There are a variety of ways to make money blogging. Here a pros and cons analysis to help you find the best blogging platform to make money.
How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform to Make Money
Whether you’re planning to set up a personal blog or one for your business, picking an adequate blogging platform is among the top things you should do when starting a blogging career.
Since the blogging platform you choose is going to be the very pillar of your blog, this is something you should consider very carefully.
And making a choice can be difficult, to say the least – not only because there are various platforms to choose from, but also because each one has their own blogging pros and cons.
To help you ease the process of finding the right one for you, we’ve prepared a list of some of the best blogging platforms that can help you make money on the web.
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Those three things equal more profit to your bottom line as a blogger.
We’ve also made sure to mention some of their advantages and disadvantages while we’re at it.
Table of Contents
Some Things to Take Into Account When Picking a Blogging Platform
The road to starting a blog can be filled with challenges. After all, there are many different things to think about before you even start putting content out there.
Therefore, before we move forward, we should mention some of the things to consider when choosing a blogging platform:
- The type of blog you want to create: what is your intention behind wanting to build your own blog? Will it be business, lifestyle, or hobby-oriented? Do you want to focus on doing reviews, tips, tutorials, or something else entirely? Do you plan to create a moderately-sized blog or a more scalable one?
- Your budget: Do you have the resources to seriously invest in your blogging career, or you simply want to do blogging as a hobby? Establishing the answer to this question can help you out immensely when narrowing down your blogging platform choices since there are both free and paid blogging platform options.
- Your skills: Are you a first-time blogger, or do you have some experience under your belt? If you’re already at a near-advanced level when it comes to blogging, then you might do better with a platform that offers you a wider range of customization options. If you’re just a beginner, however, you should stick to more user-friendly platforms.
Our Pick
I used Bluehost to build a blog that made over $10,000 per month. It's a great way to start blogging and it's very affordable. You'll get synced up with WordPress right when you start.
Bluehost will even give you a free domain name when you purchase a hosting plan.
Best Blogging Platforms and Their Pros and Cons
Now that you (hopefully) have a somewhat better idea of the type of blog you want to create, deciding on a platform should be a bit easier.
I created a video walking through the various options. Also, below you'll see a written explanation of each blogging platform.
On that note, here are some of the best blogging platforms to make money.
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WordPress.org
Currently powering over 34% of websites on the internet, WordPress is easily one of the best blogging platforms you can use for your blog – and, dare we say, one of the best such platforms of all time.
Having originally started as just a blogging platform, WordPress.org is now much more than that.
With time, effort and help of its knowledgeable and passionate community that has immensely contributed to its growth, WordPress has become an extremely scalable CMS (content management system) that can be used by both pros and novices alike.
Aside from being a great platform to make money, WordPress.org is also open-source software. Still, you need to find a hosting provider and get a domain name to use it.
Pros:
- Easy to install, which makes it perfect for first-time bloggers
- Extremely scalable, which gives you the opportunity to extend and grow your blog
- There are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes and 50,000-plus plugins that will allow you to build and customize your blog in any way you want
- It is SEO friendly out of the box
Cons:
- You will have to take care of the backups and website security yourself
- Even though you don’t necessarily need to be a coding expert to use WordPress, it’s still useful to have some basic HTML and CSS skills
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Here is a step-by-step video that I created to show you how easy it is to install WordPress with Bluehost.
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Joomla
Developed by Open Source Matters, Inc., Joomla is an open-source CMS similar to WordPress that can be used for various purposes – from building small business websites to launching online stores and blogs. Currently, it is the second most popular CMS in the world, powering whopping 2.5 million sites worldwide.
It’s possible to run your own ads on Joomla, which makes it a good choice if you want to use it as a blogging platform.
Aside from this easy ability to make money, Joomla is also great because it comes with thousands of free and premium templates and extensions, which makes it possible to extend your blog with time.
Just like WordPress.org, using the Joomla platform is free, but you need to find your own hosting provider.
Pros:
- It is free to use and easy to install
- It’s a highly flexible platform
- Has built-in multilingual support
- Comes equipped with a set of security extensions
Cons:
- There’s the possibility of some plugins having compatibility issues
- Just like WordPress, you have to manage your blog on your own
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Squarespace
Thanks to its integrated drag-and-drop system, Squarespace is another popular blogging platform that currently powers millions of websites. This platform is especially convenient for complete beginners because it allows users to build a website with no coding involved.
In addition, it also comes with a wide variety of responsive templates and features which will help make your blog unique and interesting.
There are different pricing plans for using the platform – for building a personal website, it would cost you $12 per month if you want to pay annually, or 16% if you want to pay on a monthly basis.
Their business plan is $18 per month for an annual payment or $26 for a monthly one.
Pros:
- Modern and responsive templates
- Drag-and-drop page builder and other website building features
- Easy to use for beginners
Cons:
- Limited integrations compared to other page builders
- Building custom templates requires coding
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WordPress.com
If you’re new to the blogging world, you must be wondering about the difference between the WordPress.com and WordPress.org blogging platforms.
Unlike WordPress.org which is open-source software but requires that you take care of the hosting on your own, WordPress.com is a platform that offers to host your blog for you.
In other words, you can simply sign up for free and start posting your content on WordPress.com.
