Blogging

Table Of Contents

• 1. 7 Best Blogging Platforms to Start a Blog for Free
• 2. 15 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog Today
• 3. How to Build a Successful Blog

7 Best Blogging Platforms to Start a Blog for Free

It isn’t just enough for the doctor to be good. It does matter where he sets up his practice too, right? For any blogger, choosing the best blogging platform is almost as important as the content he is trying to sell.

This write-up is tailor-made for anyone trying to start a blog for free. You would want to end up with the best blogging site that is easy to use, readily customizable and is easy on your reader’s eyes!

Thinking of voicing your opinion on the web? Or even trying to make a decent earning just by writing your opinions on the massive internet arena? Well, there are a wide range of free blogging sites available for you to start a blog. Of course, which best blog platform you choose is completely up to you and your requirements.

Listed down below are brief write-ups about the 7 best blogging platforms which will help you decide which one to choose when trying to start a blog for free.

COMPARING THE 7 BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS

IS WORDPRESS THE BEST BLOGGING PLATFORM?

Almost all to-be bloggers and current bloggers would have heard about WordPress during their blogging journey or atleast during their research for the same. In this expedition, one is bound to hesitate for a minute before choosing between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is more for users who are looking for free blogging sites while WordPress.org requires hosting by the user, which means you have to shell out a few bucks to make the most out of it but it entitles you to have full ownership of your blog.

Find out the pros and cons of the same and decide if it is the best blogging platform for you?

Pros

• Very good content management system.
• WordPress.org is an open source website builder adding to its flexibility.
• Varieties of themes make it highly customizable for bloggers. The benefit is definitely more here for WordPress.org
• Numerous free plugins are available for WordPress.org offering you great diversity.
• If you are looking to make some income out of your blogging, then you can always go for WordPress.org. It is one of the best blogging platforms for e-commerce.
• It offers you lots of scope to learn and expand. There are a plethora of forums and communities to help you along the way if you find it difficult.

Cons

• Self-hosting for WordPress.org requires you to invest some money into it. But hey, the more you are ready to invest, the more benefits you can reap especially if you are using the blog as part of your business and not just as a hobby.
• Limited plugins and designs are available for WordPress.com but is still very much at par with other blogging platforms.
• It takes time to get a hang of all the features before receiving maximum benefit and is thus time consuming and challenging for a beginner.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORDPRESS.COM AND WORDPRESS.ORG

The basic difference that can be attributed to when it comes to distinguishing between the two is the domain name. If you have noticed specifically, one has an.org extension while the other has a .com extension. Now the mystery starts! Go ahead and read the cool features that make the two different from each other.

1. WordPress.com: is more of software service based company which offers hosting services at large.

WordPress.org: is more of an informative data container which contains information basically related to word press and its different aspects.

1. WordPress.com: Offers hosting services completely free. The installation part is a bit tricky though.

WordPress.org: This service is free and is more of an open source platform which gives quality product to its users.

1. WordPress.com: Not customizable. No personalized plug-ins or modification of source code allowed.

WordPress.org: Customization made fairly possible. Modification of source code is easy to derive best benefits.

1. WordPress.com: You have to pay for removal of those third party advertisements.

WordPress.org: No such payment fees required.

SET UP YOUR OWN BLOG WITH WEEBLY

Though another popular blogging platform, Weebly is now mostly used as a website builder. With Weebly, you can have your blog up and running in no time.

Pros

• Easy drag and drop option when creating website content therefore providing a visual interface.
• It offers you great ease of use. You need not be tech savvy to find your way around Weebly
• Attractive design and layout choices
• Not time consuming, as it is relatively easy to learn how to go around it
• Ideal for those users looking to build small or simple websites
• Free hosting services offered for their sites
• Has a platform built for e-commerce
• Monetization. Weebly offers a number of options in this area like AdSense, banner advertisements and third party codes

Cons

• Not an open source website builder. Doesn’t offer much flexibility compared to the other players in the platform
• There is a page restriction for the free and starter plans – 5 pages for the former and 10 pages for the latter. However, there are two upgrades from the starter plan available
• Lacks in customization abilities
• Does not support additional plugins other than the ones that are already built in. Hence, there is no option of installing more plugins of your choice
• Not ideal for those looking to make revenue using complex websites

WHAT MAKES BLOGGER THE BEST BLOGGING PLATFORM?

