If you are thinking of starting to create a blog, what is the best platform to use to get blogging? It is not an easy question to answer as a lot of it will depend on your circumstances, but here goes!

For most people I would say that without a doubt, the best way to get started blogging is by using WordPress. Go to WordPress.org, download the latest version and install it onto some suitable hosting space. Don’t panic, over the next few weeks I’ll provide easy instructions for this!

But, what makes WordPress my ultimate favourite? It is the platform that I now always turn to, having tried a few different blogging tools in my time. I love the tool for its flexibility. It is free to use, just requiring website hosting space and a domain name. And you can add on to it with many off the shelf plugins. If you want to add statistics, a list of most popular posts or whatever other crazy ideas you have, someone else has probably already also had that idea and written a plugin for you to use. Just download it, install it and you are up and running.

However, there are times when this is not the best option for you. For example, if you are going to be running a hobby blog and want a lot of visitors quickly, then there are hosted blogs that form part of various communities. For example, if you are trying to spur on your running training, then starting a blog within a running community will give you that community immediately as readers, which could spur you on.

And then if you want a basic site and just can manage the technicalities or want to do it absolutely for free, then have a look at Blogger, or WordPress.com. Both of these are excellent blogging platforms that are available for free. But, there might not be so many options open to you.

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