5 Best Blogging Platforms for New #Authors

As a new author you might be surprised to discover that in addition to everything else you are doing you are also responsible for helping to promote your work, as well as yourself as a new and emerging author. This is where a blog will come into play. Your blog will be the main focus of your new platform. Your blog is a reflection of you, but it is also a place to post updates on your published work and any works in progress. The key is finding the best blogging platforms for new authors.

WordPress
Posting a new piece to WordPress is really simple; all you have to do is use the WYSIWYG editor. Uploading images, choosing categories and tags are also relatively simple. WordPress offers a variety of widgets and plugins that allow you to add just about anything you need to your blog. Most importantly WordPress is highly reliable, new and seasoned users have never had an issue with their work suddenly disappearing. The downfall to WordPress though is you will need to integrate your blog with an email service provider to allow people to subscribe to your blog via their email. WordPress isn’t considered a social network, so networking is non-existent.

Blogger
Like WordPress posting in Blogger is really simple; all you have to do is use the WYSIWYG editor. Making certain customizations is pretty easy, although you do not have total control like you do in WordPress, but like WordPress the HTML/CSS is easy to access. One of the biggest problems authors find with Blogger is uploading images is not as easy as it is in other platforms. For some reason Blogger automatically resizes every image that is uploaded, so you will have to make adjustments before posting. If you plan on posting a lot you are limited to 1GB of storage, which we all how quickly it can run out. Social sharing is limited to Goggle+.

Medium
This is one of the newer blogging platforms that new authors will find highly useful, as well as easy to use. With Medium you don’t have to worry about widgets nor do you have to worry about trying to figure out the publishing tool. The blogging platform was designed to be quick and easy to use for those who want to focus on reaching their audience. With Medium you must focus on the content of your blog post rather than all of the extras. With Medium you can post your blogs in various categories and through the comments you can interact with your audience.

Authors Bureau ECN
The Authors Bureau ECN is a like a hybrid blogging and personal media (not social media) platform. You can use it as a one-stop shop for blogging and fan / follower management. If your readers follow your ECN Profile, they can receive your long form posts directly into their inboxes so you don’t have to manage email lists. Furthermore, all your postings are archived under your own profile as well as in a community “Knowledge Board” so that you can be discovered by new fans or followers. Interestingly, a “Request a Call” button exists next to your profile posts so that you can get paid for talking with some of your readers over the phone.

Tumblr
Tumblr is relatively simple to use, it’s pretty simple to upload images and post the basic blogs. If you are not worried about customization Tumblr has a large variety of free themes that you can pick from. Tumblr, unlike WordPress, is a social networking platform, so sharing content and finding followers is something that new authors will find useful. Tumblr isn’t the right choice for everybody, if you go beyond the basics in your blog you are going to run into difficulty. Even if you succeed in your customization it can sometimes revert back to HTML with no warning.

So there you have it. Five of the best blogging platforms for new Authors to consider as they begin to promote their work.