As a blogger we need a suitable platform to express our inner most thoughts or so they say. It certainly is true that without a blogging platform there won’t be any blogs. And with the multitude of available platforms out there it is sometimes hard to choose which one is best for you. I have tried to compile a list if available choices but recommend that you do some research on the ones that are of interest before you step head first into a possible disaster.

• Wordpress Org (for self hosted blogs)
  
• Wordpress Com (for free blogs)
  
• Life Journal
• Life Type
• Blogger
• Boast Machine
• Type Pad
• Thoughts
• Square Space

Alternatively you can just start out here to try out blogging. Starting a blog needs a bit of prior planning as you don’t want to make the same mistake I did. I have started and stopped about 6 blogs all up since late 2005 until I decided to get serious with my Manifesto Blog. The thing is that if I had started right all that time ago, I would now have some serious page rank as well as opportunities to monetize the blog.

I have found Word Press to be the perfect vehicle for my blogs. The navigation is easy to understand and after the initial “getting to know phase” I feel right at home with any Word Press theme. Word Press and Blogger are the number one choice for most bloggers and each one has its own advantages.

I found that with Blogger it is easier to get started and design a blog initially.

With Word Press it takes a bit more time to get to know how it all works but therefore there are way more options in the back admin section. Plus configuring a Word Press Blog is not too hard once you learn a bit of html and php.

Before you jump onto a paid blog it would be advisable to get your feet wet with a trial. Even if you just sign up and muck around with the admin section trying to style things with html. Practice is the best way to learn and will get you to be able to design the blog of your dreams eventually.

Anyway, blogging is time consuming and fun if you are passionate about it like Terry and me. The beauty about free blogging platforms is that you can get your feet wet before you get serious.

Happy blogging

Monika Mundell Creator and Author of Blogging Web 2.0

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Filed under: Blogging