Blog Books

I've found it interesting how frequently this particular subject has come up in conversation lately with friends and family, and decided to do a post on it in case there are others who might find the information helpful. :)

A few years ago I was thrilled when I found a company that would turn your blog into a book. I downloaded the Blurb program and went to work. However, it quickly became apparent that it wasn't exactly a quick, easy process. Add that to limited funds, and my blog book projects started to sit there and fall behind.

A couple months ago, I started looking back through my own blog and realized I have been keeping this blog for over 5 YEARS! It's basically 5 years of our family history and so precious to me. That's when I had a panic moment- what if something happened? I would be devastated if something happened and I lost it all.

I started looking into options, and learned that there is a way to back up your blog- by importing it to your own computer (basically downloading your own blog to your computer). It's a pretty easy process, but when I did it- it didn't seem to be working very well for those early years, and when you download the blog it doesn't include your pictures because they are just images that are hosted on another site. It seemed pointless to me to download the blog without pictures- sometimes those tell just as much of the story as the actual words.

So once again, I started looking around for different options and stumbled across this site.

Blog2Print

Basically Blog2Print is a company that can take your blog and turn it into a book in less than 10 minutes! You create a login, select your blog and the dates you want included and create your book. It's not quite as fancy as the Blurb program, but it's fast and easy. The program is completely free to try. You can create your book and see how you like it- you only pay for the book you order or download. They even have deals, so you can create your book and wait for a sale to order it.

The thing I really like about Blog2Print, is that they offer a download option. If you really want a backup copy of your blog, but don't want to make and purchase a book, you can make the book through Blog2Print and order a digital version for $7.95! You can save it on your computer and have a copy of your blog entries complete with pictures. You can even print it out yourself if you want. This can be a good option even if you do take the time to make beautiful customized blog books.

I really like the idea of giving my kids copies of our family blog so they can have a copy of our family history, but let's face it, the cost of having 5 books printed every year is expensive not to mention the space it takes up to store all those books. I love the idea of being able to give the kids a CD/DVD that can be printed into books if they want- all for the grand total of one $7.95 download fee. (You can download many years of blog posts for that one fee if you want)

Maybe someday I'll want to go back and create books that are a little more professional looking with each page customized, but right now I'm loving this option that allows me to have a nice blog book without investing hours and hours of time. And I absolutely love the digital download version and the peace of mind it gives me.