5 free blogging platforms you can use to start your business blog

 Types of Blog platforms

Blogginh has become a must for any business owner. Not only does it help you keep your website full of fresh content for Search Engine Optimisation purposes, but also blogging allows you to connect with your community of customers and potential customers and increase your reach online. 

Here is some great blogs for you to start your business blogging adventures!

Benefits of using a blog

Blogs are usually made based on one major topic or a particular niche. For us it's about tips that can help a small business owner. 

Having a single category or chine helps you focus your content and create a depth of content that is so important on a blog. 

The most important thing is to choose a platform that you find easy to use. The ones we have listed below are fairly simple to master and after a few posts you should be incredibly familiar with at least updating inforamtion.

Some platforms give you an ability to tweak things like layouts and designs easier then others so I highly recommend you have a go and see which one you gind easiest to handle. For a great blog you don't need a full set of features and you can also outsource layout and design updates quote cheaply. 

The most important thing for you to focus on when starting a blog is your content. Make sure it's consistent and regular and valuable to your audience.

So what platform is most suitable for you?

Here are some of the most popular blog platforms:

WordPress

WordPress is a free, open-source blogging platform that has grown into a full-fledged content management system. It enjoys enormous community support. WordPress is one of the most scalable blogging platforms there is today especially if you install it yourself to your own server. Otherwise the free hosted accounts are also very easy to use and have some great looking templates.

Pros

• Platform, domain, and hosting is free
• Ability to upgrade to your own customer domain for a low monthly fee of $13.
• A wide range of free design templates
• Wordpress supports categories. If you write about different subjects, this is a great way to organize posts.
• You can password-protect posts.
• You can embed popular JavaScripts like YouTube videos.
• Great SEO

Cons

 Not as simple as Blogger

• May not be able to embed iframes
• You can't upload plugins unless you have your own installed version. Most hosting providers have an easy install option, however this will require some technical knowledge.

Blogger

Google owns Blogger and has it integrated with Google Accounts. The platform has been around since blogging's beginnings, and is still an excellent choice.

Pros 

• Platform, domain, and hosting is free
• Ability to upgrade to a custom domain name
• Backed by Google, so it integrates well with other Google products and is more protected from the DDoS attacks that often plague human rights blogs.
• Free design templates
• You can embed popular JavaScripts like YouTube videos.
• If you are more tech-savvy, Blogger does allow you to FTP the files generated for your blog to your own website. 

Cons

• Limited ability to customize your blog
• Google owns your content and can shut down your blog if they do not like your content.
• You cannot categorize posts, or have a blogroll. This is replaced by labels. 

 Tumblr

Tumblr is one of the fastest growing blogging platforms in 2011. The demographics on Tumblr however tend to be very skewed towards certain demographics so you should choose a platform that is suited to your target audience.

Pros

• Originally just a photo-posting blog,   Tumblr recently added new features and expanded the things you can do with a Tumblr blog.
• Easy-to-use interface
• Encourages customisation 

Cons

• You have to set up the comments function separately, using http://disqus.com.
• Not ideal if you have long posts 

Posterous

Posterous has recently reinvented itself, introducing a concept it calls spaces. The idea is to offer more control over how content is shared. In some ways this makes Posterous as much a social network as a platform.

Pros

• Posterous is very simple to use. Once you sign up for a Posterous account, you are given a Posterous address to e-mail posts to. Compose an e-mail with text or attach a photo or video send it to the Posterous e-mail you are provided, and it is converted into a post on your site.
• It is also geared toward mobile blogging. It's easy to post an update when you are not at a computer.
• They have been adding new features,   like a new post editor, the ability to add stand-alone pages, moderate comments, and manage image galleries more easily. 

CONS 

• Posterous only launched in 2008, so it is a smaller, less well-known community.
• Even though you can post by e-mail,   you will find yourself going to the Posterous interface to adjust the formatting. 

  

Blog.com

Blog.com is another popular WordPress-powered blogging platform.

PROS 

• it offers many beautiful premium themes in its free accounts,
• advanced plugins that one can expect only on a self-hosted blog 

CONS 

• the free service displays more ads as compared to WordPress.com 

Conclusion

Having cited the pros and cons of popular blog platforms, this does not mean that I encourage or discourage these platforms. All the platforms above will provide more than enough features to kick start your business blog, it's a matter of choosing an interface you love!