There are many different blogging platforms out there to choose from and no matter what your reason for blogging is, choosing the right platform for you can affect how successful and enjoyable your venture into blogging is. Let’s look at a few of the most popular platforms available.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a relatively new and increasingly popular blogging platform that is very user-friendly. One of Tumblr’s unique features is its built-in networking capabilities – users are able to re-blog (or re-post) posts by other Tumblr bloggers (a bit like Twitter’s “retweeting” feature) and are also able to follow other Tumblr bloggers, meaning that the posts of the bloggers they follow will show up in their Tumblr news feed. Tumblr has been described as “an interesting fusion between a full-fledged blog and a Twitter feed.” Typically, the style of blogging on a Tumblr blog consists of more short and frequent posts that are not as long and detailed as a “regular” blog post. This form of blogging is called “micro-blogging.” You can read Tumblr’s About Us page to learn more about the platform’s emerging popularity and stats.
Some of the best reasons to use Tumblr are:
- It’s very easy to set up and use
- You can network easily with other Tumblr bloggers (like we already mentioned)
- There’s not much you can do to mess it up!
Tumblr is probably best suited for:
- Personal blogs
- Beginning bloggers
- People who blog about a hobby or other area of interest and want the ability to network with bloggers who have similar content and interests
WordPress
WordPress is one of the most powerful blogging platforms available, it can be used for a huge number of different purposes – from personal blogs to entire e-commerce websites. Because of WordPress’s functionality, I probably wouldn’t recommend this platform to anyone looking for an extremely simple blogging platform. WordPress is not necessarily difficult to use, but there is a bit of a learning curve and because there are so many different ways to customize and enhance your WordPress blog or site, it could be overwhelming to beginning bloggers. That said, once you do become comfortable with WordPress, the huge range of possibilities that you could use your blog for and the customizations that you could easily incorporate are seemingly endless. This makes WordPress one of, if not the best platform for large blogs, entire websites, experienced bloggers, and those looking to make money online with their blog.
Platform-hosted (WordPress.com) blogs – Setting up a blog on a hosted WordPress account is fairly easy, though not as easy as some of the other platforms, in my opinion. With platform-hosted WordPress blogs, you don’t have access to the stylesheets and the template files unless you pay for it. This can be a nuisance and a drawback to designers and experienced bloggers who want to customize their site extensively.
Self-hosted (WordPress.org) blogs – If you are self-hosting your WordPress blog, you will need a hosting account and a registered domain name. You will either have to install WordPress yourself or have your hosting company or a knowledgeable friend help you. Installing WordPress on most servers is easy, you simply navigate to your CPanel and can install WordPress with a click of your mouse. However – if even talking about CPanel makes you want to run the other direction, maybe this is not the best option for you. The biggest advantage of self-hosted WordPress sites is that you have full access to all of the template files. This allows you to customize the site as much as you want to.
Some of the best features of WordPress are:
- There are thousands of themes to choose from – themes that are set up for advertising, themes for e-commerce sites, themes for photography portfolios, etc.
- There are also thousands of plug ins that are very easy to install and can really add to the functionality of your blog.
- You have control over how much or how little work you want to put into your blog – you could install a theme with a few clicks of your mouse, or you could spend weeks re-coding the entire site to make it exactly the way you want it.
- Bloggers can easily sort their content into categories, by tags, by date, by subject, etc. This makes it very easy to keep the site organized even when there are hundreds of posts on the blog.
- The ability to add regular web pages, so that the blog is not necessarily your entire site
WordPress is probably best suited for:
- Personal bloggers who anticipate their site growing over time
- Business blogs
- Entire websites
Blogger
The blogging platform from Google, Blogger is one of the oldest platforms and also one of the most popular platforms for new bloggers. Blogger’s appeal is its ease of use and quick setup. Blogger offers plenty of templates for users to choose from and also supports drag-and-drop template editing which gives you control over the appearance of your blog without requiring you to know any coding at all. That said, if you do know HTML and CSS, then you could also make custom changes to the templates provided. Blogger blogs support up to 100 users, which is excellent if your blog expands over time and you wish to allow guest posters. Blogger uses Google Analytics to track your visitor stats and you can add monetization to your blog easily through Google AdSense. The biggest drawback to Blogger is probably its lack of post categorization.
Blogger is best suited for:
- Beginning bloggers
- Designers and developers who want the ability to customize their blog
- Business blogs
- Bloggers who want to make money with their blog
Reasons to use Blogger:
- Extremely easy set up
- Easy to monetize
- It will support expansion over time (new users, etc.)
