Enter the fascinating world of blogging! 155 million blogs and counting!

At present there are many blogging platforms in use. Although the type of platform used by a blogger boils down to personal choice, it helps to know which the best platforms are. Features like prominence, clear visual presentation, wide range of tools and themes, high average readership and the ability to adapt to changing trends are all essential for a successful blogging platform.

Let’s dip our feet in this vast ocean by looking at the most popular blogging platforms around.

WordPress

This is by far the best and hottest blogging platform around. WordPress was launched by Matt Mullenweg on 27^th May, 2003 and soon went to become the most popular platform in the world. The current version of WordPress 3.0 and has been downloaded by 12.5 million people.

WordPress comes packed with a huge variety of themes and plug-ins that will enhance your blog in terms of look and feel. Therefore it is no surprise that many users opt for WordPress as their blogging platform. In addition to WordPress being “open source”, there is an active development community which assists users through various forums dedicated to this platform.

Whilst offerings a massive 3GB space for a free account, it features an integrated stats system and therefore you do not need 3^rd party clients to analyze the traffic on your blog. Savvy bloggers can quickly build links with other websites that allow their blog to bring in greater viewership and a higher number of monthly hits. This flexibility makes WordPress an excellent investment for serious bloggers/entrepreneurs.

TypePad

This is another well-known name in the world of blogging with a more user-friendly interface than that of WordPress. It employs a drag and drop system to build the site. Also one TypePad account can accommodate many blogs. The best part about TypePad is the absence of ads even on the free accounts. It also offers mobile blogging capabilities which mean that you can blog even when you are on the move. Although this is open source, availability of help resources is restricted by its “limited number” of community members.

Blogger

Unlike WordPress and TypePad, Blogger is not open source. Due to this, there is no community actively working on making the blogging experience bigger and better. However, Google ownership makes it easier to monetize your blog using AdSense, and integrate with many other Google products such as Picasa. Blogger is very easy to use and even beginners can find their way around easily. Since Blogger is a free service, there are no upgrades and very limited themes and tools. Although not the flashiest platform around, Blogger’s “what you see is what you get” element makes it a primary choice for many bloggers who are simply focused on getting their message across than be held down by unnecessary overhead costs such as upgrades etc. As a platform, Blogger allows seamless interaction with social networks and other high traffic websites.

Other popular blogging platforms worth checking out are Posterous (which allows for private sharing via its “groups” feature), Movable Type (a choice for companies that generate text for a living), Tumblr (designed specifically to foster talent and encourage like-minded bloggers to read each others’ posts) and LiveJournal (comes in 32 languages).

Now that you’ve dipped your feet, go ahead. Jump in. The water’s perfect.