Best Blogging Platform: How To Choose The Top Blogging Tool in 2023 [Complete Guide]

I started my first blog in 2004. It was called Caffeinated Webmaster and covered the topics of web hosting, web design, and blogging.

It was hosted on Blogger.com and was a hit for a while. As my business models changed, I migrated the site to WordPress and it became a huge success. Then, in 2014 I migrated that site to a custom platform and it died. Losing 33,000 subscribers is no fun at all.

Since then I’ve had several blogs on Blogger, WordPress, Ghost, Medium, custom platforms and even Squarespace (just to see what it would be like). The following guide will help you figure out which platform is best for you based on your needs in 2022.

There are a lot of good reasons to start a blog in 2021, but there’s also one big challenge standing in your way Choosing the best blogging platform. There are dozens of different blogging platforms out there.

And while that’s great news for you (lots of choice is always a good thing), it also means you need to put some time into researching all the options. After all, the blogging platform you choose will have a huge impact on every aspect of your blog – from its design, to the amount of traffic it gets, to how much money you make from it

 

 

Blogging Platform – Introduction

Blogging Platform – Introduction Let’s start with the basics – what is a blog? A blog is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.

A blog is a website that is updated frequently with links or commentary on a particular subject by one or more authors. Blogs are also known as weblogs.

The term weblog was created by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, blog, was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.

Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (“to blog”, meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.

What Are the Best Blogging Platforms?

Blogs are everywhere. They are personal, professional and educational.

People share recipes, review books, rant about politics and offer their opinion on just about everything. Blogs come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are big moneymakers, while others support a cause or entertain friends and family. Whatever your motivation for blogging, you’ll need to choose a platform that suits your needs.

Free blogging platforms The best blogging site for you will depend on your goals. If you have no desire to create a professional blog or make money blogging, then the free options are probably best for you.

Free blog platforms offer an easy way to get started without spending anything or using any of your technical skills. You’ll find many free blogging sites out there, but here at HostGator, we highly recommend WordPress.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers thousands of websites around the world and is one of the most popular choices among bloggers who want to create simple blogs with custom domain names (e.g., exampleblog.com). WordPress offers two options for users: WordPress.com and WordPress.org

1.  WordPress.org

WordPress.org. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.[4] To function, WordPress has to be installed on a web server, which would either be part of an Internet hosting service or a network host in its own right.

An example of the first scenario may be a service like WordPress.com, for example, and the second case could be a computer running the software package WordPress.org. A local computer may be used for single-user testing and learning purposes.

Features include a plugin architecture and a template system. It is most associated with blogging but supports other types of web content including more traditional mailing lists and forums, media galleries, and online stores.

WordPress was used by more than 27% of the top 10 million websites as of February 2017.[5][6] WordPress is reportedly the most popular website management or blogging system in use on the Web,[7][8] supporting more than 60 million websites.[9]

Features

WordPress is an easy blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new websites.

WordPress.org are the features that make WordPress the most popular website software on the web: Flexibility: Do you want to create a simple blog or website? Perhaps you want to create something more advanced like an online shop?

Data ownership: Your content is yours – use it how you like! You have complete control over your content, so you can easily export it to other platforms or use it in third-party applications. Easy customization: Change the look of your site with themes, edit content with plugins, and enhance search engine optimization with SEO tools.

With thousands of themes and plugins available for free at WordPress.org, there’s no limit to what you can do with your site! Community support: Get help from a community of WordPress users who are here to support each other.

Learn about WordCamps, our local events where you can meet other like-minded users in person.

Pros

WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress. It’s open source software that can be installed on any server (and can be moved wherever you want).

The freedom and flexibility to build almost anything you can imagine. As a web developer or designer, this means building websites for clients without limitations.

Being self-hosted, you have full control over your website. You don’t have to worry about the platform shutting down or going out of business, and you are free to customize it however you wish.

WordPress is extremely easy to set up and use. Even if you’ve never used WordPress before, it’s fairly .straight forward.

No limitations on themes – All themes are created equal in WordPress; there are no limits on what you can do with your site. You can also use premium themes from marketplace sites like ThemeForest, which offer a huge selection of premium themes at low prices.

Google loves WordPress – With its clean codebase and content focus, Google loves WordPress sites and ranks them highly in search results.

2. Squarespace

Squarespace is a software as a service-based content management system-integrated website builder, blogging platform, and hosting service. The company is headquartered in New York City with offices in Dublin and Portland.

In 2003, Anthony Casalena created Squarespace in his dorm room at the University of Maryland. The company was originally called “Tendenci”, an open source CMS for non-profits.

After graduating from the University of Maryland, Casalena moved to New York City to develop Squarespace full-time. In 2004, he dropped out of school to pursue entrepreneurship.

Squarespace’s founder, Anthony Casalena, serves as CEO. The company’s headquarters are located at 225 Varick Street in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood; it also has an office in Portland, Oregon that opened in July 2015 and an international office located in Dublin that opened in October 2015.

Squarespace is the all-in-one solution for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. Domains, eCommerce, hosting, galleries, analytics, and 24/7 support all included. 

Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence.

Domains, eCommerce, hosting, galleries, analytics, 24/7 support and more…

Features

In addition to its templates, Squarespace offers a variety of features designed to help you build your website. These include: Built-in blogging tools. The blogging tools on Squarespace are intuitive and easy to use.

You can create posts and schedule them for future publication — all from the same screen. The platform supports drafts, revisions, and tags. Squarespace’s blogging platform also lets you share your posts on social media directly from the builder.

You can also display related posts and a built-in newsletter signup form on each blog post so visitors can subscribe to your blog.

 Image galleries The image gallery feature in Squarespace allows you to upload images, edit them, and arrange them into galleries without leaving your website builder.

This makes it much quicker and easier to create stunning image galleries for your website.

 Integrated ecommerce capabilities: If you want to sell products or services through your website, Squarespace has everything you need to get started.