- Clean, well-designed templates
Typepad
Unlike many blogging platforms, Typepad isn’t free. However, that price includes your own domain name and web hosting, which saves you having to worry about choosing a web host. Typepad uses widgets to add functionality (much like WordPress plug ins). Typepad also offers professional support as opposed to simply community support. This can be very helpful if you foresee needing a lot of assistance with your blogging endeavors.
Some of Typepad’s best features are:
- Professional-looking templates
- Different pricing options – the ability to only pay for as many features and options as you want or need
- You can simply pay Typepad monthly rather than having to find your own web host and pay them
Typepad is probably best suited for:
- Business blogs
Typepad Micro
This is the free version of Typepad. Users are able to choose their blog’s level of privacy by choosing to “hide” their blog from search engines. On the other hand, you are also able to add meta data if you DO want search engines to find you. It is easy to connect your blog with your social networks, to add Google analytics, and to import your posts from another blog. Posts can also be organized by category, which helps to keep things simple and organized. One of the drawbacks is that there are not many theme options to choose from, so customization and personalization is definitely limited.
Some of the best features of Typepad Micro are:
- Easy set up
- The ability to integrate Google analytics, search engine optimization or privacy options, and organize your posts into different categories
Some of the best uses for Typepad Micro are:
- Personal blogs that don’t need a lot of customization
- Beginning bloggers who don’t want to deal with too many options, but also want some options so they can optimize their blog for search engines, social networking, etc.
So, those are the only platforms that I am going to cover in this post. Now it’s your turn to talk. Which blogging platform do you use or recommend? Which ones have you tried that you did not like?
I experimented with both Blogger and Wordpress when I was choosing which platform to use for my blog. I chose to go with Wordpress because it gives you more freedom to personalize the look of my blog and my posts thanks to the plugins and themes that they offer.
I have worked with Blogger for more than 2 years and now switched to Wordpress and I must say that WP is the best platform ever for blogging. Combined with great themes and plugins, Wordpress simplifies all blogging activities.
Hi Rajesh!
I, like you, have also tried both Blogger and WordPress. While Blogger seemed easier to use at first, WordPress has far more capabilities and less limitations, which is why I prefer it for my blog.
Thanks for your comment!
My vote goes for Wordpress. It is the best blogging platform. Easy admin interface, Search engine friendly, lots of free as well as premium themes and plugins. easy customization and well documented with a very active, supportive and helpful community support.
Hi,
I totally agree with you about those features of WordPress! The other thing that I personally like about WordPress is its versatility – it can be so much more than “just” a blogging platform, you can build entire sites on it.
Thanks for commenting!
~Libby
Good points on all platforms, Libby.
I first started with Blogger back in 2003 and really liked it’s simplicity (and it has evolved quite a lot since then!) I gradually moved over to Platform-hosted Wordpress and liked how easy it was to change themes and add many elements to it. I have since moved over to a self-hosted Wordpress and like you said love all the plugins and themes that are readily available. That being said I do know a lot of people who find Blogger to be more straightforward to use, however I’m still in the Wordpress camp! Wordpress themes are also more SEO-optimized, I still maintain a Blogger blog and don’t find it ranks as well.
I am a part of the Blogger fan club. While I have used Wordpress before for client websites, I find Blogger so easy to setup, and I have very little trouble customizing templates. My favourite part about using Blogger is the fact that you can setup your blog, website statistics, advertising opportunities, RSS feeds, etc. all under one Google account, keeping everything consolidated and organized.
Hi Krissy,
I agree with you on how easy it is to set up Blogger – which really makes it a good option for a lot of people. And yes, if you already have a gmail account or any other Google account, it makes it even easier to set up and personalize.
Thanks for your comment!
I tried Blogger once in the past and didn’t like how things seemed to be all over the place. I ended up with wordpress (self hosted) and had to learn on my own how to do everything. Wordpress to me is just so much more organized and clean. There are thousands of templates to choose from and customizing it is just a click away. No matter what you choose, make sure it works for you, because at the end of the day that is all that matters.
Hi Sonia,
I am really glad you were able to find the blogging platform that works best for you. You’re right, finding the right one for what you need is much more important than WHICH one you choose.
Thanks for commenting!
Hey Libby, great piece!
I see Tumblr getting more and more popular. I thought “I better get in on this!” so I set one up, but then I thought “WTF is going on here?!” so I abandoned it. The shame consumes me
I think Wordpress is definitely the best for blogging, mostly because of the community. I can do the same things in other platforms, but I’ve noticed that those communities don’t hold developers to the same standard as Wordpress.
Sometimes there just isn’t a “Yoast” out there for the platform so you kind of have to scramble and dig for answers. I don’t like my time wasted poring through the dregs of serps looking for answers.
