The word ‘blog’ is a contraction of ‘Weblog’; a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer (Merriam-Webster dictionary).  Blogging is all about sharing and publicizing thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and skills, etc. on digital platforms (blog). It’s like a digitized private diary. However, in recent times, it has become an important platform through which people not only share information, opinion, ideas, commentaries, etc. but also exhibit their skills, market their products and services, and so on.

Read our previous article on things to consider before setting up a blog.

Numerous platforms (blogs) have been developed for this purpose. Thus, users have the liberty to adopt any of the blogging platforms that suit them best.

In this piece, I will examine five favourite blogging platforms and their basic features.

Blogger.Com

This is one of the most popular and efficient blogging platforms available. Blogger is owned by Google and it’s available to users free of charge. It uses .blogspot.com.ng, .blogspot.com.uk, etc. depending on the country the blogger is located. However, users that do not want to use .blogspot.com extension can opt to pay for customized domain names. Blogger accepts third-party HTML codes and can thus be tweaked and redesigned to individuals’ tastes. Blogger users can also sign up for Google Adsense program, a Google Ads program that allows bloggers to make money by displaying adverts on their blogs. Also, there is no restriction on the number of blogs a user can have or the number of pictures that can be uploaded.

WordPress.Com

This blogging platform has different plans for users. It has a free plan for users that are satisfied with the .wordpress.com extension and other premium plans for more (committed) users who are interested in getting customized domain names and other benefits. Unfortunately, WordPress does not work with Google Adsense. WordPress users can, however, sign up with other affiliate marketing programs as the platform accepts third-party HTML codes. Like Blogger, WordPress also has numerous templates (both free and paid) bloggers can use.

Medium.Com

This platform is relatively new and extremely simple to use. All one needs to do is create an account on www.medium.com and start posting. Medium is a platform where writers and readers meet. Thus, contents published on Medium have higher chances of getting a wider readership. Users can also follow one another.

Tumblr.Com

Tumblr is a microblogging platform. Just like WordPress, Tumblr users can post their unique contents and “reblog” other users’ contents. Contents on Tumblr are usually short posts that contain images, audio, or video. Tumblr also has some social networking features e.g. following other users.

WordPress.Org

WordPress.org is a self-installed blogging platform that enables users to set up a blog on a hosted service. It’s a more technical or professional blogging platform that involves downloading, unpacking, configuring, and uploading to a server. Like other blogging platforms, WordPress.Org also has numerous templates for users. The templates/themes, however, serve different functions. Thus a user has to choose templates based on the purpose the blog is intended for. This platform, unlike others, allows only customized domain names. It also has plugins which allow users to add different functionalities to their blogs. WordPress.Org is NOT free.