If making money through blogging is your goal, you might be in a dilemma on which platform to choose. Selecting the perfect one can be challenging, which is why I composed this article to guide you in identifying the most suitable blogging platform.
The aim is to select a durable platform as you wouldn’t want to change platforms later on in case you made the wrong choice.
When aiming to generate income through your blog, it is crucial to select a paid platform rather than a free one. Free blogging platforms present difficulties in customization and limit your control over your blog.
Let’s first understand the reasons for utilizing a blogging platform prior to getting started.
Why Use a Blogging Platform?
CMS, which stands for Content Management System, is an alternative term that refers to a blogging platform.
Using a platform eliminates the need to create everything from scratch. Unless you possess software or website development skills, it’s likely you prefer to avoid coding entirely, and this is where the blogging platform proves useful.
Paid vs Free Blogging Platforms
It is important to remember that blogging platforms are consistently offered at no cost. This means that hosting companies include free blogging platforms in their plans. To clarify, you only pay for a hosting plan, and not for the blogging platform itself.
Generally speaking, we differentiate between paid and free blogging platforms due to the existence of both free and paid blog hosting services.
To put it succinctly, choosing a paid blog hosting plan is recommended for those who are committed to blogging. However, if blogging is merely a pastime, selecting a free blog hosting alternative may suffice.
What Exactly Is Blog Hosting?
All websites on the internet require a server for hosting. Therefore, in order to establish a blog, it is essential to have a website that is hosted on a server. Several corporations offer server hosting services for websites.
By choosing a free blog hosting service, you won’t have to go through the trouble of setting up anything yourself since the company will manage it for you. However, this also implies that you won’t have complete authority over your website. Your storage capacity may be restricted and your domain may appear as yoursite.wordpress.com, which isn’t very convincing. Additionally, you won’t be able to entirely capitalize on your blog.
If you choose to use a paid blog hosting service, you’ll have to buy a package, a domain, and install WordPress. Although it may seem daunting, it’s actually straightforward. This is what we refer to as a self-hosted blog, which implies that you handle your own hosting.
If you have been keeping track, you would know that blogging for financial gain requires transitioning to a self-hosted platform.
Let’s examine which blogging platforms you should choose.
Best Blogging Platform To Make Money: Key factors to look for
Prior to evaluating the top blogging platforms, it is imperative to take into account the crucial aspects to consider when selecting a suitable one.
1. Paying audience
One of the most crucial considerations is where your audience originates and how they will compensate you for your content, as it ultimately comes down to financial gain.
One of the simplest methods to generate income from your blog is to utilize a platform that already includes paid audience, advertising, and sponsorship features.
If you desire greater influence or a more straightforward approach to earning income, it may be wise to explore alternate blogging platforms that specialize in e-commerce, affiliate marketing, or direct sales.
2. Design and functionality
When selecting a blogging platform, it’s important to also take into account the design and functionality of your blog. A plethora of platforms are extremely accessible and enable you to personalize your website with a diverse array of themes, plugins, widgets, and tools.
If your aim is to concentrate on e-commerce, affiliate marketing or other direct sources of income and require a platform that caters to bloggers with such interests, then you should explore alternatives such as Amazon Associates or Shopify.
3. Running Cost – Is it a free blogging platform
When selecting a blogging platform, it’s essential to take the cost into account. Prioritize finding a free or economical plan offered by a blogging site or platform to ensure you can commence blogging without incurring excessive expenses.
It is important to note that the majority of free blogging platforms do not provide a free domain. This means that instead of having an address like yourname.com, you would have to settle for yourname.freedomain.com.
But, if you want a platform that has the potential to expand alongside your blog (and online enterprise!), it would be wise to explore higher-end options such as Bluehost, WordPress, or Wix.
4. Ease of Use
When selecting a blogging platform, it is crucial to prioritize ease of use. In order to concentrate on generating content as opposed to understanding the platform, it is recommended that you choose a straightforward option that is uncomplicated to install and operate.
Your blog creation and editing process should be simple and hassle-free, while also offering customization options. It’s crucial that the platform is user-friendly for your audience to locate the desired content.
5. Community and Support
An additional vital factor is the level of community and assistance provided by the blogging platform you select. When searching for a platform, ensure that it provides extensive resources and support to aid you in quickly establishing your blog, whether you require aid with setup, design customization, or troubleshooting.
Online communities of users who are willing to provide support and guidance are prevalent on some platforms, such as WordPress. Meanwhile, other platforms like Medium and Instagram offer forums or online groups that enable bloggers to obtain assistance and advice from their peers.
6. Reliability
It is important to seek out a trustworthy and reputable platform. Opting for a platform that is recognized for glitches or unreliability may result in your blog crashing or the loss of data, which should be avoided.
