Monday 12 November 2012

Top 5 Blogging Platforms To Choose From

Every internet addicts love to maintain a blog. Blogging is one of the amazing ways of giving a sharp edge to our writing skills and also to spread knowledge and unique ideas to the visitors. Blogging can be considered as the best way of earning online while it is also believed to be the ideal source of relaxation for some.

Blogging Homes
Source: archcityhomes.com
Depending on his requirement, a blogger chooses the blog that suits him best. Just as WordPress blogs would be the perfect platform for all professionals, similarly on the other hand for newbie or amateur bloggers blogger.com would be the best fit for them. Therefore, being a blogger it is necessary to concentrate more on your requirements and not to hop around the popularity of the blog. 

Sometimes it does happen that a blogger simply gets confused of choosing the perfect blogging platform from the dozens of service choices that he gets. In order to narrow down this confusion, following is a list of top 5 blogging platforms which would rather help you to make your decision a bit more easily. 

WordPress

WordPress logoThis is one of the largest blogging platforms in the world designed for both novices and professionals and also has an infinite customization options. It is a blog with modular backend and has also got a large number of extensions. So, it is also referred as the “do-it-yourself” blog. 

WordPress also allows bloggers to modify their blogs using either their pre-designed themes or by using HTML, CSS or PHP. Their extensions also give extra features to their users such as editing calendars, tag clouds, twitter feeds, etc. 

So, if you are looking for a stout blogging service with enormous options for you to edit it as according to your choice, then WordPress is your platform for sure. 

Blogger

Blogger logo
Google’s blogger platform is considered to be the most popular as it is being coupled with your Google account. Getting started is quite easy. All you need to do is to select a title, what the address should be like (name.blogspot.com) and then select a template followed by the content which you want to update in it. 

Here, you can also follow other blogger’s blog and the dashboard keeps on tracking the latest update and will continuously alert you with latest updates. Some additional features also include comment moderation, layout modification, etc. Bloggers were very well-known among teenagers and mommies to express their feelings but nowadays, it has also officially gained the importance of professionals to express their messages through this service. 

Tumblr

Tumblr logo
Thinking of Tumblr, the first thing which comes right to our mind is all about a true “micro blogging site”. But yes, apart from being a good micro blogging site, tumblr is one of the best and rich blogging platform offering professional and fully adaptable templates as well as many other services. Users can easily access their free tumblr accounts and can manage posts directly from apps via mobile, web and other dedicated apps on the PC. 

Tumblr pages are well maintained with clean designs thus help you more to concentrate on your content rather than customization. If someone likes your content, then he can “favorite it” or “reblog it” which reposts a clip of your post to their page with a link coming to your source page. The most interesting part is that tumblr can import blogs as well can export it if you want to migrate it to a different service. So, if you are a casual blogger and you concentrate more on content rather than on designs, then tumblr is just the best option for you to opt for.  

Posterous

posterous logo
The best way to share your messages with the public, a specific category of people or even yourself, then Posterous is just the right option for you. 

Once you are ready with your account, you can set up “spaces” for people to follow. Permission can be set for each space but you are free to set as many space as you want. This is definitely the best blog and most widely used by professionals to share their messages through this platform. 

Movable Type

Movable Type logo
This blogging platform was originally developed by Six Apart in 2001, and has appeared as the “power blogger’s platform”. It also offers plugins like WordPress to modify the experience of both blogger and reader. This is one of the best blogging platforms being available in two flavors- the.com version and .org version. The .com version is designed for non-developers who want their blog for free by movable type and again there is .org version which is designed for the professionals who want to host their site using various external services. 

Although you will find a lot of similarities between Movable Type and WordPress, so it totally depends on you which platform you would prefer after judging the best services that it offers such as features, plugins and support that you would be getting in order to keep your content highlighted as always. 

Yes of course, these aren’t the only blogging platforms out there, but yes these are one of the top five blogging platforms being widely used by both professionals and amateurs. So, now that you have got some good platforms to jump-off, it is better to build your blog and start jotting down your points in it. It is the best way to show your visitors the only thing that you are actually good at.

And do read this basic blogging guide before starting you own blog.

Its Your Turn!

Which blogging platform do you prefer? And how good have your experience been with it? I would love to hear from you! So do comment and share your views.

About the Guest Author:
Aditi Datta is a specialized social media organizer who works in a leading SEO company in India. She loves to analyze on recent search engine algorithm changes and user engagements in social media websites.

This post was written by one of our guest contributors. If you would like to contribute to our blog as a guest author, you can contact us.