After 6+ months on the fence, I’ve decided I’m going to move my blog from WordPress to Ghost

I first started writing about my interest in a new blogging platform called Ghost back in September of last year. Then as I did a deeper dive, I got cold feet, and in January I wrote about the concerns I had moving from WordPress to Ghost.

So I thought the best way to really evaluate the platform was to take it for a test drive and try using it for a little bit, but not on this blog. I soft-launched ccTLDInvesting.com on Ghost and while I haven’t finished configuring everything, I have had the chance to see what it would be like to blog on the platform…and it’s an absolute dream.

The reality is, at least for me, WordPress has become incredibly bulky and complex to maintain. Over the years I’ve amassed an army of plugins, all needing updates constantly, some ceasing to work, others working differently. On top of that making sure readers have an easy way to get updates when I write a post is like sifting through Windows 95 apps, there are solutions, but they’re clunky.

What makes Ghost standout to me is how damn simple and beautiful the platform is, coupled with core functionality focused on making it easy for readers to subscribe to your blog. The big challenge with Ghost is that there isn’t an equivalent to WPEngine, yet – which means if something goes wrong I’m stuck with essentially free email support, which so far has been great, but it’s different from having a 24/7/365 dedicated support team.

On top of that, I’m guessing despite my best efforts I’d probably take an SEO hit in the short run, maybe in the long run, and given that a majority of my traffic comes through search, that could be painful. But I think at this point I’m willing to take the risk because I really want something better for my readers and myself. I want something that looks crisp and clean on desktop and mobile, I want something that doesn’t require managing a zillion plugins, and I want something that feels more fast and modern.

These might be silly reasons to switch, the old adage, “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” could come back to bite me but I think I’m going to take the plunge. That being said, I don’t want to do it unassisted and without a net so I’ll be having the team at Ghost help with the migration along with a third party consultant that has done it before. I still haven’t picked the consultant yet so if you know someone, or are someone who has assisted with a move from WordPress to Ghost, let me know.

As a reader, I think you’ll get to experience a better version of my blog, it should be faster and visually more clean. There will be bumps in the road, things might break, but I’m all for breaking things in the short run to provide a better experience in the long run. Maybe I’ll regret the move, and if I do, you’ll get to experience and read about it so hopefully at the least it will provide some value for people thinking about doing the same.

Wish me luck! 🤞

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton