You’ve decided that you want to start a new blog and start making money on the internet.

There is no doubt that you’ve seen dozens and dozens of blogging solutions (both free and paid) and one of the solutions that comes up again and again in your research is WordPress.

Okay, so you’ve decided on using the WordPress platform for your blog / website. That’s great as WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful website and blog building tools available.

If you’ve dug any deeper in using the WordPress platform you’ve probably come across two options of using WordPress, which can be somewhat confusing… WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

Naturally, you’re if you’re reading this you’re probably wondering what’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com and which is the right choice for your online business?

The purpose of this article is to answer that question and help you make the right choice.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org – What’s the Difference?

The first thing to keep in mind is that WordPress essentially works the same in either format. WordPress is a content management tool, that runs more blogs worldwide than any other platform. What we are going to compare are fine details between these two options. Having chosen WordPress means that you are going to have a stable and functional blog (and website).

Here are the basic differences between the .com and the .org versions of WordPress:

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is where you can get a free blog. You don’t need to pay for hosting or a domain. You don’t need to pay for plugins – because you aren’t able (allowed) to use them. You don’t need to worry about editing the back-end of the site – because it’s just not possible.

With this free hosted solution, you get the power of WordPress but without the ability to customize it.

Basically, the trade-off is that it’s easier to use but limited in options and functionality.

WordPress.com Benefits

• It’s free
• It’s much easier to setup than the self-hosted WordPress option
• Everything is taken care of: setup, upgrades, spam, backups, security, etc
• Your blog is on hundreds of servers, so it’s highly unlikely it will go down due to traffic
• Your posts are backed up automatically

WordPress.com Cons

• While they do provide 100+ themes, you cannot run a custom theme
• You can’t customize the PHP code behind your blog
• You can’t use custom third-party themes / templates
• You can’t upload plugins (a huge disadvantage!)

The Bottom Line: WordPress.com is for people who want to blog, but don’t want to edit the blog, have access to advanced features, or monetize it.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is where you can download free software (or the blogging platform) to install on your own site. Because it is on your own server, you can use plugins and edit the theme (it isn’t very hard). You basically have full control and access over the theme look and feel as well as the ability to use advanced features through plug-ins.

For most people who are looking to make money online, you’ll want to have access to more customization and plug-in features.

WordPress.org Benefits

• Ability to upload themes – giving your site a custom look
• Ability to upload plugins – giving your site more (and unique) functionality
• Complete control to change code if you’re technically minded
• Complete freedom to do what you want on your site, because you own it

WordPress.org Cons

• You will need to spend money to host your own website (see our list of the top budget-friendly web hosts here)
• Requires more technical knowledge to set up and run (though you can just outsource the technology)
• You’ll have to stay on top of updating your website and keeping it secure (this can be easily outsourced as well)

The Bottom Line: WordPress.org is for people who want a professional blog, full control of appearance and the ability to use plugins that will aid in monetization.

Basically, if you’re looking to make money with your blog, you’ll want to go with the self-hosted WordPress.org option.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com Bottom Line

If you are just using your blog as an online diary / journal and a way to update people on things in your life then the no cost / low tech WordPress.com can be a good option for you. However if you are looking to start a blog or starting an online business for commercial purposes then I highly recommend WordPress.org, which is also known as a self-hosted WordPress installation. This will give you the flexibility to build and grow your business.

Most web hosting companies (such as BlueHost) allow you to install WordPress for free; which is essentially the self-hosted WordPress.org option. (See our list of top-rated budget friendly webs hosts here.)

Once you’ve successfully set up your blog you’ll want to start driving traffic to it. See this article on the top 5 ways to get massive amounts of traffic to your blog.

