When you start out on your blogging "career", selecting suitable blogging platform is a vital number one step. You can compare it to wanting to get hold of the ideal car. Certainly, they'll all get you from A to B, but some do it better than others. There are a few that are quicker, more efficient, and more reliable.

The first varieties of blogging platforms are the free versions of popular software. Blogger.com is owned by Google and it's really easy to use and totally free. The only problem is that you don't actually own your blog as it is hosted by Blogger. Although the software is superb, you are pretty much out of luck if they choose to close your blog down.

An alternative free blogging package is Wordpress.com (not to be mistaken for Wordpress.org, which is self-hosted). This is also really simple to use, and it is hosted by Wordpress. Be super careful if you are going to be doing a great deal of affiliate marketing on your blog. Wordpress.com may also shut blogs down without warning! As you will be able to tell, it is normally a more effective idea to self-host your blog so you have complete control over it.

As you begin to get dependable traffic you will undoubtedly prefer to guarantee that there is nothing anybody can do to take your blog away. Launching a free hosted blog is like putting all your eggs in one basket, and that is never a good idea. Of course that does not mean you can not set one up that is secondary and designed to help you get backlinks.

One caveat to the above discussion is that if you want to rank quickly for a particular set of key phrases, it is often BEST to create a free hosted blog. Because Google owns Blogger, it does generally spider new blogs quickly and give them good standings in the SERPS (search engine results pages). Similarly, Wordpress.com is highly trusted by Google, so the same applies. But, you have to make sure that you don not break any rules. Of course, the other advantage is that both of these options are free!

Hosted blogs are generally better for most people. One of the oldies but goldies is the Moveable Type package. You do have to pay for this, but a lot of people think it is worth it. It is a very potent way to blog. Most bloggers, however, appear to choose Wordpress.org blogs. You host these on your own server, so you have complete control! It is similar to Moveable Type in that it is simple to use, but the differences in the support and plugins available is unbelievable. There is a vast community established about Wordpress. You can get hold of plugins to help you with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), to run a membership site, to do your backups, sell eBay items, and a great deal more! There are also an incredible amount of themes you are able to pick from to make the blog altogether your own.

So, which one should you select? Once again, most Internet marketers tend to opt for Wordpress. You may prefer to also since it is fantastic software and offers everything you need. Better still, it is so easy to use that you can have a blog up and running in minutes. It is also important to note that most tutorials written in the IM arena are centered on Wordpress. It appears to be the gold standard for bloggers, and you may prefer to select it if only to avoid the bother of trying to learn a different system that not many people use.