You can create product pages with descriptions and images, set up an inventory system and manage orders from the same screen. There is no limit on the number of products you can add to your store.

Although there are no free plans that allow ecommerce transactions, Squarespace is one

Pros

Pros Squarespace is a great all-in-one website builder that offers intuitive tools, an ecommerce platform and much more. Its popularity is due to its visual appeal and its drag-and-drop builder.

Squarespace sites are considered some of the most beautiful online stores out there, with templates that are modern, easy to use and responsive for mobile users. 

Some other pros include: Beautiful templates Intuitive interface Great customer support Built-in marketing tools Mobile responsive

3. Wix

Wix is a cloud-based development platform that lets users create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools. The platform was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company also called Wix.

Wix was founded by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan. In 2012, Wix introduced its HTML5 website builder to allow users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools.

In 2013, Wix launched its App Market to provide its users with access to a variety of web apps from independent developers. In 2014, Wix launched an open platform for third-party developers to build applications for its ecosystem.

In 2010, Wix announced it had raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Mangrove Capital Partners. In November 2011, Wix announced it had raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Features

 

Wix Features Free Website Builder Design amazing and professional websites. No coding or design skills needed.

Amazingly Beautiful Designs Pick your site template and quickly build a stunning site. Personalize it to create your unique website. User-Friendly Editor Add text, galleries, videos, vector art and more. Get online fast with our simple drag & drop editor.

Powerful Apps Easily add powerful social apps that help you drive more traffic and generate leads. Choose from over 200 apps on the Wix App Market!

Pro

Gator Website Builder allows you to create a website with no technical knowledge required. Simply choose from our professionally designed templates and customize them to meet your unique needs.

Our drag-and-drop builder is easy to use, whether you’re a pro or a beginner. With Gator Website Builder, you get a professional, mobile-friendly website that makes it easy for your customers to find you online.

You can begin by choosing one of the designer-made templates. We built them in-house and they’re ready for anything you want to throw at them, from brochure sites to full ecommerce sites.

Once you’ve got the template you want, just click the Edit button at the top right of the page and you’ll enter editing mode. It’s just like using any word processor or editing software, so if you’ve ever used one before, it’ll be very familiar.

You can change photos, text, links and more on any of the pages in your website. Gator Website Builder is a website builder designed to help you create a beautiful website in minutes. No coding required.

Free Domain and Email One click install f 125+ free applications 30 days money back guarantee

4. Gator Website Builder By HostGator

Gator Website Builder is an online website builder that helps you create a professional looking website without having to worry about complicated programming or coding. Gator offers hundreds of pre-made templates to choose from, giving you the ability to customize your site in order to make it look just how you want it to.

When choosing a template, you can choose between different types of sites, including blogs, online portfolios, eCommerce sites and more. 

You’ll Want To Use Gator If: You need a simple website that’s both easy-to-use and professional-looking. You want a drag-and-drop interface.

You don’t have experience with HTML and coding Gator Website Builder is an online website building tool from HostGator, a leading web host based in Houston, Texas. It’s ideal for small business owners who want to create their own site easily.

What makes Gator Website Builder stand ou is that it features hundreds of mobile-optimized templates and drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy to build a professional-looking site without coding knowledge.

Gator Website Builder has three paid plans that range from $3.84 to $11.22 per month on an annual basis.

Features

Drag-and-Drop Features: All of our templates are completely customizable, meaning you can drag and drop text, images, logos, maps or contact forms wherever you want. You can even add ecommerce directly to your site by adding a store tab in the navigation bar.

Templates Galore We offer hundreds of professionally designed templates for every industry. Whether you need a basic personal site or an advanced website for your business, we have the perfect solution for you.

Mobile Device Compatibility All Gator Website Builder sites are mobile responsive. This means that your website will be completely functional no matter what device it’s being viewed on.

From desktop computers to tablets to smartphones, your site will look great and function well for all visitors.

Pros

Gator by HostGator offers a great website builder with good features and options, as well as some of the best pricing in the market. If you’re looking for a balance between functionality and ease-of-use, Gator is a good option.

The pre-built templates are easy to use, and it’s quite simple to make your content look professional if you have some basic design skills. Gator Website Builder By HostGator. Pros: Ease of use: Gator Website Builder offers a simple drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to customize your site.

Design: It offers a wide range of professionally designed templates that are good looking and mobile responsive. App store: You can easily add new features like contact forms or shopping carts to your site without having to find an external solution or hire someone to do the work for you.

Price: With its various plans, Gator by HostGator has one of the best price/quality ratios in the website builder industry.

5. WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a hosting service that makes it easy for anyone to publish online and is home to millions of websites. If you have a WordPress.com site, this guide provides information on how Jetpack can help take your site to the next level.

WordPress.com has two plans for hosted sites: The free plan includes a subdomain, community support, dozens of free themes, basic design customization, and more. The paid plan includes a custom domain name, removes WordPress.com ads, provides access to premium themes, advanced design customization tools, and more.

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post. Here are some suggestions for your first post.

You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting page you read on the web. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.

Features

WordPress.com comes with a bunch of features you may not even know about. They arehidden away in plain sight, waiting to be discovered.

So we put together this list to help you explore WordPress.com and make the most of everything it offers.

1Custom Domain Names.

 Want to ditch the wordpress extension on your site’s address? You can add a personal or business domain name (such as yourwebsite.com) to your site for as little as $18 per year with a WordPress.com plan.

This gives you an easy-to-remember address that reflects your brand and helps visitors share your content more easily. 

2. Fully Responsive Themes.

 Do you want your site to look good on phones, tablets, and desktops? All our themes are responsive and display beautifully no matter where they areviewed, from high-resolution Retina displays to small mobile phones.

3Automatic Updates. 

