Today's topic is the most practical out of all the topics I've covered in the How to Start a Blog series. While it's important to find your niche, create quality content, form a loyal audience, grow your readership, and choose a name, those posts won't be helpful if you're stuck on which service you'll use for publishing. And it's easy to get stuck. With so many options out there it can be difficult to know which one will be best for your blog or business.

There are several posts floating around the internet on "choosing a blog platform." And while I've used Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr in the past, I definitely wouldn't consider myself an expert. So rather than take that approach, let me tell you about the platform I use each day: Squarespace.

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Quickly build your Squarespace site with my Website Starter Kit.

It's lovely

Squarespace sites are easy on the eyes. They may not have as many themes to choose from as Wordpress, but each theme they do offer is extremely well designed. Their pages are clean and effortless, their user interface is beautiful, and because every design automatically includes a unique mobile experience, their sites look professional on every device. You would have to try really hard to create an ugly website on Squarespace. And from a designer's perspective, this is a major advantage.

But even if you aren't a designer, having a beautiful website/blog should be extremely important to you, too. Studies have found that the biggest influence on people's first impressions of your website are visual appeal and navigation. A whopping 94% of all first impressions are design-related. You could have the best content in the world, but with a pieced-together, unattractive site you'll scare people away before they even have the chance to read it. The saying "you never have a second chance to make a first impression" is definitely true in the blogging realm.

It's user-friendly

One of the most time consuming and frustrating tasks of starting a new blog can be figuring out the back-end of your site. If you're new to blogging, this can be very intimidating and time-consuming, especially if you don't have any previous experience using HTML/CSS.

But with Squarespace, setting up your site is easy and straightforward, even for those of you who don't consider yourselves computer savvy. The drag-and-drop features make editing content a breeze and the visual layout editor allows you to make changes effortlessly. Adding text, images, embeds, or social media is as simple as hitting a button and choosing an option.

It's all-in-one

My blog, my website, and my shop are all in one place with Squarespace. Their E-Commerce feature allows me to easily add products to my shop, keep up with orders and inventory, set up shipping costs and taxes, and create coupon codes.

Squarespace also connects to other sites and services that I use for my business. When people sign up for the Elle & Company newsletter in my sidebar, all of their information is directly imported to MailChimp. Accounting through Xero is available to help keep track of finances and sales taxes. Squarespace also partners with ShipStation, which makes printing shipping labels and shipment notifications a breeze.

If you're blogging for your business or you hope to use blogging as a gateway into starting your own business, Squarespace might be an excellent option for you, too.

It takes care of the things I'd rather not worry about

Who wants to spend all day figuring out things like hosting and SEO when you can have your blog platform do it all for you? Here are a few more perks of using Squarespace:

Squarespace saves you from having to sign into different sites for domains and hosting; both are included in your monthly plan
They have excellent support, including articles, videos, live chat, email support, and community forums
A wide range of analytics are at your fingertips, including statistics on blog traffic, mobile usage, subscribers, referrers, popular content, search queries, and detailed activities
SEO is built in, you just have to be conscious of how you name files, links and captions
Squarespace easily transfers over blog posts and page information from other sites like Blogger and Wordpress
Every template is mobile-friendly; I don't have to worry that my website won't appear correctly on a mobile device

Overall, I don't have many bones to pick with Squarespace. It's beautiful, user-friendly, straightforward, and very helpful. I've had a great experience using it this past year and I highly recommend it to all of my branding clients (and to you, too!)

Click here to view some lovely Squarespace sites, visit this link to learn more about what Squarespace has to offer, and feel free to ask me any questions you have concerning blog platforms! I would love to get your feedback, too.