Picking The Best Free Blogging Site

So you have read my earlier article about choosing the right blogging platform and have decided that not only do you want a hosted platform but you also want it to be free. Well the great news that this is of course possible, the downside is you may still feel a little overwhelmed with the choice.

To make your search a little easier I have rounded up some of the better established blogging sites that are free and identified some of their unique features. Many of the sites will use the WordPress Multi-User platform.

I have tried to include all of the major providers and a round-up of some the better smaller, new and independent sites and a little about what makes them special.

THE MAJOR PLAYERS

Blog.com
Offers free blog hosting with unlimited bandwidth on their free package

Blogger.com
Possibly the easiest site for getting started. Blogger is extremely popular and owned by Google.

Blogr.com
Allows you to blog, host photos & videos, and podcasts.

Bravenet.com
An oldie but a goodie, RSS feeds and much more for the startup webmaster.

Windows Live Spaces
Blogging but readers need to be Live Spaces members too

Xanga.com
Part social network, part blogging, all free.

Yahoo 360
Very easy to use and comes as part of your Yahoo account

15 leading free blogging sites

There are dozens more reputable sites and hundred if not thousands more that I have no opinion on. You can Google for more. These initial sites are the “Major Players” in the marketplace today and you are likely to suffer minimal technical downtime if you use them. However it is the internet and there are never guarantees. Again it is about balance, the balance between what you are prepared to pay for and what you will get in return.
If backups and constant availability are critical you should look at hosting your own application

Longevity is another major factor in choosing a big player, and a justifiable one. The last thing you want is to lose all the content you have spent your time writing, the design you customised being lost in the ether all because your free bloghost has decided that with the new family commitments and the current financial crisis that he will save money and take the service offline.

However is you are prepared to sacrifice a little of the stability, resilience and reliability you can be rewarded with more unique features, flexibility or opportunities to gain exposure and relative fame in new networks that you may not even have been aware existed.

>>THE INDEPENDENTS
In the interests of balance and supporting the little guy here follows a round up of some of my favourite of the smaller and newer players in the marketplace.

ClearBlogs.com
Friends only posts, professional templates, IP-Banning and more.

Netcipia.com
Free blog and wiki for private or public display with 2GB of storage.

ShoutPost.com
A platform for creating blogs with a focus on generating traffic.

SoulCast.com
Want to blog anonymously? This may be for you!

BlogText.org
Here’s an easy-to-use free blog and photo album service that offers many handy features

Noodle5.com
A free service that lets you easily create your own blog by filling out two simple forms. Possibly easier than Blogger to set up!

TheBlogs.net
Been around for a while, seem reliable, again powered by WordPress. Offers full standards compliance.

freetravelblog.com
Preserve & share travel memories with a FREE travel blog post unlimited photos and videos
Chart your trips on travel maps, share your trips on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and others

Thoughts.com
100% free online blog community includes unlimited bandwidth, photo, video and podcast sharing, community forums and live news discussions.

I am sure you will find a free platform to suit your needs from the above list and why not leave some feedback if you think I missed someone we should all hear about.

About The Author: Andrew Bonar, TopExpert.com
With over 12 years experience working with and marketing internet technologies, Andrew launched his first website ‘Happenings’ in 1994, when there were less than 100,000 websites o­nline. Andrew’s early interest in the internet lead to becoming co-founder of the UK’s first Independent ISP, Cheapnet/Pobox and by 1999 he had launched one of Europe’s first payment gateways, eBanx.

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