Grandma lives on one coast, Grandpa on the other. You’ve got
aunts in Florida and friends in Chicago. Meanwhile, at home, your
little ones are growing and getting cuter every day. How can you
keep everyone up-to-date on all their antics?
Grandma lives on one coast, Grandpa on the other. You’ve got aunts in Florida and friends in Chicago. Meanwhile, at home, your little ones are growing and getting cuter every day. How can you keep everyone up-to-date on all their antics?
Thanks to the Internet and digital photography, no one has to miss a minute. With a family blog, a video of Junior blowing out his birthday candles can make it around the world in a blink. And any mom or dad can get it done.
Step No. 1: Choose a photo and video hosting site
Keeping track of kids means taking a lot of photos. You need a place to keep them all. Most of the big names in photo hosting make it easy to “post” your photos on your blog. Nearly all offer their basic level of service for free. Start there, and take them for a test drive.
Then, start uploading. Getting your entire library of photos and videos up on the Web is easier and faster than you may think. Picasa will locate all the photos on your hard drive, and organize them before your eyes. DropShots offers “drag and drop” ease and automatically arranges your pictures and videos by the date and time stamp encoded with each file – a great way to watch those little ones grow.
Step No. 2: Choose a home for your blog
A blog doesn’t have to be about political rantings or inane personal minutiae. It can be the perfect place for you and your family to post and share stories, videos and photos – and many sites let you do it for free.
Most sites get you up and running in just a few simple steps. You’ll be able to name your blog, select its Internet address and customize the layout with different colors and text.
What about security? Check with your blog provider. You may have the option to keep your blog private, or secure it with a password.
Step No. 3: Decide what to write about
It’s a bulletin board. It’s the front of your fridge. A blog is simply an online journal. It’s a great place to keep track of milestones. But sometimes it’s the crazy, little stuff of every day that you’ll wish you’d kept better track of. Now you can, and it’ll never be forgotten. All blogs archive your past posts. And, better than a paper journal, a blog opens up a world of multimedia. (No bronzing for me … I uploaded a picture of my son’s first shoe and posted it on my family blog, with a link back to striderite.com!) When your kids get bigger, and the milestones fewer and farther between, your blog can be a safe place to give them their own online voice. My 9-year-old got a digital camera for her birthday, and she’s been wowing our audience with her unique perspective.
Step No. 4: Share
Put together an e-mailing list of everyone who’ll be interested in your family blog, and send them a note when you’ve posted something new. Some services, such as blogarithm.com, will let your viewers “subscribe” to your blog, and they’ll get e-mail updates whenever something’s changed.
Step no. 5: Encourage all to get in on the fun
Blogger lets you invite friends and family to be “contributors” to your blog. They’ll have access to post their own stories and photos. And the “comments” feature is a great way to get a discussion going. Soon, you and your family will be sending stories, pictures and video zipping through cyberspace. The miles will melt away, and you’ll all feel more connected than ever.
Local blogs
Check out these local blogs – on everything from parenting and the workplace, to food reviews and pet care – and contribute to the conversation.
– isoars.com/www/clients/editorial/petsblog
– mothermusings.wordpress.com
– www.lauriesontag.com
– www.svmoms.com
– en.wordpress.com/tag/south-county
– melissagoodtaste.blogspot.com
Well-known parenting blogs on the Web
mom2my6pack.Blogspot.com
What it’s about: This blogging mom juggles six kids and still has a great sense of humor. With hilarious pictures of gooey-faced babies and toddlers who got creative with Q-tips, this blog focuses on the funny side of being a mom.
popularbaby products.com
What it’s about: The site reviews popular baby products and posts notices about giveaways and discounts parents would want to know about.
karencheng.Com.au
What it’s about: This Australian mummy covers just about everything in her blog with features on food, fashion, parenting, art & design, online shopping and life in general.
joeprah.com
What it’s about: A kooky stay-at-home dad who blogs to stay … sane? Semi-sane? In his words: “Joeprah fights for injustice perpetrated on dads and especially stay-at-home dads. Joeprah also has an amazing sense of style and panache … LOL, jk, Joeprah has neither of those but rather a witty sense of humor and dashing good looks. Word.”
STAYING SAFE ONLINE
– You want to personalize your blog but never offer any personal information, including your last name, contact information, home address, phone numbers, school’s name, e-mail address, last names of friends or relatives, instant messaging names, age or birth date. It’s too tempting for online criminals. And identity theft is a serious – and all too real – risk.
– Err on the side of safety when it comes to choosing a blogging provider site. The host should have a clearly stated terms of use. They should ensure that they can protect the actual blogs, not just the user accounts, with password protection.
– Learn from others’ mistakes and assume that anything you publish on the Web is permanent. Anyone on the Internet can easily print out a blog or picture or save it to a computer.
– Be sure that any image you post does not reveal any of your personal information and always check the background of a picture. You might think that it’s just a picture of your kids playing in the yard and not realize that your mailbox with your name and house number is just behind them.
– Follow the age-old Mom-ism: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Bloggers like Perez Hilton may have hit it big by being blogging jerks but they pay for it with lawsuits and hate mail. Keep your blog positive and stay away from slandering or attacking others.
