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You have a few choices when it comes where to place your blog. How can you choose your blogging platform? Is one better than another?

There are a few blogging platforms out there. All my owned blogs run on WordPress, but I still use Blogger fo the free domains that I have. Then there are people who will run on Wix, Weebly, and more. Going down the rabbit hole of blogging platforms ends up overwhelming and time-consuming.

One of the best things to do is talk to other bloggers. Find out which blogging platform (or platforms) seem to be the most preferred. You’ll usually find that WordPress and SquareSpace tend to be the most favored. After that, you can look at those platforms to find the best ones for you.

Here are the steps I take when setting up a new blog. Now I’m pretty set, but I used to have to make a decision.

Do you want to pay for the blogging platform?

Before you even think about the platform, you need to decide whether you want to pay for your domain name and hosting. If you don’t, you will find your options narrow down considerably. There are a number of free blogging platforms, with WordPress.com and Blogger.com being the two most popular ones.

However, if you’re not bothered about paying for your hosting—knowing that it becomes an investment—you do have many more choices out there. Of course, Blogger, WordPress, and other free methods are still great options even if you do pay. They have both options available.

There are downsides to opting for free domains. It’s worth keeping those downsides in mind depending on what you want to achieve from your blog.

Do you have the technical knowledge?

Even with technical knowledge of websites and HTML coding, I still find content management systems better. They’re less time-consuming, and I don’t have to worry too much about code-writing. CMSes are things like WordPress and Blogger. In fact, they’re likely where everyone starts now.

The systems are set out in a way that makes sense for a blog. I personally choose WordPress and Blogger for my blogging platforms. This blog runs on WordPress. I chose that because it is so simple to use once you get over the learning curve. I used Blogger for the free domains, and again, it’s super simple to use.

I’ve not personally tried SquareSpace, but I have heard it’s good. I’ve tried Wix before but found that too limiting.

Do you want to monetize?

This is especially the case if you’re looking into free domain names and hosting. One of the downsides of free is that the companies want to get money somehow. That is through advertising, so they limit your ability to monetize.

Free WordPress platforms do not allow any monetization, as far as I’m aware. Blogger does give you the option of using Google AdSense to make some money.

If you want to monetize, opting for a paid blogging platform is usually the best. And by paid, I really mean having your own hosting and domain name.

Do you already have experience with a platform?

Before you set up your own blog, you may have had experience writing on other websites. You may have even had experience in doing the actual posting. Consider those systems, since you already have experience.

When I started, I’d already worked with WordPress through revenue share sites. I’d already gotten over the learning curve, so found it very simple to put all my websites on the same system. I’d already built up some experience in Blogger, too, but that was from messing around with the free sites and simply finding something fun to do when I first started writing online.

With experience, you already know how to add images and links to your content. You’ll already understand the back-end functionality, which means you can get straight on with creating your blog and getting it up and running.

MORE: Paid vs. free domain names

Which blogging platform do you prefer? Where are you going to start blogging? Let me know in the comments below.

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