You’ve thought about all the reasons for blogging and have decided you’re ready to setup your own. I’d suggest starting with a free blog service to test the waters, see if it’s truly for you before you sign yourself up for 12 months hosting.
But which one? Following is a quick overview of the features of the most popular free blogging services.
| Feature |  |
 |
 |
 |
| Link domain (in addition to domain name registration fees) |
Yes – $12 pa | Yes – free | Yes – free | Yes – free |
| Static Pages | Yes – unlimited | Yes – 10 | Yes – unlimited | Yes – unlimited |
| Themes | Yes – 100+ free, most with customisable header image and colours. Premium themes available. | Yes – Choose from 15+ base templates and then customise the background, colours, header, fonts, etc. | Yes – 100+ which can be further customised by modifying the fonts, sizes, text colours, and more with a point-and-click design option system. | Yes – hundreds, free and premium. Fully customisable. |
| Customisable CSS | Not available in free service. Upgrade for $15 pa | Yes | Yes – HTML & CSS editing available via the Advanced Theme Editor. | Yes |
| Blogroll | Yes – called Links | Yes | No | Only of other Tumblr blogs you follow |
| Widgets/Plugins (e.g. Flickr, Twitter feeds, etc) | Yes – Hundreds. Used in sidebar | Yes – 20+ called gadgets. Can be placed anywhere. | Yes – 8+ and option for custom HTML. Can be placed anywhere. | Yes – 100+ |
| Stats | Yes | Yes – basic inbuilt or you can use script from other provider | Yes – basic inbuilt or you can use Google Analytics via a script | No – however you can use Google Analytics via a script |
| Categories and Tags | Yes | Categories only – called Labels | Categories only | Tags only |
| Storage | 3 Gb (upgradeable for $20 – $290) | 1 Gb via Picasa Web Albums | Unlimited, max 5Mb per file uploaded | Unlimited |
| Comments | Yes Visitors can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. Comments can be enabled or disables on a per-post basis. | Yes – can be enabled or disabled on a per-post basis. | Yes – can enabled or disabled for entire blog, not available on per-post basis. | Yes – via Disqus |
| Spam | Yes – integrated blacklist and open proxy checker. Moderation, comment editing and Akismet spam protection | Yes – Visual confirmation, spam filtering and moderation options | Yes – only by setting comments to approve only and then checking each one | Yes – via Disqus spam tools |
| Password Protected posts | Yes – you can give passwords to individual posts to hide them from the public. You can also have private posts which are viewable only by their author. | No – entire blog can be made private and only accessible to invited Google account holders. | No | Yes |
| Importing | Yes – from Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. | Yes – but only from other Blogspot blogs. | No – however you can link to the RSS feed of another blog that will be displayed on Weebly page. | No – however you can link to the RSS feed of another blog that will be displayed in Tumblr. |
| Bookmarklets (to post directly to blog from any web page) | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Post by email | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Contact Forms | Yes – Simply add the tag [contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"] to any post or page. Fully customisable. |
No – you can use a third-party form, however. | Yes – simply drag Form element onto page. Fully customisable. | No |
| RSS Feed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes – via Feedburner |
Ok… so what does that all mean?! Which one to choose? If your main focus is blogging then WordPress or Blogger are your best choice. If you want to have lots of options for controlling the content of your site then WordPress is definitely best. If you are more interested in lots of flexibility in the appearance of your site then go for Blogger.
If you are looking for a more static site, say for your business with contact details and brochures, then Weebly would be perfect, but it lacks some functionality for regular blogging.
And, if you want to be able to share interesting stuff of any media type that you find online or write short blog posts really, really easily then Tumblr is perfect for that.
Need help deciding? Why not email me with a brief description of what you want to do and I’ll point you in the right direction. No charge, just a quick reply with some advice and links to get you on the right track.
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So, you’ve read all this, you know you want a blog but still unsure about setting it up for yourself?
I can do all the set up for you.
I will setup accounts, search availability of and then register domain names, design headers and logos, customise the look of your blog and link it to your social media accounts. All at very affordable prices. Just visit my Services page for all the details. I would love to help!!!
