# Suggestions for blog software



## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

I am really not into 'social media'. I don't have a facebook or twitter account - but I would like some sort of online diary. I see several of you have links to you own personal blogs as part of your signatures.

I'd prefer something free - but I would like my own domain as well. So something in the $30USD/year would be ok. I really don't care about comments etc. But I would like to be able to post photos.

I would like the content copyrighted (who knows). I used Evernote for a couple years but that isn't really what I am looking for. I'd rather my content not show up every night in a new google sweep.

For example - we visited SRE this morning and had a great experience - but many of you really have no interest in that and I'd rather not inflict you with that. I'd like to record my experiences and if you are interested open my story. Make sense ?

So - given all that - any suggestions ? wordpress versus weebly versus ?

Thanks


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

So just to clarify - I can make a post along the lines of "Had my first taste of mezcal today' - say very little if anything more - and include a link to my new blog - yes/no ? Without breaking anyone's rules ?


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Gatos said:


> So just to clarify - I can make a post along the lines of "Had my first taste of mezcal today' - say very little if anything more - and include a link to my new blog - yes/no ? Without breaking anyone's rules ?


You cannot include a link to your own blog in a post unless someone specifically asks about it. You can include a link to your blog in your signature.

In response to your original question, I do pretty much what you are proposing. I have a site where I post my thoughts on various issues. It started out to be about my experiences in the Peace Corps in Mexico, but now I just add to it about whatever topic moves me. I have my own domain name that is hosted at an ISP for a $6 or $7 usd/month. I use a database that I built myself to store and display the articles so I can't help with software suggestions.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

Wordpress is the standard blog software and it is free. It has literally thousands of plugins (most are free, some have a onetime cost) to modify it to suit your needs if the out-of-the-box version doesn't do all you want.
A domain name (ie - gatos.com) costs $14 per year and a hosting account (a place to park your domain and host wordpress) costs $5-10 per month.

If you don't care about having a name like gatos.com you could get free blog at blogspot.com and your blog URL would be something like gatos.blogspot.com. You can't customize it much but it's free and it's easy to set up if you are not very techy.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

I've been with Google Blogspot since 2004 in anticipation of moving to Mexico. My template is totally customized but it's a lot of work and tricky. I find it very easy to work with and their stock templates are pretty good and lots of them


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## Bodega (Apr 20, 2016)

*Travel blog*

My wife and I are not tech savvy, but, on a recent, extended trip in Spain, we posted details and photos of our activities on Weebly. We chose the base (Free!!) option, and were totally happy with the ease of using it. As with all such sites, there are many upgrades available for a fee, and I suspect that the things you mention will be in the upgrade area. I can only testify to the user friendliness of the site, and I give it a huge thumbs up.


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## The Grocer (May 30, 2010)

I also think BLOGSPOT is a good programme.
Used it for the last 7 years...

Rosie-Dog


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Thank you all for your suggestions.

If I may - I would like to change my requirements just a smidge.

I found this useful software (IDailyDiary) which does a great job. But On top of that I would like to add a calendar where I could set alarms.

Say today I go to the doctor and get an appointment 3 months in the future. I'd like to record today's visit (and other events) AND get an alarm prior to the next appointment.

Any ideas ?


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

I have a calendar right here, next to my elbow. I jot thing in the appropriate places. Works for me.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

Re: "I would like the content copyrighted (who knows)."
I would like the content copyrighted (who knows). 

Anything original you write and publish is automatically copyrighted, in the U.S. anyway (even if published outside the U.S. The copyright sign is not needed.

You'll have your date of publication protects you if anyone ever steals whole segments of what you wrote.

You CANNOT however copyright an idea. There have been plenty of examples of plagiarism, much easier to discover nowadays with software that can detect it -- especially popular with college professors.

As far as I recalled, people who get even wide selections of their work plagiarized never get monetary damages. If someone tried to pass off a book, that would be actionable.

Hollywood studios are the most vulnerable to lawsuits of stealing scripts. That's why all studies never even open scripts submitted on spec, in fear that if they ever make a movie with a similar idea, they could get sued. You have to go through an agent. Publishing houses have a lesser fear but I believe most of eliminated the "slush fund" of unsolicited manuscript, out of young editors occasionally found a gem. I used to be more involved but I believe they return all unsolicited manuscripts now. You also need an agent.

