“Is there any way it could have been easier?” That’s the thought I had while going back and forth with a developer, fixing endless bugs on my WordPress site built with Elementor.

All I wanted to do was create content for my readers. Instead, I spent months dealing with errors caused by both Elementor and a previous developer. 

I’ve been running my blog on WordPress for four years. Honestly, the road has never been smooth. If you’re not familiar with all the details, technical issues will likely pop up sooner or later.

Running a site means constantly fixing errors, tweaking design, or updating copy, often with help from a developer. 

However, none of these issues exist on my beehiiv newsletter blog. It’s easy to customize, comes with built-in SEO tools, and has a no-code design builder. I publish my newsletter posts there, and it feels like it was made for creators who want to blog and monetize without the tech stress. 

In this post, I’ll share how you can create a blog website the hassle-free way with no coding needed. 

Why Trust Me?

I’m an SEO specialist and content creator who’s growing and making money from my newsletter blog on beehiiv. I also have a popular website on WordPress that drives over 15,000 monthly visitors. 

If you want to build a blog website for free, there are a few options. 

You can go with a classic content management system like WordPress or try site builders like Webflow. Both options have been around for years and work well. 

However, running a blog isn’t just about creating content. 

When I launched my site on WordPress, which powers about 43% of all websites globally, I quickly realized there was a lot more work than I expected. 

To get your site up and running, you need to pick and set up a design theme, install SEO plugins, ensure that web crawlers can discover your content, optimize the loading speed, and so much more. And if you don’t know how to code, many of these tasks mean hiring a developer. 

Looking back, I wish there had been an easier way. 

Luckily, there are way more opportunities nowadays to choose from. 

For example, modern blog site builders, like beehiiv’s Website Builder, come with design templates and drag-and-drop tools. They let you customize your blog without the need to code. 

You can learn more about how to use beehiiv’s Website Builder from our video tutorials:

Plus, beehiiv offers growth and monetization features, so you can start growing your blog and monetizing your efforts from day one. 

Let me share how I use beehiiv to power my newsletter blog.

Before beehiiv launched its Website Builder, I didn’t think turning newsletters into blog posts was possible. 

Actually, I never treated my newsletters as evergreen content that users could get back to at any time. I thought a newsletter was a one-time thing that I sent out to my audience that would go into a void if a user didn’t open their email box to read it.  

I was absolutely wrong! 

Why invest time creating a valuable piece of content and only using it once? 

With beehiiv, I created a blog website where every newsletter I send is published on the web, tagged accordingly, and is accessible at any time, so I can link to it and reuse it over and over again. 

With beehiiv, you don’t need any plugins or extensions to create a website. 

All I had to do to launch my newsletter blog was follow these steps:

Just six steps, and my first post went live in January 2024. 

Since then, I’ve pivoted my newsletter a few times. I created content tags to group posts and launched a paid newsletter. Additionally, I created a menu with links to important pages on my site and beyond and improved the entire user acquisition process. It’s so easy to do with beehiiv, and the best thing is that it doesn’t require coding skills. 

If you are just getting started, beehiiv offers tons of pre-built design templates in its Template Library. They constantly add new templates, so you have many options to choose from. 

Once you pick a design template, you’ll be headed to the next steps, which are about choosing your website’s color palette, picking fonts, and creating a website structure. 

Note that you can customize all the elements inside the website builder and preview all the changes on desktop and mobile. 

What’s great is that beehiiv recommends sample color palettes and font combinations, so you don’t have to figure it out on your own. 

If you need more inspiration, Kanishka, beehiiv’s content manager, recently published an insightful post on the best email designs and trends. 

My favorite part starts when all the preparation work is finished— creating the content!

What I like about beehiiv’s Email Editor is that it’s super easy to use. It has a clean layout, yet it provides you with features to design your newsletter the way you want it. 

I prefer a clean, minimal design with plenty of white space because it makes content easier to read and facilitates mobile usability. However, you don’t necessarily have to do the same. beehiiv offers tons of features to help you create a custom design that will make your newsletter stand out.

For example, here’s how Tyler Denk, one of beehiiv’s founders, customized his weekly newsletter, Big Desk Energy.

Kanishka, beehiiv’s content manager, recently gave her newsletter a brand new look, too. She added more colors and customized the fonts.

With beehiiv, you can bring any design idea for your newsletter to life! 

If you’re still unsure about which blog site builder to choose, let me show you what you can do with beehiiv. 

It comes with helpful features that can make growing your blog easier and faster from day one. I believe this is particularly helpful for solo bloggers, since they have limited time but many tasks on their plates. 

beehiiv has all the features you need to automate your blog’s growth, nurture communication with your audience, and monetize your content from the beginning. 

Imagine someone lands on your website and spends a few minutes enjoying your content. Then, instead of leaving forever, they sign up for your newsletter.

That’s the beauty of beehiiv—you don’t just get traffic; you own your audience.

