Blogger offers an excellent selection of templates that are all mobile optimised.
Blogging is a great way to get your ideas out there in the world and connect with people. Whether you want to blog as a hobby or to promote your business, it can be a useful tool to help you achieve many personal and professional goals.
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But before deciding to go on this journey, first you need to check available free blog sites that will allow you to achieve your goals for the long term. If you want to showcase your writing skills or photography talents, finding the right blogging site is imperative for your blog’s success.
Several blogging sites offer a range of capabilities – and one is bound to suit your needs.
We went through leading blog platforms to find the best ones for you. Here are some of the top sites and info on their features and pricing to help you decide the perfect home for your blog.
The 4 best blogging platforms – May 2020
- WordPress.org is the best open-source
Platform built for blogging.
Wix is the best blog website builder for beginners.
- Blogger is the best platform offered by google
which has best security and free of cost for blogs builder .
#The top 13 most popular blog sites and platforms
Before starting, it is essential to know what you are looking for in a blogging platform. Also, you will need to figure out what kind of blog you want to create. If you are a beginner, you will want a platform that is easy to set up and requires no coding skills.
Moreover, it’s essential to choose one that’s flexible and provides you room to grow if you want to change the look of your blog or you want to add more features for your audience.
Lastly, make sure it provides you with the option to make money through blogging when you decide on it later on.
Keeping that in mind, let’s review these top 13 most popular blog sites.
1. WordPress.org – best blogging platform
2. WordPress.com – best free blogging platform
3. Blogger – best platform by Google
4. Wix – best for beginners
5. Squarespace – premium all-in-one blogging site
6. Weebly – best drag and drop platform
7. Medium – best platform for simple interface
8. Typepad – best for businesses and journalists
9. Tumblr – best microblogging platform
10. Postach.Io – easiest platform for mobile posting
11. Ghost – best WordPress alternative
12. Movable Type – best for small and medium-sized businesses
13. Svbtle – best minimalist designs and functions
Blogger
It is a free blogging service offered by Google that provides a quick and easy way to create a blog for non-tech savvy users. With this platform, all you need to do is type the content, add media, and publish. It also allows you to edit HTML and add widgets to the blog, which is not offered by many free blog sites. Since it is a Google service, all you need to do is log in with your Google account details. Working with Google also has its perks as you can monetize your blog down the road through Google AdSense that allows you to embed ads to your blog.
Although it is not as powerful as WordPress, it is more accessible for new users. Blogger offers an excellent selection of templates that are all mobile optimized. Also, it has a powerful post-editing tool and integration abilities with other apps and services. All in all, it is the best free blogging site if you prefer ease-of-use over flexibility, and if you are a fan of Google’s services.
Key features
- Easy to use templates
- Free domain
- Google AdSense integration
- Built-in analytics
- Safe media storage
- Built-in mobile interface
- SEO-friendly
- Built-in advanced editor
- Google hosting
- Fast loading time
- Zero downtime
Pricing
- Blogger is completely free
FAQs
What is a blogging platform?
It is a type of software or service that you use to create a blog so that you can publish your content online. Making top blogs involves several steps, but the first one is choosing the best place to start a blog that will fit your needs. Without it, you cannot proceed to the other steps, and you cannot start your blogging adventure.
You can also call it a CMS (Content Management System) since it enables you to easily manage your content once you have your blog up and running.
How to create a blog for free?
Yes, you can quite quickly start a blog for free using free platforms I mentioned in this article. It can have the potential to become one of the blogs on the web. But if you decide to upgrade your blogging game and go a step further I still recommend self-hosted Blogger.
What hosting should I get?
If Blogger was your choice among all the others, I suggest choosing GoDaddy.com as your hosting provider. They’re one of the rare hosting services recommended by Google itself; it is reliable and not as expensive as some competitors.
How long does it take to set up a free blog?
It depends on the blogging software you choose. Also, it depends on how meticulous you are. You can set up an entire blog in under 10 minutes if you Set SEO settings in blogger, and you find a theme you like. But if you have to have all the colors and elements in place, it might take even days until you set up everything the way you want.
What does “self-hosted” mean?
Self-hosted is usually tightly connected to Blogger. This means that you, as a user, have to take care of your site. You have to find a place on the internet where you will store all the files and databases that are used for running a blog. Usually, this means paying for a hosting service that will take care of the server, store your files, and make sure the website is always accessible.
