The 10 Best Blogging Platforms

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 .

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:

Checkout this huge set of free WordPress themes.

You might also enjoy this comparison of two

premium themes .

WordPress Features:

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.

Check this set of 5 free blogging platforms .

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Popular Tumblr Blogs: Celebrities such as Lady

Gaga, Zooey Deschanel and President Obama

have all used Tumblr to run their blogs.

Tumblr Features:

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:

Drawbacks to using blogger:

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:

Premium features on Blog.com:

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:

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:

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. Learn more

about white label blog platforms .

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:

Update: Posterous will be shutting down April 30,

2013.

Choosing The Best Blogging Platform

A company blog has become an indispensable

component of every website and company

marketing plan. Writing great content isn't

enough. Some blogging platforms actually limit

your search engine exposure, while others look so

bad that it will distract from your message.

Take your time as you choose your blogging

platform. Many of them have free trials - sign-up

for the one you like and try it out. Wait until you

are confident in the platform before you promote

it. Blogging is an important component in starting

your online business.