Looking for the best blogging platform?
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There are so many options these days when it comes to picking a blogging platform.
Don’t fear, we will help you to decide on the best blogging platform for your needs in 2023 as well as helping you think about how to define what success for you and your blog might look like.
0:00 Intro
0:17 What makes a good blogging platform?
1:28 WordPress.org
3:44 Bluehost hosting
4:09 Wix.com
5:25 Blogger by Google
6:58 Tumblr
8:00 WordPress.com
9:22 Squarespace
10:25 Ghost
11:37 Round Up
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So you want to start a blog or you're Questioning if your current blog is on The right platform but you're snowed Under with options well don't worry Today I am here to help you out by Giving you a rundown of seven of the Very best blogging platforms out there Before we jump into the list we need to Kind of set some parameters what is it That we're actually looking for in a Quality blogging platform we want Something that's quick and easy to set Up and definitely does not require any Coding so it's nice and quick to learn To get the right platform for you I need You to do a little bit of future Planning where do you want your blog to Go what do you want it to be if you do That if you can think like that you can Start to plan out maybe what features You're going to want your blog to have In the future and then is it going to be Sustainable for you in the long term Again thinking of the future can you Switch down the road if you decide maybe You don't like this particular platform And how easy is it to do that and Finally can you make money from your Blog either now or in the future through Things like affiliate marketing adverts You'd be surprised to hear that a lot of Sites don't let you do that or if they Do it comes at a cost so we want to make Sure we're proofed and we're ready to
Make some money off our blog if the Opportunity presents itself Foreign Of course our first pick has to be WordPress.org not to be confused with WordPress.com we will get on to that a Little bit later but wordpress.org Powers almost half the websites on the Internet it's incredibly popular it has To be pick number one every platform is Going to have pros and cons what are the Pros for wordpress.org it's free to use You have complete control of your page With no coding required and thousands of Customizable themes there's also Thousands of free plugins to help you Add all the features that you want like Forms you can grab from WP forms or Galleries the options really are endless And it's definitely the easiest free Blogging platform to make money with Great options for online stores Affiliate marketing and adverts that all Sounds great but what are the downsides Well you are managing everything so you Don't need to know code but definitely Need to be familiar or get familiar with The WordPress admin backend it's not That complicated but it is something That you need to do that means you're Also going to have to take Responsibility for things like your own Backups of your page and the security of Your page wordpress.org is also
Self-hosted and what that means is that You'll have to set up your own web Hosting provider now this is pretty easy To do and can cost you as little as 30 a Year there's also options that will take Care of the backups and security that I Mentioned in the previous con but it's a Cost you need to consider and just an Extra step that you need to fulfill Along with your hosting provider you Also need to get a domain name now this Is your.com dot Co dot uk.org whatever It is you want to be now these are Pretty easy to get they're also pretty Affordable they can be 10 to 15 for the Entire year but it is another thing that You need to consider some hosting Providers remember you're gonna need one Of those check out the the previous Point will actually give you a domain Name for free so if you pick the right Provider you can actually start to Bundle your backups your security your Hosting and your domain name all Together making your life even easier if You are looking to keep those costs as Low as possible we recommend Bluehost They offer a free domain name and SSL Certificate automatic WordPress updates And even more and it's all less than 35 Dollars for the year and it can be even Less than that if you go and click the Link in the description and grab our WP Beginner coupon code
Next up is Wix you've probably heard of Them they're a very simple drag and drop Based platform that have a blogging app That you can add to your page again Let's talk positives and negatives but The upsides you can customize your site Using templates and add-ons again no Coding required it's very simple drag And drop format and it's pretty quick And easy to start there's no hosting or Domain costs the downsides are while It's free to set up and get started that Free account does come with Wix ads and Wix logos on your page there's also Limited apps the templates that you Apply can't be changed at a later date That might be a deal breaker if you're Looking to kind of change and above your Site as time goes on and if you are Looking to have e-commerce on your Blogging page well their e-commerce Options for Wix are only available to Those higher paid priced tiers which We'll talk about now as we said it's Free to get going with Wix but if you Want more features and you want to add That e-commerce feature then you are Looking at paying anywhere from 16 to 159 a month so definitely check it out And make sure that your site is going to Be future proofed and you're gonna get All the features that you need Next up we're going to talk about a Blogging service provided by Google bet
