Which blogging platform should you choose in 2020 ?
Finding the right blogging platform is a difficult task, especially for newbie bloggers.
There are a lot of things to consider when choosing a blogging platform: your niche, the pricing, and of course, which is best for making money.
To help you make your decision a little bit easier, we’ve compiled a list of blogging platforms you can consider using.
WordPress has two options: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They are a popular blogging platform but one is free to use (wordpress.com), and one is paid and self-hosted (wordpress.org). What we love about WordPress is that it is flexible and you can do a lot of things with it.
Hobby bloggers or beginners usually start with WordPress.com. It’s an easy to use blogging platform hosted on their website. You also don’t have to worry about your blog being desktop or mobile-ready as WordPress does that for you. Of course, as it is a free service, the features available to you are limited. You can’t customize themes and plugins for your blog, and you can’t put up ads on your website. Moreover, WordPress can decide to suspend your account if it violates their terms of service.
If you’re not happy with that, you can opt to buy their premium plan, or choose to use WordPress.org instead.
For some people, they consider WordPress.org as the “real WordPress”. It’s a self-hosted WordPress where you will need a domain name and a web host. For those looking into some serious blogging, WordPress.org gives you full control of your website – from the customization to the ads. You can use free and premium WordPress themes, or create your own completely. You can also track your blog’s traffic and progress with tools like Google Analytics, you can build your own online store to sell your merchandise, and even build an online community and membership content for your business/brand.
We consider WordPress.org as one of the blogging platforms best for making money as the service itself is free and all you have to pay for is the cost of your web hosting. This usually costs around $3-$10 per month, depending on the host you chose. Moreover, you can also put up your own ads and the money you get from that is completely your own.
When we talk about making our own website, one of the first tools we think of is Wix. Wix is very beginner-friendly since the way you set up your website is just through drag and drop. Like WordPress, it has a free version which also comes with limitations and a subdomain name.
If you want to get your own domain name and to have more creativity in building your website, it’s much better to buy a premium plan. Their most basic plan is $4.50 per month.
What we like about Wix is that you don’t need skills on coding to create and build your blog. Moreover, Wix already has a feature that automatically adjusts your blog’s look on portable devices, so you wouldn’t have to worry about adjusting how your website will look if it’s accessed on a phone, tablet, or laptop.
If you want to earn through writing but you don’t have an audience yet, Medium could be your best blogging platform for making money.
Medium is already an established blogging platform for writers, bloggers, and even journalists. The site itself is free for the writers, but the readers need to pay a membership to read the articles. For bloggers, all you need is to write down your content, and there is already an audience waiting for you. Medium is ad-free, so those who write on their platform earn based on how many subscribers the writer has. To get paid, you need to be a part of their Partner Program.
While the website is not yours, nor the traffic engagement the website gets, if you’re looking to build your audience and your craft (aka your writing), Medium is a great place to start.
Blogger is another great blogging platform to make money with. Plus, it’s free – unless you want your own domain name. Choosing to go with the free account gives you with the domain: yourname.blogspot.com. Just like any other blogging platform with a free plan, it has limited options.
However, what’s great about Blogger is that it will allow you to put up your own ads with the help of Google AdSense – even if you’re on their free plan. Making Blogger one of the few free blogging platforms you can make money with. Additionally, since Blogger was acquired by Google in 2003, you get to enjoy the perks of Google’s reliability and security.
The website itself is easy to navigate, which is great for beginners or non-techy bloggers. Just take note that while Blogger is a great jump off point, your blog will be limited in terms of growth. This is because the platform has no extensions or plugins available, and just like WordPress.com, your blog is hosted on their website. This means that they can also suspend your account if it violates any terms of service.