A family blog is a family-focused web log on which family members can post text and photos pertaining to family events or musings. Setting up a family blog is not difficult, though filling the blog with interesting content can be a challenge. Most people start a family blog to allow friends and extended family to keep track of what is happening in the family's world, so you should not expect a lot of traffic at your blog unless you are producing some highly interesting or useful content that applies to the general public. To start, research the different blogging sites available to you and choose the format that is easiest to work with.
Many blog services are free, though others do charge. The difference between a free service and a pay service is usually the features: many free blog services offer limited template options, meaning your blog will look similar to many other blogs on the Internet. Pay services often offer countless blog templates that are much flashier and easier to navigate. They may also have extra features that will make your website more interesting to look at, meaning visitors will be more likely to spend more time on your blog.
Regardless of the blog service you choose, starting the family blog once you have decided on a service is fairly easy. Most blog services will walk you through the process of getting your site set up with a title and header, as well as an easy-to-read format. From there, you will need to provide the content of the family blog site. This may mean posting updates on the kids' activities, the dad's new job, the mom's promotion, or even an update on a family trip to the coast. Make your posts on the family blog more interesting by inserting photos and videos; this is fairly easy to do on most blog sites, as the posting screen will feature buttons that will allow you to upload media.
If you want to make your family blog more interesting for the general public, consider coming up with a theme for your blog. Some themes include parenting advice, which allows you the opportunity to tell would-be parents what has worked and what hasn't during the child rearing phases. Other themes may include family vacation planning success, dealing with loss of a loved one, educating the children — a very good choice if your child has a learning disability from which other parents can learn — and even applying for colleges and dealing with empty nest syndrome.
