The whole idea behind Vox is to make blogging easy and accessible. Each of the platforms Six Apart owns has a distinct purpose: Typepad and Movable Type are some of the preferred services for professionals and business; Live Journal has been popular with teens and 20-somethings for close to seven years. Vox is the bridge between those two groups, a service that can be a public blog or a private journal for family members, or simply your self.

“We hope that families choose to blog,” Jane Anderson of Vox told me. “Initially we expect people to become readers and then eventually become bloggers in this safe environment.”

The goal of Vox is to ease the fears of people interested in blogging, but reluctant to post personal stories, photos or other forms media out to the masses. By learning the basics of making a post just for private use, and realizing just how easy making a blog has become, Six Apart hopes that more and more people will join the blogosphere.

“We also believe that many people still don't blog because they don't want to post private stories and photos and have them viewed by outsiders. One of the most important features of Vox is the ability to make anything -- posts, photos, videos, etc — private and only viewable by the people you care about.”

The service allows users to create text posts, add photos or upload video. Each post can be given a specific security level, whether it’s totally public, available only to subscribers, or completely a private journal viewable only to the creator. Vox is compatible with a variety of other web resources, such as YouTube links. A variety of templates are available for trial, but eventually Six Apart hopes to have more than 150 different choices ready to make each person’s blog unique. The templates can be switched at any time.

“People are really gravitating toward the private aspect,” Anderson told me. “We’ve been working on this for more than a year and it just seemed like a good time. It’s really fun to use.”

I had a chance to try Vox in its preview status. I had a really easy time loading user photos, adding audio clips and even listing books I’ve been reading. Because I have a Flickr account, I could search through my own collection of photos, upload them to my blog, and easily manipulate them. Font colors can be changed, much like formatting text in a Word document. Even picking a blog template was fun; I went with the “martini” option. I have a feeling Vox will be popular with a variety of users, both inexperienced beginners and blogging veterans.

The site is currently available by invitation only for the preview, but Six Apart hopes to have it open for public use by the end of the year.