When it comes to marketing strategies, the internet offers an immense range of possibilities where you can find amazing options to improve and customize the way you market your business. Social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are the most common strategies used by businesses; especially e-commerce, but there is one option that sometimes gets underestimated: blogs.
Although some people may believe that blogs are not as popular as other marketing strategies, statistics show that using blogging platforms allow businesses and e-commerce to update and improve content which helps to bring a lot of traffic to their pages. It does not matter if you are a beginner or a long-time marketer; blogs are always a great idea to embrace brand awareness and create a positive and convincing presence online.
Nowadays, the more popularity you raise online, the more successful you will be; that is a fact. By enhancing your content, you will immediately gain your audience’s interest and as a result, your brand will gain ground a lot quicker. If you are a marketer and are looking for great blogging platforms, it is essential to take into consideration all the choices you have. Here below we will list some of the best blogging platforms for e-commerce you will find online.
1. WordPress.org
WordPress.org is nowadays the most popular platform to start blogging content for your brand. It is extremely easy to use; therefore, it is perfect for any person who is a beginner in the world of marketing. This platform allows any marketer to customize their page and allows entire control of your webpage for futures improvements. WordPress.org is known for powering as much as 25% of all the websites online, which means its popularity is big and increases every day. It is important to highlight that; WordPress.org provides their customers a ton of plugins that can be used to optimize your blog; about more than 4000 plugins, each of them for free!
Another great advantage this platform offers is the opportunity to optimize SEO, which will bring plenty of benefits to your blog when it comes to approaching your audience and bringing constant traffic. It is also very important not to confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com, another great blogging platform to take into account, which offers different benefits.
2. Tumblr
Tumblr is a very popular platform that is the perfect combination between social media and a blogging platform. Among all the benefits this platform provides, we can highlight how simple it is to use, it helps you improve your content in an easy way. It is extremely customizable and allows you to create a solid community of readers. Tumblr is also very flexible since it offers you to update content in different styles, such as GIFs, pictures, videos, and audio clips. This platform offers its own application, so you are able to have entire control of your blog with your own device.
Although it is a very fun way to start a blog, Tumblr might have some cons; it offers limited features that make it difficult to improve your blog in a long run; it is hard to make a security copy or export some of the content as well. This platform is amazing for people with little knowledge about blogging, so you can test the waters with a small blog.
3. Wix
Although Wix is a platform destined to create websites, it offers an application for blogging. This platform offers different tools that ease the creation of your blog and helps you to apply a neat and minimalistic look. Compared to WordPress.org, Wix is another pretty popular site with more than 100 million users, which makes it a reliable platform to start your blog. It also provides a professional view to make your blog good-looking for your audience.
With amazing customer service and easy-to-use tools, Wix has become incredible for the least experienced entrepreneurs who are looking to share info about their e-commerce. The only con this platform presents is that it does not offer many free possibilities; to obtain a domain name or erase the Wix, you have to pay around $5 to $11 per month. Still, this site offers great designs and allows you to add interesting features to make your blog more likable, such as videos from different platforms, personalized images, and the flexibility to update titles.
4. Squarespace
This platform is known for providing great designs for users. It offers amazing tools that allow people to create good-looking web pages. Just like Wix, it was intended to create design websites; however, it is still a good option for those who want to add a different view to their blogs. In Squarespace users can find plenty of useful tools that ease their functionalities; the drag and drop option is great for manageability, the grid design and the 3D displacement is a nice option to add a more interactive look to your page.
Squarespace is also known for having eye-catching templates which help users to improve blogs destined for artistic purposes; these templates allow your blog to look professional and original. This platform might be a little difficult to manage for some users with limited skills in blogging, so if you are a long-time entrepreneur, this is the platform for you. Squarespace has a lot of optimized options but no free version. Still, it is one of the best platforms for e-commerce to enhance their traffic.
5. Weebly
Weebly is a pretty popular site that offers newbies great opportunities to start a blog for their businesses; it does not require wide knowledge on blogging to start using it. It is another platform that offers a great drag and drop tool, which makes it simple to manage. Weebly is a great option for those entrepreneurs who want to customize their e-commerce blog and make it fun and dynamic. Among tons of different themes and simple configurations, Weebly also offers many possibilities for free.
