Ghost CMS for new bloggers – a blessing or a challenge?
CMSs (content management systems) are always one of the hottest topics on the web. An even hotter topic on the web are new CMSs that appear out of nowhere. Everyone is wondering if some new tool will ever appear and take WordPress down from its throne. Yet another blogging platform that has actually created a small buzz is “Ghost.” There are a lot of new CMSs that appear on a regular basis, but Ghost is the one that has attracted a lot of attention and many wonder why.
Well, first of all the developer of Ghost is the former leader of the UX team at WordPress – John O’Nolan who created Ghost in 2012. The second reason why it has become a hot topic is that the concept behind this CMS was to create a simple and elegant blogging platform that has enough flexibility to fulfill the needs of running blogs or weekly newspapers. Soon, the WordPress community and the whole web started talking about it.
The fact that it has been dubbed as “suitable” for beginner bloggers is what many people are wondering about, so here are some of my thoughts on this subject.
It’s an independent application written completely in JavaScript
This is very important to mention. Ghost is exclusively written in JavaScript language. You are probably wondering why it is important. Well, because there are many benefits for beginners who are only familiar with blogging platforms. The first thing is fast speed. Furthermore, JavaScript is one of the most popular modern programming languages that most developers know, and it’s easy to learn. This is makes it easy for new bloggers who have little knowledge to quickly transfer into a project in Ghost without the need for learning complex new skills. When used alongside simple online guides it allows even the most inexperienced person to quickly set up a blog and start putting out content.
Ghost offers various one-click hosting options
Yet another thing that is essential to mention, which I haven’t seen anyone actually do, is the fact that this platform is designed to be used by people who don’t have any technical skills. A person has many simple options available to run a solid Ghost blog of their own. As you might know, the Node.js apps that are part of JavaScript are fairly new and you cannot really find many good or cheap hosting solutions – this is what the developers of Ghost have considered and why they have implemented some cool and easy ways for newbies to host their blog.
I like to run on my own server and install a blogging platform on it. With Ghost, this is quite simple and free to do if you have a server that has Node.js installed on it. Furthermore, Ghost offers paid one-click options for self-hosting. The self-hosted Ghost platform goes by the name Ghost Pro and it is the simplest and fastest way you can create and run a Ghost blog. You can run your blog with just a few clicks and upload a theme you like.
Markdown and UI
Almost all bloggers and developers are passionate fans of markdown language. Ghost is a CMS that includes a Markdown editor you can use for writing brand new posts. The editor also includes tags, meta tags, and image cover options, which are a standard for a blogging platform. The writing tool and the whole editor as well are quite intuitive and resemble WordPress