Starting today, anyone can build their blog on Podia for free.
When Podia launched in 2014, it was primarily an online course platform. Over the years, we added more product types, like digital downloads, webinars, and coaching. You can now build a full, beautiful website on Podia, with more and more customization options coming out this year. Just a few months ago, Podia introduced an advanced email marketing tool.
And now, you can build a beautiful blog on Podia too.
It doesn’t make sense to have separate websites for your blog and your digital products (not to mention a separate email tool), but until now your options have been limited — it’s been either “use 2 or more tools” or “wrestle with plugins and code until you get something that kind of works.”
Now you have a third option, and I think you’ll find (like many of our early blogging beta testers did) that it might make sense to bring your entire online home over from WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or another website builder.
To help you decide if Podia blogging is right for you, we’re sharing honest feedback and reviews from 38 of our blogging beta testers.
Some of these customers moved existing blogs from other platforms onto Podia and some started blogging with Podia for the first time – and all 38 of these people posted reviews of Podia Blogging on their own blogs, for their own audiences.
(We encouraged users to share their thoughts, but we didn’t edit their content or do any type of pre-approval because we wanted you to hear exactly what they had to say.)
So here’s what 38 creative entrepreneurs had to say about why they started blogging with Podia, why they switched from another platform, and why Podia’s blog feature might be the right fit for your business too.
Creators started blogging with Podia to get more customers and followers
Starting a blog for the first time can feel daunting. But Podia’s blogging feature is so straightforward that many creators decided it was time to start. And it only took a few posts for them to see how blogging could help their businesses.
Guelda Redman and Lionel Renier started blogging with Podia to share their expertise and passions.
Guelda says, “Blogging is an important tool that you can use to expand your reach and become known as an authority in your field. Do you have to be an expert in all areas? No. Each of us has something to share that someone else needs to hear.”
Raúl T. Pereyra and Sorrel Pindar started their blogs to build connections with their audience, and Podia allowed them to do that without headaches.
Raúl says, “By sharing personal anecdotes, witty insights, and creative approaches to leadership challenges, I can connect with mission-driven leaders on a deeper level.”
Claudia Tudor was previously relying on just social media to grow an audience, but she wanted more space to elaborate on her thoughts. When she gave Podia blogging a try, she was pleased to see her network grow.
“Although I am at the very beginning, I see that some of my likes or comments come from people I don't know. My network seems to increase and I certainly feel confident my net is growing in the near future.”
Kirstie from Learn with Pickles and Elisa Kuusela also found that blogging offered a way to share ideas away from the noise and challenges of social media.
Other creators started blogging with Podia to improve their rankings in search engines.
According to Podia Pro Glen Long, “Publishing content regularly via a blog is a great way to create awareness for your site (and your project or business) and gives you a constant stream of things to talk about on social media. Fresh content is also a major signal to search engines like Google and Bing that your site is one to watch (and hopefully feature in their results pages).”
Whatever your reason for adding a blog to your business, Podia makes it easy and fun to get started.
Creators left other blogging platforms for Podia because it’s easier to have everything in one place
Have you ever had to switch cell phone providers? Or switch your utilities when you move into a new flat? Or, gulp, change your address with the DMV?
Switching platforms is notoriously un-fun, but when blogging became available on Podia, many users who had blogs on other platforms switched to Podia and didn’t look back.
(Don’t worry, Podia’s blog post importer makes switching a breeze!)
Abby Turner from Yoga Traveler Online started blogging with WordPress in 2020, but didn’t like dealing with technical issues.
She recalls, “I kept getting errors that pages were not working and I did not know how to fix them. I did not know how to link my two sites together so my blog in WordPress was not helping me to grow my business.”
She loved using Podia for her products and email, so when the blogging feature was released, switching was a no-brainer.
“The idea of having everything "in-house" became extremely important. I already had my website, product pages, and emailing service all in Podia. I quickly learned that I wanted my blog on my Podia site as well. No more pesky error messages, no more maintaining four different URLs. Everything streamlined on one site.”
