the top 5 trends in blogging this 2016

A few thing only happen once in a life time  A few roles only happens once life lets you act only one play so play it WELLLLLLLL!!!!!!...............

A video posted by Desmond maximus (@desmondscepter) on Sep 26, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

The fireworks have faded, the champagne bottles are lined up for recycling, and those midnight text messages you didn’t mean to send but did anyway are fading into memory – or so you hope.

2016 is here and with it a chance to start the new business year with a bang. Your goals are set, your team is pumped, and you’re already hitting the ground and running.

But what has changed since last year? How will the world of online marketing look in this new year? And what opportunities should you be aiming for in the year ahead?

All this week we’re looking at the most important digital marketing trends for 2016. Whether in the domain of SEO, online video, blogging, or social media, our four-post series will explain what you need to know about the year ahead so you can deploy your marketing resources efficiently, effectively, and hit those goals.

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The first blogs appeared in the late 1990s meaning that, in 2016, blogs are moving out of their awkward teenage years and entering a more mature stage. Much has changed over those two decades and, indeed, much continues to evolve in the blogging world today.

Some of the most popular blogging platforms have only emerged recently. For example, Medium is a daily destination for millions of internet users and the blogging platform of choice for a growing group of individuals and businesses. Just four years ago, Medium didn’t exist.

Also forcing change on the world of blogging are the social networks that, in recent years, have evolved from narrowly-focused content aggregators and sharing sites into elaborate content management systems of their own. Whether microblogging on Twitter, or posting long-form content on Facebook using a much-improved Notes feature, the line between social sharing and blogging has been significantly blurred.

Blogging, too, has also continued to evolve from a leisure activity one might engage in to share a passion or record their personal hopes and dreams and towards a legitimate career choice for talented content creators. While ‘blogging’ might have only been entered on a resume under ‘Hobbies and Interest’ in 2006, in 2016 it is just as likely to be found under ‘Work Experience’ on the same document.

But where is all this change leading?

And what other changes can we expect to see on the blogging landscape in the 12 months ahead?

Here are the five trends that will impact significantly on blogging in the year ahead, and how smart content marketers can take advantage of each to deliver value for their readers, grow their audience, and use their corporate blog to develop more and better leads.

Trends in Blogging #1: The End of the Blogger

How can you have a blog without a blogger? The simple answer is ‘you can not’, but that is exactly what we’ll see in the year ahead. Not fewer people blogging, but fewer people describing themselves as bloggers. Instead, we’ll read more and more about influencers.

This makes sense. Bloggers today are not simply writers looking for an outlet. Instead, they draw together text, images, online video, knowledge of pop culture and trends, business savvy, powerful and extensive social networks, and the skills to bring all of this to bear in a dynamic zeitgeist to deliver value for their audience, advertisers, and themselves. “Blogger” just doesn’t seem big enough to corral this diverse skill set, and when outreach is your career and your focus is on adding value, “influencer” seems so much more appropriate.

For those who see their blog as a tool by which to monetize their network, ‘influencer’ might be a synonym for ‘gun for hire’. For others with established distribution platforms and channels for their work – for example, television, books, or film – might see their blog as a chance to influence sales and conversions elsewhere. For those who will spend much of 2016 running for elected office in the United States, their blog is nothing less than a blatant appeal for influence upon the votes of millions of Americans.

And all of this suggests that 2016 might sound the death knell for the blogger and the arrival in force of the influencer.

Trends in Blogging #2: Size Matters

The size of the post, that is.

With more people than ever getting their information online, blog posts and articles need to cut through the noise and deliver real value. And frankly, it’s the rare 200-word piece that is going to be as useful to the reader when faced with competition from extensive, data-backed 2000 to 3000-word pieces.

Orbit Media Studios surveyed more than 1000 leading bloggers and found that the average length of a post in 2015 was 900 words, an increase of 100 words or more than 10% over the year before. As marketing expert Ann Handley has said, “To thrive in an over-saturated content world, you’ll need to constantly write or produce (and syndicate) content with depth. Longer posts, more substantive content that people find useful and inspired.”

In 2016 you can expect to see this trend towards longer posts and more substantive articles continue. ‘Click bait’, thanks to the efforts of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other search engines and content aggregators, is likely to die out, and low-value ‘listicles’ are likely to go the same way.

For companies and even individuals that are looking to bring in qualified traffic this coming year, there will be a greater emphasis on the length of the article being published as well as its value. While size isn’t going to be the be-all-and-end-all of blogging, it will be an increasingly important element in proving value, seriousness, and expertise to curious visitors.

Trends in Blogging #3: The End of Comments

Let’s call this one the ‘reverse Instapundit’.

For many years Professor Glenn Reynolds’ blog Instapundit was known for two primary reasons: first, a link from the blog could send enough traffic to crash all but the most well-prepared sites with an ‘Instalanche’ of readers; and second, the blog was one of the few high-profile blogs that did not have a space for readers to comment on posts.

More recently, though, Reynolds has not only brought a suite of co-bloggers on board, he has also opened up the posts for comments by readers. The site has always had a large audience, and now that audience has more of a reason to stick around.

For most sites, though, there is reason to believe that 2016 will see the end of comments on blog posts as we have known them for the last 15 years. The reason? It’s not complicated, it’s social. In simple terms, comments are not what creators want to spend their time managing, and they are not where readers want to have their conversations.

Comments on blogs require either active moderation on the part of the owner, or an acceptance that the discussion underneath a blog post will quickly devolve into the cesspool of disagreement, name-calling, and abuse. For readers, too, there is a big disadvantage in commenting on many blogs. Not only is it one more password/login combination to recall or record, it is a conversation that is limited on an internet that is not.

This is why in 2016 we’ll see the conversation move to the social sphere, perhaps entirely. Want to make a comment on a blog post? Cite the URL and share it on Twitter. Blog owners will encourage comments on Facebook, either using a dedicated comment/conversation plugin, or syndicating their posts entirely on the big blue social network.

The conversations will continue, but they won’t be the comments we’ve come to know.

Trends in Blogging #4: Great Graphics

Just as, by year end, we’ll be referring to bloggers as influencers, we’ll also stop thinking about blogging as a text-based communications medium. While the trend is not towards the disappearance of text altogether – there is really very little that is as fast, convenient and efficient at transferring an idea in an asynchronous way than text – we will see bloggers and influencers use text less and graphical elements more.

In a sense, this move towards blogging with graphics and images mirrors a wider trend online towards graphical content. Social networks have long reported that content, status updates, and shares that include an image are viewed, shared, and engaged with at far higher rates than text-only content. And the growth of social networks and billion dollar companies founded on image sharing alone (think Instagram and Pinterest, or Shutterstock and Flickr, for example) suggest there is power in not saying a word, so to speak.

In 2016 this trend will see graphical content (including high-resolution images, infographics, design elements and icon sets, and images designed for sharing on social networks) come to the fore. Instead of images being secondary to a post or a writer seeking relevant images for their post in the wake of its drafting, images will become a more central feature of the blog post, with the trend towards Tumblr-style image-blogging expanding.

And here’s a prediction. The best content will combine two trends in blogging: great graphics and longer posts. Nobody wants to wade through a wall of text on a screen, and long slideshows are equally unpopular. But the combination of long form text with high-quality images that support and augment that text will be near irresistible.

Trends in Blogging #5: The Era of Engagement

In the past bloggers would brag about their traffic. The key statistics were unique visitors and page views, and the bigger the numbers, the better the blog. When your numbers climbed high enough you’d try and monetize, selling a bit of your screen real estate to AdWords or a display ad serving company. Times were good for high-traffic blogs, but there was trouble ahead.

As content creators realized that advertisers preferred eyeballs above all else, they started doing whatever they could to build massive audiences, no matter how temporary. Click bait, hate bait, listicles, low-value content, slideshows, memes, and sometimes just flat out content appropriation – OK, content theft – all reared their ugly heads. Traffic spiked but users were left unsatisfied – and advertisers, too. What was a win-win was now trending lose-lose.

Luckily, in 2016, this will start to turn around

The most important metric for bloggers in the year ahead will not be their traffic or their page views. It will be their engagement rates. Can the blogger attract readers – no matter the size of the audience – and keep them on the site? Can the blogger create a community, giving readers something to come back for other than just fresh writing and attractive images? Can a blogger press publish and be rewarded with Twitter shares, Facebook posts lauding the content, and the launch of dozens of discussions on social media? And can the blogger remain at the center of all of this?

Whether a small but dedicated niche audience or a community of hundreds of thousands of committed devotees, what will matter for bloggers in 2016 is the engagement rate of that audience – the higher, the better.

Conclusion

Blogging isn’t going anywhere and will continue to evolve in its role as one of the most important content creation, publication, and distribution strategies for businesses and individuals online. The trends in blogging outlined here are the most important in terms of their impact on the blogging landscape in 2016, but they are far from the only trends impacting bloggers and blogging generally.

how to blog make money from blogging just using only your mobile phone

Once you have your phone, all you need are the right tools and some knowledge, and you can create an excellent blog.

Here are some suggestions that may prove useful:

1. Creating A Micro blog

More and more bloggers are finding that the majority of their readers engage with their posts via mobile devices. This is good news for bloggers; since when bloggers use mobile devices to access posts, they are usually looking for just small chunks of text to read. That means bloggers can reach a wider audience with bite-sized bits of content designed for mobile use that supplement their regular full-length posts.

The most important thing in a blog is to communicate daily. It is true that longer blog posts tend to perform better overall than small bits of information, but micro-blogging is growing in popularity, and when combined with social media, it is a big hit.

2. Use mobile apps

Apps are essential for running a great blog on your mobile device, and there are hundreds available. When you need to update your blog, track analytics, post photos, link to social media, or perform any number of small changes to your blog, using a mobile app can help ease the process.

