Starting a blog can be an incredibly powerful move for any startup or side hustle. A well-run blog allows you to share your knowledge, build authority, connect with customers, and drive sales. However, with so many blogging platforms and tools available, it can be challenging to determine which solution is right for your needs.

As a tech writer with over a decade of experience, I’ve tested all of the major players extensively. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll compare the top blogging platforms and tools specifically for startups and side hustles. I’ve found these solutions to be the easiest to use while offering the features necessary to create a successful business blog from the ground up.

Why Choosing the Right Blogging Platform Matters

Your blogging platform sits at the core of your online presence. It affects everything from your website design capabilities to SEO optimization to monetization options. Picking a platform that aligns with your goals is critical for long-term success.

“The right blogging platform can take a startup’s online presence to the next level. Choosing a solution focused on customization, SEO, and monetization opens up tremendous opportunities for growth.”

As a startup or side hustle blogger, you need a platform that empowers you to:

• Create a professional brand identity: Choose a platform with themes and customization tools to build a beautiful, on-brand site.
• Rank highly in search engines: A platform optimized for SEO gives you built-in advantages for ranking in Google.
• Generate revenue: Monetize your expertise through options like affiliate links, sponsored posts, digital products, and more.
• Own your platform: Maintain full control over your blog and content as your business grows.
• Provide great reading experience: Pick a platform that allows you to embed multimedia content seamlessly.
• Access robust support: Look for an active user community and top-notch customer support.

The right blogging tools provide immense value for startups. Let’s examine some of the top options:

Overview of the Most Popular Blogging Platforms

WordPress.org

Overview: WordPress.org is the world’s most popular open-source blogging platform. The self-hosted WordPress.org allows you to customize every aspect of your site.

Key Features:

• 100% free and open source
• Extremely customizable via plugins and themes
• Built-in SEO tools
• Easy implementation of ads and affiliate links
• Ability to sell digital products through extensions
• Vibrant community support and documentation

Ideal User: Startups and businesses wanting total design control and ownership over their platform and content.

WordPress.com

Overview: WordPress.com is the fully hosted version of WordPress. It is very easy to set up but offers less control than the self-hosted alternative.

Key Features:

• Free, inexpensive paid plans
• Quick 5-minute setup
• SEO optimization tools
• Built-in advertising options
• Large selection of free and paid themes
• Limited customization and control

Ideal User: Bloggers wanting a fast, low-maintenance setup. Not ideal for advanced monetization features.

Ghost

Overview: Ghost is an open-source blogging platform focused on simplicity and ease-of-use. It offers a modern UI and seamless integration with various revenue streams.

Key Features:

• Intuitive, minimalist editing and publishing
• Mobile-friendly themes with bold designs
• Built-in membership and subscriptions
• Integrations with SEO and analytics tools
• Strong markdown formatting options

Ideal User: Creative bloggers who value beautiful presentation and simplicity.

Wix

Overview: Wix is a freemium website builder with blogging capabilities. While versatile for some business sites, Wix lacks the SEO and monetization features critical for serious blogging.

Key Features:

• Drag and drop website builder
• 500+ designer templates
• Built-in ecommerce capabilities
• WYSIWYG editor and multimedia options
• Subpar SEO control and monetization

Ideal User: Ecommerce stores, artists, and hobbyist bloggers. Not ideal for professional blogging.

Blogger

Overview:
Blogger is a free, easy-to-use blogging service now owned by Google. It offers basic blogging features but with substantial hosting restrictions.

Key Features:

• Completely free
• Quick setup with Google account
• Simple WYSIWYG interface
• 100MB free storage
• Limited design options and monetization
• Blogs hosted on subdomain of Blogspot

Ideal User: New bloggers wanting a basic free hosting option from Google.

Medium

Overview: Medium is an online publishing platform optimized for longform articles. It offers limited site customization but high-quality reading experience.

Key Features:

• Elegant, distraction-free reading interface
• Tool for optimizing readability
• Network for distributing content
• Very restrictive brand customization
• No advertising or monetization options

Ideal User: Writers and journalists focused on the reading experience over branding.

Tumblr

Overview: Tumblr is a free microblogging platform optimized for community sharing and discovery. Full website customization is not available.

Key Features:

• Quick, easy reblogging and sharing
• Multimedia embedding
• Mobile-friendly and customizable themes
• Very limited SEO options
• Restrictive monetization and advertising

Ideal User: Creative community focused more on sharing than professional branding.

