Top 5 Best Blog Sites
Blogging is by far the most popular form of online presence these days. An issue many new bloggers face is choosing the right platform to meet their demands. There are actually 2 very distinct kinds of blogging sites – the ones you host your self and pay a web hosting service fee for, as well as the cost-free blogging sites, such as Tumblr, LiveJournal and WordPress.
This article will outline the 5 most favored cost-free blogging sites and give insight into whats good and bad pertaining to them, to subsequently empower individuals with info to help select a cost-free blogging site.
My Top 5 Best Blogging Sites
Blogger
Googles cost-free blogging site, Blogger is the pick of many who are getting started in the blogosphere. The clean interface helps it be a major hit with people who are thinking about creating content. This attribute is what makes Blogger certainly one of the best blogging sites.
Blogger provides the user a wide range of eye-catching templates throughout the sign-up procedure and offers a drag-and-drop tool to relocate elements around the sidebar. Widgets to add followers and maintain a record of statistics are convenient and helpful for people who dont want to touch program code. Options are very clear and simple to find, plus the writing space is large and free of distractions. A customized domain name can be added with no additional charge.
The major downside to Googles Blogger is a lack of a direct link to social media. Each posting must be manually tweeted and added to Facebook, which will be tedious for people who post a whole lot.
WordPress
WordPress is accessible as a managed platform like Blogger or as a self-hosted option utilizing a hosting service provider of the users preference. For example, my website uses the WordPress platform that is cost-free, but I pay a hosting company a monthly service charge to ensure I have more versatility and flexibility with my sites design and features. The managed option is most beneficial for people who are new to blogging.
WordPress is definitely one of the preferred blogging platforms because of its fast, no-fuss sign-up procedure. Similar to Blogger, a brand new user can be writing a blog within a matter of minutes, with a lot of beautiful styles to choose from. Where the systems vary is in the total amount of tinkering which can be done in the backend. WordPress limits the editing of theme templates and CSS to those who spend an extra $30 per year. Customized domains add between $13 to $18 each year towards the expense of the site. Some users find out migrating to self-hosted WP to generally be a cheaper solution.
Although WP is not the least expensive of blogging platforms around, it really is a great starting place for business owners or others who wish to make a name for themselves. The platform gives excellent Search Engine Optimization features and fresh sites are generally indexed within a few days due to WordPress remarkably high Pagerank (PR9), which is why it is among the top blogging sites.
Tumblr
Tumblr climbed from a trendy upstart to a brand name within a little over 5 years. It now consists of more active sites than WordPress and it has attracted the likes of actors, Entrepreneurs and photographers. It is considered to be one of the best blogging platforms for art and online digital multimedia.
Tumblr provides a relatively zippy sign-up process which only needs an e-mail address and has many beautiful zero cost themes. This platforms key attraction is the posting formats, that provide ease of posting backlinks, pictures, video clips, chats and quotations. Tumblr is natively integrated with Twitter and Facebook, and it will automatically send out updates with each new post. Users can have several weblogs.
The only real downside to Tumblr is its reliability. It has struggled with lengthy downtimes and are typically overcapacity, which can take it off the listing of best blogging sites for a lot of people.
Posterous
Posterous is really a hybrid between a traditional weblog and Tumblr. Users can sign up using an email address and are provided with a simple blog layout which can be easily modified from the backend. Its considered one of the best blogging sites as a result of the ability to modify from everywhere. Like Tumblr, its well-integrated with social media marketing.
One major disadvantage of Posterous is the lack of clarity regarding the generation of new blogs and it is often challenging to remove them later. The platform was recently bought by Twitter and is in the process of transition.
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is considered the oldest blogging system across the web and has seen a strong decline in its user base ever since WP turned mainstream. Its still considered to be one of the top starter blogging platforms.
Although LiveJournal is still significantly in use and is considerably more community-based than other platforms, its absence of designs and social networking attributes as well as general clunkiness ensure it is one of the less-desirable blogging sites. Its one solid advantage is the commenting function is limited to community members, which decreases spam and trolling. The majority of new bloggers will most likely prefer to start out with something nicer, like Blogger or WP.
Best Blogging Sites Conclusion
The blogging sites outlined above are a great starting point for anyone planning to create their first blog. One thing to consider, these blog sites are all free, so if you still cannot decide which blogging platform to start with based upon the above details, register an account at each and give each of them a test run!
As a side note, quite a few knowledgeable web marketing experts maintain numerous blogging websites and “inter-link” them to enhance their online presence in the search engine listings with what is well known as a “Link Wheel” – but this is a whole different topic we will leave for another day!
Stephanie Tully is a written and published author and online marketing pro. Stephanie has helped many clientele in findinding the best blog sites most suitable to their preferences. Stephanie is also the co-webmaster of www.howtobeginawebsite.com – a web site that has helped numerous people in creating successful web sites.
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