Best Blogging Platform For Making Money in 2020

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 what's going on everybody, today I'm gonna break down the best blogging platforms out there for you to launch your first may be it's your second third or even fourth blog you know a lot of times we start these blogs and they don't necessarily jive so I know there's a ton of these different blog hosting sites out on the internet both paid and free but really when it comes down to the absolute best there's only a select few and I've got seven of them here that I'm gonna review for you so the first thing we're going to do is I'm gonna dive into each blog hosting platform individually then I'll go over what I believe to be the top pros and cons for each one and then last we'll go over their pricing structure if they do have one because again some of these are free but you're definitely gonna want to stick around to the end because I'm gonna answer the question that everybody loves to ask me I all the time people ask me this stuff it's what's better what should I go with a paid blog hosting platform or free and if you are moving your blog into a specific direction which I think every single one of you need to be doing then I've got the answer for you so stick around to the end because I'll answer that but alright now that we got that out of the way let's jump right into our first one alright drumroll please number one and my absolute favorite touse is WordPress. 

WORDPRESS

WordPress requires self hosting I recommend Bluehost as your hosting company and I'll tell you why here in a minute but you know WordPress is probably the single most powerful way toget your blog up on the internet today and it's the reason I use it for 99.9%of all the websites that I start I mean I can't even tell you the last time I didn't use WordPress it's got unlimited customizations you know tons of theme and plugins that you can use and really it's no wonder that some of the top websites on the internet use it today like sites like San Francisco Examinertoyo I think even the White House uses it that's on their list of sites as well and there's a ton more and everybody that I've ever sent to WordPress I have not had one person come back and tell me that they regretted it that's how powerful WordPress is and if you'relooking at starting your first blog I really recommend that you just startwith WordPress right off the bat but I'm gonna give you a ton of other options as well okay so let's get into some of the pros of WordPress first and foremost it's fast and optimized I mean especially when you can install certain plugins with it it's gonna give you fast load page times which obviously Googleand Bing being loved so the other thing that's got tons of different themes and plugins to use like I was kind of mentioning so you can pretty much customize everything you want I mean from different side bars to having you know newsletters and opt-ins and being able to have plugins to do e-commerce whatever you end up getting into it doesn't just have to stay with blogging which is so nice so convenient it's really cool and the third con or started the third Pro is Google and being love WordPress again because you can installplug-ins like Yoast SEO which allows you to have complete optimization of your website which is really gonna help in the search engines and then the otherPro is that it's continual being developed and updated on an ongoing basis okay so WordPress is always being updated.

I have automatic updates for I think most of all my sites so anytime a new version of WordPress launches my stuff automatically updates and I'm good to gothe one con to WordPress is that it does take some learning and getting used tobut really when you look at it is that a con I mean everything in life takes time right you're gonna have to sit down put in the time learn the platform and thenyou'll be ready to go and one that's the thing once you invest the time and learnit you're gonna be you're gonna be good I mean you and start any type of blog any type of website that you that you want that youryou know that you can creatively think up really now as far as pricing WordPress is absolutely free since it's open source but you're gonna have to have its self hosted which is why I recommend Bluehost okay and I'm gonnaget into Bluehost right now I've used a ton of hosts over my time of building blogs web sites some of those hosts are here today gone tomorrow some of them Istill use today but without a doubt Bluehost has to be my absolute favorite and probably the number one reason why is because WordPress recommends Bluehostas their favorite host it makes it so streamline and easy you have one click WordPress installation it's really simple to set up they've got a great youknow 30-day money-back guarantee here's the other cool thing if you're not sure what an SSL certificate is it's just that little green padlockup in the Turner corner buy the domain name that Google seems to love so much right now in just this full disclosure I do get alittle bit of credit from Bluehost  somewhere I've got astep-by-step tutorial showing you how to get your first blog up using WordPress and Bluehost so definitely check that out alright number two on our list hereis Square space

SQUARE SPACE

 Square space was founded in 2003 and it'squickly become what I like to consider one of the big three They've got their own built-in drag-and-drop page builder you can kind of think of Square space like an all-in-one solution you know it is a lot more limited and not asflexible compared to WordPress but it really is great for those bloggers whojust want to have some fun and kind of test the waters with with different services um they do offer a short free trial so you can get on that too so some of the pros is number one all security and updates are managed bySquare space so you're not gonna have to worry about manually updating things if you know if you don't if you don't want to it's all built in Square space does it for you and number two a really cool thing isthey got a dedicated tech support team so if you do run into any issues you canhit up their tech support team and get that resolved the two cons is it's kindof what you see is what you get so you know what's built into it that's prettymuch all you're gonna get not a ton of plugins and you know there's sometemplates but not a ton of stuff like like WordPress offers and again I mentioned this before the second con is not it's not as flexible as WordPress soyou know if you you're not going able to start with a blog and then jump intoe-commerce it's gonna be a little bit more difficult and not as a stream line so now as far as pricing goes they have two primary part pricing plans the firstone is their personal plan which runs at $12 a month if billed annually and then they've got a business plan which is $18 a month if you sign up annually sooverall we're sorry Square space is a great platform it's actually really popular in the photography community as well I see it quite a bit so if you knowif you're drawn towards that definitely check it out number three on our list is Wix.