Even though WordPress.com also uses WordPress software as a base, there are certain restrictions compared to its more famous counterpart WordPress.org.
For example, the free version of WordPress.com does not allow you to add any plugins or custom themes, and there’s no space for monetization unless you sign up with a platform like WordAds or Google AdSense.
Use this ad revenue calculator to ensure you are writing profitable blog posts.
So, if you’re strictly searching for the best blogging platform to make money, this wouldn’t be our first pick, but it is still possible to do it with a few integrations.
Also, many bloggers and creatives find WordPress.com convenient and easy to use, especially at the beginning of their blogging career. It's one of the many types of blogs that make money.
Pros:
- No need to worry about hosting
- It’s free unless you decide to try out one of their pricing plans (prices range from $4 for personal, to $45 for e-commerce purposes)
- No setup needed
- Great platform for starting out
Cons:
- There are limited ways to earn money
- Limited extension options
- There’s a danger of your account getting suspended if you violate their terms and conditions
See Related: Starting a Media Company in the 21st Century
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Wix
This is another website-building platform used by millions of different businesses and individuals. Just like Squarespace, Wix comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop system perfect for building a website or blog.
There is the possibility of building your website for free, but you need to use your own domain and hosting in case you want to have your ads displayed on your blog – otherwise, Wix will run their own ads instead.
Pros:
- Easy setup process
- Comes with a drag-and-drop functionality
- It’s possible to use third-party apps to customize your blog
- Excellent security
Cons:
- Wix runs their own ads with the free version
- The free version has limited options
See Related: Do You Need an LLC for Your Blog?
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Blogger
Owned by Google, Blogger is an ideal choice if you’re a beginner. Not only is it completely free to use and comes with various free templates (unless you want to pay to get access to some premium services), but you can also make money if you’re approved for Google AdSense, which will automatically display relevant ads on your blog.
There’s an option to either pay for a custom domain name or to get a free blogspot.com domain.
Pros:
- Great platform for beginners
- Free and easy to use with no prior knowledge required
- Gives you the ability to earn money
Cons:
- A limited number of blogging tools and features, which means you can’t extend your blog to the fullest
- No frequent updates with new features
- Since you don’t really own your blog, Google has the right to close your blog anytime if you end up violating their terms and conditions
See Related: How to Create a Blog on Instagram
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Tumblr
Now, here’s something a little different. A microblogging platform in its essence, Tumblr also provides a social networking ability to its users, which allows them to follow other blogs, like, reblog, or comment on people’s posts.
In other words, you don’t even need to post your own content to own a Tumblr blog – you can simply share content made by others and form a sense of community by interacting with people.
Even though it’s currently hosting over 465 million blogs, Tumblr is known as an unconventional platform that gathers all sorts of casual bloggers. It is also largely used by artists, photographers, and other creatives who prefer Tumblr’s short content form to share their works.
Aside from this ability to quickly post GIFs, images, videos, and audio, Tumblr is also convenient for many because it’s completely free to use.
The Tumblr subdomain is http://your-name.tumblr.com, but if you want, you can buy yourself a custom domain name – plus, adding your own domain will give you the ability to put ads as well.
Pros:
- Extremely easy to use
- The ability to quickly post and share multimedia
- Built-in social media feature
- Great for artists, photographers, and other creative individuals
Cons:
- There are many different themes you can use on Tumblr, but they don’t come with any additional features, and the ability to extend them is limited
- It may be difficult to import your content to another platform
See Related: How to Become a Content Creator
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Medium
This relatively young platform (launched in 2012) has become popular in a short amount of time among writers and journalists alike. The main appeal of Medium is that it has an interface mainly adjusted for writing, which allows for a smooth blogging experience and makes this platform easy to use.
Similarly to Tumblr, Medium also allows you to create an account, find those with similar interests, and share your content. However, what’s specific about this blogging platform is that while it comes free for bloggers, readers have to get a membership fee to explore its content.
These fees are precisely what gives money to Medium writers.
In short, if you mainly want to focus on writing and sharing your articles and do not want to burden yourself with things like designing and customizing your blog, then Medium can be a perfect platform to make money for you. It's one way to blog for free and make money.
Pros:
- Easy to use – zero coding skills required
- Completely free
- You can join Medium Partner Program and earn money every time a Medium user reads your articles – here's a guide on how to make money on Medium
Cons:
- Limited features
- No possibility for advertising
- Since Medium is your blog’s true owner, you will lose all your followers if something happens to your account
See Related: How to Make Money Online
Conclusion on Best Blogging Platform to Make Money
With so many blogging platform choices out there, finding the one that will be able to fit your blogging needs – no matter if they’re business-oriented or personal – may be challenging.
That’s why you should consider your budget and the type of blog you want to create in the first place before venturing into this quest.
And in case you’re a blogging beginner, we highly recommend going for a platform that is easy to set up and does not require any coding knowledge but leaves enough space for future extension.
Once you figure out which platform works best for you, all that’s left for you to do is choose a host and domain (if you need them), come up with a compelling blog name that accurately represents you or your brand, and start producing content.
All in all, we sincerely hope that you will be able to find a suitable pick among these 8 best blogging platforms.
Go ahead and monetize your hard work!