we are livaboards from march,,so need to start a blog, but which one is best

[ribrage]

Id love to say I was interested in the technicalities of photography, Im not , I just point and click (set to auto) its picture heavy as Id rather SEE what or where some one is than to read about it - a wiser man than me said a picture paints a thousand words - I think he was right

its fairly easy to imbed a picture into the blog by using a photobucket acount , you just upload the few pictures you want on the blog whenever you have a café wifi and then use the codes conveniently situated by the side of the picture and some clever jiggery pokery provided by sailblogs means the picture appears on the blog ...TA DA

As for Nelson my boxer yeah he loves it on the boat , but he has been living on board from 6 weeks old so is used to all the noises and stupidity of getting ashore in the rib and takes it in his stride, once he is on the beach he switches into mental boxer dog for thirty mins until hes burnt out and then calms back down, hes good fun and an excuse to get out more often.

 

[petedg]

Also this is worth a look/try:

http://www.weebly.com/

+1, although for videos and additional stats you have to pay.

 

[TQA]

Is BlogSpot the one through Google

YES and the photos go on Picasa which is also free and good.

 

[Fantasie 19]

I use Google Blogspt. It is easy to use, the pictures get held in Picasa, NB this is important for techy reason which I will not go into BORING BORING !

See http://sailingonelephantschild.blogspot.com/ for mine.

BTW I am a retired IT pro so could do it the hard way but Blogspot is better.

+1 from me... mine in my sig... important to mention it's entirely free as well.. no cost for web space or pictures...

 

[sailorgirl]

I use Google Blogspt. It is easy to use, the pictures get held in Picasa, NB this is important for techy reason which I will not go into BORING BORING !

See http://sailingonelephantschild.blogspot.com/ for mine.

BTW I am a retired IT pro so could do it the hard way but Blogspot is better.

+ another one for Blogspot from another IT bod who likes an easy life! Best cos its free and you can post by email from your smartphone when out and about on land or via sat phone at sea (we use MailaSail for our satphone connection as it compresses the text). And if you ever wanted to raise a bit of cash you can take up their offer to have ads embedded but not done that so no idea how much if anything you might make! Plenty of templates for the layout and you can make your own if so inclined (I'm not see my first sentence).

S

 

[Artic Warrior]

Happy new year to you all,

and thank you very much for the info,

I will give the BlogSpot a go

Colin

 

[Artic Warrior]

I use Google Blogspt. It is easy to use, the pictures get held in Picasa, NB this is important for techy reason which I will not go into BORING BORING !

See http://sailingonelephantschild.blogspot.com/ for mine.

BTW I am a retired IT pro so could do it the hard way but Blogspot is better.

Is this right thou, if I was to use BlogSpot and my friends don't know my http they cant just do a search through BlogSpot as it requires for them to sign in to find me,?

Does that make sense

 

[John_Silver]

Googling something close to the title finds the blog....or you can e mail some links round ...... I find blogspot easy to use off the laptop and easier still on the move via smartphone....If posting by smartphone you can upload pix straight off the phone with no need to upload to picassa first....http://allatseawithstargazer.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[bobgarrett]

Have a look at http://www.sailblogs.com/

 

[Artic Warrior]

Googling something close to the title finds the blog....or you can e mail some links round ...... I find blogspot easy to use off the laptop and easier still on the move via smartphone....If posting by smartphone you can upload pix straight off the phone with no need to upload to picassa first....http://allatseawithstargazer.blogspot.co.uk/

Im just trying some experiments regarding finding blogs,,
Using sailblog seems to work the easiest so far,,,

Sorry to be a pain, but only want to do it once hee hee

 

[dratsea]

Another vote for BlogSpot:

www.Ytsarajane.blogspot.com

 

[Melleman]

Her is my wifes blog.
http://rollinwithcarro.wordpress.com
She likes Wordpress.

 

[jdc]

Several different hosts have been mentioned, but reasons to prefer one over another seem few and far between. So features I think are essential are;

1. you can upload a blog over a very low bandwidth link, like 2.4 kbaud! This means in practice that any web based interface (eg Facebook) is completely ruled out. You have to be able to send a new entry by text only email.

2. That text only entry should be parsed automatically by the site to give a visual display of position on a map or Google Earth.

3. You must be able to attach photographs easily, as easily as sending an email, rather than having to use some proprietary editing software (you may need to update the blog on the boat or from a borrowed computer or from a smart-phone or a Net Cafe).

4. Your family or friends must be able to subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog.

For those who are always in town or in marinas these limitations are less important, but if you spend weeks mid-ocean, or in high latitudes, or remote islands you will need them.

I like blog.mailasail.com, and note that the Chandlers do also, as do many others who sail to remote places. However I don't suppose it's unique - maybe most offer these features.

What I think completely irrelevant is whether it's free or not. Avoiding the pestilence of advertisements and their hogging of the bandwidth you pay for is paramount, and probably financially sound as well. I do pay for mailasail, but it's a tiny amount compared to the Iridium subscription and is good value imho.

PS: and paying for the hosting avoids any issues with the host appropriating your copyright.

 

[Aquarella]

I use blogspot, it's easy, and free and you can be quite creative with the layout. You can choose to let relevant ads be placed on the page or not, it's up to you.

 

[GHA]

1. you can upload a blog over a very low bandwidth link, like 2.4 kbaud! This means in practice that any web based interface (eg Facebook) is completely ruled out. You have to be able to send a new entry by text only email.

Actually, you can update Facebook via email..
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20103506-285/update-facebook-status-via-e-mail/
So if you wanted to offshore it should be easy to cc and post to the blog and Facebook with the same email.
I added a Google map to blogger and updated position push pins over satphone offshore via ftp, but it was a fiddle and can't even remember how I did it now, must be an easier way.

 

[jordanbasset]

We used to use Sailblogs when we were on the boat, very easy to use and set up, no costs for the basics
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/serenmor/

As we moved to a caravan and moving around on land thought it was not appropriate so migrated to wordpress
http://lamputtsonland.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/barcelona-pictures/
My wife writes all our blogs and she found wordpress a lot more difficult initially, not so intuitive. But now she is used to it she prefers it.

 

[Artic Warrior]

PS: and paying for the hosting avoids any issues with the host appropriating your copyright.[/QUOTE]

I did wonder about the copyright issues,
as the book Im going to write based on our travels by sea and land will make Millions of coarse and I was concerned about copyright....: )

 

[capnsensible]

PS: and paying for the hosting avoids any issues with the host appropriating your copyright.

I did wonder about the copyright issues,
as the book Im going to write based on our travels by sea and land will make Millions of coarse and I was concerned about copyright....: )[/QUOTE]

Don't forget to check the spelling..........

 

[chuckr]

we set up sailblogs but never used it -- i think

we find folks have to do something to go to the blog -- and what we find is people just don't bother after a while

we decided to use a combination of facebook and a diatribe/newletter instead -- we have gotten good response from the diatribes as we keep them to 2 pages of microsoft word and a bunch of pics -
it works for us

 

[GHA]

we find folks have to do something to go to the blog -- and what we find is people just don't bother after a while

we decided to use a combination of facebook and a diatribe/newletter instead

Probably a good way to go. Face book is great for an occasional "we're here" which can put you in touch with boats you have met a while ago who happen to be nearby, and the photo album I find useful as people might actually see the pics
Blogs seem a bit better when you're on the go on an offshore passage or on a mission to get somewhere.
I've just started playing around with Wordpress as well, which seems a bit more adaptable.