What is a blog? How does it work and what is it for? If these are the questions on your mind, then you’ve come to the right place. The blog is a sort of virtual personal diary where you can upload images, videos and textual content. Opening a blog has recently become extremely simple and within everyone’s reach; now there are several tools that accompany you step by step in the creation of a blog and its optimization. So my advice is to get comfortable and take a few minutes to read my in-depth article on what is a blog.

If you decide to start a blog, I will guide you in its creation. Furthermore, explaining in detail what are the best free services dedicated to blogging. Specifically, I will talk to you about CMS, software for creating a blog and for its configuration (CMS is the acronym for Content Management System), but also about proprietary software of companies such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn which will allow you to start a blog immediately.

Read Also: How to choose the best template for your blog

What is a blog?

The history of the blog was born in 1997 in America. Dave Winter developed a software that allowed the first publication of contents on the web. In the same year, the word weblog was coined. All happened when an American decided to talk about his passions with a personal page on the Internet.

The blog can therefore be considered as a sort of virtual personal diary. Indeed, it is a place to talk about one’s passions through images, videos and textual content.

Why start a blog?

Opening a blog can be a choice to consider if you love to write. But not only that. Just to give an example, if you are looking for a job as a copywriter, you could attach your blog link as well as simply sending your Curriculum Vitae. The company that will receive your application, in addition to evaluating your skills on paper, will be able to get an idea of ​​your writing style, just by reading the contents of your blog.

If you have a business, starting a blog could prove to be a useful marketing tool. With this in mind, the blog is a place where you can configure as a tool to advertise your products. Indeed, you can use blog to talk about the news of your company. You will strengthen relationships with your customers thanks to the blog. Meanwhile, you can share your content on social networks where you can bring new customers.

How do you start a blog?

As mentioned above, to open a blog you can choose whether to use one of the most popular CMS or use one of the proprietary services that will allow you to start writing your content immediately. Both tools are free and to understand whether to use a CMS or a proprietary system you need to understand what kind of effort you want to put into the creation of your blog. Using a CMS like WordPress, for example, you can customize many aspects of your blog: you can change the graphics with a theme and install plugins that will allow you to make your blog as complete and functional as possible.

Create a blog with CMS

WordPress

One of the most complete and used platforms for creating a blog is WordPress. It is a free and very functional CMS (Content Management System) and you can customize it thanks to the use of plugins developed by third parties and the millions of themes available.

If you want to create a blog with WordPress completely free of charge, you can take advantage of the space offered by the WordPress.com site. Clearly, since this is a free space at no cost, there are some limitations (such as the impossibility of inserting advertising in the blog). In any case, if you have no special needs, opening a blog with WordPress is one of the best choices; your domain will be [your chosen name].wordpress.com .

If, on the other hand, you already know the basics of WordPress and want to have your own domain, you can buy a wordpress.com hosting space. The prices for the purchase of a domain vary according to the needs. Prices start from € 2.99 per month up to € 24.99 per month, with annual billing.

In addition to wordpress.com there are many other providers that offer hosting with paid plans for all budgets and needs, to host a blog in WordPress. It is also possible to purchase a domain and hosting space on sites other than wordpress.com.

Other popular CMS:

• Joomla!: is one of the most popular content management system (CMS) software platforms for building websites. Joomla is a platform written entirely in PHP computer language that allows numerous customization options thanks to the installation of themes, extensions and plugins.
• Drupal: among the content management platforms there is also Drupal which allows the creation and distribution of dynamic websites; a platform aimed at users with greater needs.
• Microsoft SharePoint: a software platform developed by Microsoft, a CMS used primarily for the creation and distribution of corporate Internet sites. The main feature of Microsoft SharePoint is clearly the integration with Microsoft services, including the Office package.
• OpenCms: it is an open source Content Management System (CMS) based on the Java platform and XML technology.
• Mezzanine: a CMS platform for the creation of websites that is written entirely in Python computer language.

Create a blog with a proprietary service

Blogger

If you want to create a blog and have simple needs, instead of using a CMS, you can choose to contact a proprietary service. One of the most famous and simple is Google’s Blogger. The main feature of Blogger is in fact its ease of use, as well as direct integration with all the services of the Mountain View giant.

To create a blog on Blogger you need to go to the official website and create or connect a Google account that will be associated with your blog from now on. You can create your blog on Blogger completely for free. You can insert advertising banners and customize the aesthetics by installing themes. Your blog’s domain on Blogger will be [your name]. blogspot.it .

Tumblr

One of the proprietary services that you can use to create your blog is Tumblr, an alternative service that is set up as an online space halfway between a blogging platform and a social network.

Tumblr was in fact born as a social network for sharing images, videos and GIFs. But then extended to the possibility of creating a real space for sharing personal textual content.

The blog created on Tumblr will be an alternative blog, within which you can share your thoughts. Since Tumblr started out primarily as a social network, there will be no excessive aesthetic customization on your Tumblr blog. All you have to do is write your articles, perhaps more concise, but richer in multimedia elements.

Then fill out the form in the centre of the screen with the email, username and password you intend to use and click on the Register button to go on.

If you want to create a blog on Tumblr and want to learn more, you can read my guide on how to customize Tumblr . You will find out how to make your blog more beautiful and start this new adventure with a twist.

Medium

Medium is another recently popular blogging platform. Owner of Twitter, the platform for creating a blog on Medium is simple and immediate. It offers a space in some ways similar to Tumblr, but with some more advanced customization.

Medium has some social features taken from Tumblr, such as the ability to share articles on the main social networks. It gives ability to vote for articles and subscribe to a user’s blog to receive notifications of new content. Medium does not provide graphical customization at the theme level, but instead offers a simple and attractive user interface. Even more, It gives posts an immediate and easy-to-read graphic style.