Here’s a mind boggling factoid. According to BlogPulse, close to 50,000 new blogs were discovered in the last 24 hours. So it’s no wonder you too may be bitten by the blogging bug. What’s your next step? Why get a blog software of course.

How Involved Do You Want To Be?

Unlike web publishing tools of yesteryears, blog software are almost always web based. But even between web based options there is a big difference between the software. Some are as simple as signing up for an account and others are more involved, requiring your own web hosting and a little more technical knowledge.

What’s The Difference?

It’s all about control. The more control you want over your blog – like ability to edit the design any which way you want and put up pretty much anything your heart desires, the chances are you’re better off with a blog that you host and manage. This requires technical know how or the available resources to hire someone with the technical know how. Generally this is recommended for those who plan to use the blog as a business promotion tool or use it as a means to earn some money.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are also blog hosts who allow you to start a blog in 5 minutes or less. Just sign up for an account, pick a name and you’re good to go. There is very little if any technical know how required. What you do give up is the amount of control.

The good news is, more and more blog hosts are adding features into their systems to allow you to make more customizations. Beyond customization, keep in mind you will also have to abide by their rules. After all, you are using their server resources. Now that you know the difference between what you will be getting into, here are three places to get free blog software to get yours going.

1. WordPress.org – perhaps the most popular blogging platform. You will need a web hosting account and technical knowledge to install and manage it.
2. WordPress.com – not to be confused with the one above. They are the same software but WordPress.com is a hosted solution meaning you sign up for an account and are ready to go.
3. Blogger.com – another hosted solution and one of the earliest ones too. If you don’t already have a Google Account, just sign up and you are ready to start as many blogs as you want.

Your next step is to get signed up or download the software and get your blog set up.

Prefer to have step-by-step guidance to set up a blog for your business? The Blogging Starter Pack is just the resource that you need.