Which Blog is Right for You? Review of Free Blog Services

Blogging is the next generation of creative online publishing. Since it became popular a few years back, many blogging platforms, both paid and free, have emerged. However, because free blog services have such a massive audience following resulting in intensive community of developers performing intense development, the features of free blogging services are every bit as advanced as that of premium blogging services. Below are the reviews of five of the best free blogging services in the industry, each fulfilling a different niche in the blogosphere.

 

Blogger has to be one of the most simplest and intuitive free blogging services out there. From a design point of view, Blogger’s software platform is completely transparent, as you can easily see what you’re doing and where you want to go. Blogger even offers free hosting for your blog. The features of Blogger are a blend of the best of customization-oriented blogs like WordPress and community based blogs like Xanga. The Blogger community is second to none, and its functionality is more than sufficient for the average blogger.

LiveJournal is a service that is more oriented toward personal blogging. As implied by its name, LiveJournal is very much like a personal journal. It has got all the features for creating your own personal diaries. If you opt to pay for its premium service, you get even more features to play around with.

Xanga is one of the best community oriented free blogging services in existence. In contrast to Wordpress and Blogger, Xanga is almost used exclusively for socializing and sharing time and experience with others who have the same interests as you. Xanga blogs are well-crafted and aesthetically pleasing. Being in the world of blogs for quite a while, I would say that Xanga blogs are the prettiest. This is mostly thanks to its customization and creation platform. It is very easy to make a good blog, and a lot of friends with Xanga.

Wordpress is an exceptionally well-developed and well-supported blogging platform that has enough functionalities to dazzle even the most advanced and demanding bloggers. Upgrades for Wordpress is released monthly, if not bi-weekly. Although Wordpress is not as well search engine optimized as Blogger out of the box (Blogger it is a service owned by Google), it has more than enough plugins and customization to compensate. Most internet gurus use Wordpress as their home base, whether to maintain an advice-sharing homepage and/or to promote their products.

Tabulas is one of the newer and less popular blogging platforms, but it is increasingly gaining popularity. Tabulas is similar to LiveJournal and Xanga in that it is more personally oriented and community based. In addition, it offers many privacy options which allow you to share your thoughts with only those you trust.

 

Given all the choices for free blogging services, it is to your best interest to choose wisely before embarking on your blogging journey. If you’re looking to start a business or organizational blog, Wordpress or Blogger is your best bet. If you’re looking to keep a diary, try LiveJournal or Tabulas. And if you’re looking to impress friends and family, be sure to take a good look at Xanga.