If you value your business you will not leave your main business website in the hands of a free hosting company.
The simple fact is – the free blogging platforms won’t allow you to do all the things that you will want, and need to do, with a website. This includes optimizing it to attract traffic and sales. There are several blogging platforms out there and include TypePad, Weebly, Squarespace, Drupal, Joomla, and (My favourite) WordPress.
The best thing to do when choosing a blogging platform is to take the time to analyse them as a business tool.
For example; some are built using a simple drag and drop technology. These are excellent but perhaps not as flexible as others.
The Best Blogging Platforms for Local Business
My personal choice (and the choice of millions of others) is WordPress. This combination pairs affordability with efficiency and flexibility. Although that may be my favourite, your focus should be to discover what will best support YOUR business.
Boring as it may sound – pragmatism is required. Meaning, if this is truly a business you want to build then, try to approach it like you would if you were building a house. There are specific variables unique to you and your business that need to be considered.
The Right Hosting is the Strong Foundation for Your Business
Build your site with a tried and true hosting company. Hosting companies come and go so make sure the one you choose has been around for awhile and has a good reputation. Unless you know you will be getting thousands of hits (visits to your website) a day, then there is no need to pick one that is really expensive when you are first starting out. Moving to a new hosting company when the need arises is quick and simple.
Using the house analogy, you want to choose a good neighbourhood whence to dig your foundation. Some of the cheap and free hosting companies don’t care who they let in or what they are doing when no one is looking. You might not realize it but your neighbour could be a pornographic live webcam site. Also, if someone on your shared hosting plan gets hacked, you can be hacked too. Either of these scenarios can mean your hosting IP can get blacklisted really fast. This means your emails might go to “junk” and your site could drop out of the search engines completely.
Choose a Blogging Platform You can Live With
This is your business website. It should be professional, informative, pages should load quickly, and contact information needs to be clear. By choosing WordPress as your blogging platform you benefit because it is free and EXTREMELY versatile. It might be a “blog” but it can look like a professional website giving you the best of both worlds.
Why Use WordPress
Did you know that 18.9% of the top 10 million websites use WordPress?
There are certainly a tonne of choices and you are welcome to weigh them out. As a matter of fact you can spend months studying and reviewing all the choices. Many people do. Most of them never get their business online. I have suggested WordPress on a paid hosting plan. The most important thing right now is to make a decision and get started. It is OK if it turns out the choice wasn’t a flawless one. Websites can be moved to new hosting and uploaded to new platforms. There aren’t too many mistakes that can’t be fixed.