Squarespace

Overview: Squarespace provides an all-in-one content management and ecommerce solution. It offers beautiful templates but limited SEO control.

Key Features:

• Award-winning templates
• Integrated ecommerce functionality
• Built-in marketing and analytics
• Seamless multimedia integration
• Confusing interface for extensive blogging
• Subpar SEO control and customization

Ideal User: Ecommerce stores, artists, and photographers. Not ideal for SEO-focused blogs.

Write.as

Overview: Write.as is an open-source, lightweight blogging platform focused on simplicity, speed, and privacy.

Key Features:

• Minimalist Markdown editor
• Fast performance with no tracking
• Bring your own domain support
• Limited customization and template options
• No advertising or monetization capabilities

Ideal User: Bloggers who value privacy, speed and simplicity above all else.

This covers some of the major options compared specifically for startups and side hustles. But how do you determine which platform is right for your needs? Let’s explore that next.

Tips for Choosing the Best Blogging Platform

Choosing a blogging platform is an important business decision that can greatly impact your startup’s success. Here are some key factors to evaluate when making your choice:

Consider Your Goals

What do you want to achieve with your blog? Important goals for startups and side hustles often include:

• Brand building: Enhancing credibility and establishing thought leadership.
• Lead generation: Growing an email list and sales prospects.
• Monetization: Generating revenue through ads, affiliate links, products, etc.
• SEO: Ranking high in search engines and driving organic traffic.

Prioritize platforms that provide the tools to help you meet your core goals, both now and as your business scales.

Evaluate Ease of Use

Look for an intuitive platform that allows you to create content quickly. As a startup, you want to focus your time on producing great content – not wrestling with technical hurdles.

Consider the learning curve involved in mastering key tasks like writing, editing, publishing and promoting posts. Test the interface thoroughly before committing.

Assess Customization Options

To build an authoritative brand, your blog needs to reflect your unique identity. Examine how much design customization the platform enables via themes, plugins, CSS editing, etc.

More control means better ability to craft an experience optimized for your target audience. But find the right balance between customization and ease of use based on your capabilities.

Control Over Your Platform

Carefully inspect what degree of ownership and control you retain over your blog and content. Can you easily export your posts? What happens if you outgrow or cancel your plan?

For long-term business needs, maximize control over your platform to future-proof your blog as you grow.

Multimedia and Interactive Content

Today’s blogs integrate text, images, video, audio, graphics, live chats, and more. Review what types of multimedia each platform makes easy to share natively.

Rich visuals and interactivity keep readers engaged. Ensure your platform provides strong multimedia capabilities.

Access to Support Resources

Evaluate the size of each platform’s user community, documentation, forums, tutorials, and customer support. No matter how easy the system, you’ll likely need help at some point – so access to an active support ecosystem is invaluable. Favor platforms with responsive customer service and a wealth of community resources you can tap into.

Cost and Value for Money

Blog platforms range from completely free to hundreds of dollars per month. Factor in both the initial software cost and any recurring fees for hosting, storage, domains, etc.

Also evaluate the return on investment. A $20/month platform with robust SEO tools that doubles your organic traffic delivers immense value. Choose cost-efficient solutions that provide the features you need to achieve your goals.

With these criteria in mind, let’s compare how some of the top platforms stack up for startups and side hustles:

Comparison of Key Blogging Platform Features

This comparison shows that WordPress.org offers the best combination of usability and powerful SEO, design, monetization, and multimedia capabilities for serious startup and side hustle bloggers. But every platform has its pros and cons based on your specific needs.

Now let’s dive into best practices for actually setting up, optimizing, and monetizing your blog.

Tips for Setting Up and Optimizing Your Blog

Once you’ve selected a blogging platform, use these tips to launch your blog effectively:

Choose a Clear, Memorable Domain

Your domain name makes a first impression on visitors. Opt for a domain that clearly conveys your niche while being short and easy to remember.

For example, if you’re a blog for side hustle entrepreneurs, a domain like “SideHustleTips.com” is clearer than “MyBlogBusiness.com”. Check domain availability to find one that aligns with your brand.

Create an Appealing, User-Friendly Layout

Take advantage of your platform’s customization capabilities to design an aesthetically pleasing layout. Use ample white space, clear navigation menus, readable fonts, and strategic visuals.

Optimizing navigation and site architecture allows visitors to easily find information while fostering a positive experience.

Optimize for Search Engines

Follow SEO best practices from the start to help search engines index and rank your content. This includes using strategic keywords, optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, establishing internal links, generating backlinks, and more.

