How to Start Your Daddy Blog
July 6th 2007 by Dr.MOZ in Fatherhood, GoodFather Fridays, New Parents, Tech and Web

Dear Dr.MOZ,
I’m a soon-to-be dad and I have one for the GoodFather if he takes “techie” questions. I’d like to create a daddy blog to post baby pictures and provide updates for the family, but I don’t want to spend money on it and I’m not what you would call a “computer guy”. All my geek friends have different opinions on which blogging software to use…and there seem to be a lot of possibilities. What do you think daddy Don?
Cheers,
Carlos
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Hello Carlos,
I’m glad you came to me with this. Don’t worry about your geeky friends…geeks talk
when they should listen. I’ve combed through the blog publishing system options for you based on your budget and computer experience and have prepared a “Pros” and “Cons” list to help you get started. There are many other possibilities, but most will agree that these are the two of best free blog publishing systems you can find.
Blogger: Owned and operated by Google, Blogger is one of the most user-friendly publishing systems available. They also host your blog free of charge.
– Blogger Pros: Totally free, no hosting fees, start blogging instantly, mobile blogging features
- Blogger Cons: Design features are very limited compared to other options, your url will include “.blogspot.com” as in www.yourblogname.blogspot.com
– Recommendation: Use Blogger if you want to have a free blog with simple design that is easy to use.
Wordpress: Wordpress is a fantastic (and free) publishing system, and as you’ll will see in this Wordpress themes page there are a huge number of theme options to choose from. You will need to pay to host a Wordpress blog if you want to use your own domain name (like www.DearDrMOZ.com), but it will be free if you are okay with “.wordpress” being included as part of your address as in “www.yourblogname.wordpress.com”
- Wordpress Pros: Great collection of pre-designed themes (or skins), free blogging and hosting available, posting is easy to do and too many features to list
- Wordpress Free Account Cons: Set-up takes a little work for a new user, but not quite as difficult as it might appear, your url will include “.wordpress.com” as in yourname.wordpress.com
– Recommendation: Use Wordpress if you want many design options and you plan to build a more sophisticated blog in the future. If you choose Wordpress and want your own domain name, there are many useful tutorials available online to help you install the necessary files like this great one from Solostream.
Thanks for your question Carlos and let us know when your daddy blog goes up in the future!
The GoodFather






