If you've decided you'd like to explore having a journal online, also called a blog, then you'll want to know which ones are available, what they offer and most importantly in our lifestyle, what their adult content policies are. I've done a bit of the leg work and found out this information for you! Well, not all of it. I picked only the most popular blogging platforms to research but I know can find your best match in the ones I've listed.

Generally, blogs are available in two forms, one is free and the other is self-hosted blogs where you have to pay money. Both of them have their own pros and cons. Free blogging sites are free to use though you won’t have full control over your sites whereas in self-hosted sites you have to pay money for a domain and hosting to run your sites (and you’ll have full control of your sites) .

If you are just starting out your blogging journey, you can start with free blogs. There can be lots of reasons why you want to try your hands on free blogging sites first. The most obvious reason could be the cost. With free blogging sites, you won’t be paying a single penny for your domain name and hosting space.

Some Important Facts About Free Blogging Websites

• First of all, you will have no control of your blog address. You will be at the mercy of your free blog host. They can delete your free blog without any prior notice if they find you are doing anything against their TOS. So make sure to know about this fact before creating a blog.
• Most free blog hosts will allow you to add content to your blog in the form of blog posts and pages. You can easily add images, videos and any other kind of media elements on your blog.
• You cannot upload a theme or template of your own with most of the free blogging sites. But on Blogger.com, you can upload templates of your own and also can upload templates that are available on other blogger template websites.
• These free blog hosts will give you enough space to write your blog posts normally. But if you start spamming these blogs with hundreds of automated blog posts on a daily basis, you will come to know about your monthly blog post limit on these websites very soon.
• You will have no access to the plugins on most free blogging platforms like Blogger. If you are on the other hand using WordPress as your blogging platform, you will have access to over 20,000 plugins ranging from SEO to increasing your AdSense earnings.

Free Blogging Platforms for Adult Blogging

1. Blogger.com (Blogspot)

One of the most preferred and widely used free blogging platforms is Blogger. You can customize your blog design. There are thousands of free templates available on Blogger platform and you can design your blog any way you like. You can create pages, multi-user blogs and private blogs and Blogger.com is currently available in 41 languages.  Click this link to learn more about Blogger.com features.

I myself started my blogging journey with Blogger.com. The best thing about Blogger.com is that it’s quite easy to use compared with other blogging platforms available on the Internet. You can use blogging platform from Blogger.com on your custom domain even by mapping it. The majority of the bloggers still use Blogger platform to start their own websites or blogs not only because it's free but it gives you great functionality.

Adult Content Policy 

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We do allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity. If your blog contains adult content, please mark it as 'adult' in your Blogger settings. We may also mark blogs with adult content where the owners have not. All blogs marked as 'adult' will be placed behind an 'adult content' warning interstitial. If your blog has a warning interstitial, please do not attempt to circumvent or disable the interstitial - it is for everyone’s protection.

There are some exceptions to our adult content policy:

• Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don't create blogs that contain ads for or links to commercial porn sites.
• We do not allow illegal sexual content, including image, video or textual content that depicts or encourages rape, incest, bestiality, or necrophilia.
• Do not post or distribute private nude or sexually explicit images or videos without the subject’s consent.

2. Wordpress.com

WordPress is also one of the most reliable and widely used free blogging platforms. After Blogger.com, it’s WordPress which is the most used and most powerful content management system for bloggers. You can use WordPress for creating a personal or professional blog of any type.

There are some limitations that should be in your mind if you are thinking of using WordPress for creating your first free blog:

• You will just get a sub-domain with them
• You cannot install themes or plugins that are not in WordPress official directory. You can access WordPress free themes and plugins directory from  here and  here.

Adult Content Policy

Wordpress.com's Mature Content Policy is quite extensive, so I suggest you check out the entire policy before deciding if WordPress.com is right for you.

We do permit mature content on WordPress.com, including text, images and videos that contain nudity, offensive language, and mature subject material. However, blogs that contain such content must be marked as Mature in our system.

3. LiveJournal.com

Live Journal is available in free and paid version. You have to pay money if you want to keep your LiveJournal blog from their free advertising. You will be getting the features like multiple author blogs, polls, and calendars, commenting and it has lots of social media features which differentiate it from other free blogging websites.

Here are few notable features of free blogging site LiveJournal.

• Video Uploading
• Photo Uploading
• Private Message Sending
• Public Message Posting

You can know more details about LiveJournal feature for free and paid account type from  here.

Adult Content Policy

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You are encouraged under the TOS to flag ALL Content and/or Accounts that contain adult themes and images, including, but not limited to, nudity, sexual acts, crime, violence, and/or illicit subject matter, regardless of artistic merit or newsworthy purpose. If the content is graphic and explicit in nature (for example, an image which contains nudity, sexuality, or violence), the content will be flagged as containing explicit adult content. Having content flagged as containing explicit adult content does not mean it is in violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service, and no other action will be taken for posting this type of content.

4. Tumblr.com

Tumblr is a microblogging website like Twitter and Facebook. Tumblr is one of the fastest growing websites on the internet and it looks like a mixture of blogger, Facebook, and Twitter.  Use Tumblr to create free blogs if your site is more about the visuals. Tumblr gives you everything to make your images look visually appealing and you can show images, videos, and music in any way you want. They have lots of unique features that make them the unique choice of many bloggers:

• Hundreds of ready to use themes
• You can post on your blog directly from your Email box
• Publish updates to your Facebook account
• No limit on how many people can contribute to your blog
• You can create a theme of your own
• You can post almost anything on Tumblr
• You can keep your posts public and private
• You can convert your posts into audio posts
• You can use your own custom domain
• Automatic update on Twitter about your latest posts

Use  this link to know more in detail about why you should choose Tumblr over other blogging platforms. You can repost, reshare, reblog anything that you find useful on Tumblr community this leads to getting you more Tumblr followers without actually spending time in content creation.

Other people can also reblog your blog posts, images and videos leaving you with more followers and giving you much exposure to reach a wider audience.

Adult Content Policy

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You're welcome to post NSFW (Not Safe For Work) stuff, and other people are welcome to filter out NSFW stuff. It's a live-and-let-live kind of thing. If your blog contains nudity or adult-oriented content, please respect the choices of the people in our community and flag your blog as “NSFW” on your Settings page.

One caveat: We're not in the business of actually hosting sexually explicit videos, so don't upload them using our post form. You can, however, embed anything in a Tumblr post as long as it's lawful and follows our other guidelines.

Let me know any other platforms you would recommend to a newbie? I’m sure you must have already tried your hands at some of these free blogging sites. It would be great if you could share your experience and your favorite from this list in the comments section.