3 Ways to Get Started Blogging For Free Right Now

Have you ever wanted to start a blog but didn’t know where to start. Then you should take a look at WordPress, Blogger, or Squidoo. Three free and easy places to get started blogging right away. When you’re just getting started there’s nothing better than free.

Blogging on WordPress

“WordPress is a free and open source blog publishing application and Content Management System. “

Complex, powerful, and completely easy to use. Confused? Worry not, anyone can use WordPress. It has tons of themes and widgets to play with. The free account is a little bit limited. However if you want to install it on your own host can do pretty much anything in the world you want to. I recommend that you use WordPress, even if you use the free version it’s good practice in case you upgrade later.

Pros:
The strong point of WordPress is that it comes already Search Engine Optimized, also there are TONS of third party plug-ins and widgets that can really enhance your site with no need to know any coding yourself.

Cons:
If you use the free hosted version you are limited to a small number of themes, but as soon as you find your own hosting then you are free to do as you please.

Blogspot (aka Blogger)

“Blogger (formerly Blogspot until 2006) a blog publishing system. Created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. The service itself is located at www.blogger.com, and blogs that do not publish to their own websites are hosted by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com.”

I’ve personally had a few Blogspot (now Blogger) blogs back in the day that I used for various clubs and organizations, I can say that its easy to use and free so worth a shot if you don’t want to use WordPress.

Pros:
Quick and easy to set-up and manage several blogs. It’s free, and recently has opened up new options for advertising with google

Cons:
Lacking variety of themes, and widgets. There isn’t an option to use blogger on your own hosted site.

Set up a Squidoo Lens

“If you’re tired of busting your butt to get traffic to your website or blog. If you are tired of PAYING for traffic. If you are flat out exhausted by all your attempts to rise to the top of Google…then Squidoo is for YOU!”

At Squidoo you get a free page called a “Lens”, they seem to be a little more marketing focused but some people out there claim to be make money on it. Squidoo’s pages are ranked highly by google (according to them)  Squidoo looks like it might be fun though, definitely worth looking at.

The only catch with any free hosting service is you will be a subdomain of their name.  So if you don’t want your site to look like www.pwnage.wordpress.com we suggest you get some cheap webhosting of your own, but that’s a post for another day.  Hopefully this was helpful to any of you inspiring bloggers out there.

Pros:
Squidoo is great at getting ranked in the search engines. Each of your posts show up on one long page.

Cons:
Not much room for navigation and is also more suited for beginners.