Blogging platforms

Selling yourself is about more than just putting your products and services in front of the right people. Small businesses are more successful when they create engaging content and tell a story that no one else can.

The ideal platform for sharing your thoughts, Medium is simple and easy to use. Thought leaders and interesting people from all kinds of industries type up their insights (usually for free) on Medium.

Who’s it for?

Freelancers and entrepreneurs who want to network, write down their insights, and show off their knowledge a bit.

Good bits

• It’s really easy to type, post, and share your blogs.
• You can do everything you need to do with a free membership. Only keen readers will need to upgrade.
• The more interesting content you write within your niche, the more likely you are to find yourself on people’s dashboards.

Not so good bits

• Some are critical of the paid membership, claiming it doesn’t really give you much for the money.
• If your website has a blog, you might already have a good place to put your content.

Free-o-meter

5/5

Prices: $5 a month or $50 for the year.

You don’t need to pay to blog on Medium. Membership is aimed more at readers, and includes exclusive content and publishers. You can also choose to upgrade to support the platform.

Its passionate community and easy uploading makes Tumblr a good home for all kinds of content. It’s more popular with individuals rather than businesses, but artistic, visual businesses could find a good audience here.

Who’s it for?

Artistic and creative freelancers and business owners.

Good bits

• Tumblr is more versatile than Instagram. You can easily upload video, images, sound clips, text, and more.
• Use the right tags and you could reach a whole new audience.
• Customise your blog with free, stylish templates.

Not so good bits

• Your business needs to be the right fit. Aesthetic products, design, fashion, and photography work best here. Keep your B2B services away, they won’t be interested.
• It’s a good place to showcase what you do, but not entirely compatible with making sales. The best you can do is put a link in a post and hope people click.

Free-o-meter

5/5

 Prices: Completely free

If you’re creating a blog, WordPress doesn’t have to be super expensive or even particularly complicated. The templates are stylish and straightforward, plus you can easily link to WordPress from your current site.

Who’s it for?

Freelancers and business owners who’ll mainly be updating their blog with text posts.

Good bits

• Easy to manage and set up. WordPress has a reputation for being a bit complicated, but not if you’re just uploading blogs and images.
• Pretty cheap, if you’re happy with a .blog domain name.

Not so good bits

• A lot of website tools already have built-in blogs that look and feel great.
• You’re stuck with the templates they already provide.

Free-o-meter

3/5

Prices: £2.25 – £7 a month for personal sites and blogs (billed for the whole year at once).

Personal WordPress plans are much cheaper than business plans. You’ll get to choose from dozens of free blog templates too.

Instagram is one of the world’s most popular visual social media platforms. Filters, emojis, .gifs and cropping tools make it easy to post regularly and update your followers.

Who’s it for?

Creative freelancers and visual businesses e.g. arts, crafts, designers.

Good bits

• You probably already know how to use it! It’s really easy to edit and upload photos and videos.
• Depending on your niche, there could be an engaged audience ready and waiting for you.
• Reach an audience live with Instagram Stories.

Not so good bits

• With 1 billion users and loads of competition, it’s quite difficult to get noticed.

Free-o-meter

5/5

Prices: It’s free!