5 Best Free Blogging Platforms & Sites in 2024 (100% Unbiased)

So, you’d wish to take running a blog for a check drive, eh?

See in case you prefer it or not earlier than ponying up the bucks for an entire self hosted WordPress setup?

You’ve most likely heard you can begin a weblog at no cost, and certainly you possibly can. The massive query is:

What’s the perfect running a blog platform proper now?

And the reply is… it is dependent upon what you’re attempting to perform.

On this publish, we’ll go over all of the completely different free running a blog platforms and provide the execs and cons of every, however first, let’s cease to ponder a extra elementary query:

Do You Even Want a Free Running a blog Platform?

The reality:

Running a blog might be costly.

In case you’re a seasoned blogger who’s been across the block a time or two, who’s already discovered which concepts work and which don’t, it’s simple to chalk up these prices as the worth of doing enterprise. Spend cash, make money. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

However what in case you’re a newbie studying how to start a blog for the primary time? What in case you’re somebody who hasn’t but figured what works and what doesn’t?

I’ll allow you to in on a secret…

You’ll be able to experiment simply as nicely on a free weblog web site as you possibly can on a self hosted WordPress weblog arrange with all of the bells and whistles.

Really, you possibly can experiment higher on a free running a blog platform for the reason that studying curve isn’t as steep.

Do you actually wish to expertise the inevitable rising pains of running a blog whereas forking over giant piles of money every month?

Free running a blog platforms let you verify your new blog topic has potential, spy on the rivals in your area of interest, and check your concepts with out spending any of your hard-earned dough.

So, which weblog platform is finest?

Effectively, that’s the factor:

No Weblog Platform Is Proper for Everybody

Completely different bloggers have completely different wants, and completely different weblog platforms are good for various issues. In the end, “finest” will rely upon you and your scenario.

That stated, every of the platforms we’ll talk about does have frequent traits (moreover being free). Let’s briefly have a look at them earlier than we dive in:

• There’s zero upkeep trouble. The burden of upkeep doesn’t fall on you once you use a free weblog platform. No worries about software program updates, CSS or HTML tweaks, information backups, or gremlins hacking your server — they’re all dealt with by another person.
• They’re simple to make use of. To various levels, every platform is user-friendly to newbies and rookies. With restricted tech-savviness, you might get began immediately.
• Customization is proscribed. In case you’re a micromanager who likes issues to be customizable, take a deep breath: you’ll not have full management or limitless choices once you use a free running a blog platform.

That final one might be each a blessing and a curse.

When you get critical about running a blog, the restricted customization choices of free platforms will possible maintain you again. If you’re simply beginning although, the constraints will assist you to give attention to what’s essential: the aforementioned testing of your concepts.

Alright, sufficient prologue.

Prepared to seek out out which platform is finest for you so you can begin running a blog? Let’s go.

1. Medium: Finest Platform for Simplicity

First up is Medium.

Based by Evan Williams, one of many founders of Twitter, Medium launched in August 2012 to a lot fanfare, and it’s grown right into a behemoth. In line with the New York Instances, as of Could 2017, this more and more fashionable running a blog platform was as much as 60 million distinctive guests every month.

That’s significantly lower than WordPress, however Google Trends signifies the tide could possibly be turning:

The pink line within the graphic above represents the variety of worldwide search engine searches for “wordpress” through the previous 5 years. The blue line represents the variety of searches for “medium.”

Granted, a few of these “Medium” searches could possibly be for the TV present of the identical identify that starred Patricia Arquette from 2005 by way of 2011.

Nonetheless, its development is spectacular.

How Do You Get Began?

Medium affords a number of methods to register.

Don’t wish to keep in mind yet one more password for yet one more account? No drawback. Join utilizing one of your social media accounts.

Go to Medium.com and click on the “Get Began” button:

Select Google or Fb. You’ll then be requested to log into your (Google or Fb) account. When you authorize Medium to entry your account, it is going to redirect you again to Medium.

That’s it.

To get to your Medium account sooner or later, all you need to do is click on “Signal In” on the homepage and select the “Sign up with Google” or “Sign up with Fb” choice.