Most bloggers recommend using the following types of apps:

• Blogging platform apps: Whether you use WordPress, Blogger, or another platform, having the app downloaded on your phone should be your first step when mobile blogging.
• Text editor: To make sure you don’t lose your work inside your blogging app platform, it’s recommended that you use a text editor app like Google Docs, which instantly saves your work as you type.
• Photo editing: Most of your photos will be taken with a professional camera and edited on a computer, but when you want to snap a quick photo on your phone, a good photo editor like Pixlr Express can make your life easier.
• Social networking: Have various social apps downloaded on your phone, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and any other relevant network. You might also choose to use an app like Buffer, which controls all of your social networks within one platform.
• Analytics: You have to know how your blogs are performing daily, and traffic and data analysis apps like Google Analytics will tell you everything you need to know.

3. Find a good text editor

As mentioned previously, a good text editor is essential for running a good blog through your phone. You can always compose your blog posts in the blogging platform app, but these apps aren’t notorious for having great text editors. They are more focused on the function of the blog itself than the text editor, which means it can have glitches in essential functions, like backing up your post or running spell check.

A good text editor app, such as Google Docs, Sublime Text, Notepad, and Vim allow you to write and edit text without risking lost work. Many of these apps also offer coding capabilities, which allow more web design-savvy bloggers to publish their posts on their custom websites.

4. Send posts through email

An up-and-coming form of blogging is email blogging. Essentially, bloggers collect emails from their readers and send an occasional blog post through email. This offers an exclusive look to subscribers on your latest posts. Most people check their email on their phones daily, so they are more than likely to see it through email than through your blog.

If you use WordPress, you can also adjust your email settings so that it automatically posts to your blog. The platform offers a unique address that can be used to type a blog post through your email and have it publish on your blog. This can be useful, since email offers many of the spell check and draft-saving features of a text editor, and it is easy to access on your mobile device.

5. Use mobile-optimised photos

All of these tips are great for posting text to your blog, but as you well know, if you don’t have photos, your post won’t perform well. As a general rule of thumb, your photos must beoptimised for mobile use before posting through your phone.

Many bloggers employ the use of photo portfolio sites like Flickr. This photo-sharing site will automatically resize and optimise your photos for responsive use, so when you publish a blog post through your email or your blogging platform app, the photos won’t have any problem transitioning from small screen to large and vice versa.

Blogging almost entirely through your mobile device once seemed impossible, but now, it’s a simple process. As long as you have the right tools, you can work effectively from anywhere without the hassle of a larger device.

HOW TO GET PRIVACY POLICY PAGE ON YOUR BLOG

Google Adsense requires that all publishers have a privacy policy page on their blogs that informs visitors specifically about the use of cookies and log files to customize their advertising experience.

     If  Google Adsense is applied for without having this page on your blog, website or others, apllication for adsense would likely be revolked that is in other words your application will not be approved.

Drafting a page that contains all the required content for Adsense Privacy policyis not easy but by making use of an online blog privacy policy generator, you can easily generate your own Privacy Policy that fills all of the requirements of Google Adsense.

heres an uploaded video to guide you on how to generate a privacy policy and well explains how to generate privacy policy page's content.



There is another video that explains how to create privacy policy page in blogger and how to add a tab to the Blogger navigation bar which links to the privacy policy page.




please leave your comments 
I hope these helps.

10 ways to make money online without breaking a sweat

  you can be a proud  Nigerian making real, legal money online. without worrying about Paypal and other challenges that discourage many Nigerians from making money online. Mind you,u don't have to  waste your time engaging in schemes like Surveys, Paid to Read Emails. Believe it or not, you can  make money everyday.

     In this post, am highlighting ways I make money online for you. I hope you will be able to grab some ideas from it.

BLOGGING

I use my blog to share things I know with people all around the world while also using it to promote all I do. The blog, makes money for me directly and indirectly. The more I share things I know, the more I win the trust of many people and when people trust you, they will find it easy to buy things you sell.

And then even pay you to sell or promote their brands, businesses, ideas or other service

 
1.  Money from Google Adsense

  you can make money consistently from Google Adsense. Google Adsense allows you to place some Google ads on your blog.And when someone click on those Google ads, Google pays you. you can  receive my payment in form of checks same way which Google sends to me here in Nigeria via DHL and I cash the checks at Bank via my dormiciliary account. I make cool money monthly from Adsense....you too can. God willing, I hope to be making more than this in years to come.

Adsense is a good way to make money but it takes time. If you are the greedy type looking for a fast way to make money online, Adsense is not for you because once you try fooling Google, you will get banned for life. Trust me.thing you'll need to start making money online with google adsense will include

• A well designed and user friendly blog 

• Good writting skills to be sincere 
• The internet, once in a while at least 
• what you would like to blog about 
• and finally inspiration

before you can start making money from Adsense. Check out my Google Adsense Tutorials to learn more about Google Adsense.


2. Money from Selling ebooks and softwares

  you can make money selling ebooks and softwares. and advertise most of those ebooks and software you sell via your blog posts and also some via www.acepublicity.com I receive payments directly into my bank accounts because most of the people that buy from me for now are mostly Nigerians. I hope to explore the international market in the future though....

Those that trust me, pay into my account and I deliver what they pay to them as soon as possible. I confirm payments with the help of my bank credit alerts and also via Internet banking. You too can make money selling ebooks even without writing any ebook by yourself. I can teach you....


3. Money from Setting up Blog for others/ Redesign

I make money redesigning other people's blogs. Some people who love my blog do ask me to redesign theirs while some pay me, just to create new blogs for them too. If you master the art of blogging, you too can start making money this way...

