There are many resources and tools out there when it comes to blogging. What works best for you is often a case of personal preference. Here is a list of the various resources you might want to consider when building your blog.

Platforms

If you are just starting out, choosing a free platform could be a good choice. If you find you really enjoy blogging and want to continue and have more control you might choose to shift to a paid platform. Or you might want to choose a less conventional blogging platform, because that fits your needs better than a traditional blog.

Free
Wordpress.com
Blogger

Paid
Wordpress.org
Squarespace
Typepad
ExpressionEngine

Alternative
Medium
Tumblr

RSS

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's a technology that allows you to easily push your posts to readers that want to follow you on a regular basis. Most blogging platforms have their own native RSS feeds, however you might want to consider using an RSS service such as Feedburner, as this provides you with more information on how many people are following your blog and how they engage with your RSS feed or even allow them to subscribe by mail to your blog. However, as Feedburner is a Google product and has been put in line for the chopping block more than once. Rumours of its demise have been exaggerated thus far, but its future is uncertain at best. Wordpress offers several plugins and there are alternatives out there.

Analytics

Once you'll start blogging you'll want to know how well you're doing. One way to measure your statistics is web analytics. The industry standard is Google Analytics. But it has a steep learning curve and might offer more information than you actually want. Wordpress.com and Blogger offer their own built-in stats and Wordpress.org has several plugins available. This list gives a number of other possible analytics tools.