avatarAamir Kamal 🚀

Summary

The provided content is a comprehensive review of the Ghost blogging platform, detailing its features, user experience, pricing, and comparison with WordPress, emphasizing its advantages for bloggers and content creators.

Abstract

The article presents an in-depth analysis of Ghost.org, highlighting it as a modern and efficient content management system (CMS) designed for bloggers. The author, who has used Ghost for three months, contrasts it with WordPress, noting Ghost's superior editor interface, minimalist design, and faster page loading speeds. Key advantages of Ghost include built-in email marketing tools, a straightforward paywall feature for monetization, and native SEO capabilities. The review also addresses Ghost's pricing, stating that while it may seem higher than some hosting services, the included features and performance justify the cost. The author concludes by recommending Ghost for those focused on writing and building a readership, despite some limitations such as the lack of plugins and a smaller selection of themes compared to WordPress.

Opinions

  • The author prefers Ghost's minimalist dashboard and editor, which they find similar to Medium's, making it ideal for writers who value a distraction-free environment.
  • Ghost's hosting services and CMS are seen as more streamlined than WordPress, with fewer technical hurdles and a focus on blogging functionality.
  • The review suggests that Ghost's pricing is reasonable when considering the all-in-one solution it provides, including email marketing and fast loading times.
  • The author believes that Ghost's native SEO features are superior to WordPress, as they eliminate the need for additional plugins that can slow down a site.
  • There is a clear preference for Ghost's modern technology stack, using Node.js over WordPress's PHP, indicating a perception of Ghost being more future-proof.
  • The article points out that Ghost's lack of plugins and limited theme selection can be a drawback for users needing extensive customization options.
  • The author expresses that Ghost is not suitable for non-blogging websites, such as e-commerce sites, and is best for writers and content creators focused on building a community and monetizing their content.

Ghost.org review

Ghost Blogging Platform Review 2021: Publishing On Ghost CMS For 3 Months

This is a complete review of the Ghost Blogging platform 2020. A Complete Ghost CMS Review.

Publish online, build a business, work from home by creating your own blog on Ghost.org / Screenshot taken by the author from Ghost.org

Ghost.org is a blogging platform that gives us a good editor or we could call it a Content Management system as well as a powerful server to host our blog. I was blogging for over 3 years using WordPress as a CMS and other hosting companies and always tired of writing on that platforms because I was demotivated by the fact that my articles aren’t going to be ranked on Google because of the poor page loading speed but Ghost.org has changed this perspective.

We are going to discuss the following things in this article:

  1. What is Ghost CMS?
  2. The User experience
  3. Some competitive advantages of having a Ghost blog over WordPress: A Review
  4. Ghost CMS pricing
  5. The SEO Factor: Reviewed
  6. Ghost Blogging platform review

What is Ghost CMS?

Ghost is a content management system that gives you the opportunity to write content in its beautiful editor as well as designing your blog to make it reader-friendly. You can set up your own custom domain and get hosting from Ghost as well as an editor. Themes are so designed that you can get minimalist-like feelings. One of the themes I am using on my Blog is “Casper” which is more like a Medium like a theme.

The Dashboard:

The dashboard of the Ghost.org blogging platform: Screenshot by the author

As you can see their dashboard is Minimalist, beautifully designed where you can easily locate the different options like Drafts, Published posts, and schedule posts. Also, you don’t add to add any plugins in your Ghost because there are none available and you have every option you need like you can add code in your header and footer through the code injection option.

Writing a blog post on Ghost editor:

Writing a blog post on Ghost editor is the same as you write stories on Medium. There is literally no difference in writing on Medium editors as well as writing on Ghost editor. If you want a custom domain and CMS that look like Medium, having a blog on Ghost is the answer.

Ghost.org editor which look like Medium editor for Writing your posts / Screenshot by the author

As you can see the editor of Ghost and Medium are very similar. Even there is quite a similarity between the internal User-interference of Medium & Ghost. This is why I choose to host my blog on Ghost and not on some other platform. I am not a very technical person but even if you have a little bit of understanding of coding, you can easily set-up your Ghost blog.

You can watch this video where I have gone through the whole process of reviewing Ghost blogging platforms as a content management system and a modern platform for monetizing your newsletter.

Some competitive advantages of having a Ghost blog over WordPress: A Review

WordPress and Ghost, both are content management and open-source platforms. You can download and Install the Ghost and WordPress CMS on your own servers or on any of the hosting companies that give you the opportunity to install these CMS. Now, WordPress is Just a content management system while Ghost is a CMS as well as a hosting provider. You can use their hosting services to get a lot of benefits.

The editor of WordPress has been rated below 4 in many public review forums. The site has a lot of plugins but remembers that using many plug-ins could reduce your page-loading speed. WordPress is definitely being using by more than a million blogs but still, it is a platform that could costs you more if you really want to optimize your blog posts.

