THE TEN BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS

Choose a Blogging Platform and Start Today!

By Bryan Haines, 

So you've decided you're going to create a blog? Great!

Now, which blogging platform are you going to choose?

Learn about the ten best blogging platforms and which one is best for your goals.

The majority of these platforms are free and very easy to use. Some require different levels of technical ability and others required that you purchase web hosting. Many of the free options come with built in social communities that help promote your blog and its content.

Here are the ten best blogging platforms:

1. WordPress Blogging Platform

WordPress comes into variations: WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

Learn the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

• If you're starting a blog you might find WordPress.com to be the simplest and least expensive option.
• However, if you are planning a growing your blog into an actual business or to generate leads for your existing business I recommend using WordPress.org.

The primary difference between the two versions of WordPress is blog hosting. With WordPress.org you'll have to find and pay for your own web hosting. With WordPress.com your blog will be hosted on their servers. Cost is also a factor. You can set up a blog that is completely free on WordPress.com. With WordPress.org you have to buy web hosting and your own domain. Expect to pay from $40-100 to purchase a domain and hosting.

It should be noted that worldwide the majority of blogs run on the WordPress platform. While there are many options for blogging, serious bloggers almost always choose WordPress as their blogging platform.

Other platforms are catching up with Google analytics integration, custom themes, and plug-ins – but there is no other option is powerful as WordPress.

Because of the huge number of WordPress themes available (both free and premium) bloggers are able to make WordPress do just about whatever they wanted to. Themes exist for the following functions:

• photography blogs
• e-commerce
• real estate listings
• classified sites
• forum items
• travel blogs

Checkout this huge set of free WordPress themes. You might also enjoy this comparison of two premium themes.

WordPress Features:

• Cost: Free (premium options available)
• Ability to use custom domain: Yes
• Integration with Google Analytics: Yes
• Ability to Use Custom Themes: Yes

There is a third option when using WordPress as your blogging platform. Choosing a managed WordPress host will eliminate much of the maintenance and technical side of using self hosted WordPress.org, while still getting the flexibility of custom plug-ins and themes. While managed WordPress hosting is more expensive then shared hosting, it is a good choice for bloggers who don't want to invest time in technical aspects of their site maintenance.

If you don't want to use this platform, check out these 3 WordPress alternatives.

2. SquareSpace Blogging Platform

The feature that stands of the most inside of SquareSpace is their LayoutEngine technology. Longtime users of WordPress, or any other blogging platform, will notice this amazing feature right away. Click and drag images, re-size them, and adjust placement faster and smoother than any other blogging platform allows. Everything is laid out inside a perfect grid so everything is always properly aligned. Text, images, or blocks can be dragged to the exact location where you want them.

Another key feature of SquareSpace is how multiple site components are pulled together all under one platform. Typical website components such as pages and galleries along with blogs and e-commerce stores all work smoothly together. Add a custom template for unique look and you have a dynamic web site with e-commerce and blog functionality.

SquareSpace is a premium-only blogging platform. In fact they also offer a complete and dynamic e-commerce solution starting at just $24 per month. Easily build your website from scratch or using one of their numerous free templates.

Sites and blogs with SquareSpace are hosted in the cloud. Cloud web hosting is scalable and stable meaning is no downtime and no maintenance required by the blogger.

Benefits of blogging with SquareSpace:

• All annual accounts get a free domain name
• True 24/7 support: there are no call centers or outsourced help. Everyone on the team is an experienced user of square space.
• Apps for iPad, iPhone and android allow post creation review and editing along with comment management and access of web stats available on the go.
• No need to worry about the mobile version of your site – every square space template includes a mobile design so that your site will display properly on any device all the time.

Content created on other blogging platforms can be seamlessly imported into SquareSpace. These blogging platforms include WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger. Content created inside of your SquareSpace blog can be set auto publish to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr.

