Blogging using software like WordPress is great if you want to share your views and experiences with the rest of the world. But what of you want the convenience of a diary or journal that’s stored in the cloud but not accessible to everyone else. A secure online journal. This article gives you a few suggestions as to how to do this.
Better yet we’d like to be able to access and write in our diary/journal from our iPhone or Android device… So let’s look at the options.
Penzu
Penzu is a well designed website and iPhone app service that makes writing a journal on the go easy and convenient. The website is feature rich but quick an simple to use with a very elegant design. Free accounts are available but to use it effectively an annual subscription is required which is available for a modest $19 per year. This is much cheaper than hosting your own website on a shared hosting provider so is good value for money. Plus you can get 20% off at the moment.
Sign up to Penzu using this link for 20% saving – Penzu for just $15.20
WordPress with DiaryPress
Better known as blogging software than as a personal secure diary or journal. However WordPress has most of the features we’d want, it’s easy to use, has apps for iPhone and Android, and can be installed for free on most shared hosting services. So if you’d already got access to shared hosting or WordPress.com then this option may appeal.
You’ll need a couple of plugins to get things secure and backed up though, after all we don’t want to share out journal with the rest of the world.
DiaryPress – password protects the entire WordPress site so that it’s not accessible to the rest of the world.
BackWPup – take regular backups to Dropbox so that you don’t loose your journal in the future.
Free Dropbox account – for storing backups.
Also take a look at my other plugin recommendations for further details of ways to make WordPress even better with minimal effort.
Dropbox
Writing your journal as a document in Dropbox, or as a series of documents is also possible. Though not as feature rich or flexible as Penzu or DiaryPress it can be used, especially if you don’t write much. Dropbox offers 2GB storage for free.
Google Docs
Writing your diary as a single Google Doc is also possible though it doesn’t offer the same functionality as DiaryPress or Penzu.