Starting a blog in this day and age is easy.

You can even start one for free.

Sounds good? 

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty on how to start a blog for free.

How to start a blog for free today

Blogging is easy and free. Many people are making a good deal of money from their blogs. But what is a blog? Essentially, a blog is written content on the internet. 

Anyone can blog from billion-dollar companies, mom and pop businesses to cats and dogs. 

I’m kidding. I’m kidding.

A blog can bring in sales, brand recognition and grow a business.

However, you may just want to blog part-time and make a bit of money. Or, just want to keep memories for you and your loved ones.

In any case, you can blog without spending a dime by joining free blogging platforms.

There are many places to start a blog for free. The following are just some of them:

• Blogger
• WordPress
• Wix
• Medium
• Tumblr

Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform started by Pyra but bought by Google in 2003. All you have to do to start with Blogger is sign up.

Signing up is a simple process. Go to blogger.com, click on sign up, pick your favorite theme, and blogging you go.

The good thing about Blogger.com is that it’s easy to use. Well, all these blogging platforms are easy to use.

I started with Blogger. It was a long time ago that I couldn’t remember the name of the site. 

You can get a free subdomain (https://yourdomain.blogspot.com), or you can buy your own, and Blogger will host it for you.

Why blogspot.com and not blogger.com?

Blogpost and Blogger are both owned by Google. Blogspot.com provides the domain, and Blogger hosts that domain.

When you are getting some visitors, you can turn them into dollars by turning on Adsense. Adsense is Google’s advertising program. Of which publishers can make money by audiences clicking on ads. 

You can turn on Google Adsense quickly in your Blogger account. Refer to this link for detailed instructions to turn on your Adsense account once your blog qualifies.

Your content must be original, high quality, and attract readers to qualify for Adsense.

Your blog also has to meet Google Adsense’s program policies, and you have to be over 18. More information about Adsense eligibility here.

Blogger has built-in analytics if you are not interested in getting down and dirty with Google’s Analytics complexities.

WordPress

Not wordpress.org, but wordpress.com can host your blog for free, and similar to Blogger, you get a subdomain name (yoursubdomainname.wordpress.com).

A little bit about both: WordPress.com is owned by Automattic, a company started by one of the founders of the original WordPress.org.

Many developers maintain WordPress.org in the community. However, WordPress is still closely related to Automattic due to its founder, Matt Mullenweg. In 2010, Automattic handed the trademark to the WordPress foundation.

The WordPress Foundation ensures that the open-source WordPress continue to grow without control of companies or sole entity.

WordPress.com offers many elegant themes similar to wordpress.org. The add-ons in WordPress.com, such as Woocommerce, Mailchimp, and Yoast, almost seem like you don’t need WordPress.org anymore.

In saying that, it took WordPress.com to integrate these addons quite a while. But, we are not comparing the two WordPress’ here. 

This is a battle of the best free blogging platform on the internet. And so far, WordPress.com is leading the race.

Wix

Wix did a great job raising awareness with their brand by playing their ad at the 2017 Superbowl. 

Did it raise awareness and attracted more users? You bet it did. How? 

Think about how many viewers in the US watch the Superbowl? According to the LA Times, 99.9M people watched. That’s more people than the whole of the U.K.

The cost of getting those eyeballs on your brand can make you gasp in horror, though! With a reported USD 5M for a 30-second ad slot. 

$5M is a great deal of change, and some of us may not earn it in our lifetime. But, Wix had reportedly grown their user base from 1M in 2009 to 150M in 2019. 

Even with only 1% of those users using the basic plan at USD 10, that’s $15M in revenue. More than enough to pay for two ad slots.

Why this matter?

Well, with more users on the Wix platform, Wix grows.

As Wix gets a more significant share of the pie, they hopefully put money on bettering the platform and providing greater service for the users.

What’s a free membership in Wix look like?

It’s the same as the other free blogging platforms.

Wix will provide a subdomain (https://www.yourdomain.wix.com).

Wix will run ads on every page you create, and Wix’s favicon will appear in the URL.

Those are the domain-based free blogging platforms.

Now, let’s see blogging platforms with engaged audiences, aka social media.

Medium

Out of all the social media blogging platform, Medium is the newest. And Medium pays writers to do what they do best — write.

Before you start using Medium as a blogging platform, you have to know the following:

• 9% of writers make more than $100
• 90.1% of writers make under $100
• The under 0.9%% of writers make over $5,000 to $30,000 a month
• Can’t join premium ad networks

[source: Making money on Medium]

In some parts of the world, $50 is an adequate income. If you’re not so lucky and living in one of the more developed countries, $50 may not be enough to cover the weekly groceries.

So,  why blog on Medium?

The lack of money earned in Medium will drive most people away. 

However, Medium is free, after all. And there are other ways you can make money on Medium.

Bear in mind that you won’t have your subdomain when using Medium. It seems that Medium is bringing back their custom domain publication according to their service deprecation announcement.

This means that you can, once again, point to your bought custom domain and be hosted by Medium. For example, you bought a domain named iblogyourblog.com. The look and feel of your website will be exactly like Medium.

But, then again, you won’t be blogging for free. And this article is about starting a blog for free. So, let’s not bother about the re-introduction of Medium’s custom publication. But it’s good to know that you have options to brand your Medium blog.

Tumblr

Similar to Medium, Tumblr is another blogging social media hub. And, you can make money with it.

In terms of how much you can do, Tumblr is better in rich media compared to Medium. You can upload images, share little video clips, or a mini audio rant.

There is a useful community behind Tumblr. Even better if you’re a family-friendly type of business.

Tumblr lost a whopping 30% of users after the adult related content ban. Thirty percent is a significant number when you have millions of users.

As of September 2020, Tumblr has gone down from 347.5M users in January 2020 to 292.5M, according to Statista.

If you’re not in the porn industry, you shouldn’t worry too much. If you are, you shouldn’t rely on other people’s platforms to run your business because shit like this happens all the time.

Don’t worry about content bans. How about vanishing off the face of the internet. Remember Friendster? If you don’t, you’re too young.

How about MySpace? In other words, use the omnichannel approach. Be everywhere.

Will we see Tumblr next year? Who knows. I don’t know. 

But for now, making money on Tumblr is still viable. 

Just sign up, and you will get your very own subdomain on Tumblr. Just like mine at healthfulpapa.tumblr.com.

Conclusion

These are the platforms that will let you start a blog for free. There are no upfront costs when you join these free blogging platforms.

If you are just trying to get your feet wet, join any of the platforms. If you want feedback or a sense of community, joining a social blogging platform like Tumblr and Medium is ideal.

If you want a blog that you can eventually scale in the future, go for WordPress, Wix, and Blogger.

Wix is pretty, Blogger is the OG, and WordPress is the best. Sorry, did I sound too bias just now? I just wanted a word to rhyme with Press, and best was the best.

On a serious note, If I were to recommend you an excellent platform to start a blog for free, that would be WordPress.

There are just too many things you can do with WordPress. You can start a shop, collect leads, create subscriptions, and more.

I will leave you with a parting shot from WordPress.com:

Infinite combinations, infinite possibility.

by: WordPress.com

They are referring to plugins, but I like how it sounds. I think there are many ways you can make it in life. And blogging is one of the best.

If you want to make blogging your full-time work, you can. If I can do it, blah blah blah…

But, seriously, I was a warehouse worker. I was also a cleaner and retail assistant. Now, I am unemployed.

Be unemployed too, by following the simple steps I outlined in “how to start a blog.”

So, which blogging platform would you try to start your free blog? Comment below. Thanks!