Where to start blogging?
Everyone I talk to is so knowledgable and passionate about something. But they all ask me one thing that stops them from blogging,
"How do I start blogging?"
What to blog about
First off, when it comes to blogging or writing, just write what you're doing or thinking. We all have so many interests, ideas, and are part of so many groups/activities. Just think of writing in a blog as sharing what you've been up to or even what you're thinking about.
Where to blog?
This is the one resourceful site Ghost vs Substack for how I came to the decision of going with Ghost. At first I was convinced:
Ghost costs
It says, it's only $9/month for Ghost compared to Substack taking 50% of your revenue and $5000+ in fees per year.
After trying....
($9 x 12 months) x 30 years = $3240
($9 x 12 months) x 40 years = $4320
$4320 <$5000 ; this seems like a good deal in a life time! 🧐 But this was on Ghost's website, we have to dig further or just be pitched....
What happens if I die?
However, I still had a question, what happens if I die? How will I keep my content up online? Will everything just be gone if I'm dead? :(
I reached out to support to Ghost and Substack. I found out that for Ghost, without any payment, my subscription would not remain online (essentially shut down).
Substack hasn't responded yet.
Then I realized and found this site The Stack Junction - Ghost vs Substack. If you want a free platform that Substack is good for that, unless you have subscribers that then Substack pushes out a large bill.
This comparison (below) won me over, but as I dug further, I noticed that Stack Junction didn't do the same comparison for increasing in subscribers. Why not?
🧐 But, why not compare
ghosts' subscriber count as well?
Design: how does my blog look?
I was posting my early posts on Ghost and Substack and was kinda unimpressed with Substack's layout. Substack truncate my images for some reason while Ghost preserves them.
Mid-way thoughts
It would be great to use Ghost ($9/month) just because it's a better experience and have a duplicate site on Substack, but don't accept subscribers, so the posts stay on the internet forever for free.
So, I thought I was done with this comparison, then I realized there was something called Beehive. And I found this site from Alex Brogan.
And I found this comparison: Substack vs Beehiiv vs Ghost vs Revue vs Paragraph.xyz from Poly Innovator. I would go here for a deeper comparison.
Subscriber count
As I was comparing, I noticed that Ghost charges more monthly for more subscribers which Ghost and the Stack Junction do not cover. It almost seems like Stack Junction was paid by Ghost to post or lacked the due diligence.
At 500 subscribers:
Substack - free or $208.33 per month(at 10% of every membership, each $50/yr)
Ghost - $9/month
Beehiiv - $42/month (anything less than 10k, stays at $42/month)
At 10k subscribers:
Substack - free or $4166/ month (at 10% of every membership, each $50/yr)
Ghost - $515/month
Beehiiv - $84/ month
➡️ TLDR; The moment I get to 10K, I should switch from Ghost to Beehive.
For now, I'll be going with Ghost just because it is easy to use and the costs are low right now and I'm hoping I can transfer if needed.
If you don't want to pay for anything, then just go with Substack with the limited features of course.
Going forward, I have to figure out ConvertKit. So I saw Ali Abdaal use ConvertKit for a newsletter, so there must be something there to help build a better newsletter not just a blog site. Let me share more about my ConvertKit vs Substack journey in my next post.