4. Money from advert placement

I make money helping some people to advertise their services right on my blog. Your blog must be big before people might be interested in paying you for this kind of service. I also make money helping some people to advertise their businesses using Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. You too can start making money rendering these services, if you learn the basics.

5. Money from Reviews and JVs

Some people do pay me to write about their websites on my blog. I also go into Joint- Venture partnership at times, just to promote a product. If I help the partner to make some sales, I get paid.


6. Make money selling BulkSMS Proposal letters and Ebook

I have an ebook that explains how to set up bulksms website with a capital as low as N4000 ( without SMS). I sell the ebook for N5000 and trust me, it sells.  I also sell Sample Proposal Letters and other writting templates you might need  which you can use to get BulkSMS contracts from churches, businesses, schools etc

7. Make Money setting up SMS website for others

I also make money setting up BUlkSMs website for those that do not have time reading an ebook to set it up by themselves. I charge a negotiable fee for this service and those interested keep paying....

Other ways I make money Online are highlighted below:

8. Make Money from unlocking modems

Yes, I make money unlocking fastlink modems, Glo NetPro modem and Airtel modems for people intrested in using other network sim cards on their 3G modems. Those interested do send me recharge vouchers which I use to pay for my internet subscriptions. I also sell the Unlockers to those interested in return for cash.

9. Make money from web design

I design websites for clients based on what they want and I get paid in return. If you dont know how to design websites, go and learn it, so you can start making money from this service asap. Go and learn how to use "Wordpress" or "Joomla"  and you will be able to start designing cool websites for clients.

10. Make Money from domain name registration

I make money registering domain names, especially for bloggers wanting to change their blogspot address to dot com. You too can, if you know or learn how to do it.
Affiliate Marketing, Site Flipping etc are other ways you can make money online

there are endless ways of making money and the possiblilies are endless as well as long as you put you time to it and concerntrate, your efforts would yeild fruits faster than you imagine




If interested in blogging, join my Facebook Group: BloggersLab. You will connect with other bloggers and I will easily be answering your questions there.

feel free to contact me too.

I hope this helps..

In my future posts, I will be explaining more about these ways u can make money. So, subscribe to my blog if you want to be receiving the tutorials in your email inbox even if you are not online when I post the tutorials. Make sure you verify your subscription by clicking on the link that will be in the mail that will be sent to you once you subscribe.

Feel free to contribute and ask questions...

Kindly share this with friends...

onecraze web design basics 101 #001 [html rules]

HTML Attributes

• All HTML elements can have attributes
• Attributes provide additional information about an element
• Attributes are always specified in the start tag
• Attributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"

---

The lang Attribute

The language of the document can be declared in the tag.
The language is declared with the lang attribute.
Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers) and search engines:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<body>

...

</body>
</html>

The first two letters specify the language (en). If there is a dialect, use two more letters (US).

---

The title Attribute

Here, a title attribute is added to the element. The value of the title attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the paragraph:

Example

<p title="I'm a tooltip">
This is a paragraph.
</p>

---

The href Attribute

HTML links are defined with the tag. The link address is specified in the href attribute:

Example

<a href="http://www.onecraze.com">This is a link</a>

You will learn more about links and the tag later in this tutorial.

---

Size Attributes

HTML images are defined with the tag.
The filename of the source (src), and the size of the image (widthand height) are all provided as attributes:

Example

<img src="onecraze.jpg" width="104" height="142">

The image size is specified in pixels: width="104" means 104 screen pixels wide.
You will learn more about images and the tag later in this tutorial.

---

The alt Attribute

The alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be used, when an image cannot be displayed.
The value of the attribute can be read by screen readers. This way, someone "listening" to the webpage, e.g. a blind person, can "hear" the element.

Example

<img src="w3schools.jpg" alt="W3Schools.com" width="104" height="142">

---

We Suggest: Use Lowercase Attributes

The HTML5 standard does not require lowercase attribute names.
The title attribute can be written with uppercase or lowercase like Title and/or TITLE.
We recommend lowercase in HTML, and demand lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.

Always use lowercase attribute names.

---

We Suggest: Quote Attribute Values

The HTML5 standard does not require quotes around attribute values.
The href attribute, demonstrated above, can be written as:

Example

<ahref=http://www.onecraze.com>

We recommend quotes in HTML, and demands quotes for stricter document types like XHTML.
Sometimes it is necessary to use quotes. This example will not display the title attribute correctly, because it contains a space:

Example

<p title=About One craze blog>

Using quotes are the most common. Omitting quotes can produce errors.
At W3Schools we always use quotes around attribute values.

---

Single or Double Quotes?

Double quotes around attribute values are the most common in HTML, but single quotes can also be used.
In some situations, when the attribute value itself contains double quotes, it is necessary to use single quotes:

<p title='Scepter "web design" Emire'>

Or vice versa:

<p title="'Scepter 'web design' Emire">

---

Chapter Summary

• All HTML elements can have attributes
• The title attribute provides additional "tool-tip" information
• The href attribute provides address information for links
• The width and height attributes provide size information for images
• The alt attribute provides text for screen readers
• Always use lowercase attribute names
• Always quote attribute values with double quotes

11 Best Blogging Platforms – Squarespace VS WordPress VS Blogger

There are a million ways to start a blog but not all of them are great. In fact, if you’ve been following onecraze, you’ll know that we strongly advise starting a blog and have a very detailed tutorial for that on our homepage.

