You can choose from a variety of blogging platforms when you begin blogging your book. I write a lot about using WordPress.org. For that reason, often get asked if WordPress is the only or the best blogging platform to use when you blog a book.
Most professional bloggers I know and have encountered use WordPress. So, early on I switched from my first free hosted blogging platform, Blogger.com, to WordPress.com, the free hosted type of WordPress blog. I then converted to a self-hosted WordPress blog.
There is nothing inherently wrong with other platforms, like Typepad.com, for example. Many bloggers use them successfully. Some even use the free hosted versions and achieve success as well.
Bloggers who aren’t very techy find some blogging platforms easier to use than others. This might be a deciding factor for you. You might want to try out a few free versions first to see which you like best. However, I do recommend the self-hosted versions if you plan on getting serious about your blogging and blogging books.
You might want to try blogging on a large blogging sites, like BlogHer.com, huffingtonpost.com or Examiner.com. This can prove a good strategy for gaining followers, and you don’t need to pay for hosting or a webmaster. However, none of your traffic will be directed to your own home in cyberspace–your blog with its own URL. Your bio on the site usually lists a website, but you may not be able to do as much promotion or linking back to your own books and site/blog as you’d like, if you have one. This is the case for my blog on VibrantNation.com, for instance. However, when I post on RedRoom.com, I don’t have many restrictions. In some cases, you can have both a blog on the large site and your own blog; then you might be able to publish just a few paragraphs of your post and link back to an original post on your blog. Or you can include a link in your post that drives readers to another post on your blog. This can prove a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but it does require extra time and effort. I’ve done it…and in most cases stopped due to lack of time. Also, some of Google’s duplicate content rules kind of made me wary at first, but I’m not so worried about that any more.
In conclusion, the choice of blogging platform is yours to make. It comes down to personal preference, despite what industry professionals seem to prefer or recommend.
Photo courtesy of Sean McAntee.
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I just recently started my own self hosted version for myself. I have had a tumblr for awhile (and still do with a nice following) but felt I needed more control over my content. After reading various things I decided to go with the ability to be able to use wordpress. I am still learning to use it to its full potential but it seems to meet my needs very well!
I think you’ll be very happy and find you can grow nicely with WordPress.
Excellent advice. I feel it is critical for a writer to have control over their work which you can only do with WordPress on a self-hosted site. Other sites like Medium can be used from time to time to present a key idea and draw some traffic to your website. Likewise social media sites like Facebook, but the key is always to find interested folks and bring them to your website.