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There are many different elements that must work together to produce a truly effective and authoritative website. The elements covered in this report are critical for effective optimization, so let’s take a look at them in a little more detail.
Site Speed
This is an extremely important (and often underrated) website ranking factor. Google wants to deliver the best results as quickly as possible. Your entire website – not just the homepage – should be optimized to load as fast as possible. It isn’t too hard to improve your page load speed, so stay on top of it.
URL Structure
Your URLs need to be well-structured and uncomplicated or they could confuse the intent of your site for both search engines and users. This section of the report looks at the keywords used in the URL, how close the page is to the top-level domain, and other elements that make it more effective.
On-Page Elements
These are the things you can directly control to give your website a boost. In this part of the analysis you will see details on:

• Title Tags – A title tag will be the clickable link in the search engine results so it needs to be optimized for the keyword while giving a user a reason to click it.
• Meta Descriptions – While these are not a ranking factor, they are a conversion factor. The search engines will grab some text on their own if you don’t provide more effective options.
• Image Optimizations – An image is worth a thousand words, especially if you do everything you can to optimize it.

Top 5 Words Used
Keywords aren’t what they used to be. Now, Google takes a more semantic approach to answering questions, and that means it considers “proof terms” or semantically relevant terms as well as the actual keywords. This part of the analysis looks at the words that get used the most on the page. Are they proof of your relevance? If not, it may be time for some more keyword research.
Heading Tags
You can use headers throughout your content to help users see what the page is about and, sometimes, use keywords to help search engines understand the page. You can use H1, H2, or H3 tags to properly format your page.
Copy Analysis
Readability is just as important as keyword usage in your website copy. The copy you create impacts your rankings as well as the number of people who convert from casual visitor to paying customer. This will help you earn links, social shares, and search engine attention. Content marketing is key to your success.
Code Analysis
The code that powers your website may also be a serious speed bump for search engines and users if it’s not fully optimized. This part of the analysis looks at your HTML code, the use of Flash, schema markup, and other important elements.
Social Analysis
This analysis will look at the number of domain and page shares you are currently receiving. Social media is an important factor because it shows how your visitors are interacting and sharing your content. There are several good social strategies that can help encourage your users to do more.
Mobile Friendliness
Recently, the number of Google searches on mobile devices officially surpassed searches on computers in the U.S. It’s important to make sure your website is mobile friendly to appeal to these users. Google also puts some extra value on websites that are mobile friendly.
Page Link and Root Domain Link Analysis
Links to your website and within your website can help Google understand the importance of various pages and help you build your rankings. This analysis looks at the number of links to and from your website (because linking to authoritative sites is also important). These links contribute to the authority and perceived trust of your website, which is expressed in various scores included in the analysis.
Domain Analysis
There are a lot of factors tied to your domain name that could impact your rankings. The age of the domain, the length, and other elements are all examined in this part of the analysis. A good domain name it a foundational element on which you can build your online presence.

 

Are you looking for a free WordPress blog theme for your website? There are thousands of free blog themes for WordPress making it harder for beginners to choose from. In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best free WordPress blog themes that you can use on your new blog.

Getting Started with WordPress

First, you need to make sure that you are using the right platform. Self hosted WordPress.org site is the perfect platform to start your blog because it gives you more freedom and control.
It is open source and comes with support for thousands of free templates and extensions that help you grow your blog faster. See our guide on why you should use WordPress for more details.
You can use our step by step beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog for detailed instructions.
Once you are up and running, it is time to choose a theme for your website. You can choose a theme from our expert selection below and then follow the instructions in our how to install a WordPress theme guide to set it up properly.
Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the best free WordPress blog themes that you can install on your website.

1. Bento

Bento is a powerful multi-purpose WordPress blog theme with tons of features. It works great with the most page builder plugins and even recommends installing one upon activation.
For a free WordPress theme, Bento comes packed with great customization options. All of them can be accessed using theme customizer.

2. Modernize

Need a blog theme with minimalist approach to design? Checkout Modernize. It is a simple WordPress blog theme with collapsible menus and it comes in one and two column layouts.
Designed to improve readability it uses clean typography and elegantly handles featured images.

