So you want to start a new blog but you want to keep it simple and the costs low.  Here are a couple of blog hosts that I’ve recently come across that let you spend more time writing and less time fussing with features.  Both of these are text-forward blogs which means they are about blogging in words and not pictures, videos or audio.

Mataroa – I like this one the best of the two.  1. Free or $9 per year for Pro, 2. No ads, 3. No tracking, 4. Export anytime, 5. Option to export as ePub ebook, 6. Comments, 7. your own domain (Pro), more.  What I’m not clear on is if you can make static pages.  I don’t see it mentioned.  I do like the export as ePub feature good for a journal or diary.

Bear Blog – this one is sort of a work in progress.  Right now it’s free.  Paid features are talked about but not listed.  It does have pages which I consider important.  Also has RSS, an email newsletter, discovery feed etc.  Missing is an export feature although one is planned, but beware.  Also no comments.

Both only use simple Markdown for editing posts.

More Blogging Platforms are listed in the directory.  I’ve not tried to list every single one only the ones I consider the most interesting for different levels of blogging.

My goal here is to encourage more people to to start their own website be that a weblog or a static HTML site and provide links to the Webmaster Resources people need.

That’s it.  Have fun on the Web.

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