  1. Ghost and WordPress both are open-source, not-for-profit companies. WordPress maintains its business through donations while Ghost maintains its business through selling hosting services. Ghost is profitable from the very first year but its motto is to invest all the profit into product development.
  2. Setting up email marketing or enabling the option to let your loyal readers pay you could costs you money if you do it on WordPress while on Ghost, you are in luck, just click on a single button and you are all set. Also, some email marketing platforms like Mailchimp could costs you money if your email list hits 1,000+ followers, while Ghost is not bound by any limits.
  3. WordPress could be powered by any type of website while Ghost is just a blogging platform. Ghost isn’t for someone who wants to build an e-commerce website but if you just want to share your thoughts, something you are passionate about or want to build your own following, or your own Medium like the site, Ghost is the right choice.
  4. There are two platforms of WordPress, WordPress.com, and WordPress.org. WordPress is a free platform in which you could create your own website with a WordPress sub-domain, while WordPress.org is a CMS that you could only install on servers or your hosting company give you the option to install it through CPanel. While in Contrast, Ghost doesn’t have a free tier system. When you go to the Ghost website, you can start your 14-days free trial, if you have a custom domain, you can link it with Ghost or start creating content using the Ghost subdomain.
  5. WordPress is built on PHP which is an old programming language but effective while Ghost is built on Node.Js which is a new programming language and quite good.

Ghost CMS pricing

Ghost Basics Costs over $29/month if you bought the Ghost(Pro) yearly package. Compared to other hosting companies you might end up paying $35/month combined with the cost of email marketing and other paid plug-ins or services. But, in Ghost, you get a free, unlimited list of email subscribers as well as super-fast page loading.

I think the price is justified for the services they provide. In the long-run, you can make your Ghost blog much more profitable compared to other hosting companies. I write an article where I unearth one of the biggest blogging scams.

The SEO Factor: Reviewed

Ghost does native SEO for you. This means you don’t need to optimize your page for getting rank but you have to do some on-page and off-page SEO. On-Page SEO is like adding your main keyword in the title, sub-title, and body of the article. Adding links to your previously published blog posts that are relevant to the topic and adding images by resizing them but not losing quality to load faster. Off-Page SEO means that you have to make backlinks, make links on Forum websites, and share them on social media.

Ghost.org also gives you the option to add the SEO description, and custom title and changing the URL of the blog post.

In WordPress, you have to add a Plugin such as Yoast to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO. Adding a Plugin could costs you Page-loading speed and you can’t no-way bypass this important thing.

Some cons of having a Ghost blog

  1. If you aren’t understanding a very basic about programming then it might be a little difficult to add some elements like Ads.
  2. If you want to build something else than a blog then Ghost isn’t a platform for you.
  3. Have no plug-ins.
  4. A limited number of themes.
  5. Ghost isn’t like Medium where you could just sign-up and start writing and make money.

Ghost Blogging platform review: 5 Things That make it Unique

  1. Email marketing: This is what makes Ghost the most competitive platform. It gives you an opportunity to integrate email marketing on your blog and capture emails from your Interested readers. Some email marketing companies like Mailchimp costs more than $20 and it increases as your email list grows, so Ghost gives it for free to you.
  2. Getting paid readers by introducing Paywall just with a single click: Getting paid readers is another competitive advantage of using Ghost as a hosting platform. You can introduce your own paywall and let your loyal readers pay you. Keep in note that you have the option to lock the article so if you don’t want to lock all your articles but some then Ghost gives you this opportunity.
  3. Free SSL and Fast loading servers: Ghost give you a free SSL with a globe CDN. This means that your site can load fast from all around the globe.
  4. Minimalist design: The Ghost theme “Casper” one of the best and the minimalist theme. This theme is more like Medium individual stories.
  5. Open-source, not-for-profit company: Ghost.org is the best blogging platform. Ghost CMS is an open-source platform and a not-for-profit company. They invest all the profit into Product development.

This was a complete Ghost Blogging platform review. I have discussed most of the things about Ghost. Remember that I use Ghost as a CMS as well as my blog is hosted on Ghost.

You can join Ghost(pro) and start a newsletter with a custom design, a custom domain, Apps, and integration to automate things on your newsletter, and in the long-term, it is profitable as they have a zero transaction fee; Signup for Ghost and get a 14-days free trial.

Disclosure: Some links in this Medium story is affiliate links and I will make a small commission if you choose to buy anything with these links, it will be of no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Let’s keep in touch! Sign up for my weekly newsletter Subscribe for getting up-to-date content about different writing platforms like Medium, Vocal, Substack, and Quora.

Read more articles:

  • Ghost.org Vs Substack: Which Platform Is Best For Getting Paid Subscribers?
  • WordPress Vs Ghost Vs Medium: Which Blog CMS Is The Best?
  • Substack Writing: How To Make Money Writing On Substack
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