If you’re reading this, you’re probably new to blogging. It probably seems really scary and intimidating. And you’re probably on a budget. Am I right?

This was me not too long ago. I was new to blogging and was faced with an overwhelming amount of information. I sat hunched over my computer, researching everything about this blogging thing, and I was confident that I was going to be great at it.

In-depth Research: A Common Underlying Theme

The most successful blogs use Wordpress. Naturally, I started my blogging journey through Wordpress -- and then found myself getting nowhere fast. Wordpress required me to be slightly technically inclined, and this is not me friends. Not even close. Of course, I had to figure out this part of blogging, which distracted me from my original intent: to create meaningful content. Adding insult to injury, I wasted too much money on all of it. I spent more hours than I can count trying to design my site, and despite my best efforts, I failed. I did all the things the blogging world told me to do if I wanted to have a successful blog. I did all the things the blogging world told me to do if I wanted to reach others and help them.

How am I supposed to help others if I can’t even get my website up and running? This was a very discouraging realization. Those of us who are already low on energy don’t have the effort to give to something as draining as what I experienced. Hiring a web developer? That was out of the question. As a current stay-at-home mom to a toddler, my budget is nearly nonexistent. I felt like I was drowning and the only way to survive was to teach myself something I hated. I was burning out and losing my motivation. What good was that?

Let me tell you what changed.

Squarespace. I wish I could go back in time and kiss whoever told me about it. I checked out Squarespace through their free trial, and immediately felt the shift in my attitude toward my blog. I was hooked. Squarespace gave me a new, fresh excitement to share my content, and I’m gonna tell you why beginning bloggers need it too:

1. It’s saving me a whole hell of a lot of money.

I’m just going to dive right in: Squarespace is affordable. Like, too-good-to-be-true affordable. Squarespace offers monthly plans starting at $16 a month. Like, what?! That’s crazy. When I originally started my journey, I paid upfront for a domain because I wasn’t given another choice. Not everyone has a chunk of money like that when first starting out; What it cost me: $160 (give or take). Then, I downloaded a template. Cost: $50. I was already $200+ in the hole, and I hadn’t even started writing yet, let alone set up my own site! This doesn’t take into account the money spent on upgrading plug-ins or templates to be able to customize your site. You’d be right, too, if you said it wasn’t in the budget to hire a web developer to handle the technical side of things. These services can cost you thousands of dollars, and even though these awesome people are worth their weight in gold, I just couldn’t afford it. It wasn’t realistic for my budget. I’d rather pay $192 a year (in monthly installments!) for integrated web development, than $250 upfront and nothing to show for it. Lesson learned.

2. There’s a free trial.

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the money thing but I wanted to include it separately. The most important reason being they don’t ask for a credit card during the trial sign up. You literally go to the website, input your information and start. This makes me trust the team. They aren’t trying to trick me into giving them my money -- it's my choice to take it or leave it. It also showed confidence in their product and ability to help others reach their goals. They keep giving me the option to extend the original 14-day trial, too. In total, I got 3 weeks of free services, relieving me of a financial obligation while I finalize my site. Who wouldn’t love that?

3. It’s incredibly easy and unique.

Squarespace is user-friendly. They have so many beautiful templates to choose from, and edit them yourself. Two people can start with the same template but have such drastically different final products. This is perfect because it gives you a uniqueness that’s necessary in the blogging world without having to know a single thing about code. Score! Wordpress only has so many free templates, many of which you have to upgrade to better customize. This ends up forcing people to choose between spending money they don’t have in order to be original or to blend in with all the other look-a-like sites if they don’t have the money. With a start like this, it’s no wonder bloggers have such a high failure rate. How frustrating is that? Squarespace solved that problem by taking the middle man out, giving you a fully customizable template without the need to outsource. Easy, peasy.

4. Building my email list became very simple.

Building an email list is absolutely necessary if you want to succeed with blogging -- this is a fact. Trying to figure out plug-ins and making them work, or integrating them with Wordpress, was stressful. As a result, I stayed away from learning how to use it. This was a huge mistake.

Here’s something cool: Squarespace is partnered up with Mailchimp to make email integration easy. Oh, and free. There’s that saving money thing again. Until you’re at a point where your email list is well-established, and you’re in a position to upgrade, Mailchimp is free AND the first upgrade option is only $10 a month. The emails are also completely customizable. There are plenty of templates to choose from that you can tailor to best convey your message. Keywords: Easy. Free. Ugh, are you sensing a theme here?

5. They provide outstanding customer service.

I’ve never personally had an issue (thus far) with Squarespace, but reviews I’ve seen say that they have exceptional customer service. I, myself, have seen the dedication the site has simply by staying in touch via emails. According to others, you talk to real people, with an astonishingly fast response time. What’s better than talking to people who know how to fix a problem, right when you need to fix it? Nothing, my friends. This is golden.

6. I was given a chance to focus more on content.

I finished my website in three weeks. On Wordpress, it took me four months. Four months . I’m mad at myself for not writing any content in that amount of valuable time. However, it didn’t go to waste. I learned a lot by making these mistakes. Now that I’m not focusing on designing my site, I can focus on giving you guys the information you need to start a business as effortlessly as possible. Don’t we all deserve that much? You have a voice and something to share with the world! What is it? The only way we’ll know is through your content and the amount of time you spend paying attention to it. Focusing on my own content has allowed me time to learn how to guide you through my mistakes, and to teach you how to avoid them.

7. No one had to pay me to write this.

Let me explain. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why everyone was pushing these domain hosting services (like Bluehost), and this is because Wordpress can be installed easily on them. The tech difficulties left me wondering if every blogger was a technical genius or if they were just rich enough to pay to outsource. Then, I learned about affiliate marketing. Bloggers can make serious money off referring someone to these hosting sites, making somewhere between $100-$250 per sale! Imagine what that’s like on a larger scale. Some blogs have thousands of people clicking their affiliate links and buying the products recommended to them. How much money are they making pushing just those services alone? This then lead me to wonder why I didn’t hear about Squarespace frequently if it is this awesome. Is it a coincidence that Squarespace (currently) does not have an affiliate program? I don’t make money by referring you, and it costs you nothing to try them. So where is the motivation to refer? People want to make money. If they’re great at that, and provide helpful information to their audience, then that’s awesome. However, I can’t get on board with it. I can’t suggest something that’s not helpful (and to me, none of the Wordpress world has been helpful) just to make a sale. The intention of this blog was to make blogging easy and to conserve time and energy doing it. Nothing has brought me as much relief as making the switch to Squarespace.

I spent too much money and wasted too much time trying to learn the technical side to blogging. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. If you’re like me and fall short in the tech department, you need Squarespace in your life. Once you start that free trial, you’ll know what I mean.