3 ms·

Ask HN: Building a blog

I’m looking to take my existing blog (brandonpindulic.wordpress.com) which sucks, to say the least, and ramp it up with higher quality posts and some guest posts by individuals who I respect. Is it worth it to buy a Wordpress blog for $100/year? Or should I stick with the free blog/look for a Wordpress alternative?

t0 13y ago
http://ghost.org http://ghost.org looks promising. You should definitely be self hosting.
- jackweirdy 13y ago
  Installed ghost earlier this week. It's awesome. The only problem I've had so far is that this bug https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/527 https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/527 means I can't run it at https://mysite/blog https://mysite/blog - but other than that it's awesome
  - jitendrac 13y ago
    Ghost is still under beta. It is growing gradually and many features like plugins and comment systems are being planned. For now you can create a new Ghost blog on some hosting and create a new subdomain so http://blog.mysite/ http://blog.mysite/ will work...
- mattschmulen 13y ago
  ghost on digital ocean FTW. I stood up mibileappstack.com in minutes .
buugs 13y ago
Depending on how you want your blog to work (say you want to serve ads, or some other feature) you'll get stuck unable to do what you want with wordpress.com. [1] Self hosting WordPress is usually a good option but if money is a problem it will mean more work managing your install, if money isn't much of a problem take a look at the many managed hosts (wpengine, wpsynthesis, zippykid). You also get more options with theming and plugins if you host WordPress yourself. If you just want to blog, a free wordpress.com, a blogger blog, or a tumblr should all serve you well enough. You might want to invest in your own domain name though, as *.example.com isn't the best way to bring people in. [1]: http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/ http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
era86 13y ago
I feel like I plug this all the time, but what the heck... I played with Ghost (https://ghost.org/ https://ghost.org/) a couple of weeks ago and loved it. It's less about content management and more about content publishing. The editor is wonderful! Wordpress seems bloated for blogs nowadays, but to each his or her own.
- stevekemp 13y ago
  The appeal of Wordpress will always be the massive collection of themes, plugins, and guides for non-technical users.
stevekemp 13y ago
It seems like you've identified the writing as the thing you wish to improve, both that of your own, and that from guests. On that basis changing the software seems unrelated.

t0 13y ago

http://ghost.org http://ghost.org looks promising. You should definitely be self hosting.

jackweirdy 13y ago
Installed ghost earlier this week. It's awesome. The only problem I've had so far is that this bug https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/527 https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/527 means I can't run it at https://mysite/blog https://mysite/blog - but other than that it's awesome
- jitendrac 13y ago
  Ghost is still under beta. It is growing gradually and many features like plugins and comment systems are being planned. For now you can create a new Ghost blog on some hosting and create a new subdomain so http://blog.mysite/ http://blog.mysite/ will work...
mattschmulen 13y ago
ghost on digital ocean FTW. I stood up mibileappstack.com in minutes .

buugs 13y ago

Depending on how you want your blog to work (say you want to serve ads, or some other feature) you'll get stuck unable to do what you want with wordpress.com. [1] Self hosting WordPress is usually a good option but if money is a problem it will mean more work managing your install, if money isn't much of a problem take a look at the many managed hosts (wpengine, wpsynthesis, zippykid). You also get more options with theming and plugins if you host WordPress yourself. If you just want to blog, a free wordpress.com, a blogger blog, or a tumblr should all serve you well enough. You might want to invest in your own domain name though, as *.example.com isn't the best way to bring people in. [1]: http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/ http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/

era86 13y ago

I feel like I plug this all the time, but what the heck... I played with Ghost (https://ghost.org/ https://ghost.org/) a couple of weeks ago and loved it. It's less about content management and more about content publishing. The editor is wonderful! Wordpress seems bloated for blogs nowadays, but to each his or her own.

stevekemp 13y ago
The appeal of Wordpress will always be the massive collection of themes, plugins, and guides for non-technical users.

stevekemp 13y ago

It seems like you've identified the writing as the thing you wish to improve, both that of your own, and that from guests. On that basis changing the software seems unrelated.