Blogging is a sure shot way to expand your business and attract more viewers to your e-commerce website.
Blogs give entrepreneurs and designers a chance to showcase their brand and publish relevant, engaging content that generates more traffic and creates leads for your business.
Moreover, unlike earlier days, users are spared the horrors of writing long lines of complicated code to make a web page.
Today, thanks to the many blogging tools and website builders, building a blog has become child’s play.
Check out these premium blogging tools and platforms that would assist you in developing brilliant blogs free of cost.
WordPress.com
Robust, responsive and very user-friendly, WordPress is considered to be every blogger’s primary choice.
This flexible and versatile website development platform is excellent for creating powerful blogs, web pages, stores and portfolios alike.
There are loads of free themes, custom-made templates and pre-set layouts that are specifically designed to suit different kinds of blog niches.
The themes are categorized into sections such as music, lifestyle, fashion, travel, hotel management, and photography among others.
The dashboard comes armed with a set of easy drag and drop editing tools that let you insert text, add graphics, embed widgets, link social media accounts and publish your work in a few simple clicks.
The massive range of free and premium WordPress themes and the equally expansive range of plugins and extensions make WordPress a winner all the way.
Medium
Medium is perfect for budding bloggers, writers, and artists who want to showcase their content and build a personal connection with their readers.
This blog creation tool allows anyone from amateur designers to professionals to create their own stories and share their opinions online with other like-minded people.
Here, users can create an account for free, registering with their Twitter accounts or e-mail addresses.
Medium is known for its powerful security measures that protect the authenticity of your content and other personal information.
You can reach out to a larger audience base using Medium, as the blog builder not only targets the typical audience base but also integrates with other platforms and social media networks.
However, all said and done, Medium has a few disadvantages as well. For instance, the platform doesn’t allow users to choose a template or layout for their blog.
Blogger
Google Blogger is a blog development platform for newbies. It comes with a lot of interesting and powerful editing tools and features for creating attractive blogs in a matter of minutes.
Blogger comes with a template designer that allows you to not just customize, but also design your own template right from the scratch.
The platform gives you absolute creative freedom- here you can tweak the elements and content of your blog in the way you want.
On the downside, the platform doesn’t offer as impressive a collection of themes and pre-set templates as popular blogging sites such as WordPress or Wix.
The no-nonsense interface is clean and very easy to manage. Your content is also directly synced to your Google account for better reach.
You even get Google Analytical tools and Gmail integration along with One Drive cloud services.
Ghost
Ghost is like an improved and upgraded version of WordPress where the main focus is on blogging.
This blog creation tool is extremely user-friendly, customizable and responsive ideally suited for amateurs and first-time users.
Ghost, though not as powerful as its contemporaries, is a platform purely for blogging and hence a smart choice for budding bloggers and entrepreneurs.
The dashboard is armed with a set of simple, yet powerful tools and features for quick editing. The interface and in-house editor is easy to manage and is separated from the preview page.
Whatever you type on the content creation section is automatically displayed on the preview page of the blog.
Ghost is a recently developed blogging platform that comes with pre-set SEO solutions and social media connectivity.
TypePad Micro
TypePad Micro is a well-known blog-publishing platform that allows you to import and export content from other blogs and websites easily.
The intuitive interface is solid, simple and sleek.
You can drag and drop elements, edit them, insert text, add graphics, embed widgets, sync your social media accounts and share the content on other platforms quickly.
However, the platform is a disappointment for users who are looking for a wide collection of premium quality themes and ad-free functionality.
The paid package offers a better choice of templates, custom domain mapping, and responsive technical support.
TypePad Micro is best suited for first-time bloggers who want a primitive and user-friendly blogging tool for learning the basics of blog management before moving on to the robust and complex platforms.
Tumblr
Tumblr is much more than a social media network.
The platform has grown as a powerful microblogging platform for budding bloggers and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to make it big in the global market.
This blog creation tool comes with a lot of unique and interesting tools such as audio blogging, vlogs etc. that allow you to create engaging content and attract more traffic to your website.
Tumblr has an interesting interface and a set of vibrant themes that may suit your blog wonderfully.
Free web hosting, custom domain services, SEO tools and e-commerce solutions are among the other perks that you get here.
You can even create communities and sync them to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to update your feeds faster.
Squarespace
Squarespace is considered to be among the best e-commerce website builders on the market today.
However, not many people know that that platform is also great for blogging and online portfolio creation.
The WYSIWYG drag and drop interface is pretty customizable and easy to manage.
The dashboard is loaded with the latest editing tools and widgets that can be accessed directly from the sidebar.
Here, you can even tweak the HTML5 codes and CSS stylesheets. Moreover, the numerous themes, layouts, and graphics only boost the visibility and appeal of your blog.
Squarespace also automatically creates a mobile friendly version of your blog, increasing its reach considerably.
The platform also comes armed with a set of amazing plugins, SEO tools, CMS features and e-commerce solutions that boost your web presence and earning opportunities tenfold.
Weebly
Weebly is among the oldest and easiest website building platforms out there and a hit among professionals and first-time users alike.
This platform currently has over 40 million users worldwide and is a popular blog creation tool among amateur developers and first-time entrepreneurs.
Its interactive interface and in-house editor come with a loaded dashboard and responsive themes for quick and easy blog creation.
All this makes it one of the best website builders for blogs. All the elements can be added with a simple point and click operation directly from the sidebar or the main page menu.
The industry-level SEO enhancement tools, CMS solutions, e-commerce plugins and editing tools also enhance the platform’s functionality considerably.
Weebly also comes with cloud backup services and offers customers unlimited storage, a wide bandwidth and automatic data backup for better security against online threats.
Top Blog Creation Tool: Wix
Wix is a great website builder perfect for creating blogs, web stores, web pages and portfolios alike.
This online blog creation tool promises attractive and premium quality websites without writing a single word of code.
Moreover, its one-of-a-kind ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) technology for developing blogs includes fully-functional automatic tools that create and publish your website once you state your preferences and required features.
Wix has over 103 million subscribers, three million of which pay for the hosting facilities and have subscribed to their paid packages.
This website builder is known for its customizable editing tools and intuitive drag and drop interface that is very easy to manage.
Also, you get a wide range of themes to choose from, each divided into categories, such as photography, business, online portfolio, blogging etc.
LinkedIn is not your ideal blogging platform and is known more for creating job profiles and advertising.
However, LinkedIn blogs gradually moved on from being mere “influencer” to mainstream blogs from February 2014 onwards.
Today, anyone can blog via LinkedIn and monetize their content easily.
This blog platform is especially useful for people who have resourceful contacts in the industry or who want to establish a solid web presence.
The LinkedIn network is great for generating impressive web traffic and engaging readers.
And it is an ever-increasing blogging solution for users who have a solid network in the LinkedIn community and want to benefit from it.
However, on the downside, the platform does not offer many customization options. Unlike its peers, there are no templates or editing tools here.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when blogging was considered to be just a hobby for aspiring artists and writers, used to vent out their frustrations and express their creativity.
Today, the platform has become a career choice and a lucrative source of income for many budding designers and entrepreneurs who want to express their opinions, share insightful content, and scale up their blogs into highly functional advertisements of their services.
The blog creation tool list above showcased just a few of the many platforms that can help you to build a beautiful and premium quality blog.
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Image source: Lifetime Stock discounted account
