Blogger publishing tools

If you want to blog and do something else with your site , WordPress. If you want a professional blog for your business, you should skip WordPress. Free is wonderful, but using WordPress. Medium shines a spotlight on the best its members have to offer. If you write something great, it has a chance to be featured and seen by millions. Primarily used for professional networking, LinkedIn also offers a publishing platform.

This allows any of its million users as of September to write posts that could potentially be read by any of the million members who are active in a given month. Go to LinkedIn. When you write an article, LinkedIn will notify your existing connections. And, like with Medium, great content on LinkedIn has a chance to get noticed by those outside your list of connections. As of June , Instagram has 1 billion users worldwide. The previous September, they had million users — a growth of million in only nine months.

Even if you subtract everyone who follows a Kardashian or has posted a photo of themselves impersonating a duck, Instagram offers an audience of well over 75 people.

On a personal computer, go to Instagram. Enter your phone number or email address, your name, your desired username, and a strong password.

You get a great image. In the above screenshot, Sarah Von Bargen cleverly plugs a course she offers in the midst of a tiny, bite-sized post accompanied by a photo of assorted beverages. And in the below screenshot, my friend Jaime Buckley in true Jaime Buckley style , uses Instagram to publish an eye-catching graphic alongside inspirational words on parenting. Also, if your target audience tends to shy away from mobile devices for any reason, Instagram might not be the best platform to test your ideas.

Instagram started life as a mobile app. Once your post publishes on a site like Smart Blogger, Forbes, Lifehacker, or Business Insider; people look at you differently. Yesterday, you were just you — a talented, attractive writer living in obscurity. Check to see if the blogs you already like to read that are relevant to your niche, of course accept guest post submissions. Not all sites will be worth your time.

Bookmark the matches. Twitter will give you a list of tweets where people used those exact phrases. And it allows you to go on an archaeological hunt to find it. Keep scrolling until you find some possibilities. Jon went from being an unknown — a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce — to an authority on blogging I had to read. Every time you put your words in front of newly targeted audiences; you have the chance to gain fans for life. Before I wrote my first guest post for Smart Blogger, I only had a handful of freelance writing jobs under my belt.

After reading a post about quitting your job and moving to paradise written by some guy named Jon, launching my own blog sounded like a great idea. I was on unemployment at the time, working from home , and I had a lot of free time on my hands. I had little credibility. The only people who viewed me as an authority on blogging or writing were my wife and maybe one of our cats.

Led to a second opportunity …. Which led to a third …. It led to opportunities like writing for Syed Balkhi over at OptinMonster affiliate link. It led to being asked to provide quotes for dozens of blog posts and articles. It led to flattering, tongue-placed-firmly-in-cheek emails like this one from James Chartrand :.

And while it may not have led to tons of traffic for my website or large crowds chanting my name in the streets, guest blogging did something that would have taken me considerable time to do on my own:. Not anymore. The best blogging platform is the one that supports the majority of your needs and is comfortable for your staff to use, letting your bloggers focus on the important part: creating and sharing content.

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Free and Low-Cost Tools There are a number of free or low-cost tools on the market, but many times, the best platform is the one you already have.

Free Platforms WordPress. More Feature-Rich Options A free or low-cost blogging platform might support your needs, even as your online presence grows, but more advanced options — that also cost more — provide features and capabilities you may decide you want. You need a more customized theme. If the free tool you've been using doesn't allow you to update the theme or appearance of your blog to match your website, it probably makes sense to find one that does.

You need more advanced features. While free platforms offer a lot of basic features, some specialized features either cost a premium or require a more advanced tool. Many platforms allow for multiple authors, for instance, but lack extensive tagging and archiving abilities, which can be important for extensive or long-running blogs.

High-profile blogs tend to attract a lot of unwanted spam in the comments; pitches for discount electronics or male enhancement pills can detract from the content of your blog posts, and for some organizations, may be inappropriate or offensive to the intended audience. Some premium tools offer anti-spam features that might be worth an upgrade. You need more technical support. Different tools tend to offer varying levels of support for users.

Many open-source platforms, like WordPress, tend to only offer support through community forums and documentation. It is also possible to connect with avid readers who are willing to pay for quality content through the Medium Partner Program. This way, you can monetize your blog posts while sharing your ideas and opinions with the world.

To start blogging with Medium, sign up, and share your content with the editorial team who analyze them according to their standards.

If you create quality content that follows their guidelines you can start earning money by attracting subscribers. Medium started as a free platform for publishers but recently started to offer membership subscriptions. Free to use, you can post your own stories. Plus, you get access to unlimited public stories and 3 per month exclusive stories. With the membership, you can subscribe for unlimited access to the smartest writers and biggest ideas on Medium. Blogger is one of the best free blogging platforms that offer a secure and reliable way to create a blog.

This hosted blog platform was launched in and later acquired by Google. It remains a widely used solution; however, I see more people moving away from it. The good news is that the platform is free, and you can test it without any commitment. You can connect a custom domain name to your blog, by buying and setting it up.