Choose from three options:

• SquareSpace Standard: 20 pages, galleries and blogs
• Limited bandwidth, storage and contributors
• Includes free domain name
• $8/month (billed annually) or $10 month-to-month

• SquareSpace Unlimited: Unlimited pages, galleries and blogs
• Unlimited bandwidth, storage and contributors
• Includes free domain name
• $16/month (billed annually) or $20 month-to-month

• SquareSpace Business: Fully integrated E-Commerce with mobile store, inventory tracking and unlimited physical and digital products.
• Unlimited pages, galleries and blogs
• Unlimited bandwidth, storage and contributors
• Includes free domain name
• $24/month (billed annually) or $30 month-to-month

3. TypePad.com Blogging Platform

TypePad is a strong contender a business blogging platform: stable, flexible, and offers strong analytics.

The platform offers promotion of your content across its network. This means increased exposure and traffic to your blog.

Benefits of using TypePad:

• published easily via PC mobile or email
• ability to sell products and services
• earn revenue with ads on your blog
• join the TypePad affiliate program to generate more revenue
• ability to tweak or even build your own blog theme

Drawback to using TypePad: it isn't free. Cost range from $8.95 to $29.95 per month. Each account comes with a free 14 day trial.

Popular bloggers using the TypePad.com platform:

• Seth Godin
• Amazon Associates
• Paris Hilton
• Geek Week

4. Tumblr.com Blogging Platform

Tumblr is a free microblogging platform. You can easily create attractive functional blog in a matter of minutes - and you can forward your own domain to your Tumblr blog.

From Tumblr.com:

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML.

Some of the more outstanding features of Tumblr include:

• Bookmarklet: Quickly share web treasures via this quick link you add to your bookmark bar.
• Post via email: Automatically post text, photos, or videos to your Tumblr blog via a unique email address. The email address is found on the Settings page for any of your blogs.
• Mass edit posts and tags: The Mega-Editor is a powerful tool to easily edit tags on multiple posts at the same time.
• Phone in an audio post: Via a toll-free number (Dial 1-866-584-6757) you can call in a post and it will be automatically posted for your followers.
• Short URLs: Short urls are useful when you'd like to share a link to one of your posts and you don't have much space. If you've connected your blog to Twitter, you can grab the short url for any published post from the right column of the Edit screen for that post.
• Reblog between your blogs: Click "reblog" on any of your own posts to reblog it to any of your other Tumblr blogs.
• Keyboard shortcuts for fast navigation through posts. Pressing “Z + tab” will switch between the dashboard and the public view of your blogs.
• Mobile apps for either iOS or Android operating systems.

Popular Tumblr Blogs: Celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Zooey Deschanel and President Obama have all used Tumblr to run their blogs.

Tumblr Features:

• Costs: Free
• Ability to use custom domain: Yes
• Integration with Google Analytics: Yes
• Ability to Use Custom Themes: Yes

5. Blogger Blogging Platform

This popular blogging platform owned by Google is extremely easy to set up and has good online support. It has been said that a site run on Blogger receives SEO benefits by Google, although this hasn't been verified.

Clear benefits of using blogger include:

• ease of setup
• simple design and layout
• inability to harm the backend (no custom coding)
• free

Drawbacks to using blogger:

• inability to do custom coding
• limited opportunities for monetization
• unprofessional design options

Blogger is popular primarily among family and amateur travel blogs. Seldom do business bloggers use the Blogger platform because the drawbacks are significant. Blogger simply was not created to run a professional blog.

Blogger a great choice for people who want to share photos and travel experience with friends and family, but not for business blog.

6. LiveJournal Blogging Platform

Primarily for hobbyists and personal blogs, LiveJournal has strong community. At time of posting, LiveJournal had 61.7 million journals and communities and over 120,000 posts in the last 24 hours.

LiveJournal has a free client via the Apple AppStore and a mobile version for use from any mobile device.

