The 8 Best Free Blogging Platforms in 2023 (My Honest Opinion)

When we talk about the best free blogging platforms that you can use in 2021. There are several options free blogging platform that you can use.

First of all, It will depend on your blogging goal. What is your main purpose in starting blogging? If it’s just for fun and no monetization plan. Then, yes, I can say this blog post will give you some free resource options that you can use to start your blog free.

If you don’t plan to monetize your blog, you’re missing a huge opportunity to make money from your blogging hobby. You will be amazed how powerful your blog to boost your income level, whether as a side hustle or full-time income.

In order to be able to fully monetize your blog safely for the long run. I will not recommend you to use the free blogging platform. You will risk your blog content by getting removed without any further notice. It will be so painful if your blog post getting removed while it can generate traffic and money.

If you’re interested to know more about how to start monetizing your blog. You can read a blog article on how to start an affiliate marketing blog.

Please kindly note, if you plan to monetize your blog using affiliate marketing. These free blogging platforms are not the best option for long-term strategies. You may end up being banned or your post being deleted. If you want to monotize your blog through affiliate marketing for the long-term business plan, the best way will be to use a self-hosted site.

But, if you just want to write a blog post just for fun without caring about the monetization plan. Then, you will be fine using these free platforms. Let’s break down all the free blogging platforms that we can use to start your blog for affiliate marketing.

Medium

Medium can become the best choice for most people when they want to create a free blog and monetize it through affiliate marketing. It has a clean and simple user interface.

Medium blog

Medium currently has an average of 200M monthly visitors, with 67% of their traffic from Google search. What does it mean for you? It means you can rank your Medium blog on Google and getting traffic from the search page because Medium has a high authority domain in the eyes of Google.

It’s also a good opportunity for you If you have an affiliate offer on your Medium blog. You can easily rank your blog post to promote the product.

Please kindly keep in mind, If you have an affiliate link on your Medium or Google Sites. Don’t forget to put an affiliate disclosure somewhere in your article or at the end of your writing. You will need to mention that you’re promoting an affiliate product and earning some commission if the reader buys from your link as per FTC requirements. The affiliate disclosure statement is needed as per Medium rules.

Google Sites

Maybe only a few of you know that you can make a simple free blog using Google sites. The same thing as Medium. Google sites have a high domain authority in the eyes of Google. Hence, if you plan to monetize your blog post with an affiliate offer on your Google sites. You will need to put an affiliate disclosure somewhere on your articles.

Google sites

The only downside is that you don’t own your blog if you’re using Google Sites. Google may remove your content if they found you violating their terms and condition. Hence, switching to a self-hosted plan will the best option for long term sustainability.

Linkedin

Some of you may not know that Linkedin can become one of the best free blogging platforms for you since it already has an audience base. It doesn’t only function as a professional platform to find a job and find a business partner. But also as a blogging platform that shares your article to a relevant audience.

Linkedin

The only downside is you don’t have full control over your content, and you can’t collect email list for your blog reader using Linkedin. Hence, using the self-hosted site will allow you to collect your email list for lead generation.  If you just want to write and share your ideas and opinion without monetizing it, then Linkedin can be a great choice for you.

Blogger

Blogger.com is one of the oldest free blogging platforms people use to create their blog. Several people are still using it as their personal blog to express themselves.

Blogger

Currently, Blogger.com still has 57 million visitors to its site. If you use Blogger.com as your blogging platform, your blog domain name will contain blogspot.com at the end of your domain name. It will be great if you own your self-hosted site to look more professional and full control of your blog content.

The last thing, if you plan to monetize your blog through blogger.com, ensure to put affiliate disclosure on your blog since you will monetize it with affiliate marketing.

Tumblr

Tumblr.com is a free social microblogging site. The blogging concept on Tumblr will be like social media. You will be allowed to put and ads and affiliate link. Even you can install Google Analytics on your blog using Tumblr.

Tumblr

You can find friends and promote your blog content on Tumblr since it has an audience base who likes to engage and read the blog content. The only downside of using Tumblr will be limited control of the customization and features compared with the self-hosted site.

Wix

Wix.com can be a great alternative also for beginner blog who want to start their blog free. The website was built using drag and drop. If you use Wix as your free blogging platform, the only downside that the ads shown on the site will disturb and reduce the user experience of your blog reader.

wix

If you want to remove the ads part on your site. You will need to upgrade it to a paid plan. In my opinion, upgrading your Wix to a paid plan will be a pain in the ass for the long run. Because Wix as a blogging platform lack features that we can’t find when using WordPress. Also, you can’t install any features for your blog with a plugin if you choose Wix as a blogging platform.

You will be better to use a self-hosted site like WordPress.org by using Bluehost as your site hosting for your blogging journey. It’s far more sophisticated in terms of features to grow your blog.

Weebly

Weebly.com is one of the free website builders you can use for blogging. They offer a free plan with five custom page which you can use. Weebly is designed not only as a blogging platform but selling product. The same thing like Wix, the only differences is Weebly provide less feature compare with Wix. These two companies launched in the same year in 2006 and compete with each other.

weebly

Since it’s a website builder, you only need to drag and drop to build your blog with Weebly. Both Wix and Weebly lack features that can’t be compared when you built your blog using WordPress.

WordPress

Building your blog using free WordPress .com can be another great alternative also. The downside is your domain blog name will become www.blogname.wordpress.com. Please kindly keep in mind that using the wordpress.com domain means you don’t own your website.

WordPress

On top of that, you’ll have very limited to no control over what you can do with the blog. For example, your blog posts could be taken down without any notice if someday you changed your mind to monotize your blog.

Well, it will depend on the terms and conditions. They may prohibit you from using their platform to sell your products, services, affiliate offers, or other methods to make money.

That’s why I recommend people to use a self-hosted site like wordpress.org if they plan to monotize it. You can follow step by step complete tutorial on how to start a blog with Bluehost.

I highly recommend you to use Bluehost if you plan to switch your blog to self-hosted. It’s super cheap to start and easy to set up for a new Blogger. Your domain will be switched to WordPress.org means you own your website.

Final Thought

In conclusion, all the best free blogging platforms that I have mentioned can be used safely if you just want to blog for having fun without planning about monetizing it.

If you plan to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing with a free blogging platform, it can be risky for the long term plan. All your hard work and revenue can disappear at any time without any further notice.

I would like to recommend you start your self-hosted site with Bluehost. It’s cheap, only $3.95/month with a FREE domain for one year. I have full complete tutorial step-by-step on how to set up your blog using Bluehost. You can follow all the detail guide on how to set your WordPress blog standing 100% which can be useful for your blogging journey.

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Best Free Blogging Platforms

If you have any questions about the best free blogging platforms, let me know in the comment section.

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About Juherianto Joe

Juherianto is an eCommerce Entrepreneur and Marketer. He is the founder of Ebizstrategic.com a blog about making money online, blogging, affiliate marketing, and eCommerce. He has a wide range of experiences and knowledge during his entrepreneurial journey which can be shared with everyone who wants to make money online as primary income or side income.

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