We update all our themes automatically so you don’t have to worry about breaking changes when a new version is released. We also keep WordPress core up-to-date with security and feature updates so you have peace of mind knowing your site is always secure and running smoothly.

4Premium Themes Sometimes you need something special

Pros

The WordPress.com free plan is a great option for beginners who may want to make a website as a hobby. It’s also good for testing out the WordPress platform, or for people who have minimal tech skills and don’t want to deal with hosting.

To get a professional-looking website, you’ll have to upgrade to one of the paid plans, which range from $4 to $45 per month. This price is pretty standard among other hosted platforms — and it’s higher than what you wouldpay with many premium plugins.

If you’re looking to start an online store, WordPress.com can help you do that as well. The ecommerce plan starts at $45 per month and allows you to sell products directly on your site.

6. Weebly

Weebly is an online drag-and-drop website builder that enables users to create unique sites simply and easily. The platform has been around since 2006 and has grown to be one of the most popular website builders on the market, with more than 50 million websites built on the platform.

The company was founded by three students who were studying at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

 They were looking for ways to build a website for their dorm, but found that other website building companies didn’t offer a good experience for non-developers. They decided to create their own, and Weebly was born.

Weebly has always been dedicated to enabling users to build great websites without needing coding or design knowledge. You can use it directly from your browser, so you don’t need to download any software.

It also comes with a set of templates for you to choose from, so you can get started quickly and easily, and then customize the site as much or as little as you want using pre-built sections or by adding your own code.

Weebly is a great option if you’re looking for a free website maker that offers plenty of features and options out-of-the-box. It’s relatively easy to use and requires no coding knowledge

Feature

The Weebly website builder offers a flexible drag and drop system for every element on your site. You can easily add, move, resize and more with just a click. Weebly is designed to get you online fast.

Simply choose your website type, customize the design and click publish. You can then focus on adding content or marketing your business. The Weebly dashboard provides a wealth of information related to your site and products in simple, easy-to-read cards that are updated in real time.

Our mobile responsive website builder creates sites optimized for viewing on any device. This ensures that visitors have a seamless experience whether they areviewing your site on a phone, tablet or computer screen.

Pros

Pros

1. Ease of Use: Weebly is one of the easiest website creation tools out there. Exceptional Drag & Drop Editor: Weebly’s drag and drop editor is one of the best in its class.
2.  Huge App Center: You can add a bunch of features to your site using various apps from the Weebly App Center. Great Help Resources: With an extensive knowledge base and video tutorials, you can find answers to almost every question that you may have while using Weebly’s services.

Cons

1. No Phone Support: While you can contact their support team via email and live chat, you cannot get any phone support with any of the plans available at Weebly. Limited Site Design Options: The site design options are limited on lower plans at Weebly, which may not be a great thing for people who want more control over their website’s look and feel.
2. Lack of Email Hosting: Unlike most other website builders, Weebly does not offer email hosting serviceswith its plans.

7. Constant Contact Website Builder

With Constant Contact’s website building tool, you can create a mobile-friendly, beautiful website in minutes.

How Do I Create a Website? You can create a website by doing the following: Hover over the Websites tab in the top navigation bar, and then click Create Website. Click the Select a Template button to choose one of our free templates.

Your template will automatically be populated with preset pages and sample text. You can customize your site layout and content as much or as little as you wouldlike.

 Once you’ve chosen your template, click the Edit button to begin customizing your site’s layout and content.

Which Content Can I Add to My Site? You can add images, videos, buttons and text to your website by doing the following: Click on the placeholder where you want to add an item to your page, or click where you want to add content if there is no placeholder. Then click on one of the icons in the toolbar at the top of your screen.

Click on an image preview to add that image to your site. If you don’t see any images here, click on Upload Image (you can upload more images at any time by clicking My Images at any point when you’re editing your site) and

Features

 

The Constant Contact website builder offers a wide range of features to make your website stand out. Here are some of the great features that are included: Custom design Pick from over 100 easy-to-use, mobile friendly themes and customize to match your business brand.

Drag & drop editing. Our simple drag and drop editor makes it easy to get started and lets you create your site without any coding.

Mobile friendly builder. Make sure that your site looks great on any device with mobile responsive themes. Your visitors will have a great experience wherever they visit from!

SEO tools. Get found on search engines like Google® by using our free SEO tools to optimize your site for search. We’ll also generate a sitemap for you.

 Google Analytics integration. Keep track of how many visitors come to your site with our free Google Analytics integration.

Pros

Constant Contact Website Builder. Pros Constant Contact has a lot of great perks that make it a good choice for small businesses. These are some of the best: Price. Constant Contact’s pricing is very reasonable, and they offer a free trial period so you can test the software out before committing to it.

Automation platform. Constant Contact has excellent ecommerce options and marketing automation tools that help you stay in touch with your customers and increase sales. Easy-to-use interface.

Constant Contact is designed for beginners, making it easy to create a professional website without hiring a developer or learning complicated coding languages. However, this can also be limiting for more advanced users who may want more customization options.

Customer support. Constant Contact offers live chat during business hours as well as 24/7 phone support with experts who have plenty of knowledge about their service and can quickly resolve customer issues.

Awards and recognition. Constant Contact has won many awards for its website builder product including PCMag’s Editor’s Choice Award, Webby People’s Voice Award, W3 Silver Award, and several others.

This is a testament to the quality of their service as well as the recognition by experts in the field that Constant Contact is a leading product in its

8. Blogger

Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was developed by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. 

Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com.

Blogs can also be hosted in the registered custom domain of the blogger (like www.example.com). A user can have up to 100 blogs per account n August 23, 1999, Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs. 

As one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularize the format.

