Its not hard to work out that blogging offers the most cost effective form of online marketing available. No other form of marketing offers such a huge opportunity to spread your content and brand across the entire world wide web from London to Sydney to New york and even China!
Anywhere there’s internet access through a phone line or mobile device, your blog’s content can be distributed instantly and promoted to a global audience.
Once you’ve chosen to start blogging you’ll need to decide on which blogging platform to choose from. Here’s a list of the three most popular and best free hosted blogging platforms anyone, anywhere can use to start marketing their ideas on the internet.
Best Blogging Platforms
Tumblr
One of the easiest ways to blog is by setting up a free blog at Tumblr. They offer a great range of themes to choose from and hassle free blogging. The themes Tumblr offer are amongst the best in the blogging world so you will be easily able to make sure the appearance of your blog stands out from the crowd.
Tumblr also lets you share anything anywhere a bit like a cross between twitter and a Flickr as half the content on Tumblr is made up of photo’s.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and used by over half of all bloggers. WordPress offer both a free hosted blogging platform (WordPress.com) and a free blogging software for self hosted blogging (WordPress.org).
This means you can choose from hosting your own WordPress powered blog on your own web hosts server which includes using your own website domain name rather than use the blogging platform extension of WordPress.com in your website address.
Here’s an example of the difference –
- Your free hosted WordPress.com website address will look like this: www.yourusername.wordpress.com
- Your self hosted WordPress.org website address will look like this: www.yourwebsitename.com
On the other hand, you can use the WordPress.com servers to host your blog as long as you agree to use their domain extension which means adding WordPress.com at the end of your website address. Other restrictions apply when using the free WordPress.com blogging platform and free hosting which is provided as part of the deal.
WordPress.org also offers a huge range of nearly 14,000 free plugins to choose from and a massive range of free and premium themes. Premium plugins and premium support are also easily accessible as well as the ability to customize your site into anything you can imagine as you have total control and freedom with the free WordPress.org software for self hosted blogging.
This Video Is Part Of The WordPress Video Tutorials for Beginners – Click & Learn More
Blogger
Blogger is owned and run by Google and offers a free hosted blogging platform which is regarded as the easiest and fastest to setup. If you’re searching for a simple and free way to blog, Blogger is a great option.
As blogger is owned by Google it integrates perfectly with all Google’s products and services like Google doc’s and your Gmail account which is a requirement when signing up for Blogger.
Moving Blog Sites?
WordPress offer a free import tool which makes it easy to export your content including posts and attachments from Blogger and Tumblr to your own WordPress.org self hosted blog. Moving your blog has never been easier if you are moving from Blogger to WordPress or any of the other popular free blogging platforms.
If you are searching for a free hosted blogging solution to start off with WordPress.com may be the best choice as you will learn how to use WordPress and can always transfer that knowledge and experience to your own self hosted WordPress.org blog at a later date.
WordPress.com and WordPress.org run on a similar blogging platform with the main difference being the free hosted WordPress.com platform has restrictions as its free unlike the self hosted platform, WordPress.org.
Which Platform Should You Choose
Most bloggers who don’t start with their own self hosted blog eventually do transfer across to the free WordPress.org platform which they self host on a rented server for more flexibility, freedom and control.
Adding content about yourself and your business to your own web address builds authority, brand and followers to your own domain rather than a big brand name blogging platform like Tumblr or Blogger.com
Setting up a blog at a free hosted platform like Tumblr or Blogger is an easier solution the only problem is you don’t own your site and are restricted to a long list of terms and conditions. Don’t make this mistake!
Setting up your own self hosted blog using the free WordPress.org software is a bit more sophisticated than using Blogger or Tumblr. These days the best WordPress web hosts offer a one click installation of WordPress so you can install WordPress in 3 simple steps fast.
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