Pros

1. You will be provided with a custom domain name which is basically of the form yourname.blogspot.com
2. It offers exclusive free hosting and the publishing features are all taken care of by the site itself.
3. If you are a beginner, this free blogging site is definitely recommended for you, since it provides an easy to use graphical interface with a step by step process explained for the same.

Cons

1. The targeted benefits of blogger are very good. However, customization features are not so readily available and there is a kind of limited edition graphics and themes for the same.
2. Since it is relatively easy to use, there is only limited or no kind of support services made available by the site. However, you can search the web for any help need while you start your own blog.

TUMBLER – ONE OF THE BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS

Tumblr has its own standing among the free blogging sites. It definitely is quite an arena which basically deals in community based updates and posts alike and has a one stop shop look with its image lined galleries.

Listed below are a few pros and cons which will help you differentiate it from the other best blogging platforms and give you a clear understanding of which platform to choose for your specific needs. Go ahead and give them a look.

Pros

1. Simple and minimalistic features lined with a great user interface that helps you start your very own blog for your specific purpose
2. Quite similar to social networking sites, it is rather a community based website with excellent image gallery on the line including re-blogging features and the like.
3. High end premium themes are available at an affordable price apart from the affordable hosting features it offers. Starting a tumblr blog is in fact free!
4. Offering attractive apps for the different kinds of Smartphone on the move makes it a great option among the best blogging platforms.

Cons

1. Customization features according to your needs is not yet made available for this extensive platform. This is a huge downside to this otherwise wonderful free blogging site.
2. Only limited widgets and options are available for your use.

SQUARESPACE – ANOTHER ONE OF THE BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS

Being able to build a highly potential website with enhanced functionalities is one specific thing that is high in demand in the current market scenario. There are a variety of potential website builders for meeting your corresponding requirements and Squarespace is one such free blogging platform which offers such added functionalities.

However, you would want to check out the positive and the negative factors before concluding if it’s the best blogging platform.

Pros

1. It is easy to build and is highly functional. The platform is in fact very cozy to use.
2. User-friendliness and flexibility factors are much high. Great themes are available for your use.
3. Full time quick support is available for all squarespace users.
4. User end updating is not required and all updation of themes and plugins are done at the server side.

Cons

1. Not suitable for sophisticated and high end users who demand a greater professionalism of the given design. Minimalistic design options are however available if you wish to choose.
2. Premium packages are slightly beyond the affordable range.
3. It is not an open source platform.

HOW GOOD AN OPTION IS MEDIUM AMONG THE OTHER BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS?

When it comes to building your blog via a standard blogging platform, there are a number of services available online which provide the same for an affordable cost. In this huge competition, one that stands quite worth mentioning is the Medium blogging platform.

Listed below are quite a few pros and cons of concluding Medium as the best blogging platform for your exquisite blogging and business needs alike.

Pros

1. The target audience is quite good. Some great exposure is available on this kind of platform.
2. It is easy to use and is quite user friendly.
3. It boasts of an affordable cost for hosting features and the like.
4. Typography is one thing which you can be very sure of. Such content looks excellent here.
5. The updation and maintenance are handled by the professionals so you don’t need to worry about the regular updation tasks.

Cons

1. Tough competition is its great downside. The published content and stuff needs to be highly exclusive and of top notch standard.
2. Customization features are not available and there are limited amount of themes which you can choose from.
3. The exposure to the audience is limited to the time duration of the work.
4. Designing is not what is exactly offered here exclusively. It is more of a content based website than a free blogging site.

WHAT MAKES GHOST STAND OUT AMONG OTHER BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS?

Quite a new blogging platform which came into existence in the year 2013, this native website has taken the internet by storm. It is one exclusive free blogging platform developed solely for blogging purposes and stands quite an appreciation for its exclusive fresh and rich content and great user experience.

Listed below are a few features which will help you determine the applicability of this blogging platform designed to serve your specific business purposes at large. Go ahead and take a look!

Pros

1. It is very easy to use. The website is so user friendly and is highly functional in all its aspects.

2. What makes it more attractive is its exquisite simplicity. It is highly flexible and is suitable for even naïve users. It is in best demand for use by all blogging novices.