Or if you have already got a Twitter account, it’s even simpler. Select the “Signal In” hyperlink as an alternative of the “Get Began” button, and also you’ll see the next:

Click on the “Sign up with Twitter” button (regardless that you haven’t but signed up).

In case you haven’t already logged into Twitter, you’ll be requested to log in after which authorize Medium to entry your Twitter account.

Click on “Okay,” and also you’ll be off to the races.

What Do You Get For $0?

A easy, stunning WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) running a blog platform that embraces minimalism.

After you be part of, click on your avatar (the floating head) within the top-right nook of the web page after which, choose “New story.”

You’ll land on a clear, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editor.

The place to insert the title in your publish is clearly outlined. So, too, is the place to start typing your first sentence.

Each change you make will get robotically saved within the background. And as you kind, you start to see precisely how your completed publish will seem to your readers.

That’s the fantastic thing about a WYSIWYG editor.

There’s no guessing, no questioning, and no trial and error. In case your publish appears to be like good within the editor, it’s going to look good when your publish goes reside after you click on the “Able to publish?” button.

And talking of what occurs after publishing, there’s one thing else Medium affords you for the whopping value of zero {dollars} and nil cents:

The prospect to be featured in entrance of their 60+ million readers.

Write one thing that wows individuals and, if it receives sufficient love from readers (they click on a “clap” button to point out their approval), it may get featured as one in every of Medium’s prime tales on their app and web site…

Or of their “Every day Digest” e mail…

Such a highlight would imply heaps of recent eyeballs in your blog content.

Who Ought to Use Medium?

Anybody. Everybody.

Severely, although it isn’t good, you’ll be hard-pressed to discover a running a blog matter or area of interest that Medium can’t service.

That is very true in case your area of interest can be self-improvement or entrepreneurship. Medium places your content material, your message, entrance and heart to your readers.

As Evan Williams as soon as put it: “Medium just isn’t about who you might be or whom you already know, however about what you need to say.”

Best-selling authors. Entrepreneurs. Writers who stepped away for a season, however are making a comeback. Ministers who’ve a great humorousness. Yours truly.

All have issues to say, and all have discovered properties on Medium.

Who Ought to NOT Use Medium?

Microbloggers (you’d be higher off utilizing Instagram — extra on that later).

Those that don’t plan on utilizing their weblog for writing (photographers, podcasters, and so forth.).

Anybody who likes to paint outdoors the strains.

Medium is all in regards to the written phrase. Certain, graphics embedded into Medium posts look nice, however in the long run, all of it comes again to the phrases.

Medium is finest for individuals who love phrases. It excels at typography. It makes use of an abundance of white area in order that its textual content has an ideal canvas. And it embraces a minimalistic net design in order that nothing distracts your readers out of your treasured — sure, I’m going to repeat it — phrases.

Take a look at this instance screenshot from a publish written by Jeff Goins:

Black textual content on a white background. A easy, easy-to-read font. It’s an ideal association for Jeff’s robust, distinctive voice.

Medium affords no glitz, glam, or sparkles. And, not like WordPress.com (which gives a couple of primary net design themes and customization choices), Medium is one measurement suits all.

What you see is what you get.

In case you like what you see, nice. In case you don’t, there’s not lots you are able to do about it.

Remaining Phrase on Medium

What are the Professionals?

• Constructed-in viewers of over 60 million readers!
• Good for all weblog sorts
• Glorious typography — your weblog will look skilled
• Extra business-friendly than WordPress.com
• Monetization is feasible with the Medium Partner Program

What are the Cons?

• Little, if any, customization — your weblog will seem like each different Medium weblog
• Although Medium affords stats, you received’t be capable to hyperlink to your Google account and use Google Analytics

However is it the suitable selection for everybody?

Let’s have a look at the opposite choices…

2. WordPress.com: Finest Sandbox Platform

Launched in 2005, WordPress.com is a turnkey content material administration system (CMS) constructed on the open-source WordPress.org software program.

In any given month, over 409 million individuals will view greater than 21 billion pages on WordPress.com’s community of blogs. Again in September 2018, greater than 70 million posts had been revealed and over 52 million blog comments had been written.

Briefly, WordPress web sites are fairly fashionable.