WIX

Wix has a few hundred templates theability to integrate shopping carts and build your own e-commerce platform there's a reason Wix makes it into my top 3 blog posting platforms and hisversatility it does have some downsides but it's a great solution for the newand even those who have been blogging for a while who are thinking of taking blogging maybe to the next level or a little bit more serious they've also gota 14-day free trial so you can try one of their premium plans and really get inthere kind of learn the platform and see if it's for you one of the biggest pros like I mentioned was that they have over 500 templates to choose from that's ahuge amount you know you got a lot of templates therethe other cool thing is you've got the ability to integrate email newslettersand build ecommerce websites so as I mentioned you can start with a blog andthen if you begin selling stuff you can have kind of your own e-commerceplatform on top of there as well they have video tutorials to help you throughthe whole creation process so you're kind of not left stranded wondering whatto do the two cons are as once you choose atemplate and design you're kind of stuck with it which can be frustrating becauseif you do change it you're gonna have to start all over and then give the reallysucky thing and I don't know why they do this the cheapest paid plan will stillkeep Wix ads on your web sites you're still gonna have the little branded Wixlogo on your website really kind of annoying but hey I guess you know whatdo you do let's get into their pricing they do have a free option but it itincludes a ton of Wix ads all over the site it's really only if you want tokind of mess around with the platform number two they've got a connect customdomain option so if you have your own domain name and you want to just connectthat to your Wix site that's five dollars a month if paid annually and butI believe that one does keep some ads on your site which again kind of kind ofsucks the second option that they have is their combo and the combo plan is a$11 a month and that gets rid of all ads on your Wix Wix website so if you wantto get rid of all ads you're gonna have to go for the combo plan and then theydo have an unlimited which is $14 a monthoverall Wix is a cool platform I mean they've got a lot of different stuffthey've really grown over the years I use them a long time ago when they firstkind of were getting popular it's a cool platform definitely get in there and seeif it's for you number four on my list is tumblr and tumblr has over 500million monthly users which is a really good amount and it's considered the Internet's top micro blogging website now you might have caught me say somethingthere micro blogging that's right it's not like her traditional blog most ofthe tumblr sites are micro blogging so what that means is that you are going toget short posts maybe quotes and a lot of it's just images so if that kind offits the niche that you're going into then you know maybe tumblers more foryou what are the biggest pros of tumblr is that simplicity you can literally beup and posting an image or quotes or short little things of text withinminutes you know and number two the platform caters to a Malinin millennial audience who obviously likes to digest content quickly we all know without ithow that is right now just instant they want to see things you know images withtext really just getting content as quickly as possible now the two cons isyou can't have a self-hosted blog okay so you're not gonna be able to havesomething like WordPress or Wix or square space where you can have your ownself hosted platform you're just not gonna be able to do it which really kindof kind of sucks and number two it's very limited I know I mentioned thisit's a very very limited and only for a niche type of blogger and as far as pricing goes.

TUMBLR

Tumblr's absolutely free so even if you don't want to use tumblr asyour primary source you use tumblr as kind of a secondary youknow contents generation strategy where you've got a blog maybe through wicks orSquarespace or WordPress and then you've got a tumblr as well which can generatetraffic and push it to your blog so deaf tumblr very least it's free you knowstart putting some stuff up and getting some traffic to going to your to yourwebsite number five on my list is Weebly Weebly was actually created in 2006 andit's quickly become a popular platform for building full-fledged websitesecommerce stores as well as blogs it's still smaller than wicks and Squarespaceand even WordPress but it's still contender and it's worth taking a lookat I've built a few websites on Weebly and it has a good interface and a good agood platform it has its own dragon drag and drop page builder and a ton ofdifferent themes and customizations one of the main pros of Weebly is thatinstalls and maintains SSL across your website SSL is huge right now and sohaving a platform that that can do that is really cool the other cool thing isthat they've got no bandwidth or storage caps on their paid plans so you're notgonna have to worry about any type of bandwidth limits or you know uploadingtoo many images or videos or too many users coming on your site you don't haveto worry about any of that and the other cool thing unlike Wix is that theyremove all their ads with their lowest tiered pricing so if you're payingyou're not gonna have ads on their website or on your website so to consyou're really unable to scale and grow with your blog because you're not goingto be able to add things like email marketing and newsletters which you knowif you are moving your blog in a certain direction you're gonna eventually wantto have that stuff to be able to communicate on a more personal levelthrough email with with your with your audience the other thing is thatreally no content management system except for being able to move pagesaround within the Builder and I do remember that it was really frustratingand kind of annoying so if you're looking for a content management systemthat's really structured like WordPress

