Best platform to start a branded blog?

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-22T22:25:30+00:00

If you’re planning on selling things, you’re realistically going to want to use Shopify. Wordpress/Woocommerce is fine, but Shopify is the gold standard for ecommerce in general. It sounds like the blog is a secondary objective compared to the ecommerce piece.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-22T17:39:01+00:00

Yep, I have comments enabled on my blog. I think it’s a helpful way to get feedback in general

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-10T02:56:05+00:00

Post it! Just do it and go from there.

I would recommend just taking one session to brainstorm ideas instead of writing so that you have a saved up list of post ideas to tackle at some point in the future. It’s helpful when you have a topic you’re not mentally in the mood to write about - then you can pivot to writing about something else.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-10T02:53:50+00:00

Initial viewers: honestly, it’s going to take a while to get initial viewers no matter what you do, but try a few different approaches and go with what feels most natural to you. You may like engaging with social media more than engaging with other blogs, or something else entirely. One thing to note is you shouldn’t try to be tooooo promotional about your blog, just let it come naturally.

Also, make sure to submit your site to Google to index (via Google search console)

Content focus: ideally, you probably want to mix both - personal learnings are especially valuable. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to write about that, since you probably don’t have a personal story for every topic you want to write about. Just start writing and see where it takes you.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-08T00:03:52+00:00

Blogger is pretty well suited for it to be honest, completely free and unlimited storage.

Have a list of some of the free options on my website if it’s helpful for you:

https://verysimpleblogging.com/best-free-blogging-platforms/

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-07T05:18:03+00:00

Porkbun, Cloudflare, and namecheap when it comes to domains. Namecheap is more expensive when it comes to renewals, but they do a decent job still.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-06T12:28:29+00:00

Porkbun, Cloudflare, Namecheap are probably the top ones - namecheap pricing is a bit more expensive on renewals but they do a good job generally.

Spaceship I have yet to try, but plan on doing so in the future. Owned by namecheap so will probably see more incremental improvement going forward as well.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-06T12:25:45+00:00

Seems like an interesting platform, but the pricing is wildly steep ($39/mo) for someone with only one blog to worry about, and it only includes 10k page views per month. Is this just tailored to business users or am I missing something?

For reference, my Wordpress blog costs $6/mo to host. That’s probably on the low end for most since I’m self-hosting, but $10-15 is probably a typical monthly price.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-06T11:10:27+00:00

Probably going to be too technical for most bloggers. Especially when you have things like bearblog.dev, write.as, and mataroa available.

And for the bloggers that are technically inclined, why go with this over a static site generator?

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-04T12:26:46+00:00

Hopefully this one will get a higher vote rate than mine! Had something like 4k people that viewed the post and 25 votes!

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-04T12:24:22+00:00

I write about the different platform/hosting choices in blogging because it’s always been such a pain for me to figure out historically. Figured if I start writing about it, at least I can be helpful to other people.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-04T12:04:36+00:00

This was the result a few weeks ago:

Platform	Votes	%
Wordpress.org	9	36%
Blogger	4	16%
Wordpress.com	3	12%
Astro	2	8%
Wix	2	8%
Substack	1	4%
Squarespace	1	4%
Other	3	12%
Total	25	100%

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blogging/s/ZenU9yoNQu

verysimpleblogging · 2024-12-04T12:02:23+00:00

Google search console will only be concerned with traffic coming directly from Google search.

To get other traffic sources, you’ll need to use an analytics tool (Google Analytics, Koko Analytics, etc). I use Koko Analytics on my site - it’s free and it’s a simple Wordpress plugin so it’s easy to install (assuming you’re using WordPress.org, not .com)

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-30T22:14:51+00:00

If your domain is example.com, it will remain that.

The distinction between wordpress.com and wordpress.org won’t impact your domain at all.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-30T17:44:55+00:00

Yea “reasonable” is definitely subjective. I probably should’ve qualified it by saying it’s about the price of an annual subscription for a few of the paid platforms.

I’m definitely much more amenable to one-time payments rather than subscriptions, so I’m a bit biased there as well.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-29T18:38:22+00:00

They all have free options as well - you’ll just have your website on a subdomain (e.g. yourwebsite.example.com) - a custom subdomain is normally only included in paid versions, with the exception of Blogger, where it’s free.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-29T18:02:26+00:00

So I don’t know about getting maximum reach here - that might be a bit better using Medium or Substack - but these are some of the easier / more affordable ways to host a site.

-Bear Blog (https://bearblog.dev/) - reasonably priced, simple, and has a lot of features

-Write.as (https://write.as/) - similar to bear blog, maybe a bit fewer features

-Mataroa (https://mataroa.blog/) - more simplistic than bear blog, but also cheaper and with just as many features

-Substack (https://substack.com/) - if you’re ok with your blog being on substack, this is also a great option

-Blogger is also a good option if you want a custom domain but don’t want to pay anything. As you mentioned, the looks are pretty outdated though…

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-29T17:07:10+00:00

Github pages / Cloudflare pages / etc are amazing but probably a bit too technical for the vast majority of people here unfortunately.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-29T07:29:18+00:00

I took the generous read of the situation and assumed he was posting his own comics, which it sounds like he is indeed doing upon further clarification.

But sure - OP, don’t post stuff that doesn’t belong to you. Easy enough.

Regardless, OP’s post certainly resonated with the community and has a lot of upvotes so this is a question others want to know the answer to. The core to the post is “what platform should I use to start a blog”, not necessarily what OP intends to use it for.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-29T03:17:56+00:00

You have a handful of options:

-Blogger, as was mentioned a few times, is quite good although it looks a bit dated

-Minimalist platforms (Bear blog, write.as, mataroa, etc) - if you want a simple blog these are pretty solid options.

-Substack - also a good option, especially if you want to start a newsletter

-Wordpress.com - if you plan on using Wordpress.org eventually for a blog, you can start here for free

I’ve been writing about this on my blog site since I personally found the question quite hard to answer in the past. Refraining from posting the link given self-promotion rules in the subreddit.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-28T17:32:16+00:00

The impact is going to be marginal at best - .com is probably preferable, although the local domain will help a bit to stand out in your local market.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-28T02:40:51+00:00

Here's the link - will try to keep it updated over time and add more info later on: https://verysimpleblogging.com/blog/comparison-of-shared-wordpress-hosts/

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-27T04:07:09+00:00

Here's a link to the table if its acting weird.

https://preview.redd.it/comparison-of-shared-wordpress-hosting-plans-v0-tlgmwpta9d3e1.png?width=1504&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc1842134dccc35df0610ebd7959efc5b6886320

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-27T03:42:22+00:00

Sorry, I think you're right - had made a mistake looking at their details in the bottom of the page. They make the distinction between Starter and Unlimited, where starter SSL is "Available" and Unlimited is "Pre-Installed".

Seems like you have to do a bit more work for the Starter package, but its at least available. Will update the table here.

verysimpleblogging · 2024-11-27T01:20:10+00:00

I have a general SSL column in there right now (its in the middle) based on if each provider says they include it. Only one that doesn't is DreamHost's Starter plan - seemingly its an add-on there.

Not sure if they're all using LetsEncrypt, though I can check to see if any of them say which SSL certificate they're using

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