3. Nisarg

Nisarg is a beautiful free WordPress blog theme. It comes with a clean layout with two navigation menus and a large full-width header image. It also supports custom backgrounds and colors.
All theme options are easily customizable using the theme customizer. It also comes with multiple post formats for videos, gallery, audio, chat, aside, quote, etc.

4. Hueman

Hueman is one of the most popular free WordPress themes. It comes with a multi-column layout and can be easily used on any kind of content rich blogs or magazine websites.
You also get support for custom headers, two column layout, full width layout, and tons of easy customization options.

5. Juno

Juno is an elegantly designed free WordPress blog theme. It allows you to easily customize colors and fonts. Juno includes features such as a slider area, masonry style blog, fully responsive design, and multiple widget areas.
It supports WooCommerce and comes with page, product, and blog post layouts.

6. Peaceful

Peaceful is a minimalist WordPress blog theme. It features a single column layout with large header image, a compact navigation menu, and beautiful featured images. It is quick and easy to setup and looks great on all devices and screen sizes.

7. Ajaira

Ajaira is a simple free blog theme for WordPress. It features a minimalist design with focus on crisp typography and beautiful featured images.
It comes with header social menu, header search bar, custom background, custom header, and colors. All theme options are easy to setup using the live theme customizer.

8. Wisteria

Wisteria is a simple WordPress blog theme with focus on beautiful typography and content. It comes with custom background, custom colors, custom header and a left sidebar.
Wisteria also has a single navigation menu on top and beautiful homepage that features your posts with custom excerpts and featured image.

9. Ribosome

Ribosome is a magazine style free WordPress blog theme. It comes with custom header, custom background, and unlimited colors. It has a single navigation menu and a social menu on the top.
Ribosome comes with a two column layout with sidebar on the right. It has six different Google Fonts, round or square thumbnails, two widgets areas at beginning and end of posts, perfect for displaying ads or related posts.

10. Poseidon

Poseidon is a free multi-purpose WordPress blog theme. Featuring a spacious layout, it comes with a full-width slider, homepage layout, and multiple page templates. The homepage layout can be easily setup using widgets.

11. SiteOrigin Unwind

SiteOrigin Unwind is a multipurpose free WordPress theme with full WooCommerce support. Designed with a minimalist style, Unwind is highly customizable using SiteOrigin Page Builder plugin. It comes with multiple layouts, custom header, background, and color support.

12. Hemingway

Hemingway is a clean WordPress blog theme featuring a two column layout, full width header image with parallax effect.
It supports custom accent color, custom logo upload, custom widgets (video, Flickr and Dribbble), page templates, etc. All theme options are quick and easy to setup.

13. Maxwell

Maxwell is a minimalistic and elegant WordPress theme. It features a clean magazine-style layout with beautiful typography. It comes with various post layouts and a gorgeous featured posts slideshow.

14. Hit

Hit is a minimalist WordPress blog theme. It features a full width header image and a two column layout. It comes with a distraction free style that is perfect for reading and showcasing your photos.

15. Writee

Writee is a free WordPress theme suitable for personal websites, travel and adventure blogs. It features a large slider on top using featured images from blog posts. It comes with multiple templates and custom widgets among many other features.

16. Libretto

Libretto is a beautiful WordPress blog theme designed specifically to showcase long form writing, stories, poetry, etc. It uses beautiful typography with Playfair Display and Libre Baskerville fonts, an elegant color scheme, and distraction free single column layout.

17. Verbosa

Verbosa is an elegantly crafted WordPress blog theme. It is designed with readability and visual appearance of your content at the center. It uses a three column layout on the homepage with two columns showing your content in a beautiful grid.

18. Flat

Flat is a modern WordPress blog theme with a two column layout. It features left sidebar with navigation menu. Large featured images, custom logo, custom background and header support.
It comes with flexible customization options that can be setup using the live theme customizer.

19. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is a clean and simple free WordPress blogging theme. It features a full-width custom header at the top and uses bold headlines for post titles. It comes with a left sidebar and one navigation menu at the top.

