The Usual Suspects

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A number of service platforms exist that can get you up and blogging in minutes—for free!

At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads.

Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social network. Users create their own blogs in order to post original content in the form of text, photos, and videos, or to "reblog" the posts of others. You can also "follow" blogs that you like, in a similar maneuver to following someone on Twitter or Facebook. Tumblr has risen to popularity so quickly because of its focus on the short-form, the visual and the fast-moving. "Tumblr" comes from "tumblelog" -- a form of "micro-blogging" that allows users to exchange quick updates. It's especially popular in certain niches, like fashion and music.

You can also set up a free blog on WordPress.com, though Scott Allen explains that WordPress.com has "a strict "non-commercial use" policy and enforce it, well, "rabidly" would be putting it nicely. I have known instances of several people having their blogs simply deleted, without warning, without recourse, without being sent a copy of the data backup, etc., just for having too many affiliate links in their posts."