Step 3: Choosing the Best Blog Platform

Choosing a blogging platform can be overwhelming, especially since there’s no shortage of options on the web. There’s also a number of free site services available to start a blog, but hands down the best and most popular blog platform is WordPress.

If you want to have your own domain name, want to own your blog (and its content), have control over your site and/or make money from your blog. Then a free site platform is NOT for you, but a WordPress site is PERFECT FOR YOU!

Note: When I say WordPress, I’m talking about a self-hosted WordPress.org site, not a free WordPress.com site.

I know, I know a free blog site platform sounds tempting, but l want you to understand the problems you’ll incur with free blog platforms.

Top 3 problems with free site blog platforms

Problem #1 – Free is not free.

These so called “free sites” will put advertisements on your site and sell your ad space. And guess what? You have absolutely no control over what is being advertised on your blog, plus you will not receive one cent of the money they receive from selling ad space on your site.

Problem #2 – Can’t sell products and/or services.

If you want to sell products or services on your free site you can’t because it’s not allowed. And if you want to sell add space on your site, you can’t do that either. So if one of your goals is to generate income and make money from your blog, you won’t be able to on a free blog platform.

Problem #3 – YOU have zero control.

When you start a blog on a free website you are basically renting blog space and the real owner – the free blog site service – technically owns the blog and its content. The free blog site service has all the control!

Don’t transfer the power and success of your blog to anyone else, thus stay away from free blog sites! Examples of free blog sites are Weebly, Wix, WordPress.com.

Why You Should Choose a Self-hosted WordPress Blog Platform

Whether just starting out new or upgrading an existing site, you are going to want to build your site on WordPress. Here’s why:

A lot of design options. WordPress has 1,000’s of beautiful templates and themes available. Most themes are easy to customize because a lot of them have an option panel allowing you to upload your logo, change colors, create sliders, etc. Make sure you choose a theme that’s mobile responsive, otherwise popular search sites like Google will affect your audience reach and traffic.

Fact: WordPress has 3,000+ themes/designs, Squarespace has 10+, Blogger has very few.

Customizable. With just one click of a button you can customize your site to appear and function as you would like due to the massive amounts of plug-ins and add-ons available! Virtually almost any kind of solution you need is out there. Need an easy way to build forms? Integrate social media? Improve SEO search results? There’s a plug-in. Then once your WordPress site is set up, it’s fairly easy to use!

Fact: WordPress has 35,000+ plugins, Squarespace has 100+, Blogger has none.

Updates. Technology and the digital world change constantly. It’s easy to keep your site up-to-date with the latest versions of software – just by clicking a button.
SEO Friendly. WordPress is written using standard compliance high quality code and produces semantic mark up. What?! Just know that it makes your site very attractive to search engines and will drive new readers to your blog!

Fact: WordPress has the highest SEO rating, Squarespace has one of the lowest. If you want to grow your blog following, SEO is a must!

Ready for Growth. As your business grows, your wordpress site can adapt to your needs and sophistication. You can easily add a blog, gallery, portfolio, membership site, store, etc.

Choosing the best blog platform

I use and only design WordPress sites because of the many design options, huge community of people that create and share tools, the money making opportunities and because it’s the best platform for SEO (search engine optimization)! Hands down, a self-hosted WordPress site is THE BEST blog platform to choose!