20. Baskerville

Baskerville is a modern and stylish WordPress blog theme. It features a large full-width header image followed by your posts presented as a grid on the homepage. It comes with gorgeous templates for single posts and pages.

21. Sanse

Looking for an incredibly fast and extremely simple WordPress blog theme? Try Sanse. This free blog theme does not support featured images and the homepage layout is just a grid of your posts with excerpts. It has three widget areas in the footer and single navigation bar at the top.

22. Magnus

Magnus is a free WordPress photography theme for bloggers. It uses featured image on each post as the fullscreen header image. The homepage layout is just featured image with post titles.
It uses a single column layout for the single posts. It has collapsible sidebar, a navigation menu on top, and supports custom headers.
You should also consider using Magnus in combination with Envira Gallery, a powerful WordPress gallery plugin.

23. Fashionistas

As the name suggests, Fashionistas is a WordPress theme for fashion and lifestyle blog. It features a light breezy design with beautiful typography and gorgeous display of featured images. It comes with two navigation menus, right sidebar, and footer widget areas.

24. Admiral

Admiral is a magazine style WordPress theme suitable for sports blogs, magazine, and news websites. It features a three column layout with two sidebars on both sides and content column in the middle.
It comes with a featured posts slideshow, a magazine homepage template, a widgetized header area, two different post layouts and support for infinite scroll.

25. Coral Dark

If you are looking for a WordPress blog theme with dark background, then try Coral Dark. It comes in one-column or two-column layout with built-in slideshow. It allows you to customize fonts and colors and comes with two widget ready areas.

26. Barletta

Barletta is a light and elegant WordPress blog theme. It is designed for lifestyle, travel, fashion, food, and personal blogs. It focuses on improving readability and displaying your images gracefully. It has a two column layout with sidebar on the right. It supports custom headers, background, and a featured content slider on homepage.

27. Revive

Revive is a beautiful free blog theme for WordPress. It features a magazine style layout with large header image and your featured content displayed in a posts grid. It comes integrated with Font Awesome icons and supports multiple blog layouts.

28. Hiero

Hiero is a free WordPress blog theme with a magazine style layout. It uses bold colors for header and accent. It uses a two column layout and comes with a navigation menu on top. The home page displays your latest posts with excerpts and featured images.

29. Zeal

Zeal is a free WordPress blog theme for the creative types. It comes with a parallax Jumbotron with color filter option, featured posts, multiple widget areas, and stunning parallax effects.
It supports custom headers, background, and custom colors. It comes with multiple widget ready areas and page templates.

30. Tracks

Tracks is a thoughtfully designed WordPress blog theme for personal, magazines, and photography websites. It includes a logo uploader, social media icons, search bar, widget ready areas, and crisp typography. The homepage features a grid layout of your posts with featured images.

31. Extant

Extant is a minimalist WordPress blog theme designed specifically for photographers and artists. It offers a clutter free design with no sidebars, or widget ready areas. Homepage is made of grid of your posts using only the featured images and post titles. It comes with a collapsible menu on top and two layout choices.

32. Scratchpad

Scratchpad is an illustrative and colorful WordPress blog theme. It uses a set of patterns, drawings, and styles to create a beautiful and fun look. It supports multiple post formats and displays them beautifully. It has a sidebar on the right, and another at the bottom.

33. The Columnist

The columnist is a WordPress blog theme featuring a magazine style look. It comes with different layouts for homepage, archives, single pages, bbPress, and BuddyPress. It also includes a responsive customisable slider and four color schemes.

34. Satori

Satori is a highly customizable WordPress theme for blogs and personal websites. It features a full-width header on the homepage and comes with different page templates including support for WooCommerce, multiple widget ready areas, and post formats.

35. Nitro

Nitro is a highly customizable free WordPress blog theme. It comes with a beautiful homepage layout with slider on top and featured content below. It has multiple widget ready areas, page templates, and supports custom headers, backgrounds, social menu, custom colors.