How Do You Get Began?

Signing up for a free account takes just a few minutes.

Go to WordPress.com and click on the “Get Began” button to get to Step 1:

You’ll must enter your e mail deal with, a username, and a robust password.

Subsequent, enter a couple of particulars about your weblog for Step 2:

For Step 3, enter an deal with in your web site:

When you’ve typed one thing, you’ll get a listing of choices. Make sure to choose the “Free” one.

Lastly, in Step 4 you decide a plan. Once more, select the “Free” choice.

What Do You Get For $0?

WordPress.com’s “free for all times” plan provides you quite a few options, together with:

• A free WordPress.com subdomain
• “Jetpack” important options
• Neighborhood help
• Dozens of free themes/templates

Let’s have a look at these options in additional element:

Free Subdomain

A few definitions are most likely so as…

First, what’s a domain? See the deal with bar on the prime of your browser? What comes after the “https://” is the area.

Within the case of this web site, the customized area identify is smartblogger.com. For my web site, it’s beabetterblogger.com.

And within the case of WordPress, the area identify is wordpress.com.

So what’s a subdomain? If the area is the father or mother, the subdomain is the kid. Something between the “https://” and the area is a subdomain.

Some examples:

• alumni.harvard.edu
• braves.mlb.com
• finance.yahoo.com

That’s what WordPress is providing with its free subdomain.

So, if I needed to start out “Kevin’s Superior Weblog” on WordPress.com, my subdomain is likely to be one thing like kevinsawesomeblog. Readers would kind kevinsawesomeblog.wordpress.com of their browser to view my web site.

It’s not a great look in case you’re a enterprise weblog (extra on that later), however for a sandbox weblog the place you’re testing your concepts, it’ll do the trick.

Jetpack Important Options

WordPress.com doesn’t enable third-party plugins (except you improve to their “enterprise” plan). So, in case your buddy tells you about this “wonderful” search engine marketing software plugin “you’ve bought to attempt,” you’re out of luck till you improve to a self hosted model.

Nonetheless, the free plan does include many built-in WordPress plugins that provide every thing from spam safety to contact kinds.

For an entire checklist of the built-in performance that WordPress.com affords, take a look at their plugins web page.

Neighborhood Help

Presumably WordPress.com’s finest characteristic (past the pricing) is its in depth help system and knowledgebase.

Yow will discover nearly something you should find out about utilizing their free platform in WordPress.com’s Support part. To name their assortment of how-to articles merely “in depth” can be an understatement.

And in case you have a particular query you want a solution for, they have you ever lined there too.

Go to the WordPress.com forum, search to see if anybody has had your identical query, and browse the solutions. Can’t discover the answer you want? Submit the query your self.

Free Themes

Whereas Medium prevents you from customizing the look of your weblog, WordPress.com provides you choices.

With “dozens” (93 on the time of this writing) of free themes from which to decide on, WordPress.com affords design flexibility that isn’t obtainable with Medium and the opposite free platforms.

And, final however not least, WordPress.com affords the WordPress block editor, which permits customers to construct customized posts and pages.

What we’re saying is…

You get lots for “free.”

Who Ought to Use WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is a strong cms platform for virtually each kind of content material creators.

Do you wish to be a self-help blogger? Excellent news — WordPress.com will meet your wants.

Wish to weblog on meals, pets, or politics? You’re in luck.

Simply need a private weblog the place you write about life? That’s WordPress.com’s jam, my good friend.

However WordPress.com is sweet for extra than simply running a blog. You can even use it for initiatives and e-commerce shops, which isn’t one thing the opposite free platforms can declare.

That provides it an edge over the opposite choices. If you wish to weblog and do something else with your site, WordPress.com affords flexibility the others don’t.

Nonetheless, it’s not a great match for everybody…

Who Ought to NOT Use WordPress.com?

If you would like knowledgeable weblog for your enterprise, it is best to skip WordPress.com and look into Medium or LinkedIn (which we’ll talk about in a second).

Why?

As a result of it makes you seem like a cheapskate.

Free is fantastic, however utilizing WordPress.com once you’re a enterprise is the equal of handing out enterprise playing cards with the printer’s brand on the again of them.

