Plenty of people are discovering blogging as a great way to have a website without the cost of having a website. Whether you feel passionately about an issue you want to rant about on the net or you want to post your family history research, your poetry or your latest travel journal and pictures, or you make hand tooled leather purses that you'd like to sell, blogging could be for you. And you can do it cheaply, if not for free, on any one of numerous blogging sites (Google free blogging sites).
We developed this blog (because we feel passionately about computing!!) using WordPress software, and host it on our own server. There are plenty of blogging sites out there that will host your blog for no charge using their easy-to-learn blog publishing tools that allow almost anyone to create and easily maintain a blog. You can even send blog posts via email, Facebook and Twitter!!
My favorite free blog site is Blogger. I have created blogs on Blogger for a number of writer friends who want to post stories or chapters of their books. Some (the lucky few who are published) use their blogs to keep fans posted on where they are doing readings and book signings.
I created and maintain a blog for my local garden club on Blogger. We post meeting minutes, pictures of events, a roster of officers, a listing of upcoming meetings and links of interest to gardeners. We also post recipes and links for member endeavors. Check us out at
http://burnettgardenclub.blogspot.com/
I helped my friend Mary with her blog on Blogger. She makes homemade soaps and is able to use her blog as her web presence which includes linking to PayPal's shopping cart program. Checkout her blog at
Now I have learned that you can make a book out of your blog postings! I think this is a fantastic idea especially for people who use their blog to post family stories and pictures. Just think of the great coffee table book you could make of you blog posting about your travels through Europe!! Here are a few links to companies that provide this service (we do not have experience with these companies so can't recommend any of them specifically):
http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook
http://blog2print.sharedbook.com
With CrexTechs' custom Mini-courses you too can learn to blog in no time!! Call or email for details.