Most legitimate agents themselves are deluged with manuscripts and many won't open one without a recommendation from someone.

There is also another class of agents who charge to read your manuscript. Again, not involved for past five years, but such agents usually made 99 percent of their income from what they charged from reading manuscripts, i.e., they sold nothing.

Of course, if you have to produce a wildly popular blog, that would make you interesting enough to agents to read your stuff.

If you think you can write something that will have widespread appeal, it's worth the $200 to $300 to set up a professional site that can integrate advertising that might appeal to your blog readers seemingly into your blog. Two types, if a read just clicks on the advertising link, you get paid, though not much. In others, you get paid if people purchase from links on your blog.

If just meanderings for family and friends, the free version is best. You can always upgrade.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Thanks for the reply - the truth is I really don't like to write and I'm not very good at it - but I would like to record my experiences (and their outcomes). I do have some very unusual stories I could tell.

I've never published anything - well except in some sort of corporate wide magazine or such. I have gone down the US patent road a handful of times. Fortunately for me I was assigned a patent lawyer each time. We would have interviews and I would describe my (our) invention - the lawyer would go away for a month and perform an exhaustive search making sure our work was original - at times we had to defend that it was. Then the lawyer would take his/her notes and write up a draft. Often a lawyer with an engineering degree could really turn some of the ideas upside down to the point they were comical. I believe on one patent it was claimed that I invented the personal computer - or at least the various devices you could use to input information into a computer


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

sparks said:


> I've been with Google Blogspot since 2004 in anticipation of moving to Mexico. My template is totally customized but it's a lot of work and tricky. I find it very easy to work with and their stock templates are pretty good and lots of them


I also use Google Blogspot, but only since 2006. Once set up and once I got the hang of it, it's usually pretty easy. I haven't been active much lately due in part to Google's gutting of Picasa Web Albums, which had been the base of my image sharing.


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## DebInFL (Dec 1, 2016)

In my experience, I've used both the free Wordpress.com and Blogger, and I chose Blogger for several reasons. 

*Use of domain name: *Blogger - Free Wordpress.com - charges a fee, so no longer 100% free.
*Themes:* Blogger has literally thousands of free themes online that are very easy to use. Wordpress.com does not allow you to use outside themes, and has a limited selection of free themes.
*Monetization: *Adsense is owned by Blogger, so it's fast and easy to set up on Blogger. They also have an agreement with Amazon, so Amazon widgets are easy too. You can actually use ANY affiliate links and ANY affiliate banners you want on Blogger as long as you don't go overboard. I don't know the specifics on Wordpress, but I'm pretty sure this isn't possible.
*Ease of use:* I found Wordpress to be much more difficult to learn to use then Blogger with no HTML knowledge. If you do have HTML & CSS knowledge, Blogger allows you to tweak their template code. You can't do that with Wordpress.com.

I tried learning Wordpress.org on a paid space, but it was a PITA to be honest. I'm still on Blogger and will probably never leave.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

DebInFL said:


> In my experience, I've used both the free Wordpress.com and Blogger, and I chose Blogger for several reasons.
> 
> *Use of domain name: *Blogger - Free Wordpress.com - charges a fee, so no longer 100% free.
> *Themes:* Blogger has literally thousands of free themes online that are very easy to use. Wordpress.com does not allow you to use outside themes, and has a limited selection of free themes.
> ...


Just to clarify DebinFL's post. Wordpress is a piece of software that you install and run on your own server with almost 75 million websites using it. It has literally millions of free themes and thousands of plugins, most free but some paid, that give it functionality to do just about anything. It is by far the most widely used blog and content management system on the internet and is customizeable to an almost ridiculous degree but you need to know what you are doing. Wordpress.org is the URL for accessing the Wordpress software and plugin downloads and other related info.

On the other hand, wordpress.com is a web service similar to Blogspot and Blogger, where you create your blog through their service. Most folks who want that type of service use Blogspot or Blogger for the reasons mentioned in Deb's post.


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