You get several clean, stylish templates to start working from and then easy control over swapping out images, adding text boxes and buttons, and placement of everything on the page. Strikingly also hosts your website as part of using their platform. This is a massive value for more reasons than one:. You can build a site in under 30 minutes. Strikingly also offers built-in ecommerce capability, allowing you to add a store, connect payment processing, and begin generating revenue lightning fast.
Whether you are trying to build super fans of your blog or sell your art or projects to visitors, Strikingly will keep you creative throughout your entire blogging and brand-building journey. As one of the easiest ways to sell products and services through your blog, Squarespace offers one of the best all-around website builders with hundreds of well-designed templates.
It lets you easily set up an online store and blog that you can use together to make money and grow your online business. Like many of the popular website builders out there, Squarespace has roots in blogging. Started as a blog hosting service in , Squarespace has since blossomed into one of the best all-purpose website builders out there.
That makes Squarespace particularly great for making a blog that works in tandem with an online store. Once you have your online store set up with product pages which can offer physical items, digital products, or services , you can use Product Blocks to embed them anywhere in your blog posts. There are also plenty of customization options, both in regard to the placement of the product block as well as the block itself.
You can have products appear in a separate column alongside an uninterrupted blog post or use the product block as a break between paragraphs in the post. Give Squarespace a try today and see how well it can help you create a beautiful, shoppable blog.
Start a free blog with a blogspot. You'll also enjoy built-in audience insights, the ability to get started in less than 20 minutes, and the joy of sharing your knowledge on the OG blogging platform built in Blogger is a pioneer in the blogging space. Some of the best features are the ability to make money with your content with Google AdSense and get analytics about the traffic that visits your posts with Google Analytics.
So, you literally can start a free blog and make money with it and increase the revenue based on the insights you find. You also have access to custom website templates and can customize your blog with no coding involved.
If you want to start blogging for free and earn some extra cash with Google AdSense, Blogger is an excellent choice to consider. When you are starting a blog, you want to burst on the scene with captivating content that explores your creativity and helps readers. Starting a blog to actually make money is a lot different than starting one as a personal diary, certainly.
The platform you decide to use matters depending on your goal. The problem many beginners face is simply building the look and feel of their blog at the outset.
Includes hundreds of professional design templates, an ADI tool that does the work for you, and an intuitive mobile app. For example, the standard for blogging is WordPress. But the learning curve is steep and can cause confusion for a beginner. You need to really dive deep into how comfortable you are with using WordPress, which can also require you to seek additional coding help, depending on what you want your blog to do.
Blogging for yourself, on the other hand, requires just finding a simpler solution. Strikingly, though, is low-key on features but allows you to start sharing your thoughts in less than an hour. This is a very important topic to explore. You want the experience to be enjoyable. When you get started, you need to know how much writing real estate you have. Some simple platforms only allow you a certain amount of characters, strangling your creativity if you are more of a long-form blog writer.
For example, instructional posts are much more detailed and require a segue into why you decided to write the post, whereas listicles can be much shorter in terms of word count and more direct. The platform matters a lot regarding your favored form of writing. Will it be image or media-heavy? Will your platform limit how you can format your posts?
Can you organize your content the way you want to? For beginners, these are crucial ideas you must consider as there are many platforms that have different rules on how you can create content. Some platforms, like Strikingly and Blogger, are extremely basic and minimal in terms of how you can customize your articles and the layout of your content feed.
Another little thing to consider is whether you want your byline on content. Do you want to be the listed author or do you need a pen name or to be completely anonymous? If you want to be a free spirit with no consequence to your daily lifestyle, an anonymous or pen name feature might be the way to go for you.
Let your creative light burn bright—just know what kind of writer you want to be before you select your platform. There are millions of blogs created every day. If you want your blog to glow with your personality, having the ability to customize your website will hold the highest value for you.
Customizing your blog means adding the color scheme you prefer, posting email collection forms exactly where you want them to be, and adding your branding and call to action buttons precisely in the areas that maximize your visitor engagement and possible revenue collection, just to name a few features.
More robust platforms allow you to add business tools, like the ability to take payments for products, and even analyze how much time a visitor stayed on a certain page and where they clicked. During our extensive research, it was communicated extensively by beginners and advanced users that not being able to customize their blog and website how they wanted was a top reason for moving to a new platform.
Not only does it extinguish your creative flow, but it also traps you into looking like everyone else. No one likes feeling trapped. But, with great flexibility comes more complexity. Getting granular with customization may require you to know or learn some coding. TypePad is a blogging platform that was launched in It has a simple and user-friendly interface and offers exceptional customer support.
However, one that comes to mind is a blog by Seth Godin. Seth used to run it with the subdomain sethgodin. TypePad offers various design tools that breathe life into your blogs so that you can captivate your readers visually. TypePad service comes with a free to use period and four different plans — Plus, Unlimited, Premium, and Enterprise:.