Reading reviews and ratings from other bloggers or online platforms can be beneficial when searching for trustworthy choices.
It may be worthwhile to take into account the hosting choices available on your preferred platform, as these can affect the dependability and efficiency of your blog.
These are my best picks!
Most Popular Blogging Platforms
We will be focusing on the top blogging platforms in this blog post, but it’s worth noting that there are other options available. These particular platforms were selected due to their widespread popularity.
WordPress
When it comes to blogging, the most popular platform is WordPress, which has two versions available.
Hobby bloggers can find the free version on WordPress.com, however, as stated before, the free version has restrictions.
One can access the paid version across all hosting providers. To illustrate, upon registration with Bluehost, you have the option to purchase a domain name and a hosting plan, as well as installing WordPress with a single click.
I opted for WordPress for the following grounds:
- Full control over my blog (design and monetization)
- Access to WordPress plugins and easy integrations with other software
- Most popular blogging platform which means it’s easy to hire people who can work with WordPress
- Lots of free resources and tutorials about WordPress are found on the web
- It’s relatively easy to use and easy to install
- WordPress is the best blogging platform for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Signing up with hosting services like BlueHost enables you to effortlessly install WordPress with just a single click. Additionally, upon registration, they provide you with a free domain for a year.
Squarespace
The popularity of Squarespace has grown significantly over the past few years. Its drag-and-drop builder has made it user-friendly, especially for novices, which makes it an excellent choice for small enterprises.
However, blogging is not considered to be great.
- Squarespace is more expensive than WordPress since there are fewer hosting companies that provide this blogging platform.
- Squarespace is more limited with plugins, themes, and integrations.
Wix
For those who prefer drag-and-drop builders, Wix is a favored choice as a blogging platform. It offers user-friendly functionality, and is likely simpler to navigate than WordPress.
The free version of Wix has limitations and it also includes Wix advertisements, making it less than ideal for your website.
To make money from your blog, you should go for the premium edition.
There are certain aspects to take into consideration regarding Wix. If your website will only consist of a limited number of pages, Wix could work well for you. However, it may not be the best choice for blogging.
- Wix is more expensive than WordPress since there are fewer hosting companies that provide this blogging platform.
- Wix is more limited with plugins, themes, and integrations.
Blogger
Blogger, a blogging platform owned by Google, offers a major advantage in the form of simple access to Google AdSense, enabling users to generate advertising revenue while utilizing this free platform for their blogs.
Although bloggers make money in different ways, Google AdSense isn’t the best way to monetize with ads. In simple words, you can’t expect to be able to monetize your content easily on this platform
Medium
This free blogging platform allows you to begin without delay, without any initialization expenses or recurring fees, making it a convenient choice for novice bloggers who seek to commence their journey promptly and without any hassle.
Although writing on the platform is free, the amount of content available to read is restricted.
At a cost of $5 per month, the paid version is completely worthwhile. It provides unlimited access to all of Medium’s content, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in improving their blogging skills.
Medium has in-built paying audience
For individuals looking to earn money directly from their blog, Medium is among the top blogging platforms available.
Earnings are based on the number of reads from paying subscribers, allowing bloggers to promptly establish their followers and generate income on a platform designed particularly for them.
The Medium partner program simplifies the process of making money from your blog and expanding your enterprise by utilizing the platform’s integrated community.
Achieving a monthly income of over $100 on Medium is not a difficult feat, considering that only approximately 8% of active writers manage to do so.
Substack
Substack is a service that allows writers to earn money through subscriptions by providing an easy-to-use email newsletter platform. Along with its excellent tools for creating newsletters, Substack also offers specialized web publishing capabilities for those who subscribe. Thanks to its extensive features and advantages, Substack has become a top pick for writers who hope to make money off of their newsletters.
Substack provides an opportunity for audio creators to monetize and disseminate their podcasts, as well as for bloggers to adopt a combination of the newsletter and blogging frameworks. This implies that you can (1) deliver newsletter articles to your subscribers and (2) have those articles posted on your Substack newsletter platform, all in a single location!
Vocal Media
Vocal.Media serves as a platform for creators to increase their visibility. It equips writers, musicians, filmmakers, artists and other creatives with the necessary storytelling tools and engaged audiences needed to gain exposure and finance their artistic endeavors. Additionally, Vocal is built to widen content distribution by catering to a broader audience and enhance the ability of writers to earn revenue through multiple features.
Vocal offers writers multiple methods to generate income.
The compensation for creators is determined by the number of readings their stories receive. Assuming a story gets 1000 readings, the creator will receive $3.80 as payment. If the story is uploaded to Vocal+, which has a monthly fee of $4, the creator will get $6 per 1000 readings.
In addition, readers have the option to make micropayments and directly tip creators for their stories, with the funds being credited directly to the creator’s Stripe account.
