Set Up Your Family Blog

• 1). Consider your blog options to begin setting up a family blog. Base your choice of blogging platform on your computer and Internet expertise, how many family members and others are going to post news. pictures and other content on the family blog and the time and expense you can dedicate to it.
  Look at the best blogs about families you can find for ideas on layout, graphics, navigation and how they're presenting family news and history, as well as their use of photos and other media.
  
  
• 2). Sign up for either Wordpress.com or Blogger if you have some Internet experience and want to get started quickly and easily. These free online blogging platforms offer a simple control panel for posting and managing content, a palette of features to add interactivity and variety to your family blog,and they'll host it on services such as Blogspot, as well.
  Their basic features you'll find useful are editing tools for styling and spell-checking blog postings, templates for choosing an attractive and colorful appearance, group blogging options for enabling contributions from other family members, and an RSS feed so anyone can subscribe and automatically receive your most recent family news.
  Stay abreast of new features added regularly when using one of these services.
  
  
• 3). Register for a free or low-cost family social website service if you want a turnkey online family connection site. These have features such as a separate blog section, secure access that you can control, events tracking and calendaring for keeping everyone up-to-date on reunions and other family functions, file sharing to distribute videos, music or photo albums and other functions, such as online file backup, realtime chat and genealogical services.
  Add even more to your family website with advanced features like slideshows, a family forum, group email tools and a family location map.
  
  
• 4). Join the social network revolution and use one of the popular websites, such as Facebook or MySpace, to set up your own family network.
  Use the Private Family Group function available on Facebook to create a secret Group and invite any family member to join, whether they're in Facebook or not. This enables you to use the many features available on Facebook, such as photo/video sharing, gifting, chat and event notification and management, among others.