Although Weebly offers a lot of benefits for a beginner blogger, it could be hard for those entrepreneurs who want to expand their business to wider borders, since it does not offer a variety of functions. Another thing to keep in mind is that this platform requires a plan of $4 per month to have a full domain of your blog and $8 per month to erase the brand’s mark.
6. Medium
This platform is an amazing option for more experienced bloggers, especially for writers who want to expand and acquire more audiences. Medium provides their users good-looking designs and simple management; this is the reason many people who want to share their content choose this site. It also allows bloggers to approach their audience since it makes it easier for users who share interests to get to know you a lot quicker. You can find a lot of functionalities and free customizations.
However, the only con Medium presents are that it does not allow bloggers to monetize their blog, which could make it hard for some e-commerce owners to add advertising in order to improve and make their brand gain ground faster.
7. WordPress.com
As we mentioned above, WordPress.org and WordPress.com are very different platforms with different functionalities and intentions. It is pretty easy for bloggers to get confused but it is very important to highlight their differences. WordPress.com offers many features that are very simple to use and it does not require any extra configuration, which is great for beginners. By using this platform, you will be opting for credibility and professionalism. Although WordPress.com is free, you might be able to pay $2.99 so you can have a full domain of your blog and erase the brand mark.
This last thing we just mentioned means that WordPress.com has a full domain of your blog and full control, which can become an issue for most e-commerce owners. It cannot be monetized and does not allow advertising. In this way, WordPress.com is a lot more limited than WordPress.org, and even though it is still a great blogging platform for beginners, it might not be as useful as many would need.
8. Joomla
Joomla is one of the best blogging platforms on the internet nowadays, because it is an open-source content management system, just like WordPress.org, which makes it simple to use and great for e-commerce blogging. One of the many benefits this platform provides is that it is not necessary to pay for the full domain of your blog; it is entirely in your control! IT also offers tons of great templates to customize the design of your blog; it is extremely flexible, customizable, and allows users to download plenty of extents to improve the view of the blog. All of the features this platform offers are just great for users to have a blog completely personalized.
The only inconvenience is that the popularity of this platform is very limited which can become a con if your vision is to spread the name of your brand. Also, customer service is reduced to only asking questions about the same community; this is a not-so-great aspect. Despite this, Joomla is completely free and does not ask for extra charges for other functions.
9. Gator Website Builder
Offering hosting services and simple features, Gator Website Builder was created by Host gator. This platform was destined to make the blogging experience a lot easier. It is one of the best blogging platforms for beginners for a long time now; the drag and drop option allows users to build up their blog in a simple and reliable way. This platform offers amazing functions for their customers, one of them is the ease e-commerce owners have to add advertising in their blog; this is a plus that makes this platform the perfect place to enhance the awareness of your brand. The facility to add links is unbelievably good, and also offers great reliability when it comes to security and backup information.
The only con Gator Website Builder has is that it might require extra charges for e-commerce owners; adding advertising and links for selling stuff on the same blog can cost around 3.46 per month. Also, this website does not offer as many extensions as other platforms which can make it used a bit tough. Still, it provides the full domain of your blog, which takes a lot of weight off.
10. Ghost
Last but not least, we have Ghost; this is a great site that provides beautiful and minimalistic designs for bloggers. It is easy to use, so it does not need that much experience in the technical field to use it. It is also an open-source system just like Joomla, with the difference of some features. This is an amazing site to improve brand awareness since it allows users to optimize SEO; in this way, you can rank your blog in the highest Google searches.
Ghost offers limited functions so it reduces the chances of customizing your blog. Also, this website has the full domain of your blog unless you pay extra charges for self-hosting and web hosting, which can become a pretty expensive service.
The Internet offers a huge and extensive number of possibilities that can help you to spread the name of your business when it comes to enhance brand awareness and gain more traffic. The blogging platforms we have just listed here were all destined to help users to improve and expand their content, in order to be known and gain an audience. So, in general, if you are looking for a blogging platform that works for you, it is essential to keep in mind their pros and cons analyze each of them, and conclude which brings more benefits for the future of your e-commerce.
Remember that businesses with a confident and influential online presence make a whole difference from those who do not have it. Be aware of the things that work for your business and be sure to consider your customers’ interests and needs.