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Choose a home base, establish a few outposts, and start writing
I recently discovered that this little blog about blogging was receiving more visitors than I realized.
That seemed like a good reason to begin nurturing it again.
The Clogger Blogger can become a resource for my coaching clients, fellow writers, speakers, pastors, business owners, and anyone else who has something to say but is not quite sure where to say it.
I have blogged in many places over the years. That has given me considerable experience—and perhaps a mild tendency to create another blog whenever I develop another interest.
You do not need to do that.
You need one good place to begin.
Before surveying the platforms, let me make one important distinction.
Your home base and your outposts
A home base is where your work lives. It should give readers a reasonably organized archive of your writing. Ideally, it allows you to use your own domain name, collect subscribers, back up your work, and make your articles searchable.
An outpost is somewhere you meet people, start conversations, share excerpts, and invite readers back to your home base.
Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and even YouTube can be excellent outposts. They are less dependable as permanent homes because you do not control the platform, the algorithm, or your access to your audience.
You can publish in several places, but it is wise to know which one is home.
Here are some of the choices.
Blogger: simple, dependable, and free
Blogger is where The Clogger Blogger lives.
If you have a Google account, you can sign in at:
Creating a blog is remarkably simple. Choose a name, select an available Blogspot address, choose a theme, and start writing. Blogger provides basic search settings, statistics, labels, pages, comments, layouts, and gadgets. You can also connect a domain name you own.
Blogger is especially convenient for YouTube creators. When adding a video to a post, you can upload one or select one from YouTube directly inside the editor. Google documents that process here:
https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41641
You can create and manage multiple blogs under the same account. I would not describe the number as unlimited, but there is certainly room to develop more than one subject or project.
Blogger is not the most versatile publishing system available. Its design and expansion options are more limited than WordPress, and its ecosystem sometimes feels like an older neighborhood.
But the neighborhood is still standing, the utilities work, and the rent is hard to beat.
It is an excellent place for a beginner who wants to start without paying for hosting.
Substack: a blog, newsletter, podcast, and community
I cannot say enough good things about Substack.
Substack combines a public website with an email newsletter. When you publish, your article can appear on the web, in the Substack app, and in your subscribers’ inboxes.
It also provides Notes, which functions as its internal conversation and discovery network. There are comments, chats, recommendations, subscriptions, and paid-content options.
Substack is especially strong for multimedia creators. You can publish written articles, audio, podcasts, and video. You can record inside the platform or upload something produced elsewhere. Video posts can generate transcripts, feed their audio into a podcast RSS feed, and produce shareable clips. Substack can also connect with YouTube and send selected clips to your channel as Shorts.
Its current video tools are described here:
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/21093671091220-Guide-to-video-posts-on-Substack
Substack is a strong choice for someone who wants to build an email relationship with readers while also experimenting with audio and video.
Its main limitation is that you are working within Substack’s structure. You have fewer design and website-building choices than you would have with WordPress or Ghost.
WordPress: from a simple blog to a complete website
WordPress remains one of the most powerful publishing systems available, but we need to distinguish between two versions.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com provides hosting and manages much of the technical work for you. You can begin with a free site and move into paid plans as you need a custom domain, additional storage, plugins, audio hosting, or more advanced features.
As of July 2026, plugins can be installed on all paid WordPress.com plans, although individual features and storage allowances still vary by plan.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the software you install with a separate hosting provider. It gives you much greater control over your site, design, plugins, membership systems, courses, stores, podcasting, and other functions.
It also gives you more responsibility. You must manage hosting, updates, security, backups, and occasional technical problems—or pay someone to do that.
WordPress is often the best choice for a business or organization that wants its blog to be part of a complete website. It can grow with you, but the number of choices may feel overwhelming to a beginner.
Medium: access to an existing reading community
Medium is both a publishing platform and a reading community.
You can publish articles that are available freely or place them behind Medium’s member paywall. Medium members currently pay $5 per month or $50 per year for access to member stories.
Writers accepted into the Medium Partner Program can earn money based on member engagement. Most of my individual earnings are measured in pennies, nickels, dimes, and occasional larger amounts. I am not retiring on my Medium income, but the platform does offer some compensation and access to readers I might not otherwise reach.
One correction to older advice: Medium no longer bases Partner Program eligibility on reaching a particular number of followers. Current requirements include publishing at least six stories and being active on Medium for at least three months. Applications are reviewed by Medium.
https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/39121627791639-Medium-Partner-Program-eligibility
Medium also provides Friend Links. These allow you to share a member-only article with people who are not Medium members. I often distribute the Friend Link when promoting one of my stories.
Medium is a good secondary publishing site and discovery platform. The tradeoff is that your work lives within Medium’s rules, design, and economic system.
LinkedIn newsletters: professional reach
LinkedIn allows members to publish both individual articles and continuing newsletters.
LinkedIn newsletters have worked well for me because I already had a professional network there. When people subscribe, LinkedIn can notify them whenever a new edition appears. Articles can also be shared through appropriate professional and special-interest groups.
LinkedIn currently permits a member to create as many as five newsletters.
