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BY ALAN RAIMES

Have you ever thought of starting a photo journal? Taking daily/weekly pictures that describe your life, and put it out for the world to see. Or maybe you just want to build a photo journal to share it with your family and close friends.

Just a few years ago, only the technically gifted could easily put together a photo journal. Now, however, anyone who wants to start their own photo journal can easily and quickly put one together.

There are free services like Greatest Cities and a few others that provide very easy photo journaling services that cost nothing. However, I don’t really recommend these services. It really depends on what you’re looking to do.

If you primarily want to have pictures and very little commentary, then some of these sites might work for you. What I don’t like is the limited flexibility, and it’s harder to secure these sites for your close relationships. I mean I’m proud of my daughters, but do I really want everyone on the Web to be reading about their ballet classes? Probably not.

Now, it kind of depends on what you’re looking to do, and how much money you want to spend. But, if you’re anything like me, you probably want to do your photo journal on the cheap. Which to me means free.

If you’re like me and free is your thing, then my recommendation would be to go to Blogger and start your very own blog. It really only takes about 5 minutes to create a blog, and it’s very easy to upload your pictures.

What’s really neat is that you can create a “family photo journal,” with a blog that allows multiple members to post to the same blog. That means for my family’s photo journal/blog, I’m the main poster of pictures and commentary, but my wife and my daughters contribute as well. I keep my family photo journal private, which is really convenient. And of course, the best part, it’s free.

My entire family loves it, my sisters who live far away get to feel like they are a part of our lives from thousands of miles away. My daughters love the exchanges that get started with their cousins. It’s great.

So if you’ve been thinking about creating a photo journal, just do it. It’s really not as hard as you might think, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. You just might become addicted too. Take care, and good journaling.

Alan Raimes is a dedicated father and a comic in his own mind. Not only has he gotten his whole extended family started in photo journaling, but he’s also found all the hidden tricks to whipping out photo journals easier and faster than ever. Check out his photo journaling resource guide for the inside tricks on photo journaling made easy.