36. WriterBlog

The WriterBlog is a simple WordPress blog theme featuring a classic blog layout. It comes in a two column layout with sidebar on the right. It supports full-width custom header, custom background, custom colors, etc.

37. Illdy

Illdy is a multi-purpose WordPress theme suitable for business, personal, magazine websites. It is built on bootstrap framework and features large header images, two column and full-width layout, custom background, and color selection.

38. Tecblogger

Tecblogger is a simple and clean WordPress blog theme. It features a classic blog look with content column and a right sidebar. It comes with a navigation menu on top and supports custom headers, custom backgrounds, and colors.

39. MadHat

MadHat is built on Bootstrap framework, and it is a multi-purpose WordPress theme featuring a black and white layout which can be easily customized. It comes with Font Awesome icons, multiple blog layouts, and sidebar customizations.

40. Garfunkel

Garfunkel is a stylish WordPress blog theme featuring a grid layout on the homepage. It supports custom headers, custom backgrounds, six post formats (including a gallery slideshow), six custom widgets, social menu, and two page templates.

41. Author

Author is a beautiful WordPress blog theme for authors and writers. It features a simple two column layout with sidebar and navigation menu in the left column and content on the right. It supports custom colors, background, and multiple post formats. It is optimized for accessibility and performance.

42. Tempo

Tempo is a modern WordPress blogging theme that can be easily used as a business website as well. It features clean crisp typography with a bright breezy layout. It supports custom header, parallax, header buttons, custom logo, custom colors, custom background, social links, left and right sidebar, and custom widgets.

43. iFeature

iFeature is a modern and stylish WordPress theme suitable for magazines, business, personal, and portfolio websites. It features full-width background image, a slider on top, followed by your content.
It includes features like sticky headers, author bio box, multiple widget areas, and page templates. All theme options can be easily setup using drag and drop in live customizer.

44. Natural Lite

Natural lite is a simple blogging theme with earthy tones. It uses large featured images, supports custom header and background. It comes with multi-column layouts and easy customization options.

45. Responsive

Responsive is a beautiful WordPress theme designed for flexibility. It is suitable for authors, personal websites, photography, and even business websites.
It comes with 9 page templates, 11 widget areas, 6 template layouts, 4 menu positions and more. It also includes powerful but simple theme options for easy logo upload and social networking features. Responsive is WooCommerce compatible, multilingual ready, full RTL-language support and translation-ready.

46. Hestia

Hestia is a highly flexible free WordPress theme for all kind of websites. It comes with an easy setup wizard, and a companion plugin which adds testimonials and services section to your website.
It is ready to be used with popular free page builder plugins and is ready for WooCommerce out of the box. Homepage can be easily setup using live theme customizer where you can just add sections and rearrange them with drag and drop.

47. iRibbon

Looking for a vintage retro style for your blog? Check out iRibbon. This beautiful hipster theme is designed to invoke nostalgia with its retro color scheme and typography.
It includes a full-width background image, 4 different page layouts, typography options, and easier theme setup with drag and drop settings under customizer. It is perfect for personal websites, blogs, magazine, and fashion websites.

48. Ignite

Ignite is a stylish WordPress blog theme featuring a classic blog look. It comes with a two column layout, a compact top bar used for navigation menus and site title and description. It uses medium sized featured images before post titles and utilizes crisp typography for better reading experience on your blog.

49. Responsive Mobile

As the name suggests, Responsive Mobile is a WordPress theme designed with a mobile first approach. It looks equally great on all devices and screen sizes.
Theme features include 9 page templates, 11 widget areas, 6 template layouts, 4 menu positions, call-out section with a call to action button, custom fonts, custom background image, and more. Suitable for business websites, it is very easy to use and can be quickly set up.
That’s all for now.
We hope this list helped you find the best free WordPress blog themes for your website. You may also want to see these actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.
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