I get a lot of questions from people inquiring about which blogging platform I recommend to grow their business online.

I want to start by saying that there are many blogging platforms out there such as blogger.com, weebly.com, squarespace, and wordpress -just to name a few.

But in this blog post, I am going to discuss WordPress.
There are 2 versions of WordPress… wordpress.org and wordpress.com.

If you are interested in monetizing your blog, I highly recommend WordPress.org. Because you will have complete control and flexibility over your blog using wordpress.org.

Here are the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com

1. WordPress.org

WordPress.org is a self-hosted version of WordPress that can be downloaded and installed within minutes. WordPress.org gives you total control and more flexibility. You will be able to monetize (make money) from your blog without the risk of possibly being shut down. One of the coolest features I love about WordPress.org is the control to upload any theme and plugins to give my blog more functionality. I also am able to edit coding on the backend of a theme to change the look and feel of my blog. Since wordpress.org is self hosted, you will have to choose a hosting company to host your blog. As of to date, I recommend Hostgator or Bluehost. For a basic plan, you can pay less than $15.00 each month to have unlimited blogs hosted on one server. In my opinion, wordpress.org is the way to go.

Take a look at this blog post where I explain How To Start A WordPress Blog From Scratch – “Blog Setup Tutorial”.

2. WordPress.com

WordPress.com provides a quick and easy way to setup your blog online. Hosting is free but you will not be able to monetize your blog using promotions such as ads or affiliate links. By using wordpress.com, you don’t have control of the software or the database. Wordpress.com does not give you the flexibility to upload a theme of your choice. You will only have the options from what they offer. You can not install plugins to add more functionality to your blog. Using Wordpress.com, which provides you free hosting, they will have the control to place ads on your blog. When you are serious about building your business online and branding yourself, you will not want to advertise someone else’s ads in your space. Not cool.

Many bloggers are transitioning to the wordpress.org platform because of it’s user friendly dashboard. You will be able to make changes and updates when needed without having to depend on your web designer to make the changes for you.

Setting up a wordpress.org blog is not a hard task. In fact, it only takes a few minutes to download the wordpress.org software to your domain name and hosting server. Wordpress.org provides you with a free theme. To jazz up your website/blog, you will be responsible for adding all of the bells and whistles such as themes, plugins, widgets, etc.

I hope that this has been informative information to help you decide whether to use wordpress.com and wordpress.org as a blogging platform for your business.

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Erica Mathews

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Erica Mathews is an entrepreneur, author, and business coach. Helping people start online businesses, create multiple income streams, and live their best life. ***Work With Erica... linktr.ee/ericamathews ***Shop her online store at... ericamathews.com/shop