In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free In February 2011, Google announced that it would set up a separate social networking group within Google and move several of its social networking features, including Profiles and Buzz, into this new division

In May 2011, Google discontinued the Google Plus API because it was deprecated and no longer supported new signups. At that time many users moved to Facebook

Features

Blogger. Features dynamic views – choose from pre-designed templates, or design your own to match your style and content.  social media integration – share your blog posts with built-in social sharing buttons. make it easy for readers to share your blog on Facebook, Twitter, and more mobile apps – post on the go from wherever you are.

publish your blog to the web, mobile devices, and email subscriptions with Blogger’s mobile apps real-time stats – see how many people visit, how long they stay, which posts they read and where visitors come from. keep tabs on your readership with in-depth statistics search engine optimized – Blogger automatically optimizes blogs for search engines like Google and Bing. this ensures that readers can easily find your blog online

Pros

The Pros of Blogging Blogging is an excellent way to connect with people, build a community and grow your business. Here are some of the benefits of blogging: Connect with people. Blogging is a great way to develop relationships with people.

For example, if you comment on other people’s blogs, they arelikely to visit your blog in return. Build a community. When you blog consistently, you build trust and credibility with your audience.

As you add more content over time, your readership also grows. This can lead to an active community of loyal readers who look forward to reading your posts every week (or more often). Grow your business.

If you have a product or service that helps people solve their problems, blogging is a great way to attract new customers or clients. You can share valuable information on your blog to help educate them about their problem and why it’s important for them to get it solved…fast! By doing so, you become their trusted advisor and show them why they should work with you over anyone else out there.

9. Tumblr

Tumblr! Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007, and owned by Oath Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.

Users can follow other users’ blogs. Bloggers can also make their blogs private. For bloggers many of the website’s features are accessed from a “dashboard” interface. 

As of February 2019, Tumblr hosts over 447.1 million blogs As of January 2016, the website had 555 million monthly visitors.

DAVID KARPDavid Karp(born July 6, 1986) is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the short-form blogging platform Tumblr. 

He founded the company in February 2007 at the age of 20 and still oversees it as its chief executive officer today. As of June 2018, his net worth is estimated to be $200 million

What is Tumblr? Tumblr, launched in 2007, is a microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. If you’re on Tumblr, you can follow blogs that interest you, and people who follow you can see all the content you post.

You can also customize your Tumblr page with your own theme or choose one from the thousands available through the site.

Features

Tumblr. Features What makes Tumblr unique? Ask.Answering questions is a great way to get to know someone, and it’s just about the best conversation starter ever!* Chat.We’ve made it as easy as possible to get started and connect with our users — simply provide your username, a few details about yourself (like your age or where you live), and you’ll be on your way.*

Customizable themes.If you’re into design, go and check out our friend Cristiano’s Tumblr themes.* Follow blogs.Following people is great, but following entire blogs is cooler.* Post anything.Share photos, video, quotes, chats, links, and text.*

Reblogging.Reblogging is how Tumblr users share each other’s posts.* Safest way to blg.Know that anyone who can see your blog can also message you — only allow messaging from blogs you follow if you want to keep conversations more private.*

Search.We’re obsessed with making search super-fast so that whenever you feel like filling that void inside of yourself with some weirdness or beauty or whatever else we have on offer, you can do so in an instant.*

ProsTumblr is a social networking site that makes it easy for you to share your photos, text, videos, and audio with other people on the site. One of the great things about Tumblr is that you can use it for free.Of course, if you have the money to spend, there are ways to enhance your Tumblr experience by purchasing premium themes and extra features from their online store. The site is also very easy to use.You can register for an account in less than a minute and start posting content right away without having to learn how to use any complicated tools or software. If you want to make money using Tumblr, then all you need to do is create a cool blog with a lot of interesting content on it and then sign up for affiliate programs that pay you when someone clicks on the ads they place in your sidebar or at the bottom of each post on your blog.If you’re interested in making money using Tumblr but don’t know how, then this article will show you how!

10. Medium

If you’re new to Medium, here’s an overview of how our publishing platform works. Writing a story on Medium is easy.

There are three ways to start: Write inside the Medium editor, where you’ll find a suite of tools that make it easy to format your story and customize its appearance. (More on the Medium editor here.) 

Write in any other writing tool, and then paste your story into the Medium editor, where we’ll help you get it ready for publication.

Use one of our partner integrations — right now that means WordPress, but in the future we’ll be adding more platforms — to write directly in your own blogging software, and then publish and distribute with just a couple clicks.

If you go with option 1 or 2 above, once you’ve finished writing your story, you can choose whether to publish it on your personal profile or as part of a publication. If the latter, a few more options appear: Publications can either be open or closed. Open publications accept submissions from anyone and anyone can read them.

When you submit something for an open publication, it’s up to that publication’s editors to decide whether or not to accept your submission. Closed publications invite contributors from within their own community and have strict policies governing

Features

Medium is an open platform where readers find dynamic thinking, and where expert and undiscovered voices can share their writing on any topic. We don’t serve ads—we serve you, the curious reader who loves to learn new things.

Medium is home to thousands of independent voices, and we combine humans and technology to find the best reading for you—and filter out the rest. Our algorithm looks at over a thousand signals to understand what’s trending on the daily.

We surface these stories for you in your Top Stories feed. If you’re looking for something specific, our search functionality will help you find it.

 You can also tailor your feed to only show stories from certain publications or people that you follow, or topics that interest you most.

Pros

Welcome to Medium. Pros, the subscription service from Medium.com. We’re thrilled to have you aboard and hope you will enjoy your reading experience as much as we enjoy making it for you. If you are new to Medium, here are a few tips to get you started:

1.When you are logged in, click on Home in the header menu and you will see a list of story recommendations based on topics that interest you. You can also use the search function to find stories of interest by subject matter or author.

2.When you see a story that interests you, click on the heart icon next to it (or double-tap on mobile) and it will be added to your Favorites list. The Favorites icon is located in the top right corner of any page (just under your profile photo). Click on this icon at any time to see your Favorites list and quickly access stories that interest you most.

