Choosing the best blogging platform requires a thorough look into all the available sites, like the old saying goes, different strokes for different folks. A sports blog, for instance, with no intention of monetizing the blog, is not limited to a certain number of blog platforms compared to a food blog with an end goal of making money off of blogging.
Here are a few things to consider when deciding on the RIGHT site.
1. COMFORTABILITY
Depending on how tech-savvy you are, you might be more comfortable with a platform over the other. From personal experience, to blog successfully on the WIX platform, one needs to have a sound knowledge of coding as it doesn’t give you many feature options. For example, you cannot directly reply under someone’s comment on a WIX blog unless you reply as a separate comment.
The complexity of WordPress might also be a burden, hence a likeness for a far-less complicated site like Medium. In a case like that, your comfort level is a huge determining factor of which blog site to settle on.
2. USABILITY and Complexity
A blog should be two things: user-friendly and admin-friendly. If a site admin finds it challenging to navigate the backend (dashboard), it will automatically affect the usability of the frontend (what a user sees). Ensure the blog site you want to decide on has enough “how-to” explanations on common questions, great online reviews, and helpful customer service. Without these three, your experience starting could get ugly.
3. Monetisation
Before you decide on a blog site, ensure you have mapped out your blogging goals. If blog monetization is one of your goals, note that some blog sites help you achieve that goal more than others. On a WIX site, you need to pay a certain amount to own a WIX shop, while on WordPress, you can own a shop for free. Now, if you are more comfortable with WIX and have a few extra dollars to spend on your site shop, then WIX it is, but if not, WordPress might be your go-to.
4. COMPATIBILITY
Most blog sites are compatible with major plug-ins and third party apps or codes. These include WooCommerce, Google AdSense, Shopify, etc. The question now is, if you decide to start a blog site, would you have access to these major plug-ins/apps? This question is important because the blog site you intend on choosing should accommodate your needs. For instance, WordPress is compatible with over 50,000 plug-ins, while WIX with over 200 apps. Considering the numbers, and if plug-in compatibility is a big deal for your business, you can easily decide without thinking twice.
5. FEATURES
Blog features include themes, design templates, blog post order, cookie notice, sign-up forms, social share, header, footer, standard comment system, search, post authors, and so on. A site user should be able to search for a keyword on your site and get an immediate result. Likewise, a comment thread should not be complicated.
6. COST
The site cost is probably the most crucial requirement for many bloggers, but I pushed it down because the cost isn’t the only requirement to look at. Having heard that a paid WordPress account is expensive, I steered away from using WordPress for quite some time only to realize a few months ago that WordPress is one of the cheapest blogging platforms out there. Mind you; cheap is relative depending on your need or your business needs. Starting on WIX, I spent close to $150 on domain name and hosting. When I switched to WordPress, I spent around $110. Do not be deceived, and DO YOUR RESEARCH!
g. MAINTENANCE ✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
A beautiful, fast, and user-friendly blog is good, but what is better is a blog with easy maintenance. You should be able to detect and do a site cleanup, when necessary, without the aid of a web developer. Aside from a site cleanup, actions like updating your blog, theme, other plug-ins/apps, posts, and broken links, managing post comments, spam comments, and many more should be straightforward tasks. If not, these actions can affect your site speed and overall performance when undone or dragged over a long period.
Now that you are aware of the requirements for choosing a suitable blog site, look at my list of top 10 blog servers you could choose from.
1. WordPress.org
2. WordPress.com
3. WIX
4. Blogger
5. Squarespace
6. Weebly
7. Medium
9. Joomla
10. Typepad
Check out these links here and here for detailed pros and cons on each blog site.
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