Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Nowadays, there are many ways to create a blog. But before we dive into those options, let us look at why you need a blog in the first place.
Don’t forget to read other articles on How To Create A Professional Personal Website and How To Build A Creative Website.
Why do I need to create a blog?
Some say social media platforms like Twitter have eliminated the need to create a blog, but there are many good reasons why people need a blog.
First, a blog allows you to showcase your work or products and grow your business by sharing your industry knowledge and expertise as an influencer, building customer loyalty to your brand, and by understanding and hence catering to your audience.
Secondly, a blog with the right content can keep your site at the top of search results pages i.e. higher SEO ranking on search engines like Google.
Thirdly, you can monetize your blog posts in the following manner.
- Display advertisements on search engines like Google AdSense
- Create some exclusive paid content like Financial Times as a newspaper blog
- Write a post to promote someone else’s products or services to earn an affiliate commission like the Guardian
What blogging platforms are available?
Deciding which blogging platform or content management system (CMS) to use to create your blog is the very first and yet the most critical step. However, there are tons of options available. Below is a brief summary of the most popular blogging platforms you may use to create your blog.
- Premium blog sites like Typepad, and Ghost
- Free blog sites like Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium
- Hosted platforms like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and WordPress.com
- Self-hosted platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal
For details on how to choose a blogging platform, you may be interested in the articles on HubSpot, FirstSiteGuide, WPBeginner, Themeisle and OptinMonster.
Create a blog with WordPress
WordPress is the world’s leading content management system (CMS) trusted by over 35% of all the website users around the world from personal blogs like Sylvester Stallone to corporation blogs like Microsoft News Center or a fashion and lifestyle magazine or news blog like Vogue.
A WordPress blog has the following main features.
- Simplicity
- Flexibility
- Publish with Ease
- Publishing Tools
- User Management
- Media Management
- Built-in Comments
- Fully Customizable
- Browser Compatibility
- Multilingual Blogs
- Own Your Data
It is easy to create a blog!
If you want to create a blog to share your ideas and grow your audience, you may follow these simple steps. First, you need to think of a blog name that is creative and easy to remember. Secondly, you should get a domain that matches your blog name. Thirdly, you should customize your blog design to match your blog topics. Then, you may start writing and publishing your posts. In addition, you may want to share your posts on social channels.
Conclusion – the best blogging platform
Which is the best blogging platform? In fact, there is no definitive answer which depends very much on what you are looking for in a blogging platform. For example, as a startup with no budget, you may want a free and off-the-shelf blogging platform like Blogger. If you have a bit more budget, you may consider Wix and purchase a domain. As a serious blogger, you may want to scale up your blog with customizations and add-on features to grow your audience, and even monetize your blog using WordPress.
