Blogging can be a great way to share your thoughts, ideas, and stories with the world. And, with so many different platforms and tools available, there’s no reason not to start a blog today. There are a lot of different blogging platforms out there, and it can be overwhelming to try to figure out which ones are the best for beginners.
So, are you a beginner blogger looking for the best blog platform to make money? Have you decided on starting a blog but don’t know where to begin? If so, look no further because you’re in the right place! In this post, we’ll go over some of the best blogging platforms for beginners, so you can get started on the right foot. We’ll also describe the essential features and cost of each so you can choose the best platform for you and your blog.
The 8 Best Blog Platforms to Make Money
So, whether you’re just starting out as a blogger or switching to another platform, you can pick one of our favorite platforms to make some extra cash. The following are a few different ways to make money with these platforms:
- Displaying ads
- Selling products or services through your blog
- Creating and selling digital products
- Promoting affiliate products
- Creating and selling online courses
- Offering subscriptions and memberships
- Offering consulting services
- Selling e-books
Let’s begin with our list of the best blog platforms now!
1. WordPress
If you’re looking for a platform that will give you a lot of control over your blog, WordPress is a great option. Millions of bloggers around the world use it since it is an open-source, free, and user-friendly platform. According to the statistics reported by W3Techs, WordPress is being used by 43.1% of all websites in 2022. Thus, it is used by two out of every five websites. Most importantly, it offers a wide range of tutorials and resources to get you started.
The features which make WordPress the most popular blog platform are:
- Easy to learn: straightforward dashboard and intuitive features
- Simple content management of your blog
- Full control over your blog: wide range of WordPress themes and plugins to choose from
- SEO friendly
- Excellent choice for e-commerce: the WooCommerce plugin lets you manage all sales on your blog easily
- No restrictions on the number of products, posts, and pages per website
- Integration with external platforms
- Scheduling feature for blog posts
- Automated daily backups
- No possibility of a security impairment
- Excellent customer support
Pricing: (No domain name is offered with any plan)
- Free plan: $0 per month
- Personal plan: $9 per month
- Premium plan: $18 per month
- Business plan: $40 per month
- eCommerce plan: $70 per month
2. Blogger
Blogger is a blogging platform from Google that’s been around for a while. It’s a great option if you’re looking to make money from your blog without investing any buck in the setup. It offers free blog hosting and a free blogspot.com domain for every user but you can also buy a domain name of your choice. Blogger is owned by Google, so it’s easy to integrate with other Google apps and services.
Here are some Blogger features which make it the best blog platform to make money:
- Easy categorization, organization, and management of your blog’s content
- Integration with Google services like Google Adsense: the perfect option for monetization
- Variety of options to import or share your content
- Drag and drop editors to save time
- Built-in image library
- Built-in analytics: reports about your blog’s progress regularly
- SEO management
- Theme and template management
- Free hosting and subdomain
Pricing: $0
3. Tumblr
Tumblr is a popular social media platform that can also be used for blogging. It’s a microblogging platform that’s perfect for short, bite-sized content. Tumblr users can post different kinds of media and brief blogs on their accounts and share them with netizens across the globe. If you want to use Tumblr for your microblog, there are various ways to make money from it. Ads and affiliate links are the two most common ways for bloggers to monetize their Tumblr blogs.
The features which make Tumblr the best micro-blog platform are:
- The domain name of your choice
- HTML editing: allows full customization of your blog
- Supports uploading images, links, audio, and videos
- Post scheduling feature
- Tagging capabilities: easy organization of posts and pages
- Blog posts automatically posted to Facebook and Twitter
- Integration with third-party services like WordPress, SquareSpace, Slack, Evernote, Zapier, Shopify, Airtable, etc.
Pricing: $0
4. Medium
Medium is a great option if you’re looking for a blogging platform that’s easy to use and has a minimal learning curve. It is a newer platform that is growing in popularity among bloggers day by day. It’s free, beginner-friendly, and has a beautiful, clean design. If you want to make money from your Medium blog, there are different ways to do it, for example, through paid content, memberships, and affiliate links.