Joseph D’Amico also left WordPress for the simplicity of Podia. “Podia's simplicity and all-inclusive design remind me of what I like about Apple," he says. "In short, everything you really need is included and it just works. This has been very different compared to my experience with WordPress, which at times was frustrating and needlessly complicated.”
When Gail from Growth Capacity Resources switched from WordPress to Podia, it became easier to update posts and publish more consistently.
“WordPress has always felt overly complicated, time-consuming, and not fun. It took days to set up my site, and I never really understood how it all worked. This means that my website existed so people could find me, but I didn't update it or post new articles as much as I wanted to.”
Technical difficulties with MailerLite’s blogging feature also prevented Sabrina Koncaba from publishing as much as she wanted.
Sabrina writes, “My transition to Podia was motivated by a desire for seamless branding and a frustration with technical issues on other platforms. MailerLite, while offering plenty of customization options, was marred by technical difficulties that hindered my ability to consistently post content to my blog.”
Even creators with long histories on other platforms were excited to make a change.
Jon Sabillon left Squarespace after 8 years so that he could build a blog on Podia because he wanted “an all-in-one space where my music, courses, coaching, and blog could coexist seamlessly, instead of being scattered across different platforms.”
Aimee from Becoming your own Best Friend switched from Blogger after 16 years on the platform, and Pedro Branco left Shopify for Podia because it was easier to run everything in one place.
Randal Gilmore switched from Squarespace to Podia because they found Squarespace’s design outdated and wanted a fresh start with a platform that felt more like home.
“I am moving into my new blog home here at Podia.com," Randal writes.
"My old blog house on Squarespace was just so 1990s and desperately in need of updating. But when I thought about the resources and effort that would require, I started looking around for a new home, one that already had the latest blog features built into it, one I could move into right away, a home designed to make my friends feel comfortable coming over and enjoying a stimulating conversation.”
Users on other platforms also switched to Podia for a more friendly feel. Jennifer Ann Falandys usually shares her writing on Medium but is eager to switch to Podia to give her blog a more personal touch.
“There is nothing like having a native blog platform to share things in a more personal way with my readers," she shares. "Sometimes I feel like there is a lot of pressure to get everything right before I hit publish on Medium. Here, on Podia, is where I want to create my home.”
Moving a blog to a new platform can feel like a complicated task, but many Podia users said it was worth it to have everything in one place on a tool that’s easier to manage. Plus, Podia’s blog post importer makes switching much faster and headache-free.
No trip to the DMV required.
Is Podia blogging right for you too?
Starting a blog or moving an existing one is a big task, and you deserve to have as much information as possible to make that decision. Here’s why new and experienced bloggers alike enjoy Podia blogging – according to the posts they published on their own blogs.
Blogging on Podia is free
Everyone should be able to start a blog without a huge upfront expense, so Podia blogging is available on the free plan.
You get a free Podia subdomain and you can add unlimited articles, images, and anything else you want without running into random limits. Podia handles hosting and all the tech behind the scenes so you can have your blog up and running without spending a dime.
Howard Cain was already using Podia for his digital products, and he liked how “there are no additional costs to set up or integrate your new blog.”
Lori Battaglia also appreciated that a free platform meant less pressure on her new design business. She says, “Podia offered a worry-free opportunity to create the brand I wanted to share for FREE while I was building. This took the pressure off and provided a time for me to think through what the content to offer my readers in my blog.”
Your Podia blog is already connected to the rest of your business
When everything is connected, you can spend less time making tools talk to each other and more time working on your passions.
Creators who blog and sell digital products like Mike Spadier don’t have to worry about clunky integrations or things breaking.
As Aneatra Dorsey puts it,
“I found the Goldilocks platform with ALL the things at a super affordable price! It's a fantabulous resource for selling various types of digital products! Podia serves as an all-in-one platform, streamlining the entire process. It offers features for creating, hosting, and selling your digital products, all within one user-friendly interface. This means less time managing different tools and more time focusing on your business.”
