There are plenty of great reasons to start a blog. Whether you’re looking for a way to share your expertise with others or just want an outlet for your creativity, starting up a blog is easier than ever before thanks to these 10 free platforms.
There are plenty of great reasons to start a blog. Whether you’re looking for a way to share your expertise with others or just want an outlet for your creativity, starting up a blog is easier than ever before thanks to these 10 free platforms.
If you have a passion for writing and know how to use a computer, you can create your own blog. But where do you start? In this article, we’ll cover 10 platforms that make it easy to get started with building a blogging website quickly. You don’t need any prior experience with code or design—all of these platforms are very user-friendly and offer lots of help along the way.
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Wix (www.wix.com)
Wix is a website builder that allows you to create a blog for free. You can also use the free version to create a website, but in this case, it will be more limited than if you were using one of the paid plans. This makes Wix unique among other platforms on this list because it’s one of the few places where you can create a blog without having any prior experience with coding or design.
Wix is easy to use and has many templates to choose from so there’s no need for any prior knowledge of web design or coding languages such as HTML or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). In fact, if you want something really simple and basic then why not start out with their ready-made "Blogs" template? However, if you'd rather get started right away with creating exactly what YOU want then take advantage of their drag & drop editor tool which makes designing your own site super simple!
Click here for a full In-depth Wix Walkthrough
Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
Bluehost is a great choice for beginners because it offers a powerful combination of tools and services. For example, Bluehost will give you a free domain name, website hosting, and email account through its website builder tool. In addition to these basics, the company also provides 24/7 customer support and an easy 1-click WordPress installation process from their dashboard.
They have unlimited bandwidth so you can create as many pages or posts as you need without worrying about going over your limit.
WordPress (www.wordpress.org)
WordPress.com is a free hosting platform that makes it easy to create blogs and websites. You can also use WordPress.com to create an online store, membership site, or other types of sites using their drag-and-drop builder tool.
WordPress has plenty of great features including:
A powerful website editor that makes it easy for you to create beautiful websites without having any technical knowledge at all!
An extensive library of professional design templates that are ready for you to customize at your own pace!
An intuitive content management system (CMS) that allows you to make changes on the fly without having any programming skills whatsoever!
Weebly (www.weebly.com)
Weebly is a great option if you're just starting out. It's easy to use, and you can get started quickly. You can choose from a variety of templates and customize them however you like using the drag-and-drop interface. Plus, Weebly offers email support 24/7 so that your questions will be answered promptly—or at least as promptly as any other platform I've reviewed on this list!
You can add your own domain name or sign up for one through Weebly itself for about $12 per year. This allows you to customize the URL of your site (e.g., blogspot instead of http://websitebuilder1234567890abcdefghijk), which gives it more credibility than using a generic subdomain like “blogger” or “wordpress” (unless you're going for something else entirely).
Medium (www.medium.com)
Medium is a blogging platform popular among writers, journalists, and other content creators.
Medium has been around since 2012 and has a very active user base of over 100 million users from all over the world. It's also one of the top 10 platforms to start a blog for free with over 300K websites using it according to Builtwith.com.
Medium has many features that make it attractive as an option for starting your own blog:
It’s easy to use even if you're not tech-savvy or don't want to spend too much time on maintaining your website (themes are available).
The site is secure so that your data remains protected at all times.
There are no ads on Medium so no need to worry about annoying ads popping up every now and then!
However, there are some downsides as well:
Some people find its design hard to use which can be frustrating especially if you're trying out new things with regard to themes etc...
Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Few platforms are as easy to use as Blogger. If you're looking for a free blog site that provides the bare essentials, this is it.
When you first sign up with Blogger, you'll have access to a basic template and some essential features like Google ads and reader comments. Once you've created your account, you can customize your blog's look and feel by choosing from a selection of templates or creating one of your own (if you aren't already familiar with HTML).
You can also set up different user profiles in order to give visitors more control over their experience while they're reading your content. For example, if someone leaves an anonymous comment on one of your posts but isn't signed in when they do so—or if they accidentally left their name at home—then all traces of them will disappear when they log out. This is especially useful if people often visit different sites at once without signing out altogether; otherwise, these kinds of details could end up being shared across multiple platforms (eek!).
Joomla (www.Joomla.org)
Joomla is a free and open-source content management system (CMS), which enables you to build your own website. It was developed in 2005, making it one of the oldest free CMSs on the market.
It’s also one of the most popular CMSs on the market: it currently holds an active community forum with over 1 million members and more than 5 million downloads per year.
Joomla offers an easy-to-use interface and has been designed to be flexible enough so that you can customize it according to your needs
Squarespace (www.Squarespace.com)
You can easily set up an account on Squarespace and get started blogging instantly. The platform is easy to use and doesn't require any coding skills, so you don't have to worry about learning how to do it. In fact, there's no need for any technical knowledge at all: Squarespace does all the work for you.
Aside from that, Squarespace also offers a free domain name and hosting service with their basic plans, which makes getting started even easier than before! This means that you don't have to pay anything at all except for your custom domain name when registering as a result of its complimentary features (this will be covered later).
Jimdo (www.Jimdo.com)
Jimdo is a great platform to start with. It's very easy to use and has a great interface. You can create a blog, portfolio, or eCommerce store with Jimdo. If you want to make a blog, create an account on Jimdo. After creating your account, go ahead and add the first page of your blog (homepage). Now you have your first page set up! Now it’s time for some customization!
If you want to customize the look of your site further then click on the “Customize theme button” in the left-hand sidebar menu under the “Tools” section of the Jimdo dashboard under the Content section (you will see this text only when you hover over the button). Then select Options from the left navigation bar that says 'Themes'. Here choose any theme that best suits your needs or just click the 'Pick A Theme' button at the bottom left corner if none suits you well enough :)
Ghost (www.ghost.org)
Ghost is an open-source blogging platform written in javascript, created by John O'Nolan, and hosted on Github. It was first released in October 2013, and it's been gaining popularity since.
Ghost is different from other blog software because it doesn't rely on a database or server-side scripting language like PHP or Ruby on Rails (which most blogging platforms do). Instead, Ghost runs in the browser using NodeJS - a server-side Javascript runtime environment that allows Ghost to be hosted anywhere. This makes it easier for people without programming experience to install and run their own blogs.
Ghost is open source, which means you can use the code to create your own blogging platform.
The design of Ghost is beautiful and easy to use.
You can set up a blog with Ghost in just a few minutes by following some simple steps.
Ghost is compatible with all types of blogs (e.g., business or personal) and allows you to customize its look using themes or CSS stylesheets.
There you have it, the best free blog platforms to start a blog. As you can see, there are many options available to you if you want to create your own website but don’t want to spend money on hosting fees or domain registration fees. Just remember that with each platform there may be some limitations as far as what kind of content can be published on them so make sure you do your research before signing up for anything!