A paid LinkedIn subscription is not required. LinkedIn says all members can create newsletters, although company-page newsletters have additional eligibility requirements.
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a517914
LinkedIn newsletters are especially valuable for consultants, coaches, speakers, nonprofit leaders, business owners, and other professionals.
The limitation is that this is LinkedIn’s audience—not an independent email list you control. I consider LinkedIn an important publishing outpost, but I would hesitate to make it my only home.
Tumblr: blogging with a discovery culture
Tumblr is a tried-and-true blogging and discovery platform.
It is particularly friendly to images, quotations, links, audio, video, and shorter written pieces. Its tags and reblogging culture can expose your work to people who would never discover your main website.
Tumblr supports audio from services such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp, as well as several kinds of video posts.
https://help.tumblr.com/knowledge-base/writing-posts/
It can serve as a complete blog, but I tend to use it as a discovery platform and multimedia outpost.
LiveJournal: a legacy community
I occasionally remember that I still have a LiveJournal account.
LiveJournal helped define the personal and community-blogging era. It still provides journals, communities, comments, privacy settings, and social interaction.
However, it is now Russian-owned and operates under Russian jurisdiction. Anyone considering it should read its current terms and privacy policies carefully. I would regard it as a legacy or specialized community platform rather than my first recommendation for a new professional blog.
Facebook: community rather than a permanent archive
Facebook Pages, profiles, and groups allow substantial written posts, photographs, video, live broadcasts, and Reels.
A Facebook group can be especially useful when you want conversation around a focused subject. A Page can represent a business, ministry, publication, or public identity.
However, Facebook does not organize long-form writing as effectively as a traditional blog. Older posts become difficult to find, and distribution depends heavily on Facebook’s systems.
Use Facebook to begin conversations and direct people toward your primary work.
X Articles: long-form publishing for paid accounts
X now offers Articles, a formatted long-form publishing feature.
https://help.x.com/en/using-x/articles
Articles can contain headings, lists, photographs, video, GIFs, embedded posts, and links. Publishing Articles currently requires an eligible Premium, Premium+, Business, or Organization subscription, although anyone can read a public Article.
X can be useful if you already have a substantial following there. For most beginners, however, I would treat it as an outpost rather than a first blogging home.
YouTube Posts: blogging beside your videos
A YouTube channel also includes Posts.
Posts may contain text, images, GIFs, video, polls, quizzes, and music. They can appear on your channel, in subscription feeds, and sometimes on viewers’ homepages or Shorts feeds.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9409631
The old advice that you must first reach a specific subscriber threshold is no longer generally accurate. Some account and channel restrictions still apply.
YouTube Posts are excellent for announcing videos, asking questions, sharing quotations, testing ideas, and sending viewers to longer articles. They are not a substitute for a well-organized, searchable blog.
Other platforms worth exploring
There are more choices than I can thoroughly review in one article:
- Ghost combines a website, newsletters, memberships, and paid subscriptions with considerable independence: https://ghost.org/
- Beehiiv is a newsletter-first platform built around publishing, audience growth, and monetization: https://www.beehiiv.com/
- Wix and Squarespace are useful when your blog needs to be part of a visually designed business website: https://www.wix.com/ and https://www.squarespace.com/
- Patreon can support memberships and exclusive posts, although I see it more as a membership platform than a primary public blog: https://www.patreon.com/
What about the social-media platforms?
Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and similar platforms allow various amounts of writing. Some are very friendly to short essays, ongoing conversations, or serialized ideas.
Use them.
Just remember what they are best suited to do:
- Introduce an idea.
- Start a conversation.
- Share an excerpt.
- Post a visual quotation.
- Publish a short video.
- Point people toward the complete article.
- Remind readers that your work exists.
These are your outposts. Build relationships there, but keep a road leading home.
Which platform should you choose?
Here is my simplified advice:
| Your priority | A strong place to begin |
|---|---|
| Completely free and uncomplicated | Blogger |
| Email newsletter plus writing, audio, and video | Substack |
| A blog within a complete business website | WordPress |
| Professional thought leadership | LinkedIn newsletter |
| Access to an established reading community | Medium |
| Multimedia and creative discovery | Tumblr |
| Independent memberships and subscriptions | Ghost |
| Supporting an existing video audience | YouTube Posts |
You do not need to choose the theoretically perfect platform.
Ask yourself:
- Where are my intended readers?
- Do I want articles delivered by email?
- Do I need my own domain?
- Will I publish audio or video?
- Do I expect to offer paid material?
- How much technical maintenance can I tolerate?
- Can I export or back up my work?
- Which platform will I actually use consistently?
Then choose one home base and, perhaps, two outposts.
The most important feature
The most important feature of any blogging platform is the Publish button.
You do not need many bells and whistles in the beginning. You do not need to master every widget, plugin, algorithm, or monetization plan before you write your first article.
Choose a place that works reasonably well for you. Learn how it functions. Write regularly. Publish at a pace you can sustain. Listen to your readers. Improve as you go.
The best blogging platform is the one where you will still be writing six months from now.
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