Founded in , Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social media website joined together. Users have the option of designing their Tumblr page with customizable themes, fonts, layouts, and many other design options.

Tumblr is ideal for bloggers who have a heightened focus on visual content. It is a global site that is visited by millions of people every day who repost their favorite blog posts and initiate conversations. You get to use this platform as a free blog site with a subdomain, i. If you wish to, you can connect your own custom domain. You can select a pre-made theme from their resources or customize an existing one according to your taste.

In addition to stunning templates, here are examples of some great Wix sites. The Wix platform also packs the power of these amazing features. You can accept online payments and have 20GB of storage. You get increased storage and pro eCommerce features to grow your store. Ghost is an open-source blogging platform meant for journalists, editors, and writers.

You can be in control of the design of your blog and the kind of experience you want to create for your readers. There are absolutely no rules when it comes to this tool — no limits on customizations or social media restrictions.

You can benefit from a collection of publishing tools perfect for professionals who want complete control over their site. These tools allow you to code and add functionality to your blog using modern technology.

Also, Ghost is fully managed through state-of-the-art cloud management technology and offers comprehensive developer control. To sign up with Postach. It is a convenient way to enter the blogosphere. Users are able to use the dashboard to personalize their blogging website according to their taste and write blogs on the go with Evernote. You can set up a free blog with this software, but if you want a custom domain, subscribe to a paid package.

Weebly is a simple yet powerful website builder with a blog setup option available via an easy drag and drop editor. In Weebly was acquired by Square, a mobile payment company.

This change is a sign that their focus is mainly around websites, particularly eCommerce and small business sites. However, the platform offers blogging services, and anyone can try it for free. Weebly gives you complete freedom to build your blog using beautiful themes with builder functionality. All in all, the Weebly platform gives the right tools that work in combination with powerful features to create a blog in minutes. New customers are encouraged to check out our partner, Bluehost.

TypePad is a blogging platform that was launched in It has a simple and user-friendly interface and offers exceptional customer support. However, one that comes to mind is a blog by Seth Godin. Seth used to run it with the subdomain sethgodin. TypePad offers various design tools that breathe life into your blogs so that you can captivate your readers visually. TypePad service comes with a free to use period and four different plans — Plus, Unlimited, Premium, and Enterprise:.

This information should be sufficient for you to research and locate the best blogging site for your needs. While WordPress. As explained earlier, WordPress is the absolute best in its class. These other platforms have their own unique audience as well because they are great for beginners who want to make a blog. But if you want a solid foundation for your blog, nothing beats the self-hosted WordPress.

Go to the WordPress Dashboard and head to the Tools section. It is important to remember that WordPress plugins offer other import options as well — try searching the official plugins repository for an importer tool that works for you. Blog sites are also sometimes known as CMS Content Management System since they let you efficiently manage content publishing. You can quickly launch a free blog on WordPress or any other free blogging sites I mentioned in this article.

But if you decide to step up your blogging game and go further, I recommend a self-hosted version of WordPress. With WordPress. Most of the available blogging platforms in the modern world let you build websites through their drag and drop builders. That means that you can sit, relax, and focus on the design. Yes, even with a free blog, you can earn money with it. There are different ways of monetization like showing ads, joining affiliate programs, accepting sponsored content, or adding an online store.

However, to make money, you will first have to invest time and usually money into it. This is something all popular blogs and the best blog sites have had to do. The most reliable way to find the best blogging platform for your needs is to understand how free blogging sites and self-hosted WordPress function.

Also, your choice will depend on your budget, customization abilities, and ease of use of the software you want to use. Through this guide, I have informed you of all the features pros and cons , and the pricing range of the best blog sites. And now you know how to get started with each of them.

Anya, I have been seeing that WordPress and others have been cancelling bloggers that express opinions contrary to the MSM narrative.

I am afraid that some of my content may questionable. Which CMS would you then recommend to assure that I have absolute control over my content? Hi Cyneath! In order to have full control over your blog, we recommend using WordPress.

Please read our tutorial on WordPress. It was a good read. I just created my own website with a freelancing blog in it. I used WordPress.

The downside with WordPress. It seems that even the personal plan is not sufficient, and you have to subscribe to their business plan if you are serious about your website. Thanks for the read. Hi Crismael! Good luck with your site and blogging! I tried many of them, but WordPress is the easiest and the most amazing tool to create a professional blog.

I am thinking of starting a blog. Reading this gave me a lot of great information as I am new to this. I plan on reading some of the links you added for more information on various topics. Thank you for having this here! Hi guys! Hi Emma! You can even get a better deal with Bluehost if you follow my instructions on installing WordPress with them. Let me know if you have any questions.

All the best! Thanks for sharing this information. These blogging sites do a great job; however, you must bring a quality one from a reputed site. With self-hosted version WP. Many free blogging platforms include a clause in their terms of service that state that they can immediately delete your entire site without warning if you violate their terms of service…. Very helpful article for me. I started my blog on a WordPress. Such an instructive article. Including the cost layout. Great read and I seriously mean it.

I used to think that WordPress. When I wanted to start a blog on WordPress. You just made this whole thing simple and clear for me.