Doesn’t precisely scream “I’m knowledgeable,” does it?

Additionally:

In case you’re hoping to affix a running a blog neighborhood the place your posts have an opportunity to be found by new audiences, it is best to look elsewhere.

Medium shines a highlight on the perfect its members have to supply. In case you write one thing nice, it has an opportunity to be featured and seen by hundreds of thousands.

WordPress.com? Not a lot.

Right here’s a screenshot of the latest “Editors’ Picks” on the official WordPress.com weblog:

There may as nicely be tumbleweeds blowing throughout the display screen.

Remaining Phrase on WordPress.com

What are the Professionals?

• Appropriate for a wide range of weblog sorts
• Stable help articles and discussion board
• Extra design choices than different free platforms
• Shorter studying curve in case you select to transition to self-hosted WordPress later
• Web site builder that’s good for extra than simply blogs
• Premium plans can be found, for these

What are the Cons?

• Not splendid for companies
• You’ll be able to’t set up premium or free WordPress themes and plugins (or one other running a blog software) from third events
• Lack of neighborhood makes it tough to construct an viewers from scratch
• WordPress promoting and banners might seem subsequent to your weblog content material

3. LinkedIn: Finest Platform for Professionals

Subsequent up is LinkedIn.

Primarily used for skilled networking, LinkedIn additionally affords a publishing platform. This permits any of its 560 million customers (as of September 2018) to put in writing posts that would (probably) be learn by any of the 260 million members who’re lively in a given month.

(Once more, probably.)

How Do You Get Began?

Go to LinkedIn.com, and also you’ll see this window encouraging you to affix:

Enter your identify, your e mail, and a robust password. Then click on the “Be part of now” button.

You’ll then be requested to reply a couple of easy questions:

• Your nation and zip code
• Whether or not or not you’re a pupil (if no, you’ll enter your job title and the identify of your employer; if sure, you’ll enter the identify of your faculty and different related information)
• Your motive for becoming a member of LinkedIn

It seems like lots, nevertheless it’s pretty innocent.

Nonetheless, in case you really feel the urge to throw your pc into the dumpster, we received’t blame you.

What Do You Get For $0?

A free-to-use publishing platform that’s centered on professionals and enterprise contacts.

In case you’re already a LinkedIn member, publishing your content material can be simpler than WordPress.com, Medium, or some other running a blog platform.

Why?

As a result of it’s constructed proper into your LinkedIn profile. Click on the “Write an article” button and begin writing.

Who Ought to Use LinkedIn?

Anybody who needs to achieve professionals and companies.

In spite of everything, that’s what LinkedIn is all about, proper? Nurturing enterprise relationships.

Running a blog on LinkedIn helps to domesticate these relationships.

If you write an article, LinkedIn will notify your present connections. In case your article is nice (and why wouldn’t or not it’s?), they’ll take discover. Write more and extra nice articles, they usually’ll begin to see you as an authority.

And, like with Medium, nice content material on LinkedIn has an opportunity to get observed by these outdoors your checklist of connections.

If one in every of LinkedIn’s editors sees your masterpiece and decides to characteristic it on one in every of LinkedIn’s quite a few channels, your work will get uncovered to an enormous viewers of , like-minded professionals.

Who Ought to NOT Use LinkedIn?

This one is fairly easy…

In case you aren’t a working skilled, otherwise you’re not seeking to reach working professionals, you’ll be higher off selecting one of many different free platforms.

Remaining Phrase on LinkedIn

What are the Professionals?

• Good for professionals and enterprise running a blog
• Clear, easy design
• Ease of use — publishing platform is constructed proper into your LinkedIn profile
• Constructed-in viewers of like-minded professionals

What are the Cons?

• Solely good for professionals and companies
• Only a few customization choices
• You’ll be able to’t schedule posts for future publishing

4. Instagram: Finest Platform for Visuals

A photograph and video-sharing platform that’s owned by Fb, Instagram is likely one of the largest social media websites on the earth.

As of June 2018, Instagram has 1 billion customers worldwide. The earlier September, that they had 800 million customers — a development of 200 million in solely 9 months.

