Tuesday, May 15, 2012

4 Top Most Popular,Free,Easy Users Friendly Blogging Platforms Till date-2012

Blogging has become popular never before to explore own idea,product,business,politics etc. So,any one have decided that he/she wants to start blogging,but have no idea where to start. Don’t worry,Blogging for business can be a great way promote your ideas,build credibility behind your product or service,and add a human side to your business.Deciding whether or not to set up a blog isn’t the hard part.It’s much more difficult to figure out how to do so with so many different tools and platforms out there .Here at Exploring Social Media,we hope to help!We’ve compiled a list of the best free and easy blogging platforms so you can decide which one will work best for your business.Here 4 Top Most Popular,Free,Easy Users Friendly Blogging Platforms Till date-2012.
1.WordPress:-
WordPress has quickly become one of the most popular platforms,not only for blogging,but also for large-scale websites such as CNN,the New York Times,eBay,Yahoo!,and many,many more (including Exploring Social Media!).WordPress is great because it offers options for every type of user.If you simply want to set your blog up quickly without having any development or design skills,WordPress offers a huge library of free themes that you can install on to your site to give it your own unique twist. WordPress.com allows you to host your site on the WordPress servers,so you don’t need to worry about setting up and paying for your own host.You also don’t need any technical skills to get started.The downfall of WordPress.com is that you cannot use your own custom theme(you must choose from one of theirs),and you cannot upload plugins.These are things that may become important to you as your blog grows, but are not necessary if you’re just starting out.
To get started with WordPress.com:
Visit http://wordpress.com/
Click the big orange“Get started here”button

Here’s where you’ll sign up for your own account

WordPress will ask for a name of your blog, which will be housed at“ bloggerstech. wordpress.com”.If you want to use.com,.net,or .org,you’ll need to pay $17/year.You can always start with a .wordpress.com domain and change it later.You’ll need to set your username and password (which you’ll use to log in to your blog), your email address,and then click Sign up! By signing up,you agree to the WordPress.com terms of service.
Once you’ve signed up,you’ll need to check your email for a confirmation from WordPress.com. Click the activation link within the email to verify your account.After you’ve verified your account,you’ll be automatically taken to your WordPress dashboard.Here is where you can modify the look and feel of your blog and start adding content.

Within your dashboard,you’ll see a Welcome to WordPress.com Video.We recommend watching this before you start doing anything with your new blog,unless you’re already familiar with the way WordPress works.When you’re getting started with setting up your blog,you’ll want to go into the Tools tab on the left-hand sidebar to input the details of your blog.After you’re set up,you’ll generally only be concerned with the Posts,Media,Pages,and Appearance tabs.
There is plenty of documentation on using WordPress that you can dig into yourself.Here are some resources from WordPress and others to help you get started:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/get-started/
http://learn.wordpress.com/
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/
http://easywpguide.com/
Aside from being fast and easy to set up and use,the best thing about WordPress is that it is an open source project,which means that developers all over the world are working hard at all times to fix problems and make it work the best way it possibly can for everyone’s benefit.This means that when updates are made, there are lots of people standing by to make sure everything works properly,so you won’t need to worry about the system being broken and it taking days to fix!
2.Tumblr:-
Tumblr may be even easier to set up than WordPress,but doesn’t have quite the level of functionality and support that WordPress offers.It is ideal for quick posting of different types of media,following other users, and sharing.To get started:
Visit www.tumblr.com

Tumblr is famous for having one of the easiest setup processes ever.Just enter your email address,password,and URL and you’re immediately brought to your dashboard.Like WordPress,your Tumblr blog can be hosted at“umain30.tumblr. com”for free.You’ll need to verify your email address before you can publish posts,so make sure to check for a verification email from Tumblr before you make any changes to your blog.Once you’re verified, you’re ready to post.Tumblr makes it easy to organize your posts by the type of media you want to post by offering options such as text,photo,video, quote,links,and more.

Choose the type of post you want, and add your content.

You can customize the look and feel of your blog by clicking the Preferences button, or visiting http://www.tumblr.com/customize while you’re logged in.Tumblr is great for getting a blog up and running quickly,especially if you are not familiar with code,but it doesn’t allow for as many customizations as something like WordPress does.Often,people will set up a company blog on a more complex platform,and then use a Tumblr to post quick tidbits,fun facts,and relevant photos/videos in addition to the longer content on their main blogs.
3.Posterous:-
Posterous is another quick and easy way to get started blogging for your business in a snap. Like Tumblr,it is often used in conjunction with a more in-depth blog for quick and fun posts.To get started,visit www.posterous.com

Simply enter your email address,desired user name,and password,and you’re all set to go.You will need to confirm your email address,just like WordPress and Tumblr,and then you can get started right away with posting content, finding friends,and designing your blog.

Like Tumblr and WordPress,Posterous allows you to“follow”your friends and other Posterous blogs that you might be interested in.Posterous is the only one that makes finding your friends part of the setup process,however.By authorizing access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts,finding other friends that also use Posterous is easy.You can also use the Explore feature to find new content from people you may not know.Posterous has an easy post interface, with easy buttons to help you add titles, images,audio,video,documents,and format your posts.

You can also set options for auto-sharing your posts to your social networks when you authorize Posterous to access them.To change the look and feel of your Posterous blog,you can click“Settings”on your homepage.There you’ll see a button that says“Edit theme”where you can choose from hundreds of free Posterous themes,or create your own using HTML and CSS.

Posterous also gives you the option to Register You Own Domain,which is a paid service that allows you to purchase your URL through Posterous,so your blog will show up at www.umain30.com rather than www.umain30. posterous.com.Posterous handles the hosting for you,the same way WordPress.com does.

4.Blogger.com:-

Free weblog publishing tool from Google,for sharing text,photos and video.To access your blogs,sign in with your Google Account.Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries.It was created by Pyra Labs,which was bought by Google in 2003.Generally,the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com.Up until May 1,2010 Blogger allowed users to publish blogs on other hosts, via FTP.All such blogs had (or still have) to be moved to Google's own servers, with domains other than blogspot.com allowed via Custom URLs.Blogger.com is the second highest number of users to create own blogs. 

Conclusion:-
We wanted to give you a glimpse into a few of the best free options for blogging,especially since the market has become saturated with tons of different options to choose from.The platform you use to set up your new blog is really up to you.We recommend trying one or all of these and figuring out which one you feel most comfortable with based on its ease of use for you,plus the level of customization and functionality you’re looking for.
Guest Author Profile:-


Jess Ostroff is a digital marketing and social media virtual project manager for Social Media Explorer and Exploring Social Media.You can follow her on Twitter for musings on technology ,music,and other topics related to location- independence and freelancing.

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