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

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.

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!   

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

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!

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, 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.

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. 

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.
       
 

I'm another Blogger.Com user.  Works for me!

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