This information should be sufficient for you to research and locate the best blogging site for your needs. While WordPress. As explained earlier, WordPress is the absolute best in its class. These other platforms have their own unique audience as well because they are great for beginners who want to make a blog.
But if you want a solid foundation for your blog, nothing beats the self-hosted WordPress. Go to the WordPress Dashboard and head to the Tools section. It is important to remember that WordPress plugins offer other import options as well — try searching the official plugins repository for an importer tool that works for you.
Blog sites are also sometimes known as CMS Content Management System since they let you efficiently manage content publishing. You can quickly launch a free blog on WordPress or any other free blogging sites I mentioned in this article. But if you decide to step up your blogging game and go further, I recommend a self-hosted version of WordPress. With WordPress. Most of the available blogging platforms in the modern world let you build websites through their drag and drop builders.
That means that you can sit, relax, and focus on the design. Yes, even with a free blog, you can earn money with it. There are different ways of monetization like showing ads, joining affiliate programs, accepting sponsored content, or adding an online store. However, to make money, you will first have to invest time and usually money into it. This is something all popular blogs and the best blog sites have had to do. The most reliable way to find the best blogging platform for your needs is to understand how free blogging sites and self-hosted WordPress function.
Also, your choice will depend on your budget, customization abilities, and ease of use of the software you want to use.
Through this guide, I have informed you of all the features pros and cons , and the pricing range of the best blog sites.
And now you know how to get started with each of them. Anya, I have been seeing that WordPress and others have been cancelling bloggers that express opinions contrary to the MSM narrative. I am afraid that some of my content may questionable. Which CMS would you then recommend to assure that I have absolute control over my content?
Hi Cyneath! In order to have full control over your blog, we recommend using WordPress. Please read our tutorial on WordPress. It was a good read. I just created my own website with a freelancing blog in it. I used WordPress. The downside with WordPress. It seems that even the personal plan is not sufficient, and you have to subscribe to their business plan if you are serious about your website. Thanks for the read. Hi Crismael!
Good luck with your site and blogging! I tried many of them, but WordPress is the easiest and the most amazing tool to create a professional blog. I am thinking of starting a blog. Reading this gave me a lot of great information as I am new to this. I plan on reading some of the links you added for more information on various topics.
Thank you for having this here! Hi guys! Hi Emma! You can even get a better deal with Bluehost if you follow my instructions on installing WordPress with them.
Let me know if you have any questions. All the best! Thanks for sharing this information. These blogging sites do a great job; however, you must bring a quality one from a reputed site. With self-hosted version WP. Many free blogging platforms include a clause in their terms of service that state that they can immediately delete your entire site without warning if you violate their terms of service…. Very helpful article for me. I started my blog on a WordPress.
Such an instructive article. Including the cost layout. Great read and I seriously mean it. I used to think that WordPress. When I wanted to start a blog on WordPress. You just made this whole thing simple and clear for me. These blogs sites are very useful. I personally prefer WordPress for myself. By the way, nice article. Thanks for sharing Ogi! Thanks for the nice article.
Actually, this post is really helpful for the newcomer in the world of blogging. Keep Rocking!!! Great article. I have to say I agree with you guys about WordPress. So easy to use and very SEO friendly! I started with wordpress. You outdid yourself with this one! I remember the time when it took me months to write a web app that had just the basic functions of WordPress just to appear online.
Their only restriction is their imagination! How cool is that? Your email address will not be published. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email. FirstSiteGuide is supported by our readers. When you purchase via links on our site we may earn a commission. Read More. Are you planning to start a blog but not sure which blogging site to use? When I started blogging in , I wondered the same thing. Hi there, my name is Artem. Key features Custom domains — free domain for one year, available for paid plans on WordPress.
Get traffic stats — determine what your visitors find engaging. Social media integration — share your posts on social platforms automatically. Comprehensive SEO tools — help your readers find you easily. Variety of personalized themes — with new themes being added every week. Mobile-responsive blog sites — select from several mobile-responsive themes. Free plan Free of charge Free of charge, use with limited features and subdomain only.
Key features Reliable and secure — keeps data safe from malware. Mobile-responsive websites and blogs — pick from many mobile-friendly themes. Free themes — select a customized theme from hundreds of options in the theme WordPress theme directory. More than 55, plugins — access plugin directory to find ways to enhance your WordPress site.
Simple publishing process — create content, integrate media, and make it live with a single click. Free Free software Open-source blogging platform. How to Start a Blog using WordPress. The Best Web Hosting Services in Key features Vast audience — convert millions of site readers into your subscribers.
