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The Best Blogging Platforms And how to Choose it
Blogging is a great way to connect with the world. Whether you blog to express your passion for your hobbies, blog to connect on a personal level with others or blog to help promote a business, it can be a great way to connect with the world. In this article I’ll be reviewing each of the popular blogging sites available today.
If you have never blogged before, you will want to choose blog platforms that cater to beginners. This means in many cases you will be giving up the option to change HTML or CSS code. If you who have been blogging for a while, these options for coding may be more important to you.
As a blogger you will also have to decide whether you want to pay for the options that come with some platforms or stick to the free platforms that may have less options available. This choice can be determined by what your blog’s focus is and whether you plan to make money from the blog itself.
1. WordPress.org:
The .org version of WordPress provides many of the same features as its .com counterpart, but it also provides additional customization features for any blogger. This WordPress option works out well for folks who want to have complete control over the customization of their blog, monitor traffic via Google Analytics and to freely monetize their website. But it is not a platform that is easy for beginners to use effectively but there are lots of free and paid options to learn WordPress.
Among the best blog sites, the self-hosted version of WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform in the world.
Advantage:
Open source and free
Professional and easily navigable dashboard
Versatile and customizable
Thousands of themes and plugins
Owning your own content
Versatile and customizable
2. Wix.com:
Founded in 2006, Wix has become a wildly popular web builder for people who revel in a ton of design options—without breaking the bank. In 2012, Wix switched from Adobe Flash to HTML5, a successful move that gained them, at the time, 25 million users. Their business model is freemium and we can immediately hear some people rolling their eyes. However, is that sign of “oh, no, not again” or the judgment is too early? You be the judge.
With the Free plan, you will cover all the basics. However, upgrading to Connect Domain enables you to use your own domain. We recommend upgrading to Combo because you also will be freed of their native advertisements. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Wix calls all paid plans – Premium plans. So, when the company says a feature is included in a Premium plan, you can’t be sure which plan they’re talking about.
Wix.com is a website builder platform that is mainly set up to build websites, but it can also be used to start a blog. The key feature of Wix is that the web pages or blogs you create with the platform are supported for portable devices, so your readers can see your work easily displayed on their smartphone or tablet. Wix also provides a good amount of information and support for its users, including email and phone support for customized answers to your questions. Although Wix offers an easy to use solution it has a lot of negatives from an SEO perspective.
Advantage:
Ability to customize your site with templates and third-party apps
No coding skills required, you can achieve everything with the graphical interface
Quick and easy setup, includes top-notch hosting
Lots of design options and everything is built with HTML5
Has a feature to automatically design your blog using an artificial intelligence
Comes with free stock of images
3. Joomla.com:
If you are looking for a full content management system, Joomla is another great option for bloggers. In terms of the ease of use, Joomla may have more of a learning curve than WordPress, but can be much easier to use than Drupal. Many businesses and large corporations prefer this type of platform because it can give you flexibility with a wide range of content options.
Joomla, however, can be expensive. While the first month is free, after that a blogger can be charged anywhere from $20-$100 per month depending on the options and upgrades they want. For many novice bloggers, this can be a high cost unless the blog is attached to an existing business that already generates a profit.
Advantage:
Powerful and flexible, suitable for building more than blogs
Hundreds of professional templates make it easy to change the design
Lots of available extension for adding more features and functionality
4. WordPress.com:
WordPress.com is a blog site hosting service by Automattic. You can get a free blog with basic features. For advanced functionality, you need to opt for one of their paid plans.
WordPress is one of the most popular free blogging platforms on the Internet. Millions of users like the options it provides for simple, free blog creation and maintenance. The platform is free and offers services such as hosting, the ability to have a custom domain, integrating your blog with social media and popular features such as comments and polls are available without installing plugins. A number of paid upgrades are also available. The biggest issue with this version of WordPress is that options such as custom themes, plugins and editing HTML are not available. However, WordPress.com also has a sister site, WordPress.org that provides many more customization options.
Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are also known for the detailed amount of support provided. Not only do these sites have the standard tutorials to get you started building on these platforms, but WordPress also has a large community of users that are more than willing to help out a fellow user with common questions and concerns about various aspects of blogging on WordPress. With all of the information available, it can be easy to learn this platform quickly so you can start customizing your site without too much trouble. I am a huge WordPress fan and recommend it for all my clients, check out my free tutorial if you want to start blogging with WordPress.
Advantage:
Super easy to set up – just create an account and follow the installation wizard
Hosting is included so you have less moving parts to deal with
The interface is even more streamlined than on self-hosted WordPress
No need to worry about site maintenance, everything is done for you
Built-in stats and community functions
Professional and dedicated support on paid plans
5. Medium.com:
Medium is a publishing platform founded in 2012 by one of the people behind Twitter. By now it has become a popular community for writers, bloggers and journalists.
In addition to the ability to write blog posts, it also comes with limited social networking functions. You can comment on other people’s content and like it (likes are called “claps” on Medium). The audience is built into the platform.
There are many great platforms out there for starting your own blog. They include sites with customizable HTML and CSS for those with more advanced skills. Medium is a place to share your thoughts and writing with a wide audience. Unlike some of the other blogging platforms, Medium has a built-in audience, which makes it often debatable whether it’s a publisher or a platform.
On every post, readers get to see how many minutes it would take to read a post. They’ll immediately know whether they have time to read through the story or whether they should bookmark it for later. Another feature on the front page for viewers to see is how many views it’s gotten on the platform. Recommendations and reads are also available to creators. The dashboard allows creators to see where traffic originated from too.
