For our clients who are just starting blogging or are interested in running a newsletter or an information website consisting of news snippets with the ultimate goal of opening the membership door (and making some money) we often recommend Ghost Publishing for their platform.
What is Ghost?
Ghost is a simple yet powerful platform used by all kinds of creators to publish, share, and grow a business around their writing. It is a straightforward and simple platform that relies on a crisp and minimal user interface. Unlike WordPress, Ghost does not provide the ability to extend its core functionality via numerous plugins (i.e. forum plugin to add a forum functionality or a donation plugin to collect charitable donations) and that simplicity and the focus that comes with it are Ghost’s major advantages.
Ghost however does provide a rich integration library to connect it with third-party services such as Mailchimp, Instagram, GoogleAdds, Shopify, etc.
Ghost comes in two variants:
- A self-hosted version that is free to download and use
- Ghost hosted version with pricing starting at $9/month
With Ghost you will be able to do everything you need to do with your blog (write and publish posts, send emails, create pages, manage members, track analytics, etc.), all in one single place: Ghost will act as your website builder, membership management module, and email service provider all-in-one.
But I like WordPress. What is the difference between Ghost and WordPress?
The straight-up comparison of features, customer experiences, pricing and performance.
| Feature | Ghost | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Managed hosting from $9/mo | Managed hosting from $35/mo |
| Ability to extend the platform with plugins | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Ability to change the theme | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Native SEO | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, extra plugin |
| Memberships | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, extra plugin |
| Paid subscriptions | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, extra plugin |
| Email newsletters | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, extra plugin |
| Fast | ✅ Yes | ❌ Absolutely not |
| Modern design & technology | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Native REST API in core | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Who is Ghost for?
However, unlike WordPress.com, Ghost does not offer a free hosted plan (there is a 14-day trial though); and furthermore, you are not limited in the hosted version in any manner.
- Anyone who wants to share their thoughts via the blog and a newsletter (+ optionally make some money doing that)
- Lawyers who want to share frequent legal updates with their client base
- Local business hubs who want to keep their community informed
- Small independent bookshops (a perfect use case!)
- And anyone interested in running an online publication starting from community news hubs to established companies
You can upload your own themes and content by means of FTP, no matter which variant of Ghost you are using.
How much does it cost to run a self-hosted Ghost
$5/month!
As simple as that.
- Stick to posting schedules that work
- Giveaways are a great way to get people into your community
- Look into your insights to see when your audience is active on Instagram
- Always be clear on what your CTA is
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John Doe
Key Takeaways
- Looking from the end-user perspective, Ghost is very easy to use
- Ghost is very fast which helps the SEO and overall user experience
- Ghost can be inexpensive to run
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