A free app — access Medium on your mobile devices from anywhere. Monetization — earn money when someone reads your content. The reason? WordPress is open source. Developers can go in and create widgets, plugins, and other tools to customize WordPress blogs—so you can create any kind of blog you want. Their experience is echoed by many of our other users. That said, there is a bit of a learning curve. Another echoed that sentiment. One user was also able to promote items for third parties in order to generate even more revenue.
They were also able to leverage plugins to help them build their audience—and generate revenue growth. At first blush, the blog dashboard for WordPress seems more complex than most. The platform introduced their Gutenberg editor recently, which can make the editing process much simpler. They lay out everything you might need to publish a blog in a fairly intuitive, easy-to-grasp way.
The layout is easy to manage, and finding font settings and image inserts is a snap. No matter what you want to build or how big you get, the platform will grow with you so long as you choose the right plugins. One plugin we do recommend you get is the Yoast SEO plugin. This is an incredibly popular WordPress plugin that helps you set up your posts to be as SEO-friendly as possible with a few guided steps. And if you really want, you can start changing the code yourself. Since WordPress is open-source, that means you can do whatever you want with it.
It gave me an easy interface to post my blogs, as well as everything I needed or wanted in my blog: a subscription box, an author area; just the look I wanted and the flexibility to change things as needed. The quick answer: Go with Bluehost.
They even recommend using Bluehost as a hosting option. Our own panel of users used this exact combination of WordPress with Bluehost to create their own websites. And I really prefer the portal at Bluehost compared to the old place plus the service is better for me. They also have a stellar customer support team available by chat, email, or phone if any issues come up.
They work together seamlessly, the pricing structure is incredibly affordable, and you also get things like domain registration for free. Another flaw that one of our surveyed users mentioned is that WordPress lacks comprehensive customer support. When I checked, I found that WordPress support amounted to a support forum.
After posting a test question on there, it took about two hours before I got a reply back. Along with scoring very highly across all criteria, WordPress with Bluehost is a great place to start if you really want to build a blog that will grow with you no matter how big you get. WordPress and Bluehost can do that. Bottom line: Building a WordPress website takes more time than a Wix website. However, the tradeoff is your website is much more customizable and powerful.
And Bluehost makes it easy to host your WordPress site. The first thing I notice whenever I go onto a Squarespace blog is how gorgeous it typically looks. Photography and graphic designs seem to leap off the screen. The blog owners themselves seem to always be artistically-minded like illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, home decor experts, and more. Our panel was no exception. They were made up of a website design expert who teaches readers how to make stunning sites, a gardening influencer who frequently showcases mouth watering photos of his homegrown vegetables, and an interior designer who likes to flex their room designs off in gallery posts.
The trio rated Squarespace very highly across the board. Each criteria received no less than a 4 on average, and many of the users had glowing words to say about its ease of use and designs.
Their site frequently showcases captivating photographs of eclectically designed rooms. Their claims are backed up by my own research of hundreds of Squarespace blogs.
Editing your blog—from the contacts page, to the about page, to the home page, to your portfolio, to the actual blog itself—is very easy with Squarespace. Like Wix they have a drag-and-drop tool.
That user is also known as Paige Brunson. She discovered the wonders of Squarespace years back and loved it so much she created a thriving career helping other people design on it too. Squarespace also gives you tools to add an ecommerce portion to your blog along with a newsletter integration. That can really help you scale and transform your blog for profitability and audience growth.
Where our panel of users found Squarespace lacking can be boiled down to one word: Customization. For more complex websites this might be a problem. While Paige is an evangelist for Squarespace, she believes that it could be better when it comes to its mobile customization. Sometimes you have to hunt and click here and there.
However, we knocked it below WordPress ultimately because of its limited customization and—as a result of limited customization—scalability. Users might be turned off by the platform due to its lack of features. On top of all that, you need to pay a higher price for access to custom CSS.
Bottom line: Squarespace offers great looking templates, easy drag-and-drop designs, and an opportunity to show off your art, photographs, and more. Give Squarespace a try today. LinkedIn gives you a built-in audience for business professionals of all stripes from HR, digital marketing, finance, tech, and more.
Many of them are highly active on the site, frequently sharing thought leadership and articles with one another via their LinkedIn feed. The platform has a ready-made culture and set of expectations that a business blogger would dream of creating on their own site. The challenge for you is creating compelling and share-worthy content to build a following. After all, LinkedIn is a social network. Your influence grows in proportion to the size of your network. You have an opportunity to put your thought leadership in front of everyone from potential clients and customers, to recruiters, to influencers in your field.
Each of the users on our panel leveraged LinkedIn blogging to make key networking connections and develop an audience. The folks on LinkedIn are typically high-earners. Creating a blog on LinkedIn is very simple and just requires a profile. No crazy misalignment or formatting issues.
Think along the lines of a quick anecdote or pro tip. Articles are longer and more in-depth, of course. Any articles you publish will appear in the Articles section of your LinkedIn profile. Is one better than the other?
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