3. Abstraction is provided at a brand new scale. The modulation of the site is done specifically to suit the various design and content needs of the corresponding users.

Cons

1. It lacks in actual users for this platform and you can specifically notice that this platform is still in the beta testing phase of the testing lifecycle.
2. Widgets and plug-ins are missing in this platform which is quite a disadvantage when compared to other similar sites!
3. Being new to the market, this particular platform is lacking in basic user reviews on a larger scale.

Choosing the best blogging platform for you is quite an important call to make. Weigh your requirements and skills well to make an informed decision!

15 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog Today

Every day many things occur around us. Some things are good, and some things are wrong. Blogging offers us an opportunity of sharing our thoughts regarding those things. In addition, it is a good way showing your creativity to the world. You can write whatever you think, and blogs have a much better impact than social networking posts. You can encourage people for good things, show them a right way of doing something and raise your voice against something bad taking place in the world. Here are some impressive reasons why you should start a blog today.

1. To help others:

It is true that many people search for the solutions of their problems. Some people want to know health tips, some search for better career options and some love to read about new technologies. You can address those readers through your blogs. There are many attractive topics to choose from. Pick your favorite one and start writing. If your ideas are good and helpful, you will get many readers for your blog and thus you can help others. It is a way of helping others because your offered solutions and ideas can provide readers with better ideas and helpful solutions.

2. To improve your writing ability:

Practice makes man perfect; it is a renowned quote, and it is true. Probably you may think that you are not a good writer, but you should write. In starting you may get failed in tempting a large number of readers, but you will get some readers for sure. You can improve your writing skills with regular blogging and become a great writer. You will get better ways of presenting your thoughts in the blogs and articles if you continue blogging. That’s what many bloggers did and today they are succeeded in this field.

3. To face new challenges:

Some people think that blogging is easy and just a hobby, it is not true. Blogging is quite challenging, especially if you have never done it before. You need to think very deeply before you write for any topic. You also need to think about its impact on readers. Today’s world needs bloggers, who can help in making this world a better place to live. It is all about choosing words carefully and set them in the form of a blog to send a right message. You can take it as a challenge and challenges are good for life.

4. To make some money:

Blogging is not only done to help the readers for their needs but also done to earn good money. Probably, you may know that there are many writers and bloggers, who make hundreds of dollars weekly by their blogs. You can be one of them if you get a large number of readers. It is quite easy to start a blog on any blogging platform and make it live. You can write on hot topics and let people read your blogs. It will fill your account with bucks, which will encourage you to write more on new things.

5. To increase you knowledge about the world:

Whenever you write on a new topic, you need to learn new things before writing. You may plan to write on new technology or the cure of any disease or any other thing. You will have to read about that thing to understand what it is and then turn those details into your words. That’s how you increase your knowledge about a new thing. A blogger is not only a good writer but also a good reader who learns something new about the world every day.

6. To be a better thinker:

Blogging makes you a better thinker. Whenever you write about a social issue or health problem, you try to put your words in a more meaningful way. It means you try to represent your thoughts in a way that it can address the targeted readers. It seeks good thinking, and that’s what people do as a blogger. You try to get more details on the topics you write so that you can decide what you should add to your blog and what should you avoid to write in the blog.

7. To promote yourself as an expert:

Whenever we read something online, we read it like we are taking some good ideas or suggestions from an expert. Other people also think in the same way. So when you become a blogger, you become an expert of things which you write for the readers. People consider you as an expert and follow you on the social platform. Blogging is an easy way of becoming a famous personality and gets some followers with earning good money. Thus, you can sit at home and share your thoughts as an expert.

8. To work at home:

Don’t you think it is an excellent idea to work at home? For sure, you will say yes. Every person wants to spend some good time with family, and that’s what you can do as a regular blogger. You get some clients online, who will ask you to write on particular topics. You will get the freedom to write anytime you want and work at home. It is a good way of earning impressive amount at home. Whether you are at the home or on vacation, you can write anywhere and make good money through blogging.

9. To live a healthy life:

You may think that there is no connection between blogging and healthy life, but it is. As mentioned at an earlier point, blogging offers you an opportunity of working at home. Thus, you get more time to do exercise, eat on time and meet your friends. These things help us in living a good life. You will not sleep late on the nights plus you will get enough time to enjoy vacations on your favorite holiday spots. These things bring satisfaction from the life, and that’s what lead to a healthy life.

