Blogging has taken the world by storm. It’s created an avenue for big businesses to have a more direct conversation with their audience and for everyday people to become entrepreneurs, too.
It’s a tool used by companies of all sizes to establish industry authority and generate leads. Some people even blog just for fun!
Whatever your reason for starting a blog this year, you need to make sure it’s the best it possibly can be. Take your time when writing each article and do your best to come up with relevant, engaging topics. Make sure you’re including images in your posts as well.
More importantly, don’t make a rash decision when choosing your hosting site!
Your blog’s hosting site has a big effect on its overall quality. Here are 15 of the best blogging sites you need to check out before you start writing your first article.
WordPress is arguably the most well-known of all blog sites. But, it has two versions which can sometimes cause confusion. If you’re considering this hosting site, make sure you’re looking into wordpress.org, not wordpress.com.
The .org version gives you more room for creative expression. It’s more compatible with plug-ins and themes than its .com counterpart is. You will need a separate hosting site to get the most out of all the customization possibilities, though.
If WordPress sounds too complex, try Blogger.
Blogger makes it easy for the tech-savvy and the not-so-updated alike to start their own blog. It brings blogging back to basics by giving you a place to write, edit, and publish your thoughts. You can include photos in your posts and edit HTML, but if you want to do more advanced tasks, you should try another platform.
The possibilities available on Squarespace are between the many possibilities of WordPress and the fundamental blogging style of Blogger.
This platform gives you the chance to customize many different aspects of your blog and to expand your services, too. You can create product pages and testimonial pages with ease. Squarespace is also compatible with a wide range of blogging plug-ins, but you’ll need to know a bit of coding in order to use them.
Up next on the list is Wix. This is ideal if you want to create a blog that is entirely unique, but you don’t have the patience to play with a bunch of plug-ins.
Wix comes with all kinds of site templates and customization tools already built-in. The interface is simple to use, and you can even opt for an AI interface.
The AI functions create the basic layout of your site for you based on a few prompted questions. Once the foundation of your site is generated, you can add the final touches at your own will.
A lot of the final touches you put on your Wix site can be done by dragging and dropping different elements. Weebly works in the same way.
This blogging platform gives you a chance to build a website without having to write a single line of code. It’s simple, straightforward, and capable of providing many different layouts.
The downside to how easy it is, though, is that Weebly isn’t compatible with custom coding. So, if you somehow end up learning the language of web development in the future, you may find yourself having to transfer your blog.
You’ve likely read a few Hubspot articles on blogging and digital marketing, but have you ever heard of Hubpages? Hubpages allows you to create your own blog and share your blogs with other people who use the site.
It’s your chance to share your story and become part of a large, inspiring community. You can even create a blogging business model by running ads on your page or working with affiliates.
As far as the actual blogging process goes, Hubpages is pretty straightforward.
Joomla is the blogging platform you need if you want to customize every single aspect of your new site. This is an open source content management tool that allows you to take their design templates and turn them into your own.
You can code unique features and create custom HTML solutions for all of your design needs. If you’re not sure where to begin, take advantage of Joomla’s free training videos before you get into the nitty-gritty of setting up your site.
If you don’t have a blog right now, chances are you have your blogging ideas saved on the notes app in your phone. If you use Evernote, you should check out its blogging counterpart – Postach.io.
The developers of Evernote made sure it was integrated with Postach.io when designing this blogging platform. This makes it easy for people like you to take the random thoughts they plug into their phone and create full-fledged blog posts.
Another option worth looking at is LiveJournal.
This platform has been around since 1999, and it’s become more of a community than a blog to privately manage. You can do your own thing on LiveJournal if you’d like. But, it’s encouraged to connect with other users and start discussions rather than solely focusing on your own blog.
It’s a great platform to use for lifestyle blogging or personal use, but not ideal for business purposes.
If you don’t know anything about coding but you want to make something entirely unique, use Jekyll. This platform turns your raw text files and turns them into static sites. It basically does all the coding for you so you can better focus on the creative writing side of blogging, not the web development aspects.
Here’s an interesting thought: what if your blog goes through a rebrand in the future? What if you decide you want to change how the layout looks or if you start thinking about more in-depth edits?
Contentful prepares you for these things and more. It allows you to customize all the pages of your blog in a way that separates the content from the design. This makes future edits a total breeze. You won’t have to worry about losing content while you upgrade your site’s design.
Ghost is unlike any of the other blogging sites on this list. It’s not a free tool, but, its payment structure is pretty interesting. Instead of having all users pay a flat rate, Ghost bases payments on how much traffic each account gets.
The platform is open source and it allows for customization if you’re prepared to use code. While you’re writing each blog, you can enjoy the live preview feature that gives you a glimpse of what the final product will look like.
Still haven’t found what you’re looking for?
Try Medium.
Medium is easy to customize and it comes with a built-in audience similar to how LiveJournal is set up. This makes it easy to start gaining exposure for your writing and building a following. If you’re trying out blogging to complement your video making efforts or music productions, make sure you embed videos or sound clips.
If you put Svtble and Medium side by side, they look very similar. But, the thing is Svtble is all about writing. This isn’t the right platform for you if you want to customize your pages and display your personality through visuals.
If you want to focus on just writing, though, it may actually be the best choice.
Last but not least, Tumblr. This is yet another option for blogging sites that has its own community built into the system. It gives you a chance to start building an audience right away.
More importantly, you can share and reblog things you’re interested in and ask for other people to reblog your content. This makes distribution even easier and helps you establish stronger online connections.
But, there’s a catch: Tumblr puts more of an emphasis on visual content – like photos and GIFs – instead of purely written pieces. It is possible for you to share your thoughts on Tumbly, but don’t expect to get the same results as you would with a more traditional blogging platform.
As you’re going through all of the best blogging sites listed above, consider all the opportunities and limitations associated with each one. You have to think beyond how your blogs will look or how much each site costs.
You need to be focusing on details like whether or not you need a hosting site and what kind of plug-ins are available to you. These are the tools that will let you get the most out of your blogging efforts. They make sure your blog is secure, unique, and backed up.
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