuff.
Kelly said
04:45 AM Jul 31, 2007
We decided to go with "1and1 " website hosting. However, it seems to be a little more complicated than anticipated. My question, We paid them to register our domain name. They do have a "90 day cancellation policy" If we cancel, do we still own the domain name, or do they? Does anybody else use this company.? Their phone help does appear to be in India or someother country.
-- Edited by Kelly at 05:47, 2007-07-31
RVDude said
08:12 AM Jul 31, 2007
kelly, if you cancel 1and1 they will probably simply return the domain name to the domain pool where it will probably have an automatic re-registration lock for a period of time (maybe 30-90 days). If you have a catchy domain, I'd first transfer it somewhere else before you cancel 1and1. It is standard practice that transfers and the like (for security and churning purposes) probably can not be done in the first 60-90 days of registration. Hence you have a potential Catch22.
Remember, there are two "hosting" things going on 1) hosting the domain name itself (with no web site attached) and 2) hosting a web site. Most places bundle these together for convenience. Hence, you can transfer your domain name (after the proper wait periods) to another registrar (someplace like godaddy.com - the largest registrar on the entire internet - for a domain hosting price of some $8/year and it even comes with a free web site attached) so that you continue to own and control your domain name. godaddy has some packages for instant web site building as well. godaddy is not the all-in-one resource that Howard uses (site-build-it) but it is a fraction of the cost as well. You will also get an Arizona based real person every time you call godaddy.
bjoyce said
10:23 AM Jul 31, 2007
On the question of who uses 1and1, Tioga George does for his Tioga George website. He seems happy with them. We are happy with Godaddy.com.
Kelly said
02:41 PM Jul 31, 2007
Thank you for the helpful responses. That explains why the domain name says "locked" and "cannot be edited" on the control panel. I will contact them and ask what the wait time is.
RVDude said
08:50 PM Jul 31, 2007
kelly: actually the term locked may mean something else. Most domain registrars will "lock" the editing of a domain name in the registry to prevent unscrupulous domain name thieves from cracking into the registry and changing the ownership details and thus taking control of the domain. In any case you will need to contact them to see what the process is for changing that info. The most important thing is that the ownership records have YOUR name and address (not the registrar’s) on them unless you have it registered anonymously. This stuff can get fairly complex real fast.
BTW What domain are we talking about, I can look up some of the info for you…
-- Edited by RVDude at 21:52, 2007-07-31
Kelly said
04:57 AM Aug 1, 2007
Thanks RVDude, The domain name: since this is all new to us, we managed to mess the very first step up !! We are thebayfieldbunch.com
When Al was signing up with 1and1 he was following along with their examples on how to register your name, they (for some reason) had hyphens inserted in these, so we ended up with the-bayfield-bunch.com When I called to ask them to take out the - they said we had to wait a certain amount of days to cancel that one, but to go ahead and register the correct one. Last night after looking over " sit build it" and go daddy, I think perhaps 1and1 is much the same, guess we will just go ahead with them and try not to complicate things any further. We have found someone who will come over (@$25/hr) and give us a hand setting things up with a bit of instruction.
DLSeeAmerica said
08:47 PM Sep 2, 2007
We've been using Freewebs (www.freewebs.com) for our website, but posting all our pictures to WebShots then linking to them to avoid using up our 41 Mb free storage at FreeWebs in a hurry. We're very pleased with the results, since we normally post a lot more pictures in the albums than we use on the blog.
Freewebs also has a multitude of page types in addition to the blog, including forms, web pages, surveys, and now even forums, so you can have a blog and lots of other items as well.
Nice blog Don & Lori. I went back and read from the beginning because if we can ever sell this house we'll have a similar situation like yours but we only have to travel from Florida to Georgia to pick up our new home.
jimdee said
10:21 PM Jan 21, 2008
While on chat, we were talking about doing blogs I just wanted to let everyone know I have one up and running. We are preparing for May 2012, but there's been a few things to prepare. If anyone else is hoping to go full time in the future, follow along. If you have ideas that we haven't thought of, please leave a comment.
http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/
Jim & Denyse
Froggi said
10:36 PM Jan 21, 2008
Thanks for the link, Jim & Denyse. I've added it to my Google Reader but may be a couple of days before I have a chance to read it. I'm in Q and right now my generator is off and my laptop battery is almost gone. <g>
Guiler85 said
07:45 AM Jan 22, 2008
Gotta jump in here. I, too, use Blogger and am very, very satisfied with the usability of it. When we first started full-timing, folks wanted us to set us a website for them to follow our travels. But then a friend of mine suggested blogging and I found Blogger. I've been using it for a couple of years now with no problems.