Refer to your platform’s SEO guides to leverage built-in functionality that facilitates search engine discoverability.

Use High-Quality Images and Multimedia

Engaging visuals make your blog more appealing and information easier to digest. Use high-resolution, relevant images to reinforce your points. Embed videos, charts, and other multimedia when helpful.

Rather than generic stock photos, create custom graphics and visual content aligned with your niche and brand identity. Apps like Canva make DIY image creation accessible.

Write Engaging, Informative Content

Compelling writing is the cornerstone of a successful blog. Create valuable, insightful content that solves your audience’s problems.

Vary post format (lists, how-tos, interviews, etc) to provide variety. Write in a conversational yet authoritative tone using language your readers relate to.

Promote Content through Social Media

Share your blog posts on relevant social platforms to expand reach. Post excerpt snippets on networks like Facebook and Twitter directing people back to the full piece.

Use targeted hashtags and mentions to connect with influencers and groups interested in your niche. Promoting content amplifies its impact.

Build an Email List

Email marketing helps continually engage readers. Offer a signup form or newsletter subscription box on your site. Deliver subscribers valuable content like exclusive tips to nurture relationships.

Building an email list provides an opportunity to promote new posts and directly interact with your audience. Use a service like MailChimp to manage lists.

Optimizing these elements establishes a high-quality blog poised to attract and grow its audience. Next let’s explore proven techniques for monetizing your expertise.

Tips for Monetizing Your Blog

A profitable blog diversifies your startup income while providing another channel to serve customers. Here are effective strategies to monetize your content:

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs allow you to earn commissions by promoting relevant products. Strategically recommend helpful items and services, with affiliates seamlessly integrated into content.

Affiliate marketing works especially well when aligned with the natural recommendations you’re already making to your audience.

Sponsored Content

Accept paid sponsorships from brands that resonate with your audience. Ensure sponsored content provides legitimate value for readers rather than just promotional material.

Clearly disclose sponsored relationships and maintain editorial control over branded messages.

Sell Digital Products or Services

Consider developing digital products like online courses, ebooks, or templates based on your expertise. Or provide continuity services through membership programs.

Promote and sell these items to blog subscribers looking to go deeper into your niche.

Advertising Programs

Join an ad network like Google AdSense to display high-quality text and image ads on your site tailored to your niche. Location-based ads also connect you with nearby potential customers.

Ad networks provide another revenue stream while enhancing the user experience – it’s a win-win.

Case Studies of Successful Startup & Side Hustle Blogs

Let’s look at real-world examples of popular startup and side hustle blogs successfully using various platforms:

Smart Blogger (WordPress)

Smart Blogger used WordPress to build a blog now generating over $500,000/year covering blogging strategies and tools from a startup perspective. Their comprehensive posts and resources have established them as a trusted leader in the space.

OkDork (Ghost)

OkDork is Noah Kagan’s blog using Ghost to document his journey of launching startup projects and side hustles. OkDork’s transparent, conversational style combined with bold branding has built a passionate audience.

Legal Nomads (WordPress)

Former lawyer Jodi Ettenberg launched her food and travel blog Legal Nomads on WordPress in 2008, growing it into a full-time business and 6-figure income source. Her gorgeous photography and adventurous spirit inspire readers worldwide.

These examples demonstrate how startups and side hustlers can leverage various blogging platforms to build authority and thriving businesses around their knowledge and expertise. The key is finding the right platform aligned with your particular goals.

Recommendations for the Best Startup & Side Hustle Blogging Platforms

While many solid blogging options exist today, for most startups and side hustles I recommend WordPress.org due to its potent combination of:

• Excellent SEO capabilities out of the box
• Nearly unlimited customization potential
• Ability to fully control and own your platform
• Robust design, development, and support ecosystems
• Diverse monetization options
• Scalability to grow with your business

WordPress provides the flexibility and power needed to build a professional blog that drives results for your startup while retaining full ownership over your platform and destiny.

For extremely basic blogging needs, WordPress.com or Blogger offer free hosted options. Wix, Squarespace or Ghost provide easier design for non-technical users. But evaluate them closely for limitations regarding SEO optimization, monetization, and customization capabilities.

While not a magic bullet, the right blogging platform lays the foundation for startups to spread ideas, build communities and thrive online. Selecting a solution aligned with your goals and capabilities allows your blog to realize its full potential in service of your business’ growth.