What is the best blogging platform for making money online?
You know what sucks? Getting good at the wrong thing.
You know what else sucks? People who get their blogspot blogs up and running and say, “Now what?”…
“Why is nobody coming to my blog?”
“Why is my blog not even ranking? Does google hate my blog or something?”
“How do I sell my passion product on this blog? I don’t see an option for that…”
“IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WHO CAN HELP ME AND DOESN’T JUST WANT TO STEAL ALL ME LUCKY CHARMS AHHHHHH!”
Don’t pull your hair out 🙂 I’ll help you…and if you want to pay me in the end, you may.
Rule #1: all blogging platforms are not created equal.
Lucky for me, I wondered this very same thing when I started blogging.
Even luckier for me, I had teachers who pointed me in the right direction and kept me from wasting time.
Here’s what I would tell a friend who asked me “Whats the best blogging platform for making real money?”, based on my own personal experience from blogging for 3 years, and some hardcore research from the web.
Which blogging platform is the best for making money?
In short, WordPress, but not all WordPress blogs are created equal. WordPressdotCOM is similar to other free sites like blogger, and is not as good for making money for the same reasons.
However, WordPressDOTorg (same company + better platform) is the higher quality, big boy blogger version of the WordPress platform that will allow you the freedom to transform your blog (or site) into whatever it needs to make the kind of money you’re trying to make.
Other free sites limit your ability to make money, which is why they’re free, and is also why all of them combined consist of only half the total blogs on the internet, where the WordPress platform consists of the other half.
- 20 different blog sites (blogger, wix, weebly etc..) = half the internet’s blogs.
- Just wordpress itself equals the other half. See what I mean?
What are the different blogging platforms?
WordPress: The big daddy for blogging. Most successful blogs (if not all of them) are going to use WordPress. You get more access to plugins and software created over more than a decade, constant updates and an already established support team. It’s better suited for bloggers in general who are trying to make money.
Wix: Wix is less technical and looks more like a page builder (if you know what that is). A page builder is basically a drag n drop front end manipulator, which makes it super easy to use. You pay in the end though. Sacrificing difficulty in the end has the trade off if you want to make money later on.
Squarespace: Great for beginner businesses who don’t want a bunch of customizable themes, styles and plugins. You choose a template and plug everything in it. Not what I would recommend for bloggers. This is a platform for when you open up a new coffee shop in a small town, or possibly Food truck in LA.
Blogger: Have you ever seen blogger? It looks like Xanga – remember Xanga? Very free, very cheesey looking, and very not good if you want to create a successful blog. I guess you could corner a niche that nobody else is in, and put adsense on it, but let’s just not.
Weebly: Costs between $144-$192 for all the features you’ll want to run a secure and respectable blog. It also doesn’t offer much of anything different that you could get from a free or premium WordPress plugin like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce.
Tumblr: more of a social media platform than a blogging platform even though it technically hosts “web logs”. When you search something in google or bing have you ever seen a tumblr come up on the first page? Not recommended.
You’ll notice, that most of the allure for this platforms is the ease of use and lack of technological skill you need to get started. My honest recommendation (if you’re serious about making money with your blog) is to a invest in a reputable blogging course that shows you all the technical set up.
In other words, don’t sacrifice money and business later for ease of set up now. Bad move.
How do I choose the best blogging platform for me?
Decide what your goals are. Then research what the best platform is best for those goals. Research “best blogging platforms”, read about them and decide. In all honesty, WordPress is the best blogging platform across the board for several reasons.
Since you literally searched “what is the best blogging platform for making money” my humble guess would be that you’re interested in taking your passion for writing and helping others and turning a profit from it…right?
No big deal, that’s what I wanted to. To be honest, I did that Ikigai stuff – I combined what I was good at (writing, research, reading, learning) combined it to a desire to help others, and a desire to make money from home and turned it into this blog.
So you can definitely do it as well.
The best blogging platform for making money is (100% without a doubt) WordPress.
This is my personal opinion, but sometimes a personal opinion is such because the truth is obvious.
WordPress has all the features, and customizable options you need to not only start a business online, but expand it and connect it.
That, and WordPress has none of limitations of other blogging platforms. The only negative thing that can be said about wordpress is that there is a learning curve for figuring out how to customize the look, and technical aspects of your blog, but honestly, you’ll figure it out.
If you think you might need help, check out the course I used personally to create this blog you’re on right now. I literally PROMISE my friends Lauren and Alex will get you set up nicely.
Plus, it’s not just a blog on wordpress that does that. There will be technical things you’ll have to learn along the way for any online business you start. It will take some time, but will practice, you’ll figure it out. That’s how everything works in life.
Best free blogging platform in 2022
The answer to this question is also WordPress.
If that’s confusing to you, listen up.
WordPress.com is the free (limited) version of the WordPress platform.
That being said, their free version is still better than anybody else’s.