Even in case you subtract everybody who follows a Kardashian or has posted a photograph of themselves impersonating a duck, Instagram affords an viewers of nicely over 75 individuals.

(Kidding. Largely.)

How Do You Get Began?

On a private pc, go to Instagram.com, and also you’ll see the next:

Enter your cellphone quantity or e mail deal with, your identify, your required username, and a robust password. Then click on the “Join” button.

Or, skip all that and click on the “Log in with Fb” button (assuming you’ve a Fb account). In case you aren’t already logged in, it is going to ask you to log into your Fb account.

You could possibly additionally do the above utilizing the Instagram app in your cell gadget.

What Do You Get For $0?

You get a particularly fashionable social media platform that’s good for microblogging.

What’s microblogging, you ask? Right here’s the way it works:

You get a fantastic picture. Possibly it’s a photograph you took in your digicam, or maybe it’s a Inventive Commons picture that completely suits your present shade of melancholy.

You add the picture to Instagram.

And for the caption? You write a brief weblog publish.

Listed below are a pair examples:

Within the above screenshot, Sarah Von Bargen cleverly plugs a course she affords within the midst of a tiny, bite-sized publish (accompanied by a photograph of varied drinks).

And within the under screenshot, my good friend Jaime Buckley (in true Jaime Buckley fashion), makes use of Instagram to publish an attention-grabbing graphic alongside 107 inspirational phrases on parenting.

That’s microblogging — and it may be finished very, very nicely utilizing Instagram.

Who Ought to Use Instagram?

Anybody who focuses on extremely visible matters.

Fashions…

Photographers…

Yoga instructors…

Skilled cooks…

Make-up artists, hairstylists, clothes shops…

The checklist goes on and on.

In case you’re somebody who can mix nice visuals with brief posts that pack a punch, you possibly can have nice success utilizing Instagram as a microblogging platform.

Who Ought to NOT Use Instagram?

In case your concept of interesting to your viewers’s sensory details entails pulling out the iPhone 3G you’ve had since 2008 and snapping a photograph, Instagram is probably not the platform for you.

In case you are likely to draft novels once you write, Instagram’s 2,200 character restrict when writing captions may show problematic.

Additionally, in case your audience tends to shrink back from cell units for any motive, Instagram won’t be the perfect platform to check your concepts. Instagram began life as a cell app. Cellular is the place it shines, and it’s the place most of its customers name dwelling.

(So, in case you’re planning to start out a Wilford Brimley fan membership, it’s most likely finest to skip Instagram.)

Remaining Phrase on Instagram

What are the Professionals?

• Nice for visible matters
• Excellent platform for microblogging (brief posts)
• Nice in case your audience primarily makes use of cell units

What are the Cons?

• Restricted to 2,200 characters
• Restricted to at least one hyperlink (in your bio)
• In case your audience isn’t on cell, it’s lower than splendid

5. Visitor Running a blog: Finest Platform for Constructing Your Authority

Generally, the perfect platform in your work is another person’s fashionable weblog.

Why? As a result of it could possibly imply immediate credibility.

As soon as your publish publishes on a web site like Good Blogger, Forbes, Lifehacker, or Enterprise Insider; individuals have a look at you in a different way.

Yesterday, you had been simply you — a proficient, engaging author residing in obscurity. However then, after having your work revealed on a widely known web site, you’re now seen as an issue professional in your area.

What occurred? Guest blogging occurred.

How Do You Get Began?

There are two approaches to discovering websites the place you possibly can contribute visitor posts.

The primary is straightforward…

Examine to see if the blogs you already wish to learn (which can be related to your area of interest, after all) settle for visitor publish submissions.

Browse their “About” or “Begin” pages. Attempt their “Contact” web page. Generally, they’ll make it simple and have a “Contribute” or “Write for Us” hyperlink of their navigation menu or footer.

The second strategy entails using Google’s and Twitter’s search functionality.

Right here’s the way it works:

As you possibly can within the screenshot above, you possibly can question a subject (on this instance: “running a blog”) together with a search term (“write for us”).

Google returned a listing of outcomes that contained each of these search phrases/phrases.

Click on on the outcomes that look promising, browse the websites, and see in the event that they’re a great match. Not all websites can be price your time. Skip those that aren’t. Bookmark the matches.

