If you are considering starting a blog, you’re in the right place. Today, we’ll explore how to create a blog completely for free using Webflow, a popular visual website builder.
We’ll take a look at its Designer, ways of creating a post and other useful things for bloggers
What is Webflow
Webflow is a website builder that was founded in 2013 and currently has more than 3.5 million users. It’s such a renowned platform that companies like NASA, Dell and Rakuten choose it to design their websites.
This no-code platform allows complete design freedom in an easy-to-use visual canvas. It can also handle hosting, security and website performance.
We have previously compared Webflow head-to-head with Framer, another visual website builder. If you are curious about who won, check out our post about it.
Here, we’ll focus on how Webflow can be used by bloggers, especially those who are starting from zero.
That’s why we’ll try to cover mainly the free features of Webflow, which luckily has a very complete free plan, no credit card required. But we’ll also keep in mind some useful tools are only available on the paid tiers, which are:
- Basic: $18 per month. It includes 150 static pages and 500 form subscriptions per month.
- CMS: $29 per month. Get a content-rich site with a custom search engine and collaboration tools.
- Business: $49 per month. Collect files from site visitors and invite up to 10 editors to work with you.
Now with less further ado, let’s dive right in.
How to start a blog with Webflow
Getting started
Once you created your account, Webflow will ask you some basic questions to get to know your needs.
Then, with Webflow you can easily start a blog by choosing a template. You can also go with a blank site or follow their tutorial, but for the purpose of this post, we’ll go with a template.
Amongst their big list of templates, we’ll sort them through “Free” and “Blog” and look at the preview to see which one best fits us.
I went with “Notable” because it has the perfect mix of a minimal and eye-catching layout that we want for a blog.
Customize your site’s design
Moving things around
Now, Webflow gives you absolute control over your design, you can fully customize it, so let’s see some things we can do with that power.
After you select your template, you’ll end up on Designer, where things will look a bit like this:
To make changes to any element, you have two options: select it directly from the canvas or use the Navigator. This panel right here is the Navigator, and I promise you it looks scarier than it actually is.
You can completely avoid the Navigator and simply select things right from the canvas but it’s very useful if you happen to set an element to none-display. In that case, the image or text won’t be visible on the canvas, but it will be on the Navigator.
Typography
Although I’m satisfied with my template’s typography, I want to check out some alternatives. To do so, I clicked the W in the upper left corner which leads me to my site’s settings.
Then I went to the Fonts tab and opened the Google Fonts dropdown to access Google Fonts’ massive collection.
The thing is, you are not able to preview the font from here. For that, you’ll need to open the Google Fonts page, which is a small extra step, but an extra step nonetheless.
Once you selected your font, go back to Designer and apply it.
If you want to make the font the default font for the whole site, and thus assuring consistency, you want to head back to Navigator and click “Body”.
Once you do so, you’ll see a style panel on your right. You are going to click into the Selector field, select Body (All Pages), and then scroll down to the Typography panel to find your font.
And that’s it!
Creating a blog post
Let’s talk about what’s most important here: blog posting.
Webflow gives you two ways to upload a post: from the design canvas and from the editor.
This means that, unlike WordPress, Webflow lets you edit content right on the page. This feature is awesome for design since it takes out the need to preview your post. You know exactly how the post will look as you write it.
To take this path then, go to the “CMS Collections” page and click on the Collection items dropdown menu.
Select “Add new [Collection item]”. There, you’ll be able to fill out the necessary fields and schedule or post your post.
Now, let’s take a look at how to post from the Editor. To do this, you are forced to first publish your site. According to Webflow, the chances anyone will accidentally stumble across our brand-new blog are low so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Anyway, publishing is very fast. The Publish button is in the upper right, simply click it and it will be done in seconds.
After that, you’ll be able to access the Editor mode, navigate to the collection, and add a new item.
Other useful things you want to consider as a blogger
Flows
Webflow allows you to construct and perform automated workflows (also known as “flows”) to collect and route sales leads, connect with your customers, manage your site content, and more.
You can create flows directly from the left toolbar on Designer, where you’ll find the Logic icon. Every flow has three parts: triggers, actions and conditions.
SEO
Webflow lets you add and edit schema markup. It also has simple alt-tag editing to ensure your images are screen reader accessible, add an SEO title and meta descriptions.
To edit meta descriptions in Webflow, hover over the page you want to edit and click the gear icon to open the Page settings. In the Page settings, scroll down to the SEO settings section and enter the description.
Integrations
Webflow has a large list of integrations. In the email marketing department, you can choose between popular platforms like AWeber, Get Response, ActiveCampaign, SendPulse and Buttondown. They also integrate with calendars, content marketing tools and Google Analytics.
Invite other people to your workspace
Since we’re on the free plan, we won’t be able to invite other team members to manage our site, however, we can invite other people who can equally help us.
Reviewers or guests are two different categories of members we can invite for free. Reviewers will simply view and comment on our site. Guests, on the other hand, are freelancers who already have a workspace plan and can jump on your site to help you build and manage it.
Localization
Unless your blog’s content is specific to a certain place, e.g., you’re talking about the best coffee shops in a tiny town no tourist will visit, then the best you can do for engagement is translate your content.
Webflow localization is super advanced and it lets you choose from a long list of languages and dialects. Of course, native machine-powered translation can’t compete with a human translator and so Webflow offers integrations with translation management systems (TMS).
Its localization feature doesn’t stop there. It also includes customizing design and content!
Custom Domain
Now, if you are going serious with your blog, you need a custom domain, that’s off discussion. For some guidance on choosing a name, we recommend you check our post on Custom Domains.
The thing is you’ll have to go with a premium subscription to get rid of the Webflow domain.
Support and resources
Webflow has free web design courses, a glossary and a forum.
They also have a great community with more than 85,000 members. Within the community, you can access live streams, podcasts, and even in-person events. They host multiple events across the globe where you can spend the day coworking and eating great food.
You can contact support via email at [email protected].
Final words
Webflow is an excellent website builder for anyone who is a design enthusiast. Even if you go with the template option instead of building from scratch, you still have a lot of customization freedom and can truly make the layout your own.
However, I found it a bit intimidating. I don’t believe all bloggers will feel comfortable using it, particularly those who just want to start posting as soon as possible and don’t care about certain design details.
Regardless of that detail, Webflow is an incredible tool for anyone looking to create a blog that’s unique and has all the needed features to grow your audience.
What do you think about Webflow?
Have you tried it?
Tell us in the comments below!
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