Introduction 💻
I've asked my followers on Instagram if they'd love to learn how to start their first newsletter and blog, so here we are! If you're struggling with finding the perfect website, Ghost is an all-in-one platform for creators to run their own website, publish unlimited content and even send email newsletters.
I've specifically picked Ghost as an all-purpose content management system (CMS) for websites of all kinds. One particularly great thing that I just love about Ghost is the very neat, clutter-free interface, a great user experience and the ability to even extend your website programatically - no more tedious suffering through clumsy toolbars.
TL;DR👇
Start at $9, it is an absolute no-brainer - there's nothing better out there!
Getting Started With Ghost 🚀
This is so simple, it's just amazing! To set up a new blog, you simply need an email address and a password, as well as credit card details. After that, you can choose whether you’re a creator, a marketer, or a nerdy developer in order for Ghost to provide a personalised setup for you.
After selecting your website publication name, Ghost will set up your new blog in a matter of minutes.
Once your blog is ready, you’ll be greeted by your personal dashboard which gives you an overview about members, revenue, engagement and email stats at a glance, so you can see how your content is performing (note that this is not my dashboard...I wish it was lol 😃)
💡 New Ghost creators who have published more than 10 posts, setup a custom domain, and started growing their audience are the most likely to become subscribers and continue to work on their site.
What Does It Cost? 💰
Ghost has two "operating modes". You can either host the website by yourself, so it's technically free to use for you or you host it on Ghost’s servers. Both versions offer the absolute same product features.
The tedious part is that the self-hosted version requires you to perform all the installation and setup yourself - which I could not be bothered with...your and my time is probably worth more than trying to save $9 a month!
Community 🤗
The Ghost forum is a space for all Ghost users to get community support, speak to other Ghost creators and developers, and share tips and ideas. I just love the high quality of responses and have not seen anything like that with other platforms.
Why isn’t Ghost Free? 😠
Companies have to make money to stay in business in a highly competitive environment. Also, if something is free, you can be sure that you're the product and that your private data is being sold and shared with advertisers and investors.
If you have plans for a more serious publication, that’s where Ghost really shines. You control everything, and have security that the platform you rely on isn’t going to disappear in the next few years.
Competitors 👊
Before you do any deep research of choosing a new platform to blog, then you’re probably looking for a long time and are probably going to make a wrong choice along the way by picking platforms that do not offer the full capabilities you were aiming for causing frustration and just add additional friction in your process of creating content.
To help you make this as easy as possible, here is a detailed overview of how Ghost stacks up to the rest.
The Verdict: Is Ghost Worth the Money? 🤨
Is Ghost blog worth it? 1000%! I even believe that a majority of content creators will move to Ghost in the coming years as it is not only a place for bloggers, writers, and creators, but also those of you who want to use it as a leverage for their business and move away from painful solutions such as WordPress or other CMS and Ghost has everything you need to be a successful creator!
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Keep engineering your mind! ❤️
Jousef
