Writing blogs is an amazing way to share your ideas and generate conversation with like-minded people. Whether you are a professional blogger or just an enthusiast, in this article we are going to give you some suggestions to get your blogging journey started, or enhance it.
WordPress.com
WordPress is now used to build any kind of website by millions of people. But originally it was a blogging platform. People always confuse WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The former is a hosted version of WordPress that you can use to have your blogs published on and the latter is a free CMS or Content Management System. It is basically the WordPress software you can get and install on your own host and domain. Both have their advantages. WordPress.com is a great tool if you want a no-fuss approach. However, if you are into customization and want to have control over every aspect of the job, then you need to use WordPress CMS. The catch is that you need to be tech-savvy and understand how to run a website; which is not that difficult in all honesty.
Wix.com
Wix is another option for newcomers and people that want a blog that is easy to manage. Once again, Wix is not solely a blogging platform, but a website builder. But this shouldn’t be a problem as it has fantastic templates that can be further edited using its intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Wix is what in the business is called a Freemium service, meaning it has both a free and a premium plan. As with all things, you’ll get better results if you pay, but the free plan is also great and their main difference is that the free plan gives you a subdomain of Wix.com.
Medium
Medium is a fantastic platform if your content is short. Even if you write rather long content, Medium is still a great choice because you can repurpose your original content and publish it on Medium; as many people do. You simply share your blog with Medium staff and they review and publish it, at which point you can monetize it.
Medium is a great tool to attract audience because it exposes your content to millions of people that use it and it is free. Its premium plan gives you access to exclusive content.
Blogger.com
This is a free publishing platform owned by Google. Using your Google account, it gives you free subdomain of blogspot.com and gives you a few tips on how to use it and voila. You have a publishing platform for you blogs.
A nice feature of Blogger is that it has integration with Google AdSense and you can monetize your content easily.
Tumblr
Tumbr is what is known as a microblogging platform. It is also a social media. What is microblogging you may ask. It basically means short blogs. Instead of long essays, with Tumblr you can write shorter content and have it decorated with multimedia files such as images, videos, audio, etc. The nice thing about Tumblr is that you can password protect your content and get a free subdomain.
Substack
Substack wants to be an easy blog and newsletter for everyone. Since it’s creation, it has been particularly popular with independent journalists and commentators. It also has a way to monetize content and that’s by subscriptions. People that like your content can subscribe to it and this way support you financially.
Substack is also a popular choice of the podcast scene because they can publish the transcript of their content on there. Another nice feature of Substack is that it is easy to manage. What you get is a blogging platform, a newsletter, a subscription service and support from Substack. It is also free to publish content on.
Ghost
If WordPress is too intimidating for you, then you can go with Ghost. It is an open-source project that was launched in 2013. Ghost offers a 14-day trial for you to dip your toes in its waters. After that you will need a plan to continue using it. Ghost was made with journalists in mind.
These are some of the best platforms to start your writing career. Despite their similarities, they are all unique in their own way. We recommend you test them out and see which is the best fit for your needs. But our recommendation is Substack for an easy experience.
