We have gone through Top 5 Free Blogging Platforms & Top 5 Self Hosted Blogging Platforms and learned about the respective platforms which are wide enough for starting a new blog and kick-start your blogging career.
But still the real question “Which Blogging Platform Should I Choose” is not yet answered, in this post I will try to cover the important aspects which one needs to look for while making a decision on blogging platform.
Alternative Resources Which Might Help You:
- How To Create a Blog (Blogger, WordPress.com, Tumblr, Posterous)?
- Pros & Cons of Blog Platforms (Blogger, WordPress.com, Tumblr, Posterous)
- Blogger Vs WordPress.Com Vs Tumblr Vs Posterous
- 10 Things To Consider Before You Choose Free Web Hosting Services
- Top 10 Free Web Hosting Service Providers
- Top 10 Paid (Premium) Web Hosting Service Providers
- Free Web Hosting Vs Paid Web Hosting
Before we go deep into the process of choosing the blogging platform check out and answer the following questions which will help you in determining the best blogging platform according to your requirements (it is more important, right?).
- Why Should I have a blog?
- What is the reason I am going to blog?
- Do I want to make money with my blog?
- Do you have a budget for your blog?
- Do you want to turn your blog into a business?
- Do you want to have full control over your blog?
So if you are done with your own analysis let’s get deep into the things to determine the best blogging platform.
Why Should I have a blog?
You have decided to start a blog, what & why exactly are you planning to start a blog. If you are a first timer who is willing to start a blog it is always better to do some exercise before you start things rather than starting in a hurry and later realizing your mistakes. So before you start a blog and choose a platform reconsider the following things ahead;
- What is the main purpose you are planning to start a blog?
- Are you going to start a blog as a hobby or starting it out of passion to do things professionally?
- Are you going to blog for a long-term?
- What is the purpose of your blog?
These questions will help you determine the reason why you are starting a blog, if it is a personal affair I suggest you to skip the rest of the post and start a blog with Blogger or WordPress.com (I have mentioned the sources to start with these platforms at the beginning of this post) or if you are the one who are considering your blog as a professional one or planning to make money with your blog go ahead with further analysis.
Do you have budget for your blog?
If you are considering your blog to make it a professional platform you need to consider few things to make your blog more professional and the foremost thing is fixing up the budget, so how much budget do you have for your blog?
Custom Domain Name
A blog will look professional only when you have your own custom domain (a new domain registration will cost you up to $10), I am not saying that a blog hosted in a subdomain is not a professional one but a custom domain will make up things look more professional and I suggest you to decide yourself on this.
Which one sounds professional great www.infogenra.com or infogenra.blogspot.com?
Check Top 10 Tips & Things To Consider Before Choosing Your Domain which will help you out in choosing the right domain.
Security For Your Blog
If you are a person who wish to start up a personal blog all you need is some privacy and secured platforms which will help you in making things better. even if it is a personal one you don’t want your blog to be hacked right?
Similarly it is not that Premium platforms ensure you 100% security but will provide you a chance to guard your blog. Remember security is always a concern with self-hosted platforms as you have to ensure that no loop holes are left or over looked which may cause some security breaches.
Hosted or Self Hosted Blogging?
This is the one which initiated me to write this article, although free blogging platforms allow you to map your own custom domain to your blog they do have certain restrictions applied.
Say for example if you choose Blogger (Blogspot) platform you cannot access your website through FTP and the memory cap is 1 GB for storing your files and such limitations will apply on other platforms as well.
Where as if you want to have full control over your blog and have complete access to your blog you need opt for premium web hosting.
In other words go with Free Blogging Platform only if you care about your content and seek no professional benefit like making money or turning out your blog into business and go for Premium Blogging Platform if you want to have full control over the design, way, and how you manage your blog.
When you ask me for advice to go with, when you want to start pure personal blog go ahead with free blogging platforms with your own custom domain ($10/year is not high value) and if you are looking out for any professional benefit from your blog recommend you go with a self hosted blogging platform.
Which One Should I Choose Among Free Blogging Platforms?
Although this is my personal suggestion I have done necessary market research before I give my advice to the fellow bloggers. After analyzing, using, and working with different clients from last 4 years I conclude that “Blogger (Blogspot)” is the best free blogging platform which allows you to start a blog for free.
Advantages of the Blogger platform include:
- Option to use/code your own theme (It allows theme customizations).
- You will be able to monetize your blog (Helps you in making few quick bucks).
- Security of the blog is taken care by Google, and is hosted on the best servers.
- Read more.. Pros of Blogger Platform.
Which One Should I Choose Among Self-Hosted Blogging Platforms?
WordPress is your one stop answer and there is no debate when you plan to choose self-hosted blogging platforms. WordPress is not only the best CMS in the world, but also offers you some cool and unique features.
Advantages of WordPress include (and are not limited to):
- Free and Best CMS Available.
- Thousands of Themes & Plugins are available for Free.
- Best Platform for Search Engine Optimization (Indexed in Search Engines Quickly).
- Backed up With Huge Community Support.
- Widely used Blog platform and tons of tutorials and self-help guides are available over the web.
Final Words
After completely analyzing your needs it’s you who have to make up your decision, but I always recommend you to start a blog after completely checking your needs and plan accordingly. The process of starting up your blog may be delayed for couple of days but good amount of research and an action plan will help you out in making things much more better.
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