Five years ago, when I created my first website, I never imagined I’d become so interested in writing/blogging. I started by creating a Wix website over five years ago, and then in the last 18 months, a WordPress site. Over the years, I’ve gained a fair bit of experience in this field.
Blogging is an excellent hobby for anyone wishing to write and wants to learn how to build a basic website and blog. Initially, I was drawn to the technical aspects and building a website, but my long-term interest lies in writing blog posts. I’ve previously written about the benefits of blogging and writing here.
Here are my top tips for creating a blogging website, along with some considerations for using WordPress and Wix. While there are many other website and blogging tools available, I’m focussing on these two services based on my experience.
Wix vs WordPress
Both have strengths. In my opinion, WordPress is the best for those wishing to create a website with a blog. My reasoning is that the “Jetpack” app that you can use to support writing blog posts via a mobile app is superior for blogging. The similar Wix app is just not reliable and is constantly difficult to use in comparison. The Wix app can be very frustrating to use.
If you are unsure about which website creation tool to use, perhaps create a basic site first and play with the tools available before settling on using a service.
Blog Design
Wix has templates to set up a website quickly, and WordPress uses themes. This is probably where Wix has the upper hand, but if you blog, creating the website in the scheme of things should be a relatively short exercise. Choose a fitting website design, and you can always customise as you require. The WordPress themes as they are called are more restricted depending on what plan you are on.
Costs
Many web hosting/blogging services like Wix and WordPress offer discounts for the first year. Also, factor in other costs such as domain names for your site. In my opinion, WordPress is far cheaper to run a site/blog, and many companies offer cheaper deals for the longer you sign up. With the cheaper plans, you do have to select plans carefully, as they do, of course, come with restrictions such as limited cloud storage.
Domain Names
Think of a catchy name for your blog, and while you can use any company to buy your domain, companies like Wix and WordPress do offer to help you buy and manage them. It is hard to compare prices between Wix and WordPress in this space as it really depends on the individual domain name but prices are roughly similar. It is often easier to buy domains with the same company that hosts your blog. However, I have purchased domains from IONOS and then set them as required. IONOS also offers other benefits at reasonable costs, such as email. You normally purchase domains as an on going commitment and renew annually. Though you should be able to commit to a domain for longer periods as well.
Regular blog posts
Content is key, and it’s important to post as regularly as you can. To build your audiences, post weekly or more if you have something interesting to say. A focus on quality is also important, so less can be more. Both Wix and WordPress support creating blog posts either via browser or app. Both also support scheduling posts or publishing immediately after you have reviewed.
Future post planning
Some blog posts may take a while to write. I often find myself working on drafts gradually for up to ten blog posts at a time. This is a good way to work, particularly for posts requiring lists or updates over time. If I have a future idea for a post, sometimes I will create the post with an early title so I can build on the idea gradually and write the post. Both Wix and WordPress are comparable to achieve this. Just be careful though with WordPress when writing drafts if you then switch the device (browser to app or vice versa) that the latest version of your work synced.
Supporting Content
Where possible, try to add supporting photos and pictures. I tend to use AI for some cartoon photos to promote content. You can experiment and find what works for you. WordPress is definitely easier for this. I’ve lost count of the amount of times when I have had issues with failed picture uploads on Wix.
SEO
Many web hosting services support SEO options. I try to set as many SEO details with categories, etc., and tend to find my WordPress site features more predominantly on Google than the Wix site. Do always pay attention to these SEO options to help your blog posts rank. I can’t profess to being an expert in this field, though, like many. Hard to compare between Wix and WordPress here but both my sites rank roughly the same on search engines and feature fairly high. Certainly my WordPress site brings in more hits but the Wix site that I run is more niche.
Connect Social Accounts
When posting blog posts, you can set Wix or WordPress to be connected to your social sites and post when you publish blogs. Promotion on social sites and pages can help attract readers. Though not all plans will connect to all social accounts and may have restrictions. Neither Wix or WordPress stand out on this front. I tend to manually flag my posts on the socials these days.
Website Refresh
When posting blogs, it is important to refresh the look of your website. I tend to try and make small changes to each of my sites every six to twelve months to enhance them. Then annually, I may give the look of the websites a complete refresh. Both Wix and WordPress are capable of supporting any enhancements with them likely being comparable to each other.
One of my websites, which is five years old, I rebuilt from the ground up recently. It took a while but was worth it and allowed the removal of clutter etc.
Overall
In summary, I prefer using WordPress for my website and general blogging overall. Wix is probably slightly better for the initial website creation but when running a blog, you need good writing tools to post. The Wix app is unstable and the WordPress Jetpack is more powerful with supporting tools. Neither platforms are faultless but certainly using WordPress is a cheaper and less frustrating experience for my hobby than Wix.
I hope that you have found this post useful. As always, please do comment below if you have anything to share.