 you're not gonna get it with with Weeblyso their pricing plans the starter starts at $8 a month if you pay annuallythey've got a pro plan which is $12 a month a business plan which is $35 amonth and then their performance plan the very top one it comes in at 46 bucksa month overall Weebly is a good platform I seeWeebly more as like kind of like full-fledged websites for you know maybelocal businesses but you can definitely get in there start doing some bloggingand and just you know playing around alright number six on my list and thevery last one is blogger and it has actually been around since 1999 and itwas one of the first blog publishing platforms which helped popularize thewhole blogging format in general if you're on the Internetyou've probably heard of blogger or used it maybe even to some capacity it's likethe grandfather of you know of vlogs Google actually bought them out in 2003they do offer you a limited number of templates on the platform and they giveyou the option to connect your own custom domain through Google's ownservers if if you want to do that so some of the pros of blogger it'scompletely free so you don't have to pay anything for it the next thing is thecontent management system is done right it's really easy to get in and kind ofstart your first blog post number three is they can link your own custom domainso if you do have your own domain you can link it to your blogger account andkind of have that more personalized feel to your blog some of the cons and Imentioned this is very limited in the amount of templates you can choose fromso very rigid have really boring templates but they'rethere Google owns your blog so if they shutdown so does your blog okay it's free so I guess it's not that big of a deal butif you really built a big audience around that and then Google decidedthey're not gonna support blogger anymore or take the service awaycompletely you're kind of screwed and out of luckthe other thing is it's there's almost non-existent support for the platformunless you're going on YouTube and watching some tutorials here and thereyou're not gonna have a dedicated support team that's you know gonna beable to help you and pricing structure there is not it's completely free so ifyou don't have a blog if you want to just you know write freely and kind ofget your thoughts out on paper or on computer I should say then you knowstart a blogger start like I mentioned with one of the past platforms start ablogger on the side of your website and direct traffic to your direct traffic toyour main blog there's a lot of different ways that you can utilizethese free platforms so get into blogger and play around check it out alright nowthat we got through my top six blog hosting platforms both paid and free Iwant to get into the final question that I told you about the beginning of thisvideo that I always get asked and that is paid versus free blog hosting anddoesn't matter the short answer is yes it totally does but let me explain ifyou're getting into this whole blogging world because you want to kind of talkabout what you're eating or express your feelings a free platform might be foryou I still recommend going paid because you just never know what your blog could turn into but you probably be ok with a free platform on the other hand ifyou're really focused you have a passion and a desire about a certain subject ortopic and you even have the slightest interest in potentially turning our bloginto a side income or even a full-time income and I know that sounds crazy butit's totally possible then you need to get on a paid blog hosting platformright away okay I recommend or Preston and Bluehost obviously together but Idon't care if it's WordPress or Wix or Weebly or Squarespace get on a paid bloghosting platform and here's the reason why most free platforms are not gonnalet you monetize so you might build a huge audience on blogger okay and you'renot gonna be able to monetize them or what you're gonna have to do is you'regonna have to then build a blog on a paid platform anyway to be able to maybebuild a newsletter or build an e-commerce store that you want to sellso just start on a paid platform okay and the second thing is you want to bein complete control if tumblr decided to shut down and youhad a poppet and blog on a micro blog on there then you're out of luck yourstuffs gone you want to be in complete control of your content of everything atall times okay and the third thing is with these free platforms you're gonnaquickly grow out of them if you continue to blog you're gonna find the limits ofthese free platforms so being able to get on a paid platform straight away isyour best bet so I really hope you guys got some value out of this videoyou know this quick guide to the best blog hosting websites really push you inthe right direction whatever you decide to go with just know that I'm glad youtook the first step into figuring out what platform you want to begin with foryour blogging career okay and I'll leave you with one piece of gold and advice to kind of in this video choose your blog host wisely because itis a headache later on changing it so choose wisely what you decide to go withspend some time thinking about it you know and but definitely take action onwhatever you decide because in a year from now you don't know where your blog could be in six months and even two or three months if you are dedicated to It and you put in the work your blog could blow up you never know okay so that's it for today guys keep checking out