Intro to Blogging: The 5 Main Blogging Platforms

Today, more than ever, authors need to create and maintain an active blog. With how quickly things move in our society and the varying distractions warring over people’s attention, blogging is a way for authors to stay on their readers’ minds and display their writing prowess.

As important as blogging is, many authors don’t know where to start, which is where this post will help. There are many choices for blogging platforms available to authors with different levels of difficulty. Below are the five most common.

The 5 Most Common Blog Platforms:

Blogger - Formerly BlogSpot, Blogger is owned by Google. It is one of the easiest blogging platforms to use and one of the most popular. One of the benefits include the integration with other Google products.

We recommended blogger for beginners due to its simple functions and no-fuss layout. Because it is owned by Google, the analytics are pretty dang good too. However, if you’re more experienced with websites or blogs, you might feel limited with Blogger.

WordPress - Another top blogging platform is WordPress. WordPress is meant for those who are a little more familiar with blogging or for those up for a challenge. Wordpress has its own varying degrees of difficulty and customizability. You can also create a custom blog domain with relative ease.

Another benefit to using Wordpress is the option to host your blog with someone else. For more advanced bloggers, this opens up a lot of possibilities with ads and the types of widgets that can be used on the blog. Research of what authors can do with the platform is highly recommended to those who choose WordPress.

Tumblr - This platform is meant more for quickly sharing content (primarily images) found on other Tumblr blogs or online. Growing rapidly in popularity, Tumblr is an attractive option for authors who don’t really want to write lengthy blogs.

Depending on an author’s audience, Tumblr could be the way to go. Be warned—bloggers have been known to be shut down for copyright infringement because of images on their Tumblr accounts.

LiveJournal - Possibly the most versatile blogging platform, LiveJournal is flexible with how people use it. Customization is easy and users can set different security levels for individual posts. It also has an appealing close knit social aspect.  

LiveJournal allows users to have a ‘friends’ list and load ‘avatars’ that appear next to their pen names. Users can join communities (essentially groups) and post entries under those communities’ topics. Users can also create and monitor communities of their own.

Custom Website - A custom website is the most complicated and expensive type of blogging platform. Unless you’re design savvy or have a crowded wallet, this is probably not for you. However, a custom website gives you complete control over the look and feel of your blog, which can be a major plus if you’re willing to put in the extra work.

Know What You Need

One of the keys to picking the right blog for you is to know what you need it for. With all the different platforms out there, authors can find one that matches with their blogging goals. All it takes is a little research and knowing what to look for.

What blogging platform do you prefer to use?

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—Jessica Winn, publicist at Cunning Relations & Jolly Fish Press.