I Don't Design Websites, But I Do Give Advice
This time of year we’re all motivated to start a blog or website (including myself!). The following is an email I wrote to Aaron’s sister-in-law regarding my thoughts last year. I’ve forward this email on to several others the last few months and thought it might be helpful if it lived here for everyone else to see. If you have questions, please comment or shoot me an email, I’d be happy to help as I am able!
This advice is geared toward the individual, not a company, in which I HIGHLY recommend hiring out developers, and am happy to give referrals on that end, too :)
Micah, Jess, and Aaron!
I told Aaron I would send you my professional, but mostly personal thoughts, on blog sites :)
Wordpress definitely has a lot of capabilities but is built for people that really know how to code. My website was a Wordpress site and I hardly used it because
it was such a pain. It can be very clunky if you don't know how to code.
I also started a blog on Blogger in 2006. It's more user friendly than Wordpress and integrates well with Google/gmail. But it is pretty dated in its user interface compared to what's available now...ie. not drag and drop content.
Currently my website/blog are on Squarespace. I have the personal plan which is something like $96/yr and is deductible because of business. This was the wayyy cheaper way to go because if I kept my Wordpress site I would have had to hire a developer which is $$$. But I would recommend this if you would want to do more than blog in the future. Ie. start monetizing, have downloadable PDFs, sell something. It's pretty robust in it's capabilities. No coding necessary. You drag and drop everything and it's SUPER easy to use.
Weebly offers free sites, and can do more, from what I know. If you just plan to keep it a blog, this is a good option. I have a client who I try to make updates for and I don't like it as well as Squarespace, but they're trying to do a lot of website things that it's not built for. I think it's a good option for just a blog.
Wix is an option that I know a lot of people really like and you can upgrade to a paid version later if needed. I don't have experience with it, but have heard a lot of good things.
I don't know what your long term goals or if you want to get a personalized domain name, ie jesshasablog.com vs. jesshasablog.wix.com...I have thoughts on that too and can help if you have questions!
Neil Patel is a well respected guy in the industry and wrote an article that I found after I typed this comparing several platforms. We have similar views :)
Let me know if you have specific questions and I will try to answer! I can't wait to read your blog, Jess!