Build a Free Blog

There are many free services to build a free blog. Some stand out more than others and if you are truly looking to build a free blog you need to stick with what works.

There are a few blog platforms that I see standing out in design, features and in search results. These platforms have been around for a while and have been designed, implemented and supported with great tenacity.

In this post we are going to talk about these three platforms, their advantages and disadvantages and hopefully get you blogging today.

Top 3 Services to Build a Free Blog

Now for the nitty gritty, as  I said there are a few platforms that standout, these platforms are

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Weebly

As with any software there are advantages and disadvantages to the way they operate and benefit the user. These three platforms are all proven tools to build a free blog and will get you started blogging in minutes. There are some factors that set these three main services apart. Ease of use, plug ins and support. There is also the fact that most of the time if you use WordPress, you will outrank your competition.

WordPress

Using WordPress to build a free blog is one of the easiest methods there is available today. WordPress offers great themes, features and blogging ability.

Note that using WordPress as a free service limits you from all of the extra themes, plugins and fine tuning of a self hosted WordPress blog/website. That being said, you can still build an awesome blog on a budget and if you want, easily export your work to a host and the full blown WordPress platform.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress? As I said before the free version is limited over a paid version so, these disadvantages will be included. 

Advantages

• Natural search engine optimization ability. This means that a WordPress blog does its job well of organizing content and explaining it to search engines. WordPress does this through a content management system and uses pages, posts, categories and tags to lay your content out properly. This helps search engines understand, crawl and index your content, which results in better search engine rankings.
• Fast load time. This is an advantage that can be screwed up by over using graphics, flash and widgets on any site, but WordPress usually loads very fast, which is a main factor that decides if a visitor stays or goes.
• Professional themes. Due to the amount that WordPress is used to create websites it comes with a huge community of developers and supporters. These supporters build all kinds of great themes, widgets and add-ons for WordPress. To take full advantage of these features you will need a self hosted WordPress blog.
• Plugins and add-on's.  There is a huge community of people who know how to code and build add-on's for WordPress. What this means is, if there is something you want to do with your blog you can probably find a plugin to do it for you. This is a huge advantage over other platforms you can use to build a free blog.

Disadvantages are pretty few and any big disadvantages that WordPress has had have been remedied over the years. Some of the main disadvantages in this list come from the simple fact that you are using a free service. This means that the really cool things WordPress can do are limited in the free version.

Disadvantages

• Plugins are disabled in the free version of WordPress, I mentioned them above because the pro version is available for as low as $2.00 a month.
• Kind of technical. This was my biggest drawback when starting WordPress, learning how to use the program.  However once you write a few posts and create a few pages WordPress becomes easier and easier to use.
• Less themes available for free while using a free version of WordPress.
• Less custom design available while using  the free version.
• Sub domain. With any free service you get to use a sub domain of that service. Example being yoursite.wordpress.com instead of yoursite.com

All in all, the advantages of WordPress definitely out way the disadvantages and I talked about WordPress first because you should use it to build a free blog, or to build a website.  Free blogging platforms are great, but like I said you can own your website for less than a penny a day, so if you want all the features you can find WordPress hosting for very cheap. If you are interested in owning your blog, we have a great Wordpress tutorial at our main website.

Blogger

Blogger is another great tool to build a free blog and it is absolutely free. Blogger is the child of Google and is one of the free services Google provides for building an online presence. 

There are some who contest that Blogger is the better platform over WordPress, but even Google has a hard time talking around the ability that WordPress has. That being said Blogger is still a great tool to build a website and if you want integration with all of your Google accounts you are in luck.

I am not going to go to much into Blogger, because there is little I can say. There are again advantages and disadvantages of using Blogger, but instead of going into those, I am going to simply explain what Blogger can do.

Blogger is a blogging platform period and is a good one at that. With Blogger you get all of the basics and added ability to build, customize and personalize your blog. Posting is easy and integration with all of Google's awesome webmaster tools is done for you.

Simplicity and integration is the aim of Blogger and I think is done very well. Blogger is a great choice to build a blog for free and will get your posts online in no time.

Weebly

Weebly is last, but not least. Weebly holds true on its promise that it is the easiest way to create a website or blog. Blogging with Weebly is as simple as the website builder and features a drag and drop interface. Of course this ease of use comes with a lack of features and can leave some wanting more, but Weebly's ability to build a blog and rank in search makes it stand out.

If you are not a technical builder you can build a great blog with Weebly. There are many features and templates available with the free version. All of the elements needed to create a web page or blog are easily accessible and ready to drag and drop onto the screen.

The main disadvantages of Weebly to build a free blog are, the lack of extra features and add-on's that are easily accessible through other blogging platforms. I think these disadvantages are all off set if you are looking for the easiest way to build your online presence. 

Build a Free Blog Conclusion

Some might say that I ended this post a little weak, but I want people to use WordPress for blogging. This is why I dove more deeply into the subject for WordPress and really there is more to talk about for WordPress. 

This doesn't mean that Blogger and Weebly are bad blogging platforms, but it does mean that they are not my first choice. Every blogging platform and website builder have there place and it is important to find the right fit for yourself, your clients, or your business. A great way to do this is try different services, most let you get started for free and can show you what they have to offer.