You didn't know they did that it's Called blogger and if you're not Particularly tech savvy this could be a Great choice for you let's talk upsides Now it is run by Google as I said so you Can be assured that it's very nice and Secure because it's run by Google you Can get started with just a Google Account which let's be honest we've Pretty much all got at this point it's Completely free to use the only cost is If you want to add a custom domain name But that's entirely up to you and the Actual usage of the site is incredibly Simple Simplicity does lead to very Limited blogging tools and features with Limited design options and templates so You're not really going to be able to Customize that site exactly how you want It Google also don't really see blogger As a priority project so it very rarely Gets updated and it very rarely has new Features added so what you see it's Pretty much what you're going to get Long term the way blogger works as well Basically means that Google kind of owns Your blog so if you post something you Write something that Google don't like Google don't agree with they can Actually cancel your blog they can just Take it down suspend your account that Is within their power while you're using Blogger it's also worth being aware that Google do have a little bit of a track
Record of abandoning projects so if they Were to decide to do that with blogger You could end up losing everything [Music] Now for something a little bit different If you're primarily looking to use Images video audio and you like the idea Kind of some social media type features Built into your blog and Tumblr might be Worth looking at on to the upsides Tumblr is again free nothing to pay for Unless you want to get your own custom Domain name a Tumblr account and blog is Very easy to set up and possibly even Easier to use and as I mentioned it's Very easy to block images video and Audio so if that's your jam definitely Check this out downsides again Simplicity does lead to a lack of Features and it also means that you can Definitely outgrow Tumblr if your blog Starts to become even reasonably popular So then you might want to move your Tumblr blog onto another site say WordPress.org where you have more Options however moving from Tumblr onto Another blogging platform is actually Quite difficult Right wordpress.com let's clear up the Confusion because it is not to be Confused with wordpress.org they are Very different unlike wordpress.org WordPress.com does the hosting for you And it will even provide you with a
Domain name but that definitely comes With some sacrifices before we get to Those sacrifices the positives there is No fee to set this up it's completely Free unless you want to add your own Custom domain name it is very easy to Use and manage wordpress.com and there's Basically no setup required Simplicity Is King here however again Simplicity Brings limitations wordpress.com has Much more limited options than WordPress.org there's no custom themes Or plugins you can't run ads on your Blog but wordpress.com will and they Take the ad revenue from that and Similarly to what we spoke about with Blogger you don't actually own your own Blog wordpress.com can suspend or cancel Your account wordpress.com is free However if you want to remove Those ads That are going to be running on the free Version of the site you can pay four Dollars a month and if you want some Extra design tools there is an option There as well and that's 18 a month so Again be aware of what you want and how Much that's going to cost you Foreign Next up another fully drag and drop Something that can make some really Beautiful websites Squarespace it is Very easy to use that drag and drop System with Squarespace the templates Are really good looking and there are
Upgradable options so you can get E-commerce and other features on your Site one of the bigger downsides to Squarespace is that it's a proprietary Platform so there's very few features Being developed and added onto the site Which if you compare that to say WordPress.org which is open source and Allows people to develop things to Develop apps to put on the site so the Options are in the thousands does mean That once again you are a bit limited Now there is no free option with Squarespace no matter what you go for You are gonna have to pay a fee it's Anywhere between 23 and 49 a month you Can make those a bit cheaper if you pay Annually but again need to decide if That's something that you want to do And finally we are talking about Blogging here so if you really just want To focus on your writing ghost is a Really great minimalist platform where That is the focus ghost does have a Hosted and non-hosted option we're going To focus on the pros and cons of the Hosted here there is basically no setup Required for ghost you can just get Straight at it and the whole page the Whole site is in JavaScript so that Means it's going to be lightning fast And because it is very writing and Blogging focused the interface is super Clean and super clear by now you should
Not be surprised to hear that this Simple interface does mean limited Options so you get limited customization Limited themes to decide how your blog Is going to look but that's the Trade-off you get with the simple Interface if you are interested in the Self-hosting the setup for that can be Very complicated the hosted version is Not free it starts at 25 a month and That gives you two users and a limited Number of page views although it is Quite a large number and if you want to Go for the self-hosted you'll need to Provide a domain name and a web hosting Service as we explained with WordPress.org so which one's the best Well obviously it's going to come down To your own personal needs and Preferences however we cannot look past WordPress.org it's quite simply the most Powerful the most customizable the most Flexible it's just all round a winner And if you pair it up with Bluehost we Mentioned earlier for your hosting and Their free domain name and then use the Wpbeginner coupon code you've got Yourself a very affordable solution There's also so many different tools That you can use that are going to help Your blog take off and be more Successful all in one SEO for example And if you are looking to boost your SEO Or find out what SEO is then definitely
Check out one of our other videos which Is about here But that's all from me today I hope you Found that helpful I've been James And I'll see you soon