In this post, we’re going to dig deep and compare the best blogging platforms side-by-side and then have an in-depth look into each one as well as their pros and cons.
I'm going to spoil this article for you a little bit.

There are only three options out there that may deserve the title of being the best blogging platform out there and we'll start with those.
These are your best bet 99% of the time, but we've got more options for you towards the end of the article.​

Squarespace VS WordPress VS Blogger

Squarespace

Your second best option

• Easy to use
• 190+ plugins
• Drag and drop content builder
• Free domain name

• Squarespace owns it, not you
• Extra security not possible
• Limited in features compared to WordPress
• Expensive over time

$16 / month

WordPress.org

The best blogging platform

• Completely free
• Open source
• Powers 25% of the internet
• Custom domain
• Easy to use
• 10,000+ themes
• 42,000+ plugins
• Big community
• Super secure
• Full control
• No coding experience needed
• Search engine friendly

• Small learning curve

FREE

 

 

START NOW!

Blogger

Third best free blogging platform

• Free to use
• Quick registration
• Easy to use
• Can edit the code

• Controlled and owned by Google
• Strict rules
• Cannot monetize
• Looks unprofessional
• Complicated to modify
• Outdated

Free

Best Blogging Platform - WordPress.org

Price: Free but requires hosting
As you saw, we’ve crowned self-hosted WordPress to be the best blogging platform out there. So have dozens of other industry experts and thought leaders and there’s a reason for that, many reasons actually.
WordPress.org has been around since 2003 and they've kept improving it on a daily basis. The company is fairly big and the community is even bigger. In 2016, WordPress.org powers over 25% of the web and you'll see big sites like The New Yorker, TechCrunch, MTV, BBC and Playstation using it for their blogs.
The platform is free and open-source. The only investment involved with a WordPress.org blog is a hosting service, which typically costs $5-10 dollars per month, as well as a domain name.
We've partnered up with a hosting company named SiteGround, who has given our readers a 60% discount for hosting and a free domain name. Click here to claim the deal or here to follow our WordPress.org tutorial.

Ease of Use & Setup​

WordPress.org is super simple to get started with. Following the tutorial we've linked to above, you'll be able to have your blog ready in less than 20 minutes and you don't need to have any design or programming experience.
It's slightly more complicated to use than say Squarespace and Blogger, but it will still only take you a few minutes at most to figure anything out.
If you ever run into any problems or don't know how to do something, there are blogs and forum dedicated to WordPress.org with 500,000+ members ready to solve problems for you. The internet is full of tutorials for even the tiniest changes you'd like to make!
It gets slightly harder to use when you've got a complicated website, instead of a blog. When you want to set up an eCommerce store, a membership site and all of those fancy things - it'll likely take you a bit of time to figure out, but it's still manageable by the average person.​

Design​ - Elegance is a Click Away

This is one of the most amazing aspects of the platform. You don't need to have any design skills, yet you'll have access to thousands and thousands of options, both free and premium.
The platform runs on "themes" that you can install with just a few clicks. Changing the theme will change your site completely, but keep all of your settings, content and other things of importance.
No matter what kind of vision you have your blog, WordPress will have a theme ready for you!
Here's a random example that I think looks really good!​

If you've got money to splurge, you can hire a designer and a developer to make custom solutions - they will all know how to do it for WordPress.

Plugins​ - Unlimited Functionality

It started off as a simple blogging platform but by now, it's capable of doing virtually anything.
WordPress has over 42,000 free plugins in their repository (and plenty more paid options on the internet) that allow you to extend the functionality of your website with just one click. It's basically the same as apps on your smartphone - it lets you do more things.
Here's just a brief list of things WordPress plugins let you do:​

• Create an eCommerce store
• Collect your readers emails
• Stop comment spam
• Receive advanced analytics about your visitors
• Record your visitors behaviour
• Split-test different types of content and designs
• Create beautiful image galleries
• Make your website more secure
• Make your website load faster
• Make content creation "drag and drop"
• Make posts and pages shareable on social media
• Optimize your websites for increased search engine traffic
• Run viral giveaways
• Back up your website to Dropbox, automatically
• Turn your blog posts into beautifully designed PDFs
• Much much more!

Freedom

This is one of the very very few blogging platforms on our list that has true freedom.
There are no rules. You can publish whatever you want, post affiliate links, insert advertisements, post twice a day or once a year, talk about politics or whatever your big heart desires.
As long as you're not doing something illegal, you're in control.
This includes the website itself. You've got access to the code, the design and can change the tiniest details, if you desire.

Conclusion - The Best Blogging Platform!

I can honestly say that WordPress is leaps and bounds ahead of all of the other blogging platforms and has virtually no downsides.
Whether you're a hobby blogger, want to start a career in writing, want to start the next big news website or an eCommerce store - WordPress will let you do it and let you do it well.
​Although I still recommend you to read about the other blogging platforms we've reviewed below, I can honestly say that none of them can truly compete with WordPress.
Our rating: 10/10

Start a Free WordPress Blog Today!