3.To discover new topics, click on Explore in the header menu and browse through collections that interest you most. You can also search for specific tags using the search function at the top of any page. For example, if you type “Football” into the search bar, it will bring up all stories with

11. Typepad

Typepad is a blogging platform owned by SAY Media. It was created in 2003 by Movable Type creator Six Apart, initially as a paid version of its free-to-use Blogger.com product.

In January 2011, Six Apart announced that it would sell TypePad to video advertising company Videoplaza. On April 18, 2011, SAY Media announced its acquisition of both TypePad and VideoEgg.

Typepad is a blogging platform that provides an easy-to-use interface for beginning and experience bloggers. The platform provides various blogging tools, including integrated analytics, social networking, and SEO tools.

The platform also includes mobile apps that make it easy to post blogs from a smartphone or tablet. The Typepad photo editing tool allows you to easily crop, rotate and resize photos on the go.

Typepad has an intuitive interface and a variety of themes to choose from. In addition, the platform offers flexibility with HTML and CSS, so you can customize your blog design.

Features

Typepad is the reliable, flexible blogging platform that puts the publisher in control. In addition to providing all of the features you need to create a blog and grow an audience, Typepad is an ad-free environment focused on helping you build your brand.

Typepad has been serving bloggers for over 17 years and we’ve learned what features matter most. Here are just some of the features that make Typepad a great choice for building your blog.

Your Own Domain Name Having a custom domain name on your blog makes it easy to create a distinct brand that stands out from the competition. Plus it’s easier to remember when promoting your blog in print or online materials.

Built-in SEO Tools When people search for you online, you want them to find your blog quickly and easily. Typepad includes tools that let you optimize every post and page of your blog so it gets found on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! and more.

Pros

Typepad  Pros Typepad  Pros is another popular blog platform and is from the same company that created Movable Type. It is basically the commercial version of Movable Type. I

t offers thousands of design templates, 100GB of storage space and your own domain name. It also includes unlimited posts, pages and comments.

Typepad Pro’s features include: Unlimited pages, posts and comments 100GB of storage space Thousands of design templates Your own domain name (not a subdomain) Blog Statistics and Reporting Photo Galleries Social Media Sharing Buttons

12. Joomla

Joomla is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing web content, developed by Open Source Matters, Inc. It is built on a model–view–controller web application framework that can be used independently of the CMS.

Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and software design patterns, stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL (since version 2.5), or PostgreSQL (since version 3.0) database, and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, search, and support for language internationalization.

The Joomla core platform has been downloaded over 50 million times since its inception.[6] Over 7,700 free and commercial extensions[7] are available from the official Joomla! Extension Directory,[8] and more are available from other sources.

[9][10] The most popular ones include: the multi-lingual site interface; SEF URLs and SEO tools; RSS feeds; a newsflash module; a polling module; page caching to improve performance; support for language internationalization (i18n); tools for managing banners and advertising campaigns; support for multilingual publication; support for

Features

Joomla is a free open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. Joomla is written in PHP and stores data in MySQL. 

As of November 2012 Joomla has been downloaded over 30 million times and has been translated into 64 languages.

Joomla is often used as a back-end framework for local government and corporate websites. It can be extended with extensions to add features to the basic installation. 

Examples include forums, polls, blogs, shopping carts, picture galleries, and website search engines.

Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world today and it is growing quickly in popularity due to its ease of use and ability to extend its capabilities by simply installing additional extensions or plugins.

Joomla was designed to be easy to install and set up even if you’re not an advanced user. Many Web hosts now offer tools that automatically install Joomla for you, but it’s still good to know how to do it manually.

Pros

Joomla is the second-most popular content management system in the world, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s easy to use, offers a ton of features, and is flexible enough to adapt to almost any website design. 

In fact, it’s one of the most customizable CMSs out there.

Why You Should Choose Joomla

• Joomla is highly extensible – you can add features through extensions (plugins).
• It has excellent security features – including two-factor authentication.
• There are plenty of beautiful templates available for Joomla websites.
• Its community is one of the largest and most active in the world.
• You can use it to create any kind of website you want – blogs, social networks, ecommerce stores, directories, forums and more!

13. Drupal

Drupal is an open-source content management framework. Its modular design allows it to be used for a variety of purposes, from personal blogs to large corporate and political sites.

It is supported by a community of developers and users around the world, including the Drupal Association with supporting organizations like Amazee Labs. Drupal is also used as a back-end framework for at least 2.1% of all websites worldwide – ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites.

Drupal is written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It runs on any computing platform that supports both a web server capable of running PHP (including Apache, Nginx, IIS, Lighttpd, and Cherokee) and a database (such as MySQL or MariaDB).

The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout customization, and system administration. 

The Drupal core installation can be used as a brochure site when set up for only one domain.

[7]The software has been translated into more than 100 languages with over 1 million members of the community actively contributing.

Features

 

With the Features module, we’ve been able to build out functionality in a very structured way and then give it back to our clients. “The Features module enables the capture and management of features in Drupal.

A feature is a collection of Drupal entities which taken together satisfy a certain use-case.” – drupal.org/project/features In this tutorial, we’ll cover: What are Features? Features Workflow How to create a Feature using Features UI module How to export a Feature using Features UI module

How to import and revert a Feature using Features UI module What are Features?

Pros

Drupal Pros (DP) is a small consulting business specializing in Drupal website development and cloud infrastructure. The company was founded by three friends, who have been working together for several years.

DP is a team of highly skilled professionals with a proven track record of high quality website development and support services. We have broad experience in all aspects of the website life cycle: from design and development to hosting, maintenance, and support.

Our clients are small businesses, non-profits and other organizations that need to run custom web applications on shared hosting or dedicated servers. They value our professional approach, reasonable prices and personal touch.

14. Ghost

Ghost is a fully open source, hackable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News. Ghost is simple. 

It’s easy to use, easy to customise and packed with features you’ll love.

Use Ghost as a fully hosted platform, or as a self-hosted solution for maximum customisation. Over 20K people already have! It’s time to take back control of your online publishing. Join them today!

Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News. 

Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do.

It’s simple, elegant, and designed so that you can spend less time making your blog work and more time blogging.

Features

Ghost is a fully open source, hackable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News. Below are some of the features that make Ghost great:

You own everything. Your content belongs to you, not some corporation. 

You can migrate your content at anytime and there’s no lock in. Easy to produce rich content. The editor is optimized for speed, making it easy to produce rich content with images, tags and more.

Fully responsive design. Ghost has a fully responsive design that works perfectly on all devices from desktop through to tablet and mobile.

 People friendly. At the heart of Ghost is its focus on people, rather than content management systems or technical jargon.

Pros

Ghost is a great tool for making a simple blog or journal, but you can also use it to run all kinds of websites. Ghost can be used to power all kinds of sites.

Forexample, the Ghost blogging platform is built on Node.js, a server-side JavaScript execution engine. This means you can use JavaScript as well as database systems like MySQL and MongoDB with Ghost.

Ghost’s versatility means you can use it for more than just blogging. Node.js makes it easy to build dynamic websites and web apps, so you could use Ghost to create a fully functioning website if you wanted to.

15. Jekyll

The static site generator in Ruby you’ll never stop using because it’s awesome Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator.

 It takes a emplate directory containing raw text files in various formats, runs it through a converter (like Markdown) and our Liquid renderer, and spits out a complete, ready-to-publish static website suitable for serving with your favorite web server.

Jekyll also happens to be the engine behind GitHub Pages, which means you can use Jekyll to host your project’s page, blog, or website from GitHub’s servers for free. Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, static site generator.

It takes a template directory containing raw text files in various formats, runs it through a converter (like Markdown) and our Liquid renderer, and spits out a complete, ready-to-publish static website suitable for serving with your favorite web server.

 Jekyll also happens to be he engine behind GitHub Pages, which means you can use Jekyll to host your project’s page, blog, or website from GitHub’s servers for free.

Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, so you can host your project’s page, blog, or website from GitHub’s servers for free.

Features

Some of the features of Jekyll include: Simple, blog-aware, static sites Support for templates, permalinks, categories and more Optional support for YAML front-matter Ability to convert Markdown and Textile into HTML Code syntax highlighting

Pros

Jekyll is a static site generator, which means it takes some files you give it and generates a complete website. Jekyll Pros Static sites are fast. 

Your visitors don’t have to wait for your server to generate a page every time they want to read something.

You can easily use version control software (like Git) to manage changes in your site’s content. This makes it easy to experiment with different ideas and roll back any that don’t work out.

It’s easy to host your site on GitHub Pages, which is free. If you already know Git, this lets you avoid the hassle of hosting a site yourself or paying for hosting services.

What is a Blogging Platform?

A blogging platform includes the software and hosting required to create a blog and make it available on the web. There are two main types of blogging platforms: hosted and self-hosted.

Hosted platforms are ones in which the provider handles all of the technical aspects of creating, maintaining, and storing your blog. 

Self-hosted platforms require you to handle all of those things yourself, often by installing software on your own web hosting account.

The most popular hosted blogging platform is WordPress.com, owned by Automattic. Another popular option is Blogger, owned by Google. Both services offer free basic accounts that allow you to start publishing a blog immediately, but they also have paid options with advanced features if you want them.

If you want more control over your blog than a hosted platform can give you, you should use a self-hosted platform. 

There are many different products that can serve as your blogging platform, but WordPress is the most widely used one — nearly one-third of all blogs online use WordPress as their blogging platform.

How Do You Select the Best Blogging Platform?

There are plenty of blogging platforms out there. How do you know which one is the best for your needs? Here are two things to consider when looking at different blogging platforms:

1.  Ease of use: One of the primary reasons why so many people use WordPress is because it’s easy to use. You can get started with a blog using the platform in a matter of minutes, and the platform comes with numerous great themes and plugins that enable you to customize your blog without having to have any coding knowledge.
2. If you’re looking for a simple solution that enables you to get started right away and doesn’t require any technical know-how, then WordPress is probably your best option. Customizability: Another reason why many people use WordPress is because it’s customizable.
3. The platform has an extensive range of themes and plugins, which give you the ability to do just about anything with your blog — from creating an eCommerce store or membership site on top of your blog, to building community features such as forums and social networks.
4. The sheer number of themes and plugins available for the platform means that no matter what type of business or industry you’re in, you can easily create a professional-looking blog in a matter of minutes — even if you’re not

1. Selecting A Blogging Platform – Easy Setup for Your Blog Site

Selecting A Blogging Platform – Easy Setup for Your Blog Site. The first and most important task you will have to perform when it comes to blogging is selecting a blogging platform for your blog. You will find that there are many different blogging platforms out there, but the truth is that some of them are much better than others.

In order to ensure that you select the best blogging platform possible, it is important that you take the time to review all of your options before making your final decision. What Is A Blogging Platform? A blogging platform is basically like a website template, but for blogs. The reason why people use these platforms is because they take a lot of the work out of setting up their own blog from scratch.

Most of them will be able to automatically install your blog on the server, provide you with hosting, and even give you a domain name. This makes things go by much quicker than if you were to create everything on your own. Another great thing about using a platform for your blog is that it will offer you some great features without having to do any programming yourself.

While many people who get into blogging have at least some experience with HTML, it’s still nice to be able to get some help along the way so that

2. Selecting A Blogging Platform – Growth Potential

Selecting A Blogging Platform – Growth Potential. The work of a blogger is not one that will be done in the comfort of your home.

As a blogger, you would need to go places where important events are happening and take photos, shoot videos and document everything that happens. This could lead to you commuting a lot between home and your place of target location.

In such cases, where you would be away from home for very long periods of time, it would be best if you can get a data plan that allows you to use the internet at any point in time without having to worry about heavy data charges.

