Start Your Own Blog

I have spent the past week searching for RVing and camping blogs. Apparently, not many Casita owners have blogs. There's a wealth of info on the two Casita forums (Casita Club and Casita Forum) but very few links to individual blogs.


I suspect their are two reasons for this: 1) concerns for privacy, and 2) not knowing exactly how to go about starting or maintaining a blog.  Depending on your comfort level, you always have the option to NEVER include your last name (only a nickname or web persona), home address, or telephone number in pages which are displayed on line.

Now, the easy way to have a blog. Blogger, the site I'm using, is from Google, free, easy to set up or change, and has pretty good help included. There are a number of additional (free) gadgets to add to your blog too. When we're traveling (and of course when I'm home), I have my computer on my lap (on a slotted lap desk). I use Windows Live Writer (free) to create my blog entries as we're driving alone so I don't forget any details (I'm just riding). I can save drafts, spell check, add photos, and adjust the publish date to the actual date of the experience or set it to 'publish' at a future date/time. When I've finished with my blog entry, I hit publish and Windows Live Writer logs into Blogger and publishes what I've conveniently written when I was off line. I also save all my photos in Picasa, another freeby from Google. Windows Live Writer will accept photos directly from your computer, but I prefer to have the selected photos in my blog directly linked to the entire photo album in Picasa (usually too many photos to put in the blog). My only delay in publishing a blog entry is getting my photos uploaded to Picasa first.  In addition to Picasa, I use a pretty good free photo editing software called Zoner Photo Studio which I can access directly from within Picasa which has more photo editing options, such as reduce the size or add a frame or shadow or add text/copyright. And if you're not including photos, you can simply email your message to your blog without even going to the blog.

You don't have to post a daily blog if you don't want to 'discuss' that much of your personal daily life on the web (or if it's just boring like mine). As I've done here, you CAN share the great sights or camping spots you've found, the modifications you made to your Casita (or RV), and anything you'd like.  I've spent a lot of time looking for RV'ing and camping blogs but was getting a bit overwhelmed. . .until I discovered (wait for it. . . another free Google program) called Google Reader.  I've even set it to my home page in my browser. I just open my Fox Fire and the Reader finds any new blog posts from all the blogs on my watch list. Many blogs have a Subscribe To link which easily lets you add an RSS feed to Google Reader.  If no button is available to easily add the "feed", manually add the blog address. I just LOVE watching my computer work for me!

So, get busy letting the rest of us inquiring minds who want to know what you're doing with your Casita (or RV) — the good, the bad, and the ugly. I admit I'm lazy, I have no interest in re-inventing the wheel so I want to learn from others' experience to save my time, money, and energy but still live (travel and camp) as comfortably as possible.

Let me know if you start a blog so I can display your link in my Favorites list on this blog.  If you have problems or questions about getting started with or maintaining a blog, let me know — I'll give you whatever help I can.