6 Free Blogging Platforms for New Freelance Writers
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Did you know there are many free blogging platforms that can help freelance writers showcase their talents?
It is easier than ever to start a blog for free. In this post, we’ll tell you why blogging is a great opportunity for new freelance writers, describe six of the best free blogging platforms, and then offer you an amazing opportunity to strengthen your writing skills.
Why Should You Start a Blog?
There are many good reasons for new freelance writers to start their own blog. It is a great way to show your writing to the world and get your name seen by people who might become clients and offer you writing work. Other benefits include:
- Giving you a place to practice your writing
- Being able to demonstrate your knowledge in certain areas
- Monetizing your blog and using it to earn an income
- Using your blog as an online portfolio to show potential clients
- Providing you with a platform to express your thoughts and ideas
- The opportunity to become a better freelance writer by continuously having your writing seen (and possibly critiqued) by the public
How to Choose a Blogging Platform
If you haven’t started a blog before, it might be confusing trying to figure out which platform to choose. Some sites will be easier to use so they will be preferable to people with less technical skills. Some will also be more suitable than others, depending on the type of blog you want to create.
Each blogging platform offers you a varying amount of customization options, technical support, and security.
Luckily, you don’t need to pay an arm and a leg to start your first blog – there are many free options available to get you started.
6 Free Blogging Platforms
We’ve picked six of the best free blogging platforms to help you find the one that best suits your needs.
1. WordPress
It is important to note there are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com offers free websites and WordPress.org needs to be installed on your existing website.
WordPress is a free open-source platform that offers many customization options without the need to know about coding. They have thousands of templates, themes, and plugins that you can use to easily design a blog that will fit your style.
While this platform is free to use, you may want to consider paying for a domain or hosting to make your blog visible to others.
2. Medium
Medium has become a very popular platform because even though you do not get your own website, you can start writing a blog on their platform immediately after registering for an account.
A huge advantage to this site is that it is very simple to use, and you can take advantage of Medium’s immense audience. It is visited by millions of readers every month and the number keeps going up.
The site has its own internal search, so people can easily find your posts and choose to subscribe to you if they like what they read.
Some people may not like the lack of customization options on this platform. Also, unlike WordPress, all your content will be on Medium, and you can’t get a custom domain without a paid subscription.
3. Wix
Wix is a great platform for people who want the functionality of their own website but lack advanced technical skills. Every free user gets a URL under Wix’s subdomain, web hosting, storage, and bandwidth.
Creating your blog is incredibly easy with Wix’s drag-and-drop design options. You can choose from hundreds of templates to build a custom site or simply answer a few questions and Wix will design your site for you.
While you can set up a fully functional blog for free with Wix, there is limited storage. There will also be advertisements so, after a while, you may want to consider upgrading to a premium plan.
4. Substack
While Substack is considered a great place to publish email newsletters, it is also an excellent option for a free blog.
A useful feature of this platform is that if you already have writing somewhere else, you can easily import previous posts or emails during setup.
While Substack’s main focus is on emails, they also give you a website to share everything in one place, which you can use as your blog.
This site doesn’t offer a ton of options for unique designs, but it is incredibly easy to get started. They also offer a paid subscription option, so you can start making money from your blog as soon as you get your first subscriber.
5. Drupal
For those of you with more technical knowledge, Drupal is a great choice. It might not be as well known as some of the other blogging platforms, but it could be the perfect option for people who don’t mind the steep learning curve.
Drupal is a free open-source content management software that you can download to build your blog. You can fully customize your site with code and build exactly what you want.
As already mentioned, this option is for people with more technical skills and if that’s not you, you may need assistance from a web developer. Drupal also does not include a custom domain and you will need to pay for third-party hosting.
6. LinkedIn
While most people think of LinkedIn as a social media platform for professionals to connect with one another, it is actually not hard to start blogging there as well.
It is incredibly easy to publish a blog on LinkedIn – the site takes care of almost everything, it’s completely free, and you will have instant access to the site’s millions of active users.
The downside is that you do not get your own site and LinkedIn will own the rights to all of your content. Nonetheless, it’s still a great option to get your writing out to the world.
Becoming A Freelance Writer
If you are a freelance writer or want to become one, it is important to have your writing seen by as many people as possible. Blogging is a great way to do this. One of the best ways to develop strong writing skills is to sign up for our Becoming A Freelance Writer course. It has a focus on blog and article writing and a guaranteed publishing opportunity for top graduates.
Start your free trial today and see for yourself!
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