If you're already certain that WordPress is the way to go for you, we're here to help you out.

We've got an extremely detailed tutorial as well as special deals from a hosting company - they'll set you up with a 60% discount and give you a free domain name to go with it.

Start With Our Help!

Squarespace - The Second Best Blogging Platform

Price: Starting at $16/month
Squarespace launched back in 2004 but only started getting traction a few years ago. It markets itself as a way to create a blog that stands out.
We put it as the number two best blogging platform because it's just so easy to make a beautiful website.
Their designs and templates are truly good looking and it's pretty difficult to make it look bad. The downside is that they've only got around 100 templates to choose from, which is nothing compared to the tens of thousands that WordPress offers.
Here's an example of a Squarespace-powered blog:​

It has a lot of in-built functionality, such as being able to create an online store, nice landing pages, fancy galleries and so on.
The problem is that you can't really expand on this ​functionality. There are around 190 external plugins available for Squarespace, which is not enough, and they come with a hefty price tag. Some basic plugins such as video backgrounds cost as much as $60.
The platform itself already comes with a price. Prices start at $16, paid monthly, which will add up pretty quickly. Add in the plugins you'll have to buy and it'll end up as a pretty expensive project.​
On a more positive note, they do have 24/7 customer support to help you out. Which is still nothing compared to the WordPress forums with 500,000+ members and hundreds of live chats dedicated to it.​

Pros:​

• Lots of amazing designs available (100+)
• Very easy to use
• Quick setup
• Customer support available
• Free domain name

Cons:​

• Fairly expensive
• Functionality is limited
• Owned by Squarespace, not you
• Few integrations with third parties (i.e. Paypal is not supported)
• Slightly buggy drag-and-drop editor
• Bigger blogs get very slow

Conclusion & Our Rating

I personally wouldn't use Squarespace as a blogging platform, it has much more potential as an eCommerce store but they do take fees from that and Shopify is a much better alternative when it comes to online stores.​
If you're still keen on using Squarespace as a blogging platform, there's a reason we placed them at number two. They're still much much better than anything listed below.​
Our rating: 8/10

Blogspot/Blogger

Price: Free
Even though it's the oldest blogging platform out there and even has "blogger" in it's name - I'm not very comfortable giving it the third position, but I will.
The only reason it made it to #3 in our list of the best blogging platforms is because it's free and takes under a minute to get started with.
It was launched in 1999 and is owned by Google but it is clear that they've put zero effort into growing the platform. It's still one of the most popular ones out there, although there's little to no reason for it.
The biggest problem with blogspot is that it's ugly​. I really cannot paraphrase that, it's just ugly.
They do have a few themes here and there but it doesn't change the overall look of the blogs. Of course, it's possible to make something good looking on the platform but I've almost never seen it done.
Even then, it would require somer serious programming knowledge and it still wouldn't be comparable to WordPress designs.
Here's an example of a very popular Blogspot blog:

​It just doesn't look professional.
The main complaint people have for this platform is that you're going to have a domain name like onecraze.blogspot.com but it's a stupid reason. You're actually able to use a custom domain,
​I'd love to talk about functionality and compare it to WordPress and Squarespace, but Blogspot simply doesn't have any! It's a super basic blogging platform.
Alright, alright - you've got some basic widgets that you can use, like the live gold prices in the image above, as well as calendars and comments.
Compared to other options, it's literally an online text editor and a place to publish - that's it.​
On a more positive note, it is very easy to use Google AdSense on Blogspot because the platform is owned by Google.​ Then again, AdSense is never very difficult to set up.
There are a lot more cons to balance it out though, no worries!
Google has very strict rules about what you're allowed to do on Blogspot and they won't hesitate for a second to permanently ban you.​
You'll never be allowed to do affiliate marketing, you won't be allowed to use any other ad networks than​ AdSense and of course... You'll never be able to sell your website.
These are some pretty big problems, if you're creating a blog with the intention to make money.​

Pros:​

• Free to use
• Super quick sign up
• Adsense and Analytics integration

Cons:​

• Strict rules
• Very limited functionality
• They display ads on your site
• Ugly and unprofessional design
• Page sizes are limited

Conclusion & Our Rating

If you know that blogging will never, ever be anything serious nor important for you and you just want to mess around,​ Blogspot is your best bet since it's so quick to sign up for it.
Our rating: 6/10

WordPress.com

Price: Free with expensive upgrades possible
We already told you about WordPress.org before. WordPress.com is it's little brother.
It's virtually the same thing but you will not have to buy hosting to keep the website up. Because they provide the hosting, it's extremely stripped down compared to "real" WordPress.
Because WordPress hosts this for you, they'll have to make their money back somehow. This means that they will place ads on your website and keep 100% of the revenue from it. So much for "free".​
The blogs still look amazing - at least ten times better than Blogspot for example! You'll be able to switch between a little over a hundred themes but they're not as good as what you'll see with the .org version.
Here's an example of a typical WordPress.com blog:​

You will not have any access to the websites code so functionality is slightly limited as well. You can make some very basic changes to the themes but that's about it.
You will not be allowed to display any advertisements on your WordPress.blog before you reach 25,000 monthly visitors. Then you will have to apply for their "Ad Control" program and they will keep 50% of your earnings.
As with other platforms that are hosted by some company, you will have to follow their rules. It's pretty easy to get your WordPress.com blog deleted.