Then attempt another, comparable queries:

• “Running a blog” + “visitor publish”
• “Running a blog” + “contribute”
• “Running a blog suggestions” + “write for us”

And so forth.

Substitute “running a blog” and “blogging tips” with no matter matters (content material creation, content material advertising and marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, underwater basket-weaving, and so forth.) you want to write about.

Trying to find visitor running a blog alternatives on Twitter follows the same routine:

Sort “visitor publish”, “visitor weblog publish”, “visitor article”, and so forth. within the search field. Twitter gives you a listing of tweets the place individuals used these precise phrases.

Each time somebody proudly tweets {that a} visitor publish they’ve written has been revealed on somebody’s web site, as Meera Kothand does within the above screenshot, it’s saved by Twitter for posterity. And it means that you can go on an archaeological hunt to seek out it.

Scroll by way of the outcomes.

Primarily based on the title of the visitor publish and the location that revealed it, you’ll have a good suggestion whether or not or not it’s a match for you. Maintain scrolling till you discover some prospects. Click on the hyperlink within the tweet, browse the location, and bookmark it for later in case you suppose it’s a contender.

What Do You Get For $0?

You get the possibility to place your phrases in entrance of already-existing, related audiences.

Jon wasn’t an unknown when he wrote How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World as a visitor publish for Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger in 2011, however he was an unknown to me till I found the publish a couple of years later.

Then every thing modified.

It didn’t matter that Jon was already well-known by most due to his former function at Copyblogger; for me, his ProBlogger publish was a gateway drug.

Jon went from being an unknown — a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce — to an authority on running a blog I needed to learn.

That’s the ability of visitor running a blog. Each time you place your phrases in entrance of newly focused audiences; you’ve the possibility to achieve followers for all times.

Who Ought to Visitor Weblog?

Anybody who needs to construct their credibility and enhance their authority.

How can visitor running a blog try this, you ask? Let’s use me for example.

Earlier than I wrote my first guest post for Good Blogger, I solely had a handful of freelance writing jobs beneath my belt.

After studying a publish about quitting your job and transferring to paradise written by some man named Jon, launching my very own weblog seemed like a fantastic concept.

In order that’s what I did. I used to be on unemployment on the time, working from home, and I had a whole lot of free time on my arms.

And I used to be doing a fantastic job in such a brief interval.

The one drawback?

I had little credibility. The one individuals who seen me as an authority on running a blog or writing had been my spouse and perhaps one in every of our cats.

Then I obtained an e mail…

Jon’s editor, the proficient Glen Lengthy, invited me to put in writing a visitor publish for Good Blogger (previously referred to as Enhance Weblog Visitors).

That visitor publish…

Led to a second opportunity…

Which led to a third…

Which led to the publish you’re studying proper now.

It led to alternatives like writing for Syed Balkhi over at OptinMonster (affiliate hyperlink).

It led to being requested to offer quotes for dozens of weblog posts and articles.

It led to flattering, tongue-placed-firmly-in-cheek emails like this one from James Chartrand:

And whereas it might not have led to tons of site visitors for my web site or giant crowds chanting my identify within the streets, visitor running a blog did one thing that will have taken me appreciable time to do by myself:

It legitimized me.

Hey, and talking of web site site visitors…

Who Ought to NOT Visitor Weblog?

Anybody who needs to construct up their very own weblog.

The rationale? It isn’t very environment friendly.

Brace your self…

You’d higher off publishing your masterpiece in your web site, even when it isn’t but fashionable, slightly than on another person’s — even when their web site could be very fashionable.

Please don’t misunderstand: Visitor running a blog is an effective way to achieve credibility; nonetheless, it isn’t an effective way to get site visitors to your weblog. Not anymore.

Visitor running a blog might have been a pleasant site visitors supply prior to now, however these days are lengthy gone.

In his eye-opening article on the subject, Tim Soulo decided guest blogging was a poor return on investment in case your purpose was to generate site visitors to your web site.