I set up a Blogger for a friend of mine sometime ago, it *was* working great, then Google started changing things and we spent so much time trying to figure it out that we finally just moved it to a Tumblr account and he’s pretty happy with that.
I think there’s got to be a way to leverage Tumblr’s growing popularity, but how to do this?
It is a mystery…
Hi John,
I think you’re absolutely right about the amazing amount of helpful resources and info available out there for WordPress. And like you said, WordPress developers for the most part seem to be very on top of their games.
I don’t use Tumblr for blogging purposes myself either, I use it mostly as a way to follow my Tumblr friends around. It IS very popular though, so it must be exactly what some bloggers are looking for. It takes all kinds…
That’s interesting to hear about the changes Google made that affected Blogger, thanks for mentioning that, as it is probably something that beginning bloggers who are considering Blogger should keep in mind.
And, as always, thank you for commenting!
I like tumblr because it’s easy to use but as functionality I really like wordpress, because of all the plugins that can totally change the look and feel of the website.
The other platform are not so popular and the documentation may lack in information.
That is why I choose wordpress over any of them, anytime.
Hi Alex,
You make an excellent point as far as documentation – one thing that WordPress definitely has is lots of community support and available resources! Thank you for commenting!
Hi Libby,
I have used Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress.com and now Self-Hosted Wordpress.
I recommend Wordpress, thumbs down. Although I liked Typepad, I found it difficult to figure out, so I gave up and eventually settled with Wordpress. I’m so glad I did!
Take care,
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
Like you, I also tried Typepad and didn’t find it as easy to use as some of the other platforms. However, I know a few people who absolutely love it, so it must be a personal preference I think.
Thanks for commenting!
Tumblr is great for micro blogging. I usually just see people there posting pics.
I personally use Wordpress for all of my websites and blogs. It does have a little learning curve at first, but I feel it’s more customizable and has the ability to add plugins which will enhance the site and bring in traffic.
In the end, just depends on where you are, what you want out of your blog and your goals in general.
Thanks for the post!
Hi Morgan,
Exactly – which blogging platform you choose depends on what your goal in blogging is!
I feel the same way about WordPress, it is definitely one of the best platforms to choose if you want the ability to really expand and customize your blog or website over time.
Thank you for commenting!
Last night, I set up Tumblr as my personal blog. It’s very easy to set up, but I can’t figure out for the life of me how comments work (how to turn it on so ppl can comment) OR how to add social media sharing icons. It has to be done in code.
So at least so far, in my experience, Tumblr is less user-friendly than Wordpress or Blogger.
Hi Tia,
As far as setting up Tumblr with social networking, I think you can do it by going to http://www.tumblr.com/customize when you are logged in and then clicking “Services.” Does that work?
And as far as enabling comments for Tumblr, this article may help – http://ijafri.com/2009/04/06/add-comments-to-tumblr-blog-with-disqus/. I believe you can allow comments if you have a Disqus account.
Hope that helps! I set up a Tumblr blog just to try it out and to follow some of my friends, but I don’t use it regularly so I am still a bit of a newbie with it myself.
Thanks for commenting!
I only tried the 2 platforms Blogger and Wordpress, the most popular ones. And I don’t hesitate to say that Wordpress is the best blogging platform for all. We can easily customize blog design and SEO also.
Hi Tuan,
I agree with you that WordPress is definitely one of the most customizable platforms available, which gives bloggers complete control over their blog or website (if they have a self-hosted WordPress blog).
Thank you for sharing your opinion!
Hi Libby,
Thank you for info. My most favorite one is Wordpress as I can do every things I want via self-hosted.
Regarding Blogger, one thing I love about them is the option to allow you to set up custom domain which is good to bring your reader with you to your new domain.
Hi Rose,
Thank you for mentioning that you are able to use your own domain name at Blogger, thats very good to know and I appreciate you bringing that up.
And you’re right, you literally can do just about anything you want with a self-hosted WordPress blog, which makes it great for bloggers who plan to do a lot of customizing to their blogs.
Thanks for commenting!
I have started blogging a year ago and I have choose Woordpress. I don’t think that exist a more god platform then wordpress because it is easy to set a lot of themes and plugins ……
Hi,
You’re very right – WordPress has SO many plug ins and themes available that it is quite easy to personalize your blog and add whatever functionality you might want or need.
Thank you for commenting!
The best part, is that stuff isn’t all over the place and your pages aren’t so longgggggggggg windddddddddddded. I can’t stand long pages that never seem to end. You can tell its a blogger site just by that alone. Wordpress eliminates that.
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