Do I need to know to code when creating a blog?
No. Whether you want to start with simple sites like Blogger or want to go with widely used Blogger , you don’t have to know anything about programming languages or databases. Most of the available blogging platforms in the modern world let you build websites through their drag & drop builders. That means you can sit, relax, and focus on the design of your blog.
But if you decide to improve your blog and start a more serious online project that requires something unique, it would be good to know a thing or two about coding. But even in this case, you can always hire an expert in the field to code something for you.
Can I earn money with free blogs?
Yes, even if you start a free blog, you can earn money with it. There are different ways of monetizing your blog (like showing ads, joining affiliate programs, or accepting sponsored content, just to name a few). But understand that in order to make money with your blog, you will have to invest a lot of time (and usually money) into it before it becomes feasible. This is something all popular blogs and best blog sites had to do.
I wrote about how to make money blogging soon , where you can learn more.
What is the difference between a blog and a website?
A blog is a website that’s focused mostly on the content that is regularly delivered. Blogs are a kind of a modern diary where people get to write about the topic they like. Usually, people like others to read their opinions and comment on the content they’re delivering (whether it’s written words, images, or videos).
On the other hand, a website is any site that provides information about something, but it doesn’t usually have to endorse regular content to their audience.
I started a blog, but my friends can’t find it on the search engines. What’s wrong?
Usually, it is enough to start a blog and have at least one page for Google, Bing, and other search engines to recognize it. But since the popular search engines have to discover millions of new sites on a daily basis, this process is slow, and it might take even weeks before search engines recognize your content.
To speed things up, you should focus on the content, have new articles, and connect with people who will start interacting with your site. Also, you can manually tell Google and Bing that you have a new site by submitting your URL.
Is it possible to move a blog from one platform to another?
In most cases, yes, that is possible. I understand that choosing the best blog site at the very beginning is hard. People usually have to work with one blogging platform for at least several months until they realize what they actually need and want.
More often than not, bloggers want to move their blogs from Blogger to WordPress, Wix to WordPress or Tumblr to WordPress.
I started a blog, but no one is reading it. How do I get more traffic?
Even though you might have something interesting to write about, without an effort, it won’t be likely that you will get the audience. You have to realize there are millions of bloggers who are already writing about the same thing you’re interested in. So to attract people into reading your blog, you will have to connect with other bloggers. You will have to start promoting your content (free or paid) by joining communities, posting your articles on social media, and commenting on others’ work. You can even pay for advertising which will show your blog post to thousands of users all over the world.
I wrote about this already, so feel free to learn 100 tactics to get more traffic to your new blog.
What should I write about?
To be honest, starting a blog without having something to write about won’t get you far. It doesn’t make much sense to start a blog just for the sake of it.
Still, even if you decided on the niche you will be joining, you have to listen to your audience. You have to write about something you like, but also about something that people will be interested in. You can browse the web to see what others in the same niche are writing about, what are people most likely to comment on, and what they like on social media.
How many times per month should I publish new posts?
Although many bloggers debate on this, the truth is that there isn’t a correct answer to this question. While someone might achieve better results by posting a few short posts per day, another blogger might have it better by posting just one or two articles per month.
This depends on the type of blog you decide to start. For example, if you want to share news from a specific category like technology, you will probably want to have at least several posts per day to cover all the essential news. On the other hand, if you decide to write more in-depth guides, tutorials and teach the audience something, you might get better results if you put the entire focus into just one or two articles that the audience will appreciate.
How many words per article should I have?
Depending on the niche and the type of blog you have, the answer might vary. You can have a successful blog post with just 200 words and achieve the same result with a post that’s exceeded 5,000 words. Everything depends on what you write about and how people react to it. Still, I strongly suggest that your articles have at least 500 words, and in my opinion, your average article should have about 1000-1500 words if you want to make sure it will rank well on Google and other search engines.
Conclusion
The best way to find the right solution for your needs is to understand whether each blogging platform focuses on your level of experience and coding knowledge and how much it costs. Moreover, it depends on the customization abilities of the site and if it is easy to use and upgrade.
Through this guide, we have informed you of all the features and pricing range of the best blog sites. And now you know how to get started with each of them.
So which one is it going to be?comment down!