To practice your blogging or to share personal experiences, LiveJournal.com looks like a reasonable option. I can't imagine a business, of any size, using this blogging platform. Even the creators a LiveJournal agree: posts on this blogging service don't even show up in search engines and even offer the option to hide posts from some readers.

7. Blog.com Blogging Platform

Easily set up a free blog at Blog.com. While they offer a set of premium features, you can easily begin blogging without spending any money. They have a strong community, including more than 2 million bloggers. Choose from more than 100 blogging themes, the majority of which are free.

Benefits of using Blog.com:

• the free sub-domain actually looks pretty good (yourname.blog.com)
• free multi-author blogs
• huge selection of free blogging themes
• a nice set of inexpensive premium options
• optional privacy settings
• search engine optimized
• the ability to earn from ads on your blog

Premium features on Blog.com:

• remove the ads, or add your own ($30 per year)
• extra storage space (2 GB included for free) in increments of 1020 or 30 GB (starting at $20 per year)
• custom domain ($18 per year)
• custom design ($15 per year)
• unlimited authors (free option includes up to 35) at $25 per year
• premium themes ($60 per year)

8. Jux.com Blogging Platform

Jux.com is unique blogging platform that displays your posts and images full-screen on every device.

If photography is a primary part of your blogging model, you might want to check out Jux.com. While the site is a little hard to navigate, the appearance of the content on the site is outstanding. Simply visit Jux.com and click "sign in" to get started.

While photos are the obvious benefit to a format like this, there are a number of other applications, such as:

• Slideshow: display images with no clutter
• Video: display video at full-screen and make an impact
• Article: display your content above a related image background
• Top 10 lists: create strong list posts with powerful images

From Jux.com:

Jux is the best showcase for your stories. Share words, photos and videos with unprecedented ease and impact. Fullscreen on every screen. Desktop, iPad and iPhone.

How is Jux pronounced? Jux [pronounced jucks] verb informal. To put something on the internet in a way that awes your peers: "Wow, you gotta Jux that."

9. Weebly Blogging Platform

Weebly offers a free tool for creating and hosting your website.

Features of using the free Weebly service:

• Drag-and-drop website builder: building great-looking site with no coding or technical skills needed
• Free powerful hosting included
• Choose from hundreds of free themes
• Add a blogging application to your free website at no extra charge
• Choose from a full set of multimedia applications:, including for galleries HD video and audio players maps and photo slideshows
• iPhone app available

In addition to their free version, they offer a premium version called Weebly Designer Platform.

In addition to the standard features included with the free version, the Weebly Designer Platform offers a 100% white label solution. White label means that all the branding from Weebly is removed and replaced with your company logo, color scheme, and domain name. This platform allows you to resell this service.

While Weebly has its own CMS (content management system) in resembles WordPress in a number of ways. Key features such as form builders, traffic stats, functional mobile sites, changeable themes and a set of other functions and applications make Weebly a powerful option for new bloggers.

In addition to the drag-and-drop ease of Weebly Designer Platform, there is also an option to modify and change HTML and CSS. This is not required but a nice feature for those who like to fine-tune their site and have knowledge of these coding languages.

Build a site for free and only pay once it goes live. Price is $7.95/month per published site.

10. Posterous Spaces Blogging Platform

With a focus on sharing and creating more content, Posterous manages the technical back-end of your blogging. They offer the ability to create a private or public space ("space" is how they refer to what we know as a blog) controlling who sees what content.

The platform works great for professional bloggers, businesses, families and travelers. While your Posterous space can be used as a standalone blog, it can also be used as a syndication channel that will auto update numerous other social media channels.

Mobile apps for either iOS or Android operating systems are available.

From Posterous Spaces: Millions of users are Sharing Smarter with Posterous Spaces. From personal blogs to fully functional business websites, what will you create next?

Posterous currently supports the following services for auto-update:

• Facebook- Profiles and Pages
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• WordPress (XML-RPC must be enabled)
• Drupal
• Flickr
• Picasa
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Scribd

Update: Posterous will be shutting down April 30, 2013.