What’s the difference between free blogging platforms and “paid” ones?
Free platforms host everything for you, but you’re limited in the actions you can take.
See the section of this post called “Why are there so many different blogging platforms?”
How do blogs make money?
How to make money blogging is really the meat and potatoes of what everyone wants to know about making money online.
It doesn’t matter what type of online business you have, free traffic is blog traffic. You can get some social media traffic for free, but for the most part, if you put the time to create content and get it to rank on google, thats the only FREE traffic you’ll ever get.
There are so many different ways to make money from blogging, and it depends on
- What type of blog you run
- Who your readers are, what their problems are, and the solutions to those problems
- You as an individual, there is some choice is how a blog is monetized
- Whether you even want to make money from the blog at all
A finance blog might make money from insurance referrals, meaning the insurance companies pay the blogger to send traffic to their site, where they know some of those people will sign up for their insurance plans.
My blog here, THELIFESYNTHESIS, is a Self Improvement blog. I designed this blog around my passion for writing, learning, education and achieving personal success. That’s way different than a generic finance blog…
I make most of my money through affiliate marketing – meaning I educate others on various self development topics, and when they want to go further, I point them in the direction of a paid resource they can use to improve. This sale will give me a commission and they’ll benefit from it too.
You might ask yourself why you’re reading a post on blogging then, if this is a self development blog.
The answer is, making more money in today’s world has become a part of Self Development. The world of online money is becoming something that everyone needs to know in order to thrive in this new world we live in.
So I took the opportunity to show people how I created an online source of income – one that has quite literally changed my life.
Other ways blogs can make money are:
- Ads – sometimes good money sometimes bad
- Sponsored posts – kind of iffy
- Selling info products – my favorite / you’re the creator and in control
- Affiliate marketing – you pick excellent products that your readers want
- Consulting – offering expertise (like a finance blog might offer a financial service)
- Services – using a skill you already have and charging for it
Why are there so many different blogging platforms?
Simple. Those companies want to provide a blogging service and they’re allowed to.
The question you’re asking is really “Why are there different types of blogging platforms right?”
What is the difference between free and paid?
Do you pay for WordPress.org and get WordPress.com for free?
Not exactly – the difference is in the hosting.
With free platforms, they cover the hosting, which means your blog lives in their “server land” and they pretty much take care of everything your blog needs to exist.
- You still design the blog to some degree
- You still write the material
- But much of the “back end” technical stuff is taken care of by them
With paid platforms, you take care of the backend technical stuff yourself – normally by paying a hosting company, like Bluehost, or Bigscoots to host your blog for you.
The trade offs are below:
Free hosting:
- Free, zero cost
- No self branding
- Platform attaches their name to your url
- Makes you look unofficial and scammy
- Your limited by their hosting platform, which may or may not be designed for what you wanna do
- Better for personal blogging, hobby blogging – think zanga or myspace
Paid Hosting:
- Cost money
- Looks more official
- Can create your own personal brand
- No limits on performance or functionality
- Better for online preneurs who want to make serious dough (do they still say that?) I mean money, of course!
Can you make money with all blogging platforms?
Yes and no.
While it is possible to make money with all blogging platforms, depending on your method of monetizing the blog, you will meet functionality problems, performance problems, and issues connecting with other online services (like clickfunnels and apps) that will help you make money by using a free platform.
Getting your own hosting plan with a company like Bluehost (affiliate link) is a better bet if you’re trying to turn your blog into a business that produces passive income.
If you’re catching my drift here: free blogging platforms are really not an option.
Does it cost money to use these platforms?
You will not pay the platform itself. You will pay a hosting company like Bluehost (broken record?) to host your site, while maintaining complete ownership over everything.
The investment of having your own domain and going with the paid hosting option is superior in every way.
The amount of money you give to a hosting company is literally pennies. Right now I pay like 25 dollars a month for them to take care of everything, and they have excellent customer service, and always take care of my needs.
Some people talk a bunch of shit about Bluehost and say it’s not a good hosting platform, but I’ve been blogging for three years and I disagree.
Once you get about 50 to 100k pageviews per month to your blog, you’ll want to upgrade, but that’s far off in your future, and using Bluehost right now is the best move for beginner bloggers.
So, which blogging platform is the best?
WordPress.org is the way to go because you get all the functionality you need to make money from your blog, you get none of the limitations of other platforms, and WordPress now hosts 34% of the internet. They’re platform is highly optimized and kicks the crap out of all the “up and coming” blogging platforms still.
My Favorite Tool for Learning how to blog and make money
I highly recommend you check out Lauren and Alex’s course on blogging. It’s the program I used to start blogging properly and make money as quickly as possibly.
Not that you’ll start earning revenue tomorrow, but making needless mistakes will only slow you down. Check out all the information for this course and figure out for yourself whether you’d like to take advantage of it, or try and figure it out on your own.