Great for Beginners
The platform is a terrific starting point for beginners to the blogging world. It’s simple to use and doesn’t require coding knowledge. It’s also used by brands to recycle their content onto another platform to gain further reads and new readers of their content. A highly recommended free blog site for small business owners and freelance professionals.
Advantage:
Just sign up and you are ready to blog
Great user interface and elegant writing experience
The focus is completely on content creation, not running or designing the site around it
You are able to embed content from other services (YouTube, Twitter etc.)
6. Ghost.com:
This is a publishing platform focused only for blogging. The idea was to make a more streamlined and modern version of WordPress. As a consequence, the platform is built on JavaScript. It’s also available for a hosted or self-hosted version.
Ghost is an open source blogging platform that provides a simple, clean interface that makes it very easy to use. It also provides a live preview of your post while you are writing it, so you can easily correct any writing or coding mistakes as you go along. This platform can be great for beginners because of its ease of use, but expert bloggers may also prefer it because of its interface compared to other blogging services. The downside to Ghost is that it can be difficult to install at first but once it is, it can be a great tool for any blogger.
Advantage:
Focus on writing and blogging
Clean, intuitive, streamlined user interface
Live preview of blog posts
Super fast because it is built on JavaScript
The hosted version requires no setup
SEO and social media capabilities are built in
Integrated function for Accelerated Mobile Pages
7. Squarespace.com:
Squarespace is a drag-and-drop website builder which is aimed at small business owners. It’s a great all-in-one solution for non-technical people and offers hosting, domain registration and the possibility for e-commerce. It also has blogging capabilities which is the reason why it’s among the best blog sites out there.
When it comes to customization, Squarespace is a platform that offers a wide variety of options. The best part about customizing your blog on this platform is that you can change everything without knowing how to code. It is also a platform that lets your expand your services which is a great option if you are using your blog for your business. The downside to Squarespace for bloggers is that theme and plugin support is not a great as it could be. If you want these options on Squarespace, knowledge of code will be necessary.
Advantage:
Simple to use and beginner friendly
Professional design templates are available
SSL encryption is built into the platform
Ability to build an online store
Free trial to test drive the platform
Includes hosting and a custom domain
24/7 customer support
8. Weebly.com:
Another blogging platform that is great for businesses who want to maintain a blog on their website is Weebly. This platform provides a wide range of easy-to-use features, including drag and drop options for those who do not want to learn coding to make simply changes. Since Weebly can be used for blogging and web building, business owners find this platform a lot easier to use than other platforms where blogs and websites are created separately. To start with you can sign up to their free plan which will give you some practice writing and constructing blog posts without spending any money.
Advantage:
Easy to use – everything is operated via drag-and-drop
Comes with decent mobile apps to run your site on the go
You are able to try out the service before committing financially
Has a good reputation in terms of SEO, even integrates with Google Analytics
9. Blogger.com:
If there is one platform that is easy for beginners to use, it is Blogger. This is a free blogging platform that is simple to use for anyone just starting out with a blog. With this platform a user can just type their content, add photos and publish. Blogger.com also lets users edit HTML and add widgets to blog, which many blogging sites for beginners do not offer. Blogger is a Google service, so users will have to have a Google account and may find the Google-related add-ons redundant or useless for their blog. It is also one of the blogging platforms that many bloggers grow out of once they learn more about blogging since it does not have any upgrade options. Here’s a more detailed comparison of Blogger versus WordPress.
This free blog hosting service has been around for a long time. It was founded in 1999 and acquired by Google in 2003. As a consequence, you can sign up easily with your existing Google account.
Advantage:
Free to use and the set up only takes minutes
Hosting, maintenance and other technicalities are taken care of
Integrates well with other Google offerings (e.g. you can store your images on Google Drive)
Mobile-optimized templates
Comes with tracking and anti-comment spam measures
10. Tumblr.com:
Tumblr is a blogging option that is very popular with younger audiences. The platform itself is simple to use. One of the best features of Tumblr is that it is focused on the community of bloggers, so it provides a variety of options for sharing and reblogging content. The downside to blogging on Tumblr.com is that it does not focus on text content, but photos and GIFs. Visual bloggers will love it, but writers may want to find another platform to use. The idea of reblogging content may also lack appeal with bloggers, particularly if you are blogging material that you want to have complete control over copyright and other such protections.
Finally, among the best blog sites is Tumblr. The service is a micro-blogging platform optimized for short-form content. It also has a community behind it and social network features. Think of it as a middle ground between WordPress and Twitter.
Advantage:
Free and very easy to set up and use
Hosting is included (your blog is located on a tumblr.com subdomain)
Has integrated social features such as following, re-blogging and sharing
Easy to publish multimedia e.g videos, GIFs, images and audio
Many design opportunities and they are easy to change
How to Choose The Best Blogging Platform:
For making a decision, it helps to know what you are looking for. As they say – if you don’t know where you are going, every way is the right way. Below are some categories to judge the candidates by:
Costs – an indispensable consideration. It’s not only important that your blogging platform of choice fits within your budget but what you also get for your money. A free offer is worth nothing if it doesn’t do what you need.
Beginner-friendliness – Beginners need a blogging solution that is easy to set up, manage and doesn’t need coding skills to run. They also have to be able to find support when they run into trouble.
Features and extendability – Over time, your needs and requirements for your site will change. You might want to modify or overhaul the design, add features or make other drastic changes. A good blogging platform needs to be able to accommodate that.
Maintenance – How much hands-on work does your blogging solution need? Does it take care of most of the activities and features for you or do you have to do everything by hand? This will have a serious impact on your workflow.
Monetization options – Many start a blog or website with the goal of eventually earning money with it. If that is your objective as well, you better choose a platform that enables you to do that in a way that works for you.
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