Once people join your email list, you can build relationships with them through personalized newsletters. Instead of losing your site visitors, you can nurture them with your content and turn casual readers into fans. 

No matter how search algorithms change or social media trends shift, you don’t have to worry. You own your audience, and no platform can take it away.

What used to require a content management system, like WordPress, and a separate email software can now be done with beehiiv. 

Here’s how you can grow and monetize your audience with beehiiv:

Take Shaan Puri, for example. He built Milk Road on beehiiv and grew it to 250,000+ subscribers in just a year before selling it for millions.

According to the Milk Road case study, Ben Levy, the co-founder of Milk Road, spent a few hours one day creating a write-up on “What 12 Crypto Whales are Betting On.” He turned it into a PDF and offered it to any Milk Road reader who refers a single subscriber.

One referral = one reward.

With beehiiv, you’ve got all the features you need to grow, scale, and own your audience—all in one place.

I’ve already mentioned that beehiiv lets you turn your newsletters into evergreen content by publishing them on your blog, but it doesn’t stop there! 

Once you finish writing your newsletter, you get to choose how you want your content to reach your audience. 

Instead of being locked into just one option, beehiiv gives you flexibility to match your goals with different options: 

I personally like this setup because you’re in control of what gets seen and where.

One tip I recommend is to reuse your older posts. 

Whenever you send a new newsletter, look for natural ways to link back to your older content. This gives your readers extra value and extends the lifespan of your content. 

If you’ve ever wanted to create a professional-looking blog without touching a single line of code, you can make it possible with beehiiv. 

beehiiv’s Content Publishing Editor can equip you with all the tools you need to make your blog posts and newsletters look polished. You can format content for both your website and your newsletters in the same editor, which means no switching between platforms or worrying about how your content will show up. 

You can also preview your content for web and email before scheduling, so you’ll always know exactly what your audience will see.

You’ll find the following tools and features inside the editor: 

What I also like about beehiiv is that there’s no need to hire a designer to make your website look clean and professional. beehiiv handles the design part for you, so you can focus on creating helpful content for your users. 

It’s not just content creators who use beehiiv to design and host their websites. The number of notable brands using beehiiv to host their content is increasing. 

For example, TIME moved their 2m+ subscribers to beehiiv. Just look at how gorgeous their website looks. 

You might recognize one of beehiiv’s themes used on their website. Despite one theme powering lots of different websites, you can still customize your website with your unique brand colors and message — all without touching a line of code!

When I first launched my website four years ago, there weren’t many good options besides WordPress. There were blog site builders, but most of them had no functionality to control SEO settings and very little room for customization. That’s why I went with the “old-school” method—WordPress plus a custom design theme.

Looking back, it took a ton of work to finally get my site running the way I wanted. I had to write and optimize every piece of content, optimize the website code, fix endless technical issues, and go through multiple redesigns. 

It wasn’t easy, but the effort paid off. Today, my website outranks big industry giants like Backlinko, Semrush, and HubSpot. 

I’m proud of this achievement, even though the journey has never been smooth. 

If I were starting a blog from scratch today, I’d do things differently. 

With platforms like beehiiv, you can launch a website on your own without hiring a developer or worrying about technical errors. beehiiv handles all the backend work for you. 

Honestly, I’m not even sure I’d focus on SEO anymore. With all the constant Google algorithm updates, traffic is unpredictable. 

What feels more reliable is growing an email list using AI email marketing tools and sending personalized newsletters to your audience. 

That’s exactly what beehiiv is built for. It helps you grow your audience on autopilot and monetize from day one. Plus, you can try beehiiv free for 30 days!  

It depends on your goals and what you want to achieve with your blog. 

If you want to do SEO and have someone to help you with code and design, WordPress and Webflow are solid options since they give you more control over customization. 

However, if you’d rather grow your audience faster, I’d suggest checking out beehiiv. It’s built for creators and businesses that want to grow and monetize their audiences—all in one place. 

There are plenty of options, depending on what you want to do:

There are plenty of other options, too! 

It all comes down to your design and development skills and which channels you plan to use to reach your audience.

From my experience, Medium is a great place to start. You don’t need to set up your own website, and it already comes with a built-in audience. You can focus on writing while growing your presence organically. 

Medium’s content editor is simple and can help you create well-structured content for your readers.

I’ve been blogging on Medium for four years and have grown my following to 21,000 people. It’s perfect for getting started. But once you’re confident in your writing and want to start building an email list, I’d recommend moving to a more advanced platform like beehiiv. 

I’ve put together a detailed guide comparing Medium and beehiiv that is definitely worth checking out if you’re trying to decide where to start your blog.

I’ve already mentioned that WordPress is a go-to platform for many bloggers. It powers about 43% of all websites today, which is almost half!

It takes time to learn how to use WordPress, but many bloggers stick with it because it’s flexible and reliable.

Besides WordPress, I’ve seen other platforms getting mentioned on Reddit, including beehiiv, Substack, Wix, and Ghost. Each has its own purpose, depending on what kind of blog you want to run.