Blogs are a great way to exercise your writing skills and share information about topics that you are passionate about. Millions of people have started blogs about pets, fashion, politics, cooking, and just about any other subject that you can name. If you want to start a blog, you’ll need to set up a dedicated space online where you can post new articles.
If you’re tech-savvy, you can do this by getting space through a web-hosting company. But many bloggers prefer the convenience of setting up an account with a blog-hosting site. These sites, including the ones listed here, provide an easy way for you to start writing and sharing your thoughts with the world!
Blogger (blogger.com) is a site where you can set up a free account. Among Blogger’s features are a template designer, an inbox where readers can leave comments, and the ability for bloggers to integrate YouTube videos into their blog posts. If you set up an account with Blogger, you can make money from you blog by using an affiliate network.
More than 300,000 bloggers have accounts with WordPress. The site (wordpress.com) offers users a variety of features, including 100 themes to choose from, a stat tracker that monitors blog traffic, and the ability to make blogs public or private. Users can embed videos in their blogs and are permitted to set up multiple accounts.
TypePad offers a two-week free trial for prospective users. After that they can select from different pricing levels, depending on the level of service desired. TypePad’s features include hundreds of design templates, the ability to create blog posts using a smartphone app and the ability to add audio and video files to blog posts. Users can also build an audience for their blog by promoting it on search engines and viewing TypePad’s stat engine to see where new blog traffic is coming from.