If you have been keeping up with my posts on bloggers guide then you should understand the term "Blogging Platform' but if you didn't start with us then read my previous article on How to choose the best blogging platform. Just visit my Episode one (How to become successful in blogging) on bloggers guide to get a good knowledge on starting a successful blog.
All blogging platforms are basically free except you want more uniqueness in your domain e.g from www.ohenscrib.blogspot.com to www.ohenscrib.com. Platforms vary in different quality especially when it comes to the look (template/ theme for pro bloggers) customization and other imitating characteristics. But they are quite similar when it comes to post writing dashboard.
Best Platforms to Run Your Amazing Blog
A normal approach towards this might appear a bit confusing but am sure if you have read other articles on bloggers guide you should find it easy to understand as you will be used to terms written here. I wont rate any platform above another, its just going to be a review and after reading this as a beginner this choice is entirely yours.Now lets kick on with the review. Read well and carefully and at this moment assume everything thing about blogging was a lie to enable you make the right decision about the best blogging platform.
Blogger.com
Blogger is an amazing blogging platform for you as a beginner. It was developed by Pyra labs but now owned by web search engine "Google' as it was bought by them in 2003. Its a free and flexible platform with its sub-domain as blogspot.com.
With blogger you can run up to 100 blogs per account and can also change your domain name from www.yourname.blogspot.com to www.yourname.com by just registering your default domain with a custom domain service like Hostgator. Despite all these amazing features, few bloggers led a complain on it not being reliable as it is owned by google which has been seen to shut down platforms without giving any information about it.
Aside the above problem blogger is awesome and can be used to power many types of blogs from fashion blogs, lifestyle blogs and also news or gossip blog. Linda Ikeji a popular News and Celebrity blog in Nigeria, Jide of Ogbonge blog (one of Nigeria's biggest tech blogs) and the Londoner a British lifestyle blog uses blogger to power their blog.
Blogger.com offers many more features like template customization, widgets or gadget and many more. If you are choosing blogger.com platform to power your blog then you probably read my article on blogger.
WordPress.com
WordPress is a popular platform which was established in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. quite the most popular and widely used of recent. Just as blogger wordpress.com is free of charge and easy to run. Most WordPress users claim that its the most simple and easy to understand platform for beginners. Well i still don't agree but lets leave that for you to decide.
But just like blogger, WordPress.com have a problem which Pro bloggers (Professional Bloggers) argue about. This time its not about its ability to shut down anytime (though its still very possible) rather its about its limitations. I don't know much about WordPress but in the past i wanted to start my platform with them but i had a lot of problem with its limitations.
When you run a free blog on WordPress.com with its sub-domain as www.yourname.wordpress.com, your customization is limited to a few available WordPress themes which can either be categorized as free or premium (for sale).
Aside that problem above WordPress.com is easy to use as you don't have to know anything about coding before you can manage it. Its all about WordPress plugins which can be easily installed with just a few clicks.
WordPress.Org
At first i didn't want to share this blogging platform among this category but after thinking of it i decided to add it. all the list are free blogging platform but wordpress.org is quite the opposite. Following the name alone you should know its still owned by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
So why creating this after having an amazing platform. Well if you read the little problems in wordpress.com (limitations). Then this is the solution for it. Now lets make a review. Wordpress.org in Brief is the paid type of Wordpress.com. Meaning it is more of a website as the process for getting it requires registering or buying a domain with custom domain service like Bluehost.
And installing the WordPress.org in the server. Its not actually tedious but i think it needs some technical know how to gain full knowledge of it. NaijaStories a popular Nigeria story telling blog, BBC America news website, Sony Music and Beyonce owned by popular singer and song writer Beyonce Knowles uses WordPress to power their blog or website.
As i earlier said its a cure to Wordpress.com but that doesn't mean everything come with the domain name. Despite paying for a domain and server, Most themes and Plugins still requires payment as they were not all designed by WordPress but that doesn't mean you can not create you own theme.
I won't fail to mention Wordpress.org is very good in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as it allows you install lots of plugins that should boost your SEO. Plugins like All in One SEO pack and many others which you will soon discover.
Tumblr is another great service which was created by David Karp at a time blogger and WordPress were head to head. But its more of a micro-blogging and social networking platform. It was founded in February 2007 and is now quite know with Yahoo its owner.
Well it quite got its popularity from its uniqueness from blogger and WordPress which is its multimedia support and short form blogging style. It being owned by Yahoo has a bit made it more of an advertising site. I once opened a blog there which i never really made use of as i already opened this one Ohens Crib.
Now just like blogger and WordPress lots of bloggers also use Tumblr to power their site. I ran into one today lagosphotos.tumblr.com and also top sites like ghostphotographs.tumblr.com, willitbeard.tumblr.com uses tumblr.com to power there sites. Among all of the sites i have come across, they are mainly art and socialism blogs, i think that's what tumblr favors more. Though i didn't mention earlier, tumblr is free and has a sub-domain as .tumblr.com.
Joomla which was founded on August 17th 2005 till today is known as one of the best free platforms due to its inability to shut down unexpectedly. It is quite dependable or as you would say reliable. Joomla is an advanced CMS (Content Management System) used by mainly developers in publishing some of the websites which could also be blogs we see on the web.
Now Joomla which uses extensions in its designs and functionality is to me friendly as it has a lot of its software used for free by its users unlike WordPress that sells it plugins. Many bloggers and website owners use Joomla for a lot of things which i will emphasize on in my article on Joomla.
I have just listed and explained some of the best blogging platforms for beginners and if you still haven't found the platform of your choice, then you should read comments on the comment box below but Bloggers who have other details about free blogging platforms.
As a pro blogger reading this am sure you know placing comments helps in promoting your blog so do use the comment box and share other platforms for beginners to read. Sharing is Caring Friends.
Now Joomla which uses extensions in its designs and functionality is to me friendly as it has a lot of its software used for free by its users unlike WordPress that sells it plugins. Many bloggers and website owners use Joomla for a lot of things which i will emphasize on in my article on Joomla.
I have just listed and explained some of the best blogging platforms for beginners and if you still haven't found the platform of your choice, then you should read comments on the comment box below but Bloggers who have other details about free blogging platforms.
As a pro blogger reading this am sure you know placing comments helps in promoting your blog so do use the comment box and share other platforms for beginners to read. Sharing is Caring Friends.