Our blog is a combination of comments on our travels and my various ramblings. Each entry usually has pictures which are very easily uploaded. You don't have to use Picasa, you can upload directly from your hard drive. Every once in a while there is a glitch in uploading pictures from my hard drive and then I use Picasa, but that's been a rare occurrence.
Whatever way you choose to go, have fun with it. I blog for my enjoyment more than for those who read it. And it's a great history for you when you want to stroll down memory lane!
We use Mytripjounal.com, it's easy to use and relatively inexpensive (approx. $80 yr.. Takes all the pictures we want and is easy to send out updates. Downside is that it can't be expanded to add additional pages for recipes or budgets.
All in all we find it satisfactory for now. We will probably migrate to something like Howard and Linda use in the future.
Fred
We roll our own because we know how and pay less than mytripjournal for a domain name and web hosting plan with oodles of space. I am not recommending it, but you can pay $3.39/month if you pay by the year and as little as $4/year for the domain name and have tons of room if you know how to run a web publishing program. My numbers came from http://www.ezwebs4u.com/. They have blogging tools, picture tools, databases and you have complete control and are in charge. But you have to know something to get started.
Blogger is free and if you download Picassa from Google you can post pictures easily and free. I think it is a great way to start and find out if you really are going to keep up a travel journal since all you are out is your time. Blogger is full of blogs that only ran a short while including many RVers who stopped updating.
You can step up to something paid later if you want, be it a service like mytripjournal (which I think fails to work well once your journal gets very long) or typepad. You then put a link to your old blog in your new one and go on. You can also read some books, experiment and do it like I do. Howard actually does both since he has his websites and his journal.
I am glad you asked the question. I have been thinking about doing something like that but haven't even known where to start. I have kept a journal since beginning full timing in December of 2004 and have a reader base that has grown to the point that sending it out via e-mail is becoming cumbersome to say the least. I think I would like to be able to expand to a full web site later because there are a lot of things I would like to do in addition to the journal. I will be watching the responses to your questions with great interest. Thanks for opening the line.
One approach is the complete web site in a box approach a. la. Howard which is a just-fill-in-the-blanks approach provided by services like Site-Build-It. But he is still blogging through typepad.com and Site-build-it links to his typepad.com blog.
Another option is general blog only service like those profiled here http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/category.jhtml?id=311
Yet another option is to create a blog using travel focused blog tools like travelblog.org, realtravel.com, travelpod.com, myjourneyblog.com, myworldjournal.com, and on and on and on...
You can also create a myspace.com site to post your thoughts and meanderings. Contrary to what you may think, MySpace is NOT just for kids...
Another is to roll your own complete site. Can be just ever so slightly more "difficult" than Site-Build-It. Don't laugh, but godaddy.com is the largest domain registrar on the entire net and offers no wait real person phone access. You can get a domain and a couple gigs of space for $10/year, add blogging for free w/ their advertising or pay $~20/year for no ads, you can add site-build-it like tools for another $~20/year to make it fill in the blank, and on and on. I have used them for years and host a dozen or so domains of all different service offerings from them. Pick the "I Need Help: Building A web Site" option in the middle of their home page godaddy.com for more info.
The hardest part is figuring out what you really want to do on the web and then stay focused in doing it - so many gadgets to distract you. Howard has done this focus exceptionally well and I suspect his web site now takes several hours every day to maintain at this point.
Would anyone be interested in working on creating an RV specific web site community destination something that works like MySpace for personal RV blogging, grouping/sharing/listing our personal links to all our numerous RV blogs and RV sites, and the like all focused on RVing? (Note this is NOT in competition to what each of us may already have out there, it is just a way to individually be able to group our collective RV web stuff together on a page for our personal easy access and to share it with the community only if we want.)
I've been asked this question A LOT, so I might as well put my typical answer on the Forum.
We use Typepad.com as mentioned. We have all the bells and whistles for $150 a year, but they do have other packages for about $60 a year. Our Typepad package gives me lots of flexibility and features that others probably don't need, but their basic package includes quite a few templates and is pretty easy to use.
Most of our readers that have their own RV travel blogs use either MyTripJournal.com or Blogger.com. Those more familiar with website construction create their own.
