How Can I Blog For Free
Want to share your writing with the world and look for a free blogging platform to do it on?
If you want to blog for free you must choose the right platform to start with. Here are 4 free blogging sites to consider:
- Blogger – Ease of use and Google Adsense Ready
- WordPress- Perfect for Hobby and Family Blogging
- Medium – Great ecosystem that promotes new viewers
- LinkedIn – Increase traffic and engagement in your brand or business
You can pick any to start with but is it the right choice? Continue on as I break down your options further so you can decide which one will be the perfect fit for your needs.
Before You Write Your First Blog Post
Think of the long game. Planning ahead will save you time and any headaches in the future if you want to move over to a new platform.
What are your goals for blogging?
Here are 5 reasons why you should start a blog today.
- To document your life
- To gain confidence
- To use as a creative outlet
- To help others with your knowledge
- To generate an income
How to document your life with blogs
Start with milestones and important moments of your life.If possible capture these memories in different media forms.Such as written content, photos, and video recordings.
Compile them into a blog and share for your family and friends to enjoy.
Blog to gain confidence
Blogging improves your writing skills as well as communication skills. You will start thinking more intentionally when speaking and writing.
Blogging as a creative outlet
It’s a true form of self expression. As a blogger you’re also a writer, photographer, videographer, graphic designer, and creative innovator all in one.
You’re coming up with new creative ideas for blog posts, you’re writing, you’re taking pictures and videos to use on your blog and in your posts, and you’re designing graphics for your blog. Bloggers are creators.
To help others with your knowledge
Blogging allows you to share your knowledge, skills and personal experience. Helping others is not only good for your readers and a good thing to do, it also makes us happier and healthier too.
Blogging as a source of income
There is potential financial gain with your blogs should you choose to go this route.
Whatever your reasons for blogging, be it entertainment, a hobby, or even as a creative outlet. That can draw lots of attention and that sort of attention can be of monetary value.
Blogger
Blogger is free and simple to use. You can create a blog in a few minutes. I recommend Blogger if you are wanting something quick and easy to set up. This is a good platform when sharing your passions, breaking news, or whatever’s on your mind
You’ll need a Google account to get started.
Create a blog
- Sign in to Blogger.
- On the left, click the Down arrow Down arrow.
- Click New blog.
- Enter a name for your blog.
- Click Next.
- Choose a blog address or URL
- Click Save.
WordPress
There’s the dot com and then the dot org for WordPress. The dot com is the free option and good if you want to use their platform for building your blog.
If you don’t have any intentions to go all fancy and build a business or anything from your blog then using this free option is perfect.
My recommendation if you want to turn this new hobby into a business. Buy a web hosting hosting plan and use the self hosted wordpress application and build you blog from there.
Since your query was creating a free blog I will provide you those steps.
This is how to set up a WordPress.com free blog.
- Signup to WordPress.com
- Choose a theme
- Name your site (choose free domain)
- Choose your design
- Pick a font pairing
- Choose what features you want or skip
- Select a plan (choose free)
- Write your first blog and press publish
Medium
I like this platform and it’s opportunities. Again, since you are looking for a FREE blogging platform.
Don’t want to deal with having your own web page and hassling with all the back end stuff? Then this is my go to recommendation.
Here are 4 reasons why you publish your blogs on Medium
- You Could Get Discovered By Big Publishers
- You’ll Reach A New Audience
- You Can Generate New Social Media Followers.
- It Already Has a Huge Readership Built-in
Setting up an account with Medium.
- You can sign in to Medium using a third-party social account or your email address.
- Sign in or sign up with email
- On the Medium homepage, click Sign in in the top-right corner.
- Choose Sign in with email.
- Enter your email address and click Continue.
- Go to your inbox and open the verification email.
- Click Sign in to Medium in the email to be redirected to Medium and signed in to your account.
I will be honest, I don’t use this platform that often. That doesn’t mean this isn’t a good place to blog on. It doesn’t align with my goals.
I see how it can be beneficial to you as a blogger if you’re in the the Business 2 Business space. If that’s you then scroll through your own feed to see how others are using it.
Here is how to create a blog post in LinkedIn
- From your homepage:
- Click Start a post.
- Type the content of your post in the What do you want to talk about? field.
- Select who you want to share the post with.
- Click Post.
Final Thoughts
Creating a blog is fun and you should think about the purpose of your blog and goal before you begin.If I lost everything, and had to choose a free blogging platform, I would choose with Medium.
Before you choose, grab a copy of my side hustle checklist and see how you can use blogging as a way to generate passive income. Get paid for something you are already thinking of doing.