Pros:​

• Quick and easy sign-up
• Designs look fairly good
• User friendly and easy to use
• SEO friendly

Cons:​

• Monetization is difficult
• No access to code
• Limited functionality
• Little storage and bandwidth available

Conclusion & Our Rating

I like WordPress.com a little more than Blogspot because of the design, but I'd still recommend WordPress.org or Squarespace over this any day.
Our rating: 6/10

Tumblr

Price: Free

Tumblr is owned by Yahoo and was created in 2007 by David Karp. It's super popular, but isn't your traditional blogging platform.
It's considered a micro-blogging platform - you won't see long articles like on other blogs, but rather tweet-like notes and lots and lots of pictures.
It's a completely free solution and only takes a few minutes to sign up for - all you need is an email address.
It's a fairly quirky platform so the designs tend to look pretty unique. Most of the templates are directed towards gallery-type sites, not real blogs.
Then again, 1,000+ templates are available so you may be able to find something that works for you.
Here's a completely random example:​

Functionality is super basic. There are no plugins available for it and you will not be able to change most of the code to customize things. You can post text, photos, videos, gifs, audio and that's about it.
Ecommerce stores, email list building, advertising, split-testing, search engine optimization and all of that fun stuff is off the table.​ There's no way to do it with Tumblr.
As always, it's owned by a company and they're hosting it for you so in theory you will not be allowed to monetize it.
Yahoo happens to own one of the biggest ad networks on the planet so they will likely start showing ads on your behalf soon enough.

Pros:​

• Free and easy registration
• Unique compared to other platforms
• Can manage multiple sites from one account
• Lots of design templates

Cons:​

• Designing is complicated
• Mostly for short content
• Not SEO optimized
• Limited functionality
• Not alllowed to monetize it

Conclusion & Our Rating

I'd recommend giving Tumblr a shot if you're either some kind of artist who needs to post photos frequently and display them in a nice way or if you're a fan of short-form content posted several times a day.
If you want to make money, build an audience and make a difference - this one isn't for you!
Our rating: 6/10

Medium

Price: Free
Medium.com was started in 2012 by Twitter co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Even though it doesn't have a whole lot of age to it, it has taken off rapidly. We've got some pretty big names, who love publishing on Medium. For example: Ryan Holiday, James Altucher and Jason Fried.
I absolutely love Medium as a reader. It's safe to say that some of my best reads in the last year have been published on the platform.
While most blogs are now chasing their readers emails, advertising revenue​, affiliate income and whatnot, Medium.com has removed all of the clutter.
The platform is extremely minimalistic and focuses 100% on the content. Their true WYSIWYG​ (what you see is what you get) editor lets you create content with ease and without distractions.
You will not be able to have a custom domain name or even a subdomain on Medium. All of your posts will be gathered to your user profile.
The design of your profile and the posts themselves is not customizeable to maintain the minimalistic and clutter free image of Medium.​
Here's an example for you as well:​

Your posts will be plain text, images and video. This means the majority of content published there is of superior quality - the author has no hidden intentions behind publishing it.
The platform is well optimized for search engines and articles posted there will often show up in Google results. You've also got built in analytics, a social aspect to it and a few more bells and whistles.

Pros:​

• Beautiful design
• Easy and fun to use
• Free
• Gives you an initial audience

Cons:​

• Hard to set yourself apart
• More of a publishing platform than a real blog
• Cannot monetize
• Mostly one-time readers
• Hard to build a long-term audience

Conclusion & Our Rating

While I love it as a reader, I wouldn't use it as a blogger. It's difficult to build up a true audience, you will not be able to monetize your efforts and most importantly, you won't be building an asset.
I'd recommend Medium as a supplementary platform for people who already have huge audiences and lots of influence, because Medium articles tend to go viral pretty easily once you get traction.
Our rating: 7/10

Typepad

Price: $8.95/month and up​
​ Having been around since 2003, it used to be the go-to platform for celebrities blogs. Paris Hilton's blog was there, Will Wheaton's and the marketing legend Seth Godin has been posting there for a decade, every single day.
Nowadays the blogging platform is pretty irrelevant, especially for a "premium" service. It has virtually zero benefits to it compared to other options but the list of cons is lengthy.
They've got a fair few templates for your blogs design but they're outdated compared to options from say Squarespace or WordPress.org. Here's an example of the design Seth Godin has on his Typepad blog:

You've got limited access to the code so in theory it's possible to make some changes to the design and functionality, but it's going to be complicated.
Functionality is limited to a few plugins that they support, such as integrations with Paypal donations and a few other websites.

Pros:​

• ??????