In selecting a blogging platform, it is important to have this factor in mind: the ease of connecting with others on the platform. The reason for this is because blogging does not stop at just writing about what you see or what happens around you.

It goes beyond that and into creating links with other bloggers and communicating with them through comments and shares. I tell people all the time that as far as I am concerned, there are only three things needed to make a blog successful: good content, quality images, and social media promotion.

You can have the best content in the world but unless you promote it through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter,

3. Selecting A Blogging Platform – Website and Copyright Ownership

There are many options to choose from when selecting a blogging platform. The most common platforms are WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. 

Each platform has its own benefits and drawbacks and it is up to you to find out which one will suit your needs best.

This article will discuss three aspects of the platforms that should help you make your decision.

 Website Ownership: As a blogger, you want to know that any content you create for your blog will be yours for ever and no one can take it away from you.

If you use WordPress or Blogger this is not applicable because they own the websites you create on their platforms.

 Copyright Ownership: As mentioned above, copyright ownership is important as it determines who owns the content that you publish on your blog.

It is therefore important to find out whether or not the blogging platform allows you to retain copyright of any content that is published on your blog. This is particularly important for those who intend to use the blog to make money through advertisement or other means as well as those who intend to use images in their posts.

Costs:Free blogging platforms do not charge anything but have limitations such as putting advertisements on your site which may put off potential readers and also limit what you can do with the site in terms

4. Selecting A Blogging Platform – Robust Community & Customer Support

Selecting A Blogging Platform – Robust Community & Customer Support. It’s one thing to have excellent customer service in place, but a great blogging platform will also offer a robust community of users to help you navigate challenges and find solutions.

Sometimes the best way to get answers is to get them from people who have been there before and can help you through any technical challenges. If you’re new to blogging, look for a platform that offers an online forum where you can ask questions and get answers from other users.

You can also find blogs that offer free tutorials or videos that teach you how to use certain features on the platform. Blogging platforms that offer some form of customer support – whether it’s a forum or paid customer service – are more likely to be able to help when you run into problems down the road.

5. Selecting A Blogging Platform – Blog Platform Affordability

There is a great deal of log platforms you can use. Some of these blogging platforms are free and some are not. Do you want to know which ones are free? I’m going to tell you right now.

Blogger – This is one of the top rated free blogging platforms on the web. It is owned by Google and it allows you to make a blog in a matter of minutes. In fact, you don’t even need to know how to build a website.

You can just start making your posts and add pictures as well. And if you want to customize your blog, there are hundreds of templates that you can choose from or you can create your own design scheme if you would like.

WordPress – WordPress is another really good blogging platform that is also free. It offers templates for your site that are very similar to Blogger except that WordPress has more variety in its templates than Blogger does.

What Features To Look For In A Blogging Platform?

Blogging platforms make it easy to create, edit, and publish content on the web. If you have the right blogging platform, you won’t have to worry about the technical side of things. 

What Features To Look For In A Blogging Platform?

In order to set up a blog, you will need a domain name (e.g. www.yourblogname.com/), a web hosting account, and a blogging platform. Blogging platforms are where you will write your posts and manage your blog content.

They are easy to use and require no coding knowledge. They also offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to design and customization options so you can make your blog look exactly how you want it to look like.

If you are just getting started with blogging, it is best to start with a free blogging platform such as WordPress or Tumblr. But if you have some money to invest in your blog then I recommend using one of the premium platforms such as Squarespace or Ghost because they come with more features and give you more control over your blog design and functionality.

Blogging Platform Features – Ease of Use, Coding Knowledge Not Required

Blogging Platform Features – Ease of Use, Coding Knowledge Not Required If you are an absolute beginner to blogging, or just someone who is tired of shelling out money on web developers, don’t worry.

There are plenty of blogging platforms that can make getting your blog up and running a nap — no coding knowledge required. Here are four to look into:

WIX Wix gives its users the opportunity to create their own custom website using templates, or to use its drag-and-drop feature. Wix is a very user-friendly platform that makes building your blog as easy as possible.

The drag-and-drop feature allows you to customize your blog with the click of a button, while still giving you the flexibility to change it up as often as you wouldlike. Wix also offers hundreds of apps that you can implement on your site for even more customization options.

WordPress (dot) com WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms available on the Web, but did you know that you can create a free WordPress blog? WordPress makes it easy for non-coders to start their own blogs by providing users with thousands of themes and plug-ins to choose from, allowing them to customize their site in

Blogging Platform Features – Drag & Drop blog editing

Blogging Platform Features – Drag & Drop blog editing The ease of use and simple interface of the blogging platform is perhaps one of the most important features you should look for when choosing a blogging platform. After all, if it’s too difficult to get started with you are probably not going to stick with it.

Blogging Platform Features – Drag & Drop blog editing The ease of use and simple interface of the blogging platform is perhaps one of the most important features you should look for when choosing a blogging platform. After all, if it’s too difficult to get started with you are probably not going to stick with it.

Blogging Platform Features – Drag & Drop blog editing The ease of use and simple interface of the blogging platform is perhaps one of the most important features you should look for when choosing a blogging platform. After all, if it’s too difficult to get started with you are probably not going to stick with it.

Blogging Platform Features – Mobile-friendly templates

One of the primary reasons for creating a blog is to share your thoughts and ideas with the world. Because of this, blogging has become one of the most popular forms of content marketing.

However, it’s not enough to just write blog posts and publish them on your site. In order to generate traffic and turn that traffic into leads, you need to take a multi-faceted approach. 

One key aspect of this approach is using the right blogging platform.

There are numerous platforms out there, but they arenot all created equal. If you want to ensure your blog is as effective as possible, you’ll want to use one that comes equipped with all of the features you need to get the job done.

Mobile-friendly templates: With more people using mobile devices than ever before, it’s increasingly important that your blog be compatible with mobile devices. You don’t want potential leads bouncing from your site because they cannotview it on their smartphone or tablet.