10. To get connected with new people:

Every blogging platform offers comment section below the blog. It is up to you that you want to get comments from your readers or not. If you want to see people’s response about your blogs, allow them to comment. You may find some good and some bad comments on the blogs. Thus, you can reply to their comments and get connected with your readers in a much better way. People may or may not appreciate your responses, but they will start knowing you. That’s what blogging does for the bloggers. Make them famous among readers and promote them on social platforms.

11. To inspire people:

Certain situations come in life when people lose hope and get depressed. These conditions may occur because of a significant loss in business, bad breakup or because of losing someone special. Blogging offers you an opportunity to become an inspiration for such people. You can write about how to handle big business losses and get back to the market with full power. You can also write on dealing with social life issues like how to recover from a bad breakup. There are a lot of issues, which you can pick to write and help others by inspiring them for a better life.

12. To reduce stress:

People become good thinkers when they are in stress. You may or may not agree with it, but it is a fact. You think quite deeply and see life in a different way. People take medications and try many ways to reduce their stress, but blogging is a very simple way of reducing stress. Write on things, which are depressing you. Write about how bad things can be and how to overcome from bad situations. People need ideas to move on and get back to life, and you can help other stressed people by writing on such issues.

13. To endorse useful things:

Ever since the online shopping has become a trend, people search for what they should buy and what they should not buy. You can become an online shopping expert by suggesting people about good things. You can write new blogs on newly launched products like smart phones, laptops, medicines and all other things people buy online. People regularly read bloggers, which endorse useful things. You can be one of those people, who fairly support useful products and prevent people from buying faulty things. Thus, the manufacturers will contact you to promote their products, and they will pay you a good price for it.

14. For better success of your business:

Whether you are running a small company or a large organization, your business must have a blog to exhort the prospects. Many buyers want to know more about the retailers and manufacturers. You can take the support of online ads and promotions, but these advertisements contain quite small content about the product. A blog can be a great way of explaining every new product you launch or sell. Thus, you will not need the support of other writers and promoters to promote your business, and you can get better leads consequently.

15. To get a large number of followers on social network:

Social networking has become one of the most fundamental needs of people in this age. Billions of users are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can gain a large number of followers on these social networking platforms if start blogging. Even you can promote your blogs on social networking sites for free and get more readers. A large number of followers mean a large number of readers, which in turn increase your revenue from the blog.

How to start blogging?

Probably, above mentioned reasons are enough to explain that why you should start a blog today. If you are ready for it, now it is the time to know how to start blogging. First of all, you have to choose an excellent blogging platform. There are many blogging platforms, which offer free and premium blogging opportunities. You can choose any of them to start a blog and then sign up to create a blog. You can create a blog yourself by selecting available themes and tools, or you can take web design tips and ideas from the experts.

Hiring an expert for developing a blog:

There are multiple web design agencies, serving people to meet their demands of blogs and websites. If you want to make your blog an appealing platform for readers, take the support of a good web designing service. It will offer you a fully featured blog with easy content management tools and features. Thus, you can write and post blogs quickly and hope to get better ranking in organic search. Your blog can gain better only if it has a good ranking in organic search. For this, you need the support of a web designing service.

Promoting the blog:

Nowadays hundreds of bloggers are sharing their thoughts online. Many of them write on same things in different ways. A well-promoted blog gets the larger number of readers in comparison to simple blogs. You should check some SEO tips and online promotion ideas if you want to make your blog the main source of your earnings. There are websites, which provide latest techniques to promote a website or blog online. Get in touch with those websites and try your best to promote your blog.

Blogging brings many new things to the life with a good chance of making good money. Writing can become your hobby and a way of sharing your thoughts with others. Starting a blog is quite easy, but it takes an expert’s mind to promote it and draw the attention of readers. Online promotion can help you, but you should be active on social networking platform to gain more readers. Thus, you will get readers for your blog, and then you can sort out many issues of their life through your blogs. People love reading and blogs are free to visit and read. You can make it a source of expressing what you think and that will be valuable for your readers.

How to Build a Successful Blog

What Is Blogging?