Cons:​

• Expensive
• Limited functionality and designs
• You have to use their domain
• Has a learning curve

Conclusion & Our Rating

It looks more basic than most other platforms, has a steeper learning curve, costs money and doesn't offer anything unique. It's a mystery to me why people still use this in 2016.
Our rating: 3/10

Drupal

Price: Free but requires hosting​
Drupal is like WordPress.org, it's not just a blogging platform but a fully functional content management system. Often used to build professional websites, eCommerce stores and even online forums - it does come with blogging options, too.
​I've been involved with online businesses for over 7 years now and have learned a fair bit of code over the years.
I would not even touch Drupal with a stick. It's one of the most technical and complicated content management systems out there and has a very steep learning curve.
​There's not a whole lot of bad things to say about Drupal - it's a very powerful platform but it needs to be in the right hands.
Here's an example of a Drupal powered blog:

The main problem with Drupal and why some people are strongly against it is because the wrong people are using it.
You'll often see small businesses with no budgets for developers starting their sites on Drupal and they won't be able to manage it properly. Hence the extremely ugly designs, as if it was 1997 all over again.

Pros:​

• Very powerful
• Can build beautiful and well-converting blogs

Cons:​

• Steep learning curve
• Programming knowledge required
• Not 100% oriented towards bloggers

Conclusion & Our Rating

It could be called the best blogging platform, but only if you've got a 100+ person corporation with plenty of developers and an urge to start a blog for your business website, that already happens to be running on Drupal.
Our rating: 8/10 overall, 5,5/10 for blogging

Joomla

Price: Free but requires hosting​

​Joomla is very similar to both WordPress.org and Drupal - it's a full-blown content management system.
Honestly there's not much to say about it, it has all of the same features as Drupal but is slightly easier to use.
While Drupal and WordPress can be used for virtually anything, Joomla is best when it comes to eCommerce stores and social networks. It has blogging features as well, but it's more of an extra rather than their main value proposition.
It comes with around 900 free themes to use and it's easier to customize than Drupal but still requires extensive technical knowledge.
Here's an example of a typical Joomla blog:​

Pros:​

• Very flexible
• Less of a learning curve than Drupal
• SEO friendly
• Big communities for support

Cons:​

• Fairly complicated to use for non-developers
• Resource intensive on your web server
• Too complicated for the little benefits it gives

Conclusion & Our Rating

All-in-all, it works perfectly well for bloggers but definitely doesn't deserve the title of the best blogging platform. If you've already got a Joomla eCommerce store and want to start a blog - it'll work out, but won't be an easy feat.
Our rating: 7/10 overall, 6/10 for blogging

Wix

Price: $6.90/month and up​
Wix is yet another website creation tool that allows "drag and drop" web design and content creation. The main focus of it is creating business websites and eCommerce stores but they also have a very popular blogging module.
They've got 510+ professional templates for you to use and modify, all without having to know any code. The themes are divided into specific categories to suit your industry - ranging from automotive to photography.
Here's an example of a Wix blog:

The drag and drop functionality is one of the best ones in the industry but the platform as a whole is very overpriced.
For the cheapest package, which is $6.90/month, you get very limited storage and bandwidth for the website and they'll even display ads on it on your behalf, that you will not make money from.
The blog module is poorly optimized for search engines, which makes traffic generation difficult and it's in general very difficult to modify and expand upon.​

Pros:​

• Good drag and drop editor
• Easy to use

Cons:​

• Overpriced
• Not optimized for search engines
• Blogging is time-consuming

Conclusion & Our Rating

I'd recommend it for a small business website that you don't have time to properly create, but as a blogging platform it's pretty disappointing.
If drag and drop is your thing, you don't mind the price and don't mind spending a bit more time to publish a simple blo​g post - it's an alright solution.
Our rating: 4/10 for blogging

Weebly

Price: Free with overpriced upgrades available
This is definitely the most popular free website builder out there and also comes with drag and drop features, so it's fairly simple to use.

The main problem with it is that your website will be domainname.weebly.com. They do offer an upgrade to purchase your own domain name, but they charge a 3X higher fee for it compared to others, which to me is a blatant scam on their part.
It's a great way to start a basic website and blog very very quickly and with no costs to it, but the blogging feature is a hassle to use. It would likely take me ten times more time to upload three blog posts on Weebly when compared to say WordPress or Squarespace.
The designs look great but are very hard to customize because you've got no access to the code (neither HTML nor CSS). When you have no experience, it's easy to ruin their designs because the drag and drop editor is very robust.
Here's an example of a Weebly blog:​

Pros:​

• Free
• Easy to start

Cons:​

• No domain name possible (or overpriced)
• Buggy
• Hard to design
• Very slow to use

Conclusion & Our Rating

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this for almost anything. Not worth the hassle.
Our rating: 3/10

So What's the Best Blogging Platform?

Having years of experience in blogging and spending hundreds of hours messing around with different platforms, I'm 100% comfortable in saying that WordPress.org is the best blogging platform.
It's the only one I use nowadays and I don't see a change coming in the near future.
It's leaps and bounds ahead of everything else out there, it's free and even after so many years, still growing rapidly.
It's a no-brainer.
If you'd like to learn how to create a blog on WordPress.org, I've written an in-depth tutorial showing you exactly that. Click the button below to get started!

Get Started with WordPress Today!