After deciding to blog and you are keen on getting the best out of it, then there should be no problem in finding the best platform to express your talent.
This article will support you to know the features of blogging platforms.
We shall show you how to choose the right platform to use to host your blog, explaining the pro’s and cons of some of the best out there so far.
What Is A Blogging Platform?
Blog is a media that helps you to create, enhance and manage your contents (blogs post) online.
There are options to choose from where the blog can be hosted on-premise or a hosted platform.
Self Hosted Platform:
This refer to platforms that let you build and host your own blog on a server you own. With self-hosted platform, you can plan and organize you blog the way you want it and in some cases, one can add features desired on the blog unlike the hosted platform.
WordPress as a self-hosted platform offers full flexibility when it comes to making money with advertisements and affiliate links and the look of these blogs. On the other hand, it requires one to pay for web hosting and will call for you to have knowledge in things like SEO, Security among others.
Examples of self hosted platforms are: Drupal, Joomal and Word Press. org.
Hosted Platform:
These are platforms where by the server is hosted and managed by the company. On this type of platform, all you just need to do is go ahead with creating your interesting blog without having to worry about owning a software/sever unlike self hosted.
Example of hosted platforms are : Wix, WordPress.com, Shopify, etc.
Types Of Blogging Platform
There are different types of blogging platforms (Self hosted/hosted) where you can publish your blog, which includes:
WordPress:
This is a great platform used by most successful bloggers today. It is a highly popular content management system for blogging and creating website.
WordPress owned two versions of blogging platform;
WordPress.org: Self hosted version and
WordPress.com: Hosted version.
WordPress.org:
It is a free, self hosted and an open source blogging platform that gives you utmost control over your blog. The flexibility is top notch, However it has its advantages as well as disadvantages. We’ll be looking at those below.
Advantages of selecting WordPress.org as your blogging platform
Free And Open-source:
WordPress.org is completely free to download and you can start using it right away.
Customization:
There’s quite a large number of features you can use to design your blog to your heart content on this platform. With a great flexibility that you can install even features of your choice and use it to design your blog.
Monetization:
This platform gives you the freedom to monetize your blog with ads and affiliate links, opening doors for you to make extra cash.
Vast Community:
This company has great, experienced and active developers, designers and even bloggers that can help you with any question you will want to ask or whatever you’re not clear about.
Support:
Their support community is always available and would help you out with any problem you will face while doing your blog.
WordPress.org is SEO Friendly:
They are actively SEO friendly and can make your blog gain the recognition it deserves. This company is best known for being a good SEO friendly content management system. But then, make sure your blog is quite interesting and engaging.
Disadvantages of Selecting WordPress.org:
Technical knowledge: Since it’s a self hosted platform, you might be required to have the knowledge of how to install and configure a web server, database, backups, etc. Hence it could be challenging if you have none of these knowledge.
Cost:
WordPress.org might be free to use and gives you all the freedom you want but you will still have to pay for other aspects of it, such as web hosting, etc.
Regular Updates:
The features you installed in the platforms must always be upto date. Even WordPress.org itself that you installed on your server must be regularly updated.
Security:
This is one of the greatest disadvantages of this platform. As a self hosted platform, it is a huge target for hackers, your blog can be hacked easily.
WordPress.com:
It is a hosted blogging platform owned by the same company that owns WordPress.org (WordPress)WordPress.com is the hosted version of it.
Advantage of Selecting WordPress.com as your Blogging Platform
It Is Easy To Use:
This platform is actually easier to use than the latter(WordPress.org) as it takes care of web hosting, security and the rest without requesting you to pay or have knowledge of it.
This company provides a free variety of features that you can use to customize/design your blog as you wish.
Security:
Unlike WordPress.org where you’ll have to be keeping your security upto date by always changing your passwords etc, WordPress.com Isn’t like that as it takes care of all the security needs for you.
Disadvantages:
Customization Is Limited:
On this platform, you can’t just use any features of your choice to design your blog. You can only use the ones provided to you by the company.
Monetization:
On WordPress.com you can’t use certain ad networks or affiliate links which can limit your earning potentials.
2. Wix
Wix is an amazing blog platform to choose as a beginner. Aside from the fact that it’s a hosted platform, it also has a large amount of templates that you can use to modify your blog to make it come out as unique as you’ll want.
Advantage of Choosing Wix as Your Blogging Platform:
- Just like every other hosted platform, you can also go straight to writing your blogs on Wix without having the need to worry about owning a server or paying for services such as web hosting, etc.
- This platform provides a great variety of templates/features that you can use to design your blog to your liking.
- They also ranked high in being a SEO friendly platform.
Disadvantages:
In as much as this platform has several features suitable for blogging, it also has some few disadvantages which are;
Page Load: Their page loading is very slow and takes quite lots of time to open.
Changing Of Template: On this platform, you might not be able to change your template after using them. Change of mind is always inevitable but on wix, after publishing your content and you suddenly wish to change some certain template, you wouldn’t be able to do it. Except you bring your contents down and start everything all over again.
3. Drupal
It’s a self hosted platform that’s also greatly suitable for blogging.
Advantage of Choosing Drupal as your blogging platform:
- They are also SEO friendly.
- This platform is considered one of the most secured self hosted platforms.
- You can design your blog however you want on this platform.
However, just like others, it also has its disadvantages:
- Being a self hosted platform, you’ll have to pay for necessary things and also own a server/software that you can use to host the platform.
- It’s complex and difficult to quickly understand how it works.
4. Squarespace
This is another great space to blog. It is actually a website that also afford blogging.
It is also a hosted platform, and just like the rest, you can start blogging immediately and are SEO friendly with smooth security, however, they also have their own disadvantages in that Squarespace are not cost effective, they are more expensive than other platforms.
We are rooting for you over here and looking forward to seeing your blog soon.
Best of luck!