In line with Tim’s survey of over 500 bloggers (which included yours actually):

• Visitor posts from these within the content marketing area of interest earned their authors a median of solely 56 web site clicks
• 85% of the authors obtained fewer than 100 referrals to their websites

That doesn’t imply it is best to by no means visitor weblog. It simply means you should be clear about your causes for doing so.

Visitor weblog for credibility, for reinforcing your authority, and for constructing your model.

Don’t visitor weblog in case you’re hoping for site visitors. As a rule, you’ll be dissatisfied.

Oh, and there’s another group who shouldn’t visitor weblog:

Those that wish to take shortcuts.

There’s each good and unhealthy once you’re placing your phrases in entrance of a big viewers. In case your publish teaches them one thing new, conjures up them, or provides them one thing juicy to chew on; they’ll keep in mind you for it.

And if it sucks? Yeah, they’ll keep in mind you for that too.

Visitor running a blog is an effective way to construct your authority, nevertheless it’s additionally an effective way to destroy it.

In case you’re not prepared to place within the time and do the work, visitor running a blog isn’t for you.

Remaining Phrase on Visitor Running a blog

What are the Professionals?

• Write for , focused audiences
• Quickest technique to construct your authority and status

What are the Cons?

• Quickest technique to destroy your authority and status
• Not an environment friendly technique for getting site visitors to your personal web site
• Getting revealed on high quality websites is difficult work
• Time-consuming — could also be laborious to suit into busy schedules

Making the Swap to Self-Hosted WordPress

Technically, there’s another free choice on the market…

The WordPress.org software program — the identical software program utilized by WordPress.com — is free too. It’s free for any and all to make use of.

Nonetheless, similar to there’s no such factor as a free pet (when you think about meals, veterinarian payments, and changing all of your sneakers after they’ve turn into chew toys), WordPress.org’s software program isn’t really free when you add up the opposite bills.

See, to make use of the software program, you want a weblog internet hosting supplier (aka website hosting companies like SiteGround [affiliate link], WP Engine, or Bluehost). You have to register a site identify (some internet hosting suppliers offer you a free area, however we advocate protecting your area registrar and net host separate). It’s important to install WordPress on your own web host. That prices cash. You’ll additionally want your personal area identify. That prices cash too.

Is that this one thing you’ll want to do ultimately? Completely. Simply not proper now. Not once you’re getting began.

So how will you already know once you’re prepared?

Jon recommends making the swap when you attain a 20% outreach success charge.

What does that imply? Let’s break it down:

Step #1: Register for a Free Weblog Web site

Join a free running a blog web site like Medium or WordPress.com (or no matter free platform most closely fits your wants).

Step #2: Comply with Jon’s New Methodology for Beginning a Weblog

In case you haven’t learn How to Start a Blog, achieve this instantly.

(Effectively, not instantly. End studying this publish; depart us a remark; and share it with all your pals, family members, and acquaintances. Then, by all means, instantly after saying hi on Twitter, go and browse Jon’s wonderful tutorial.)

Within the publish, Jon reveals you methods to conduct a miniature outreach campaign the place you e mail 10-20 influential content creators and ask them to share your weblog posts.

When you’ve hit a 20% success charge, you’re able to make the transition.

Step #3: Swap to Self-Hosted WordPress

Jon’s publish additionally affords steerage for making the swap. If you’re prepared to decide on an internet host, make sure to learn WordPress Hosting: A Brutally Honest Guide That’ll Save You Money. In case you’re on a decent price range and “value” is your chief concern, take a look at 11 Free WordPress Hosting Services That Don’t Suck.

It’ll assist you to decide the perfect host and paid plan in your wants and price range.

What’s the Finest Running a blog Web site for You?

That’s the million-dollar query, isn’t it?

You now know why testing your concepts on a free running a blog platform once you’re simply beginning is a good suggestion. You now know the professionals and cons of Medium, WordPress.com, LinkedIn, Instagram, and visitor running a blog. And, you now know methods to get began with every of them.

So which one is it going to be?

If you would like my trustworthy opinion, the reply is easy…

The very best free running a blog web site is whichever one will get you to cease dipping your toes into the water and begin diving in headfirst.

The subsequent running a blog masterpiece isn’t going to put in writing itself.

Are you prepared in your running a blog journey?

Then let’s do that factor.