And Lane Johnson agrees, saying, “Previous blogging tools I used were quite capable of creating very professional-looking blog posts and had all the features you would need to manage your posts. But the user experience, for me, was fairly clunky, and they weren't integrated with the website and other important tools like email, e-commerce, digital sales, etc., without a lot of clunky plugins. Integration is one of the key benefits of the Podia platform. Everything is all there in the same application.”
Podia is the Apple of website builders. It just works…and it leaves WordPress in the dust.
Podia blogging is simple and easy to use
Another standout feature of Podia blogging is that it’s easy to use. To share an article, all you need to do is open up a new post and start typing. (Or, as Ksenia Semirova puts it, “Write, post, and enjoy.”)
Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers, Mariah Odegaard, Olivier de SO ikigai and many other creators wrote about how Podia lets you make your blog look exactly how you like without getting bogged down in code or complicated add-ons.
Maureen Beaucond says, “I love to write and I write something almost every morning with my cuppa coffee. But I have always hated the strung-out boring tasks of posting a blog! Since I moved all of my digital business to PODIA, I have enjoyed the simplicity of not messing with the tech part of anything! ANYTHING!!”
Sundar Kadayam also had an easy experience creating new blog posts, noting that, “writing rich text posts with formatting is simple with the recently revamped text editor that is at the heart of writing blog posts on Podia.”
Ease of use meant time saved for J.D. Hyter:
“My blog was up and running in 30 minutes flat. They take all the headaches out of building a blog. The designer is beginner-friendly. You can add text, images, and videos at the snap of a finger.”
Gurpreet Singh had a similar experience with getting his blog set up fast: “From not having a blog to being able to publish my first post took me less than 30 minutes! This included watching a 6-minute video tutorial made by the Podia Team.”
Not wanting to waste time learning complicated new software, Alison Smith says “Podia gives me that middle ground that enables me to quickly produce a professional-looking blog post with minimal learning.”
And Caitlin Fisher wrote, “No widgets or formatted blocks - it's just a simple word processor and basic embeds available when you type a slash (/). I love the simplicity of it.”
Podia is so simple that you can manage it yourself, without needing to hire a developer or pay for an expensive custom website.
According to Podia Pro Brittany Hardy, “it’s so important for business owners to have something that they can manage themselves (and Podia is that platform!).”
Your Podia blog automatically comes with features to make running a business easier
Podia blogging is free, already connected to everything else you do, and simple and easy to use. It also has helpful features to keep your business running smoothly. Unlike other blogging platforms – they don’t come with a higher price tag.
Daniele Catalanotto liked how Podia has native blog post scheduling for future dates.
“I have the possibility to schedule articles in the future; that's a welcome feature for my productivity as I could write blog articles in batches and release them over time.”
No need for fancy plugins – Podia also has SEO features right out of the box.
Samantha Ludwitzke mentioned that “SEO is a huge part of running an online shop, and Podia's developers were smart to make it a priority when they created the platform's design. Simply click on the SEO tab, and fill out the different fields. No more guessing where to link everything.”
Creators can also use Podia’s embed feature to add other types of media from around the web into articles. Eli Natoli likes how Podia has “integrated features such as adding YouTube videos, podcast episodes, social posts, and offering downloads to build your audience.”
This means creators like Nicky Raby can use their Podia blog to share YouTube videos and get more reach, Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers can embed a presentation replay, and Juriste Pedagogue can feature courses and ebooks at the end of each blog post.
If you’re looking for a blogging tool that automatically connects with the rest of your business, is easy to use, has all the features you need, and is free, Podia blogging is the right fit for you.
If you’ve never blogged before, now is the perfect time to start. As fellow Podia blog users mentioned, a blog can help you bond with your audience and get discovered by new people.
If you’ve got some blogging experience under your belt, you’ll love how much easier Podia is than other tools out there. Switching to Podia is simple, and you’ll be able to run all aspects of your business under one roof.
Our users don’t call us a “Goldilocks platform” and the “Apple of blogging platforms” for nothing, so create your free account today to try Podia blogging for yourself.
We can’t wait to see what you create.
