What Is a Blogging Platform?

Definition & Examples of Blogging Platforms

blogging platform
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A blogging platform is a software or service used to manage and publish content on the internet in the form of a blog. A blog—short for weblog—is a record of a user's entries online, usually in reverse chronological order.

Learn more about blogging platforms and how they work.

What Is a Blogging Platform?

A blogging platform allows the user to create, organize, and publish written and visual content online in a blog.

The primary thing that distinguishes a blog from other websites is that the content that is published onto a blog is shown in reverse chronological order, meaning that the most frequent additions to the website are shown first.

How Blogging Platforms Work

Blogging platforms allow the user to publish a post, display the date that the post was published, and assign a specific author assigned to the post. These software or web-based services also allow users to tag content with specific categories, making it easier to search for all posts on topic within the blog. These platforms also allow users to tag posts with multiple keywords as another way to search for specific topics.

In the past, the software programs you would use for building a website versus the what you would use for a blog were completely different. But today, there is a lot of overlap: A website builder or a blogging content management system (CMS) will be able to create both regular web pages and blog-type pages.

The most common arrangement most websites today use is to have blog-based CMS (like WordPress) that allows for the creation of the static pages on their website and a blog that can be updated regularly.

Types of Blogging Platforms

There are several different companies that offer free or paid services for publishing and hosting a blog. Some popular free blogging platforms include WordPress, Blogger, Weebly, Tumblr, and Medium.

If you are just looking to create a personal journal or share information with others than a free blogging platform can work out well for you. But if you have any intent on making money online or using your blog for commercial purposes, then many experts recommend that you avoid these free blogging platforms and pay to use a self-hosted blog on WordPress. This means you get your own hosting account and your own WordPress installation, where you have complete control over what you can do.

Even if you are using a self-hosted blog with WordPress for your own website, you can still benefit from posting to a site like Medium.com to reach more people and have them find you.

Alternatives to Blogging Platforms

Though there are many benefits to using blogging platforms such as WordPress, some people may find them a little too technical to use. There are popular website builders that aren't as technical and can create well-designed websites with blogging capabilities. They include Squarespace, Web.com, and Wix.com.

There aren't many differences between using a blogging platform or website platform for your blog. Most website platforms allow you to include a blog, and most blogging platforms have the ability to make regular website pages. The main downside to website builders is less ability to customize your site and fewer integrations with other third-party platforms.

If the technical aspects of using a platform like WordPress are beyond your capability then you may consider outsourcing your blog to a competent developer.

Advantages of Blogging Platforms

One of the advantages of using a blogging platform is that it makes optimizing your blog for the search engines easy to do. Most blogging platforms will have fields for you to include metadata, which helps tell the search engines what your website is about. This information usually includes a title for your page, an description of your post, and some related keywords.

In addition, a key to getting free traffic from search engines is to publish high-quality, original content on a regular basis, and adding new content to your website by blogging on a regular basis is a great way to do this. You'll want to do some keyword research to find what topics people are looking for.

Another possible advantage to blogging is making money from it: There are many ways to use a blog to make money online. You can sell e-books online, promote other people's products and make money as an affiliate, or use your blog to promote your own products and services.

Just note that, when it comes to many free blogging platforms, you are only allowed to use your blog for personal use and not allowed to use it for business purposes. If you plan on making money with your blog, you'll want to be sure you're using a blog that allows commercial use or simply self-host your blog on your own hosting account.

Key Takeaways

  • A blogging platform is a software or service that allows you to create, manage, and publish content on the internet in the form of a blog. 
  • Blogging platforms usually publish content in backwards chronological order with the author and date displayed.
  • There are many free or paid blogging platforms available, as well as website builders that include blogging capabilities.
  • Regular blogging can help people find your business online, and you may even be able to make money from blogging.