A blog, a term derived from “Web Log”, is a collection of thoughts or analysis on a topic or topics of the person running the blog.

There are now tens of blogs started every minute of the day. This obviously means it is now a crowded market, which makes it even more important that a blog is good enough to stand out from the crowd.

Blogging Revolution.

In the yesteryear, well, actually not that long ago, but when blogs first started appearing on the internet in the 1990’s, they were often a simple a collection of thoughts from individuals, often on the daily happenings in their lives. No matter how dreary, they were often compulsive reading, something I guess, typifying our big brother culture.

However, more recently, blogs have become much more commercial with topics that have greater commercial value. People have started to realize blogs, especially popular ones, can make substantial money for the proprietor from advertising revenue.

Potential of a Blog.

In theory, the more popular a blog is the greater its value to advertisers as they have a greater concentration of mass in terms of users and, therefore, greater opportunity to expose their products and services to the visitors on those blogs. In terms of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, higher traffic is likely to mean greater number of clicks.
There are certain characteristics that are shared by popular blogs no matter which topic(s) they cover.

Why do you Need a Blog?

People love something for nothing. If you provide regular advice and helpful tips on your blog about something, then it is likely to draw regular visitors. Free helpful information – even if it’s a collection of links to other sites/blogs can still attract lots of visitors. The key here is to find such information on a regular basis to attract many repeat visitors.

This will also result in increase in popularity of your blog through natural linking – the equivalent of marketing through word of mouth. Links, especially on other high traffic sites or blogs about your blog will lead to a steady stream of traffic from these links, but they will also boost your search engine rankings because major search engines put a lot of weight onto natural linking patterns.

How to Build a Successful Blog?

1. Write your Heart.

One certain way to attract large traffic is to either provide tutorials that people find extremely useful which they will link to, or providing free downloads of useful tools. These tools can be anything such as web tools for people to develop their sites and blogs or help to improve the quality of offerings on their sites or blogs, free financial tools to help people better analyze their income and expenditure, etc.

2. Add Personal Value.

In addition, it greatly improves your reputation on the Internet as so many people start recommending your blog. Of course, with so many people linking to your site, which acts as a “vote” for your blog from everyone linking to you, the search engines will take that as an affirmation that your blog is of great value and move your rankings higher.

3. Spread the Words.

Commenting daily on interesting stories on different subject matters is a good way to draw traffic. Making interesting observations on them together with a link to their original source is a great way to capture regular readers. Let’s face it, most of us like to catch up on daily news, but today, we do it in different ways to gone days before when we all sat around our television set.

4. Be an Authority Writer.

Another way to draw many repeat visitors is to provide great analysis on latest news and big stories that are in development on the topics covered on your blog. The analysis has to really stand out. You have to convey yourself to your readers almost as an expert i.e. an authority on the subject matter, which of course acts like a magnet for visitors. So, providing a unique perspective will always have people coming for more.

5. Catch Their Attention.

People love entertaining themselves when they are browsing the internet. This is why entertainment sites tend to draw a lot of traffic. A blog with lots of funny clips and jokes tend to become big hits because they tend to get linked on lots of other sites.

One way to attract attention through your posts is to be shocking by posting something controversial that gets noticed.

Making Your Blog Famous.

Enough of the type of ways to devise the content now lets focus on the steps to make a blog off and running.

1. Blog link exchange.

A blog should exchange link s with other similar blogs, especially if they are highly complementary and have similar levels of traffic. It is unlikely that a blog owner with a lot of traffic would be too keen in exchanging links with someone who has far less traffic, as it would not be deemed mutually beneficial to both parties.

2. Buying high traffic links.

You can also advertise by buying text links on monthly campaigns on other blogs or sites with high levels of traffic. However, this tends to be an option used mostly by site owners rather bloggers.

3. Promoting a blog in forums.

A good way to promote a blog is to go on forums. The idea is to make informative or/and helpful posts in forums dealing with similar topics to those covered in your blog. By making useful posts, you can leave live a link back to your blog in the signature or somewhere in the post, if allowed, of course. This is a widely used technique to draw traffic to a blog.

4. Posting a link on other blogs.

You can also reply to comments on other blogs that have a similar theme to your blog. You can leave a link to your blog so long as the comments you make are both productive and not written merely with the intention of getting traffic to your own blog.