When it comes to family blogs, you have to decide if you want to open your blog to public viewing or keep it restricted to those you invite.

Public Blogs

People like public blogs because you can search for old friends and if they have a blog, voila! You can connect. There are many public blog services available, making it accessible to anyone who has a computer.

People also like public blogs because you can subscribe to a blog feed. A blog feed allows you to enter the URLs of any website you frequently visit, and when you visit your feed page, you can see at a glance who has updated any content to their blog or web page. (Most private blogs cannot be added to blog feeds.) You can keep track of your favorite blog feeds with tools like Google Reader or Bloglines.

If you have no reservations about having what you put on a blog seen by literally anyone in the entire world, a public blog is a good way to go.

Cautions with a Public Family Blog

Anyone, truly ANYONE, can stumble on your site. Our friends posted a funny picture of their 2-year old playing with his plastic golf clubs in the backyard while he was naked. The picture was censored but the blog title was “Naked Golfer.” They discovered that all sorts of weirdos were visiting their site who had done a Google search using those key words. Needless to say, they ended up deleting that post. Blog stalkers are a reality.

If you have a public blog, keep the information as generic as possible. Try to avoid using first and last names, street addresses, other contact information like email, physical descriptions, or things like genealogical information. You don’t want to make it possible for blog stalkers to put two and two together and end up on your doorstep.

We’re not trying to scare you but rather just to caution: be smart about what you say. Some people go to the extreme of identifying family members by their initials or referring to their children as “the boy” or “the kids.” Many people don’t worry about it that much. With the millions of blogs out there, it’s easy to gamble on the chance that the weirdos probably will not find you. However, Google and other search engines will find your blog eventually and then it will be at the finger tips of anyone with Internet access.

Advantages of a Private Family Blog

If you are concerned about weirdos reading about your kid’s birthday party or looking at your family photos, you may want to consider a private blog.

Obviously, privacy is a big motivator for those of us who go that route and was one of the reasons we built Family Says in the first place.

With a private family blog, you have more control over who is looking at the things you put out there. You still have all the benefits of blogging but not as many of the risks.

Private family blogs generally require a user name and password. The good news with this is that friends and family tend to respect your desire for privacy so it’s generally not too much of an issue.

With a family, you’ll probably want to have multiple authors so that mom, dad, and maybe the kids can all share their own thoughts on the blog.

Nuclear Family vs. Extended Family

Your immediate family may only have a few people that would be authors on your blog. If that is the case, your blog only needs to support just a handful of authors. Be careful when investigating options, not all blogging services let you have more than one author.

If you want your entire extended family to share a blog, make sure your blogging service supports numerous authors. Here at FamilySays.com we have a “Family Reunion” plan that can have up to 50 authors, which should be enough to cover a large extended family.

We’ve used our extended family website to replace the traditional printed newsletter we had for years. The family blog gives people the opportunity to share news and events when they happen instead of having to go through the coordination hassle of a family newsletter.

“What would be the competitive advantage of this website as compared to a family blog?”

Our Family Says service is, at its core, a family blog. A primary advantage Family Says has over other blog providers is privacy. With our service your site isn’t accessible to the unknown public scattered across the Internet. You control who sees your site and your personal family news.

Family Says is free from advertising banners and other intrusive commercial marketing. Your site is for your family and private discussion and shouldn’t be covered in distracting ads.

Simplicity is one of our founding principles. Our service is so easy to use that great-grandfathers can use it. Family Says is ideal for baby boomers whose families are now scattered across the country or even the world. We already have people using Family Says in Korea, Japan, and Portugal to keep in touch with their families and friends here in the States.

Thanks for your question. It was a great way for us to reflect on the things that are important to us that we hope are also important to you.

I think that privacy on the Internet is somewhat discounted when it comes to the extreme popularity of blogging. It’s so common for the younger generation to have “their space” that they share freely with friends and use to look up acquaintances. But for some of us in older generations, we aren’t quite ready to give up our privacy like that.

We like the idea of sharing thoughts and feelings in a way that used to be reserved for the daily diary but hesitate because that puts a lot of us out there. The feeling could be compared to running through the grocery store naked. Thankfully, Family Says stands ready to hand those seeking privacy a proverbial pair of shorts.

I’m glad that I have friends who share glimpses of their lives with me via blogs, but I am also glad that when I share glimpses of my life that I have complete control over who sees what I’m sharing. It helps to foster the intimate feeling that I hope people feel when I share daily struggles and triumphs.

I have to wonder how many others there are out there, like myself, who view themselves as private people. Listen up: Family Says is for you! Join in the fun! Here at Family Says, private means private.

His letter, in part, read:

“Thanks so much for all you have done to make this such a viable commodity for all of us! It’s great!…especially when oldsters like us can navigate through the program.”

There seem to be many people out there who don’t consider themselves computer savvy and don’t have the resources to join the technological world, as much as they might want to. This isn’t too shocking, given the fact that the majority of all things Internet have developed in the last 15 years at a rapid rate.

One of the prime reasons we focused our efforts on making Family Says easy to use was due to the large number of our family members who were intimidated by the computer and online technology. They have all been surprised by how easy it’s been for them to participate in online family conversations and relieved that they have been able to join the “in” crowd.

We love hearing comments like this because it reinforces the point that Family Says can level the playing field for family members of all abilities and levels, as this great-grandpa (as well as all of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren) illustrate. I mean, we knew it for ourselves, but it’s nice to hear it from others, too!

How often do you see ads that are flashing and annoying? Probably too often.

We feel that your Family Says website should be a sanctuary from the non-stop attack of banner ads and gimmicks you often find online. Even though families are a great demographic for targeted ads, we want you to have a distraction free family website.

You should be able to share your latest family news or pictures without seeing or being influenced by unrelated, irreverent, or annoying third-party advertisements.

So sit back and enjoy your ad-free zone.