How to start a free ghost blog on Ghoststead
How you can get started on this fantastic blogging platform for free.
I am sure everyone reading this has tried WordPress or at least has some level of familiarity with it. When I tried to pick blogging again, I reloaded my long-time-ignored blog; went into the WordPress admin interface and was disappointed. All those memories of a messy unattractive UI, loads of plugins to do basic tasks, and slow themes came back. I know many reading this would love the UI and flexibility, but it is just not for me. All I wanted to do write a few words, have a simple interface, and blazing fast load time.
I spent a day or so looking for a simple and fast theme but when you’re not really enthusiastic about something, you can’t get excited about it. I was looking through some blogs for theme inspiration and I happened to notice something that was unfamiliar to me Hosted on Ghost. What is that? I was intrigued.
Looking into it, I found exactly what I was looking for. Built by previous developers of WordPress, works on modern Node.js code, SSL, built-in social media, and SEO with a focus on blogging. Instantly I knew I wanted my updated blog to be hosted on ghost and move away from WordPress. But didn’t realize how hard it might be to find a hosting provider for Ghost which was the right price for my hobbyist blog. Most hosting provide cheap hosting for PHP-based WordPress blogs but Node.js was new and not many supported it unless you picked one of their VPS private server option (too expensive for me).
I found some options on DigitalOcean which were cheaper (more in my budget) but, looking through some forums, I came across the name Ghoststead that provided a free starter (Up to 5k visitors/month) managed Ghost blog. I knew I had found what I was looking for especially when considering support for a custom domain.
If you are in my shoes, looking for a starter blog with a clean interface, modern stack, and focus on writing, I would highly recommend you check it out.
Set up your first blog on Ghoststead
Step 1: Register on Ghoststead and pick your pricing plan that suits your needs
This is straightforward. Quick registration with the site, go through the pricing plan, and pick one based on your needs. I knew my starter blog will be well under 5k visitors per month, so the free tier was ideal for me, until (hopefully) I can build the viewership on my blog.
Step 2: Logon to your new account and create your site
When you log on Ghoststead should have a button that allows you to name and create your site. Choose the name wisely as this will become part of your blog address.
Once done, your blog should be set up to access on yourChosenName.ghoststead.com. For many new bloggers, this might be good enough to start. If you are ready to proceed, click on the yourChosenName.ghoststead.com link displayed and you should be taken to the ghost blog admin setup.
Step 3: Assign a custom domain name to the blog (Optional)
If you already have a custom domain that you may have bought elsewhere e.g. www.yourcustomdomain.com, you can point it to this new blog by changing the DNS ‘A’ record on your custom domain vendor as per the guide here.
Pro-tip: With my domain name provider I had a small issue that when accessing the site using my custom domain name I got an untrusted site error if I did not include www in the address bar. So, when I went to www.dabbleoverload.com things were fine, however, when I went straight to https://dabbleoverload.comI got an untrusted site error. Due to how the SSL certificate was set up. A quick email to customer supper at Ghoststead sorted it out.
Step 4: Setup ghost admin account
Once on the main ghost page, follow the wizard to create your ghost admin account. Click on the Create your account page and enter a username password and site name of choice to set up your admin account.
It may also ask you to add other team members, so if your blog has more than one admin, you may add your name on this page.
Step 5: Setup, choose a theme and blog away!
Once into the main page, goto Settings > Design and pick a theme of your choice. Themeforest has a number of great themes that you can choose from.
From here, you can go under Posts and feel free to delete the numerous autogenerated posts that ghost has as a tutorial, once you have read them.
Hope you have found this guide useful. Do let me know if you create your blogs. I can’t wait to read what interesting articles you guys put up.
Until then…. Good luck blogging.
Please follow me on Twitter @dabbleoverload and www.dabbleoverload.com. Would love your feedback on being a better writer.