The features of Medium’s blogging platform that are worth mentioning are:
- Importing tool: lets you import your content from any other site on the web
- Quick linking with social media sites
- Real-time metrics: make you informed about your blogging progress
- Connection with a large community of authors
- Publications: get your posts to a wide range audience
- No hassle of blog setup: simple one-step sign-up
- Less customization and control
Pricing: $0
5. Ghost
Ghost is an open-source blogging platform that’s similar to WordPress. It is simple to use with a beginner-friendly interface. Ghost is available both as an open-source self-hosted CMS and as a fully managed, paid version called Ghost PRO. Both the free and paid forms provide up-to-date tools for building websites, sharing knowledge, and creating newsletters.
Some important features of the Ghost blogging platform are:
- Open source: Every consumer is entitled to use the source code however they see fit.
- Manageable and organized workflow: Custom URLs, page tagging features, scheduled posts, manageable custom redirects, and much more.
- Easy-to-use editors: automated syntax completion, in-page media uploading options, one-click linking, and a variety of customization options.
- Built-in SEO and e-commerce functionalities
- Integration with third-party apps and services
- Millions of themes in the Ghost theme marketplace
- A large online community to interact with
Pricing: (Available as a free self-hosted option)
- Starter plan: $11 per month
- Creator plan: $31 per month
- Team plan: $63 per month
- Business plan: $249 per month
6. Wix
Wix is a crowd-pleasing website-building tool that has a perfect blogging platform. It’s simple to use and is great for bloggers who want to stay out of all the complicated configuration stuff. So, if you’re looking for a platform that’s easy to use and has free hosting, Wix is a great option. You can use this platform for free forever or upgrade it as and when necessary.
The distinguishing features of the Wix blog platform are:
- Affordable plans
- More than 900 free templates for your blog
- No limit to pages per blog
- Free and reliable hosting
- Customizable layout
- Custom domain name
- Different ways of blog monetization: Displaying ads, paid subscriptions, selling merchandise, sponsorships, and paid events
- High level of security
- Fast loading speed
- Full set of contemporary SEO and marketing tools
- Automated emails and newsletters for the audience
- Post scheduling feature
- Built-in analytics
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0 per month
- Connect Domain plan: $4.50 per month
- Combo plan: $8.50 per month
- Unlimited plan: $12.50 per month
- VIP plan: $24.50 per month
7. Weebly
Weebly is another free and leading website builder that also has a great blogging platform. Just like Wix, it’s simple to use and has a drag-and-drop interface. With Weebly, you don’t need to worry about the technical details of your blog. You can just focus on what you are good at, writing! So, if you’re looking for a hassle-free blog platform that’s both quick and easy to use, Weebly is a great option.
Some important features of Weebly are:
- No need for technical knowledge and expertise
- Multiple blog layouts to choose from
- Great for e-commerce functionality
- Drag and drop, easy-to-use editor
- Free hosting and domain name for your blog
- SSL certificates to ensure security
- Integrated analytics: daily reports of your progress
- DDoS Mitigation
- Excellent customer support: 24/7 available support team
Pricing:
- Free plan: $0 per month
- Connect plan: $5 per month
- Pro plan: $12 per month
- Business plan: $25 per month
- Business Plus plan: $38 per month
8. Squarespace
Squarespace is also a website builder that can be used for blogging. It is the best blogging platform to make money on, and for good reason. It offers a variety of blog monetization options, including paid newsletters, memberships, podcasts, video series, etc. It’s user friendly, has a ton of features and blog layouts, and is highly customizable.
If you’re considering starting a Squarespace blog, here are a few features that can help:
- Wide range of blog customization features: flexible layouts, custom themes, custom color palettes, cohesive fonts
- High-quality stock images for your blog posts with built-in photo editors
- Analytics tracking tool
- Custom permissions and scheduling for individual posts
- Categorization, featuring, and tagging features
- Built-in SEO and email campaigns
- Mobile-optimized blogs
- Expert customer care
Pricing: (Available as a free trial)
- Personal plan: $23 per month
- Business plan: $33 per month
- Basic Commerce plan: $36 per month
- Advanced Commerce plan: $65 per month
Summing Up
The most important step in your blogging career is choosing the right blogging platform. However, because of the fierce competition in the market for blog platforms, this phase can occasionally be daunting for new bloggers. From WordPress to Squarespace, we’ve shortlisted the best blog platforms to make money from blogging. Some of these are free, while others have paid plans. After comparing the features of all the platforms above, we hope you can select the one that best suits your needs.
