Writing a blog is one of the best ways to establish expertise within an industry and drive traffic to your website. There are a variety of platforms available to launch and manage a blog at little or no expense.
Here is a list of platforms to launch a blog. There are content management systems to create a blog and full-featured website. There are also minimalist blogging tools to publish a clean, modern blog. Nearly all of these applications have free plans.
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS). WordPress is the internet’s most popular application – 43% of the web uses it. With nearly 60,000 plugins available to extend and customize your site, build a blog with an ecommerce store, forum, gallery, mailing list, analytics, and more. Price: Free.
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Medium
Medium is a publishing platform where experts and undiscovered writers publish and share content. Individual writers publish from profile pages. Collaborate with others or post under a brand name. Use Medium’s story submission system and expressive customization options. Add a custom domain name to your space to help visitors find, share, and return to it. Join the Partner Program to earn money by making your stories part of member-only content, or allow free access to anyone. Price: Free. Partner Program is $5 per month.
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Ghost
Ghost was founded in April 2013 after a successful Kickstarter campaign to create a new platform for professional publishing. Ghost comes with modern tools to build a website, publish content, send newsletters, and offer paid subscriptions to members. The platform includes a marketplace for free and premium themes, custom integrations, and help from experts. Use native signup forms that turn anonymous views into logged-in members. Get detailed engagement analytics. Connect your Stripe account and deliver premium content to your audience. Price: Free. Hosting plans start at $25 per month.
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LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. It’s also a great place to generate a blog. Demonstrate your expertise, and develop content to keep your profile fresh. To create a blog on LinkedIn, click the icon “Write an article” on your front page. Add your text and images, then publish and promote. Price: Free. Premium accounts start at $29.99 per month.
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Squarespace
Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for building a flexible website for a blog and more. Access image-rich, award-winning designer templates and integrations with Getty Images, Unsplash, and Google Amp. Increase traffic to your blog with Squarespace Email Campaigns and connected social media accounts. Enable commenting through Squarespace or Disqus. Price: Plans start at $14 per month.
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Wix
Wix is a website builder to quickly launch a site with 500+ customizable website templates to meet your business needs. Choose from 200+ blog templates, or use a blank canvas to create your own. Use advanced SEO tools, set up automatic emails, promote on social media, and invite your followers to become members and start discussions. Monetize with subscriptions, display ads, paid events, and ecommerce features. Price: Free. Premium plans start at $16 per month.
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CMS Hub
CMS Hub is HubSpot’s content platform for launching a blog. Use one of HubSpot’s pre-built website themes with the option for custom development. An SEO recommendations home screen allows you to improve your site and take action, all in one place. Track every visitor to your site and create personalized digital experiences leveraging CRM data. With adaptive testing, choose up to five page variations, and HubSpot will monitor and serve up the best-performing option. Price: Plans start at $23 per month.
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Craft CMS
Craft CMS is a flexible, user-friendly CMS for creating custom digital experiences. Choose from a large variety of built-in and plugin-supplied field types. Manage multiple sites from a single installation. Update content easily with Craft’s built-in management features, including an image editor, collaboration tools, and a localization feature. Easily integrate with popular payment gateways, CRMs, and fulfillment services. Price: Free. Pro is $299 per project.
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Weebly
Weebly is an easy-to-use website builder to create and manage your blog. Create posts with drag and drop, manage comments and schedule future content. Instantly respond to blog comments and form entries, reply to customer inquiries and stay connected to followers from anywhere. Drive traffic with integrated social media marketing, SEO tools, and AdWords credit. Price: Free. Premium plans start at $6 per month.
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Write.as
Write.as is a modern, simple and clean platform for blogging. The editor only gives you what you need to write and automatically saves while you type. There are no comments, spam, likes, or distractions — just your words in your own digital space. Write.as does not collect personal data, so you can write freely. Publish anonymously or under any name you choose. Price: Free. Pro plans start at $6 per month.
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Blogger
Blogger is Google’s content management system. Choose from a selection of customizable templates with background images, or design something new. Get a blogspot.com domain or buy a custom domain. Connect directly to Google Analytics. Use AdSense to display relevant, targeted ads to get paid. Price: Free.
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Tumblr
Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform for media content. Tell stories through text, photos, GIFs, videos, live streams, and audio. Tumblr features free custom domains and hundreds of free and premium themes. Price: Free.
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Contently
Contently is an enterprise content marketing platform. Contently provides expert content strategies to tell you the content topics, formats, channels, and voice and tone your audience craves. It can make intelligent content recommendations, align your teams, and create better content faster. Access its talent network of 160,000+ writers, filmmakers, designers, and editors from Wired, The New York Times, Popular Science, and more. Contently’s high cost puts it out of the reach of most small businesses, but it may be an ideal solution for brands with larger budgets in need of editorial support. Contact for pricing.
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