MyTripJournal has a couple of levels, but the top level gives you unlimited photo uploading for about $80 a year. It is specifically made for travel journals, it is promoted by Good Sams, it is extremely easy to use, you can get your blog easily archived and sent to you on CD, and the owners are good to work with. However, it has little flexibility on appearance and their policy does not allow advertising if you get really popular and want to pick up a few bucks. We started with MyTripJournal and switched to Typepad when our needs changed.
As stated, Blogger is free and does a fine job for most folks. There are lots of templates and it does have some flexibility. You can put limited Google ads on in pre-determined locations and formats, but we wanted more flexibility. Still, there are some very, very nice looking blogs created with this free option.
Site Build It was mentioned and that is the software we used to create RV-Dreams.com. It is excellent for simple step by step building of a website from scratch, but it is not a good blogging software for novices. It is the support and instruction behind Site Build It that makes it a great commercial website building tool - especially for beginners and those that don't mind putting in the time.
I've looked at a few other blogging softwares, but I by no means have done any major evaluations. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish, how often you intend to blog, whether you want to add photos, digital movie clips, sound, etc., and whether you think you will want ads down the road. Just be sure that whatever you choose provides you with enough server space or that you can upgrade your space if you are willing to pay down the road. Also, I would recommend using a well-known company with lots of users that is less likely to shut down and take all of your work and records with them. Good luck!
I meant to also say something about the readers of your blog or journal. Go out and look at various blogs and journals, a good place to find lots of them is Hitchitch at http://www.hitchitch.com/links.html . Look at the current content, how easy are the pictures to access (this is where I dislike mytripjournal, it takes multiple steps and the pictures load slowly as a reader), how easy is it to look at posts from a year back or when someone was in a certain spot (South Dakota as an example), and whatever else you want your readers to do. How often are your readers going to check the blog, daily, weekly, monthly, or when you send them an email? To get followed it must be easy for your readers and doing what you want, not just easy for you to create.
There are some blogs that are easy to use and read, some that look like art design projects that are hard to read or follow, some that are meant to be read today and forget yesterday, etc. Some are photo heavy, some are not, some are informative, some are mostly opinions. What do you want yours to look like? Find the ones you think your own readers will want yours to be like and you will have more success. You don't want your honest readers to tell you they rarely look at your blog because it is too slow, takes too long to download, doesn't tell them what they want to know, is hard to navigate, etc.
-- Edited by bjoyce at 11:26, 2006-12-08
Hi Bjoyce thanks for the site you posted, I visited it and lots of great blogs there also so now it is in one of my favorites....
southwestjudy & Bob & 2blackdogs
Does anybody else use this company.? Their phone help does appear to be in India or someother country.
-- Edited by Kelly at 05:47, 2007-07-31
Remember, there are two "hosting" things going on 1) hosting the domain name itself (with no web site attached) and 2) hosting a web site. Most places bundle these together for convenience. Hence, you can transfer your domain name (after the proper wait periods) to another registrar (someplace like godaddy.com - the largest registrar on the entire internet - for a domain hosting price of some $8/year and it even comes with a free web site attached)
so that you continue to own and control your domain name. godaddy has some packages for instant web site building as well. godaddy is not the all-in-one resource that Howard uses (site-build-it) but it is a fraction of the cost as well. You will also get an Arizona based real person every time you call godaddy.
We are happy with Godaddy.com.
BTW What domain are we talking about, I can look up some of the info for you…
-- Edited by RVDude at 21:52, 2007-07-31
Thanks RVDude, The domain name: since this is all new to us, we managed to mess the very first step up !! We are thebayfieldbunch.com
When Al was signing up with 1and1 he was following along with their examples on how to register your name, they (for some reason) had hyphens inserted in these, so we ended up with the-bayfield-bunch.com When I called to ask them to take out the - they said we had to wait a certain amount of days to cancel that one, but to go ahead and register the correct one.
Last night after looking over " sit build it" and go daddy, I think perhaps 1and1 is much the same, guess we will just go ahead with them and try not to complicate things any further.
We have found someone who will come over (@$25/hr) and give us a hand setting things up with a bit of instruction.
We've been using Freewebs (www.freewebs.com) for our website, but posting all our pictures to WebShots then linking to them to avoid using up our 41 Mb free storage at FreeWebs in a hurry. We're very pleased with the results, since we normally post a lot more pictures in the albums than we use on the blog.
Freewebs also has a multitude of page types in addition to the blog, including forms, web pages, surveys, and now even forums, so you can have a blog and lots of other items as well.
You can see how it works for us at http://www.freewebs.com/dlseeamerica
http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/
Jim & Denyse