Starting a personal has never been easier thanks to the countless list of free blogging platforms available out there to help you get started. Today, we are going to go through top 5 CMS (Content Management System) platforms that you should take advantage of if you think you’re ready(thing is, you’ll never be ready) to start a personal blog.
1. WordPress
Wordpress is the perfect blogging platform for starters. It’s so easy to start since you just sign up and start blogging. In fact, WordPress powers more than 30% of websites on the internet, that’s how much WordPress is loved globally.
WordPress is SEO friendly, responsive (mobile viewing ready), customizable (choose from hundreds of free templates available online) and you can blog on the go (that is, you don’t need a computer to blog, you can download the smartphone app and you’re good to go).
WordPress allows you to use your own domain if you feel using a subdomain e.g. myname.wordpress.com will not do.
2. Medium
Medium is not a full CMS, its focus is on building an online community where people can share ideas and perspectives. It’s more like Facebook fused with WordPress. The best thing about Medium is it’s a clutter-free blogging platform which lets you focus on putting your story out there the best way you know how and let your followers and readers have the same experience reading your blogs.
Currently, Medium does not allow it’s users to use custom domains but it’s something they’re working on.
3. ghost
Ghost is a platform dedicated to Professional Publishing. Ghost was started by group of blogging enthusiasts who thought WordPress was drifting away from being a core blogging platform.
Based on Node.js, ghost is a not-for-Profit, open source platform which makes it completely customizable. Just like WordPress, Ghost allows you to create newsroom, a group of editors and authors if you decide you need to start a simple group blog or a news blog.
4. Tumblr
If you’re much of a photoblogger and want a platform that adds a community aspect to its system, Tumblr is for you. Tumblr is more like twitter but without the 140 character limit.
5. Blogger
I bet you’ve heard about this before, Blogger from Google can be regarded as the grandfather of blogging platform since it has been around for a while and refuses to die. Not one of my best, but it does the work. It has all the basics of a blogging platform, (Commenting System, Sharing, templates).
This article provides a simple list of options that I think will work best for anyone who has a thing for writing and wants to create an online community to share that with. It goes without saying that, the platform that works for one type of blog might not necessarily work for another. So, it won’t do any harm to try out all of them first (after all, its free) and then pick the one that suits your blogging style.