Resources for On-line Diarists, Bloggers and E-Journal

Many people enjoy keeping journals and diaries. Keeping a journal online allows the writer to receive feedback from readers. Many journals online are purely cathartic--personal thoughts set out for private comsumption. Some have a theme or a subject. Weblogs differ slightly from journals. Weblogs began as a diary of weblinks with the writers commments on each. Bloggers cringe at being lumped in with diarys and journals but, the lines have become blurred between these distinctions and what is really a journal is often called a weblog.

Easy Online Diarys, Weblogs. and Journal Sites

Set up your online journal or weblog in less than 10 minutes. Very easy for first time users.

Livejournal.com

Choose your own colours, fonts, linked or supplied graphics. Payed members have more flexible layout options. No image storage. View multiple entries on one page. Subscribe to other livejournal sites and become part of a community. Extensive member search has been unavailable for some time now.

Example: mereluster

Diaryland.com
View one entry at a time. Some storage for images. Pages are very customisable. Past entries are viewed in a list of links. Rather juvenile looking website homepage.

Example: nitewender

Xanga.com
Very easy. No image storage. View multiple entries on one page. Choose your colours, fonts and linked graphics but limited layout customisation. Free URL looks like: "www.xanga.com/myweblog". Pay  for personal URL. Readers can leave 'eprops' and comments. Use interest search or webrings to find members. Members can subscribe to other sites for instant updates. Offers B2B Weblogs.

Example: Justcinful

Opendiary
Claims to be the first on-line diary site on the net. One entry at a time viewed. Leave comments on friends sites. Limited layout options. Very easy for first time users.

Example: Spotch

Private Diary and Journal Sites

A place for your private thoughts not meant for public viewing.

Oprah.com

Oprah offers a place for your private journal. No images.
Also has a 'gratitude journal' open to all who wish to contribute.

Weblogs and Journals for those comfortable with advanced site building.

For those who like to customize, tweak and control.

Blogger.com

Blogger offers very easy to set up templates for the first time user but is very customisable for the advanced blogger. Blogger blogs can be stored at Blogspot.com or may be kept on the user's server provided they have ftp access. Bloggers service has been known to be a little patchy. However, thanks to the donations of thier faithful users they have recently implemented new servers and were able to take over Blogvoices. Basic blogger is free but Blogger Pro is available for purchase.

Example: Webvoice

Greymatter
Advanced users who are comfortable using ftp, setting permissions, and have cgi access will enjoy this highly customisable blogging tool. Created by Noah Grey, blogs using Greymatter now number over 1000 (according to his website).

Example:

Cool Tools for your weblog or Journal

Bloghop
Rating system for blogs built with Manilla, Greymatter or Blogger.

Blogvoices

Allows your readers to leave comments on your Blogger built blog.

Blogfinder

Find Blogger, Greymatter, or Manilla blogs with this extensive blog search engine.

Blogspot

A place to keep your Blogger blog. Blogs will display Blogspot's advertising banner across the top of the page.

Other Sites On Blogging

Weblog Madness

An exhaustive list of blogging tools, information, and articles.