Top 5 Free Blog Sites

Top 5 Blog Sites for 2012

The world of blogging has exploded in the last decade, evolving from primitive sites with simple themes to modern technological powerhouses. Not all blogging sites are created equal and this includes the blogging platforms where they reside.

The following list of top 5 blog sites are a roundup of the best on the internet for 2012, offering a wide variety of tools and options for the great low price of free!

WordPress

WordPress is the Swiss army knife of the blogging world. It is both a blogging community and blogging software. Both sides of the site are free; one can make a blog on WordPress.org that can be easily transferred to a private domain using the WordPress software.

This is my personal choice for the all round best Blog site on this top 5 list for anyone that wants variety and choice in their Blogging platform.

• WordPress has many widgets and add-ons that extend the functionality of the blog.
• There is a wide choice of both free and paid themes. These range from text-oriented themes to the visual oriented themes.
• Highest Page Rank of all Blogging sites – most popular in terms of the search engines
• Easy to integrate into Facebook and Twitter through the “Publicize” included plugin

Blogger

Google’s in house blogging community has been serving up content since the late 90’s. This service is aimed towards the user that desires a great variety of tools to help in publishing their content.

Integrated with the rest of Google’s tools, Blogger can be a one-stop shop for the Google devotee. Blogger has a large selection of themes, along with the ability to customize those themes to your liking.

• The Google set of tools provides a wealth of free options, making it rank high in my list of top 5 blog sites.
• There is a large and loyal community associated with blogger. This is from thirteen years of service to the public!
• You can incorporate Google Adsense to monetize your Blog.
• Built-in Google Analytics so you can easily track visitors to your site.

Tumblr

Created with the idea of micro blogging in mind, Tumblr does a great job of satisfying the visually orientated. Definitely one of my top choices for the best top 5 blog sites on the web. These sites are populated with text, art, and videos that reflect the authors.

The ideal Tumblr user is a person that doesn't post long batches of text, but loves to represent his or her life in pictures.

• Tumblr has an ease of use that is reflected in every theme design.
• Tumblr sites are oriented more towards pictures and videos than text.
• A user can post text, but the themes tend to be created with a visual style in mind.

Posterous

Recently acquired by Twitter, Posterous takes the visual style of Tumblr and creates a site that is more adaptable to the needs of a blogger. Posterous expands further by delivering a set of creation tools needed to produce a fully functional blog.

Posterous sites tend to appeal more towards the visual orientated, but there certainly aren't any built in limitations to posting text. The perfect user is one that is stylish but also likes to post text oriented blogs.

• Plenty of pre-built themes are available, that a user can customize.
• CSS and HTML knowledge is needed to customize themes.
• Control who sees your posts, even password protect them!

Weebly

Less of a blog oriented site and more of an easy to use web builder, Weebly, nevertheless is one of the top 5 blog sites for many Bloggers. A blogger doesn't have to rely on tools necessarily oriented towards blogging.

Weebly is good for a blogger that wants to use their web-space for more than just blogging. They can design the site in any way they want, using free tools that Weebly provides.

• The website creation tools are easy to use.
• Weebly has integrated social media functions.
• Has that “website” feel but with the ease of administration of a Blog.

Top 5 Blog Sites for 2012 Conclusion

I truly hope this list of top 5 Blog sites has given you some information to think about! Although each of the above sites differ in certain ways, my recommendation would be to start with WordPress and see if this fits your needs. WordPress can really do it all, and if you do decide to setup your own private domain – WordPress makes it easy for you to transfer the content from WordPress.org to your private domain.

If the above choice of 5 is not enough, then check out my post on the Top 10 Blog Sites - an extended list of sites, again all completely free to join!

One final thought, as all of the above are completely free to join, you’re not restricted to just one site – try a few out and figure out what works best for you. On a side note, many webmasters maintain several free Blog sites and interlink them via hyperlinks to increase the social footprint of their websites and increase their ranking positions within the search engines!

Blogosphere? What's That?

Simply put, the Blogosphere is the entire collective of Blog sites that exist on the Web (including this one!) and their interconnections. Much like the term Blog was created by means of a joke, so to was the term Blogosphere. It was first used by a gentleman named Brad Graham in 1999, but was not  generally accepted terminology until William Quick adopted the term in 2002

Blogosphere actually comes from the Greek word “logosphere” which in Greek is interpreted as the “world of words”. Brad Graham added a “B” to this to make Blogosphere. Although this term started out as a relative joke (and took several years to become a mainstream term), thinking about it, it’s actually quite a good fit!

Blogosphere Interesting Facts

The Blogosphere is definitely an interesting and varied place! Here are a few fun facts about what makes up the Blogosphere:

• 2/3 of Bloggers are male!
• 48% of Blogs exist within the continental US
• 1 out of 4 Blogging Sites earns over $100k per year (Wow!)
• 63% of Bloggers say they have become more involved with things they are passionate about
• 19% of Bloggers are worried their employers might not approve of their Blogs including me!
• On average, Bloggers receive 28% of traffic from social media sites such as Facebook!

Mapping the Blogosphere

What a mess! Basically that over-sized spider web is a representation of all the interconnections between mapped out Blogs that makes up the Blogosphere. The more dense the connections, the more active that part of the Blogosphere is.
The numbers 1 to 6 are highlights (or in the case of #5, the low-light!) of the Blogosphere. Here’s what each of the numbers represent:

1. Those white dots represent uber popular Blogs. The biggest of the white dots is home of DailyKos - recipient of over 500,000 visitors per day, wow!
2. Boingboing! Everone’s favorite high-tech and fun to visit Blog!
3. The users of Live Journal – one of the oldest established Blog networks (1999)
4. The blue/purple blob represents highly popular, interconnected personal Blogs
5. Yup, even the Blogosphere has Pornography, here’s where it lives!
6. Sports enthusiast Bloggers, but unlike the introvert blog sites mentioned in 5, these Blog sites have links pointing into the most popular types of Blogs within the Blogosphere

Sources: Wikipedia and Discover Magazine

Welcome to my Blogger Site!

Hi all and thanks for visiting my Blogger site! First thing first, introductions. My name is Stephanie and I have been a Blogger way before Blogging was cool. I have built all kinds of Blog sites for myself, friends, family and clients. I wanted to put this Blog together as a sort of “information repository” for all those looking to start their own Blog and for a solid introduction to the Blogosphere.

I have organized this Blog in what I hope is a very to easy follow order consisting of the following sections:

• Introductions to Blog Sites – if you are new to Blogging, here is a great place to start!
• Free Blogging Resources – I will guide you through some great online resources where you can setup a Blog site for free
• Premium Blogging Resources – want your own private Blog? You’ll need to choose a domain name, get hosting and setup a great looking Blog – and the best thing is – it’s all a piece of cake!
• Getting Visitors – your Blog is up and running, but where is the traffic? I will take a look at several methods of traffic generation (not just SEO!!)
• WordPress Tutorials – WordPress is a huge player in the Blogosphere, and I wanted to dedicate several tutorials to those new to WordPress to help in getting started.

I also want to make you aware of my free WordPress installation services at my sister site – Blog Sites. Although installing WordPress is extremely easy nowadays, I know it an be a little daunting to some. I will also install some pretty great plugins that help with site speed (very important!), security and social media 

I hope the information within this Blog site proves useful and informative! I am always available to help those new to Blogging who need a little help or advice, so if you fall into this category, please feel free to email me: admin at blogsites dot us.

Happy Blogging!