Using a blogging platform that features responsive templates will ensure this doesn’t happen.

 Embedding content: You shouldn’t rely solely on the text in your blog posts to engage readers and generate leads — any good post should include images and videos as well.

But you don’t want to clutter up your posts with

Blogging Platform Features – SEO tools

Blogging Platform Features – SEO tools Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting a website or web page to rank higher in search engines like Google. If you’re new to blogging, there are a few terms you need to know.

Keyword: A word or phrase that someone types into a search engine when looking for information. 

Ex: “how to blog for beginners” Title Tag: The title of your web page that appears in search results.

It should be ess than 65 characters and include one or two keywords. Title tags are also called meta titles.

Meta Description: A description of your web page that appears in search results. It should be less than 165 characters and include one or two keywords. Meta descriptions are also called meta descriptions.

Permalink: A permanent URL for an individual post or page on your site. It should include one keyword and be no more than five words long. Tags: Keywords that describe the content on a post or page and help users find it in search engines.

You can usethe same tag on multiple posts or pages, but avoid repeating a tag unnecessarily because it will dilute its effectiveness.

Blogging Platform Features – Bog layout customization

Blogging Platform Features – Blog layout customization For a more bespoke look, we offer a drag and drop blog layout editor that allows you to create magazine-style blogs with different sections. You can add as many sections as you want and choose from different layouts, such as two columns with a sidebar on the right or three columns with a sidebar on both sides.

Apart from different sections, you can also add custom widgets to your blog, such as eatured posts, newsletter sign up forms or social media buttons. For example, you can use the MailChimp widget to add an email signup form to your blog so visitors can subscribe to your newsletter.

Then, when you publish new blog posts, you can send them out to all of your subscribers and drive more traffic to your blog. You can also use the Twitter widget to display tweets from your brand’s Twitter account.

This is another great way of getting more people involved in your website and boosting engagement.

Blogging Platform eatures – Social media integration

Social media integration Social media integration is becoming more and more of a necessity for blogging platforms. It’s super important to be able to share your content on social media, and not just that, but to have it automatically update with new content.

Here’s how the platforms we’re going to look at stack up: Medium has this feature built in, including auto-posting new content to Twitter and Facebook. 

WordPress.com has this feature built in, with several third-party plugins available if you want more customization.

WordPress.org does not have this feature built in, but there are many third-party plugins available for this purpose. Tumblr has this feature built in, including auto-posting new content to Twitter and Facebook.

Blogging Platform Features – Import/export options

Import/Export Capabilities Importing and exporting your blog content is a feature you’ll become very familiar with as you move from one blogging platform to another. 

Have you ever heard the saying that “Time is money”? Well, imagine how much time it would take to copy and paste every single blog post, page, and comment from one platform to another.

Not to mention the fact that you would have to go back and manually dd all of your customizations such as images, links, formatting, etc. This is why you should look for import/export features that will allow you to easily transfer your content from one blogging platform to another.

Of course you don’t want to get stuck in a situation where you need to transfer your content because there are no other options available on your current blogging platform.

 So make sure that before choosing a blogging platform, take a look at their export/import options just in case.

Blogging Platform Features – Keyword Research

A keyword is any word or phrase that describes a product, service, or topic. For example, the keywords “blogging” and “blogging platform” are two of the many keywords related to blogging.

It is important to research which keywords best describe your product or service. The right keywords will help you attract your target market.

 The first step in keyword research is listing all the words and phrases that relate to your product or service.

Then use an online keyword tool (such as the Google Adwords Keyword Tool) to find the most popular keywords related to your list. The Google Adwords Keyword tool gives you a list of related keywords and shows how many people searched for them in the past month (the “volume”).

When choosing keywords pay attention to volume, a high volume indicates that people are actively searcing for something. The more specific your content is, the better it will rank in search engines.

For example, if you run a pet store in New York City and are trying to increase online sales, you may think generic terms like “pet store” and “pet food” would be great for SEO (search engine optimization), but “New York City dog training supplies” would b

Blogging Platforms – Frequently Asked Questions

We know there are a lot of blogging platforms out there. We’ve made it easy to choose the right one for you with our simple comparison chart. 

Still have questions? Maybe we’ve got the answers.

What is a blogging platform?

A blogging platform is an online servic that provides an easy way to create and publish a blog. The most popular platforms are free and have millions of users, but there are paid options that offer custom designs and other features.

Do I need my own website to start a blog?

No! One of the best things about blogging platforms is that they include your own website as part of their service. All you need to do is sign up for an account and start blogging!

Which blogging platform should I use?

It depends on what you want to do with your blog. If you don’t plan on making money from it or selling products, then any free platform will suit your needs just fine. If you want more control over how your blog looks, check out WordPress.org or Tumblr’s custom domains feature.

For businesses, we recommend Squarespace because it has ecommerce features built in (like accepting payments) that other platforms don’t offer as easily without installing third party apps or plugins firs

Best Blogging Platform – Summary

Here’s a quick summary of the blogging platforms we covered: 

WordPress (Self-Hosted) If you’re looking to get serious about blogging, self-hosted WordPress is the way to go. It’s the most powerful and easy to use blogging platform, and gives you complete control over your blog. 

WordPress.org is free, but you need to buy hosting and a domain name.

WordPress.com If you’re just starting out, or don’t want to deal with the technical aspects of running a blog, then WordPress.com is a great option. It’s free, easy to use and gets rid of the hassle of managing your own server.

However, it comes with some limitations that might become frustrating as your site grows (and you get more readers). Squarespace Using Squarespace is like hiring a professional web designer to build your blog for you.

It looks and feels fantastic right out of the box – no tweaks necessary! You can even start off with an online store and sell physical products on your blog!

The downside is that it’s expensive compared to other options on this list, but if you have money to spare and want an amazing looking website right away, then Squarespace is definitely worth checking out.