Regardless of whether you want your new blog to be with a free provider or you intend to have your own domain name and hosting, you still have an important decision to make. Which blogging platform do you want to use?
Deciding on a Blog Platform
This isn’t a decision which should be taken lightly, especially since you could conceivably be using whichever blogging platform you choose for a long time to come. You can see why it is important to take some time over your decision; while you can move your blog at a later date if you wish, it still involves a certain amount of hassle and it’s something you want to try and avoid if you can.
The answer lies in looking at all the main providers and seeing what they actually provide you with. Visit some IM forums as well and see what other users have to say about each provider and the service you get. If you are using your own domain name and hosting then you don’t need to worry about sticking within their rules and regulations, but you still want to know that your chosen blogging platform is user friendly and will do what you want it to do.
Make Blogging Easier
Ideally you want your blogging platform to make the whole process of posting to your blog quick and easy. If it’s difficult to use or doesn’t make the grade in any way, you will find it irritating to use over the long term. Think about how you want your blog to look too – will your chosen blogging platform help you to achieve that look?
It takes time to build traffic to a blog, and with that on your mind it will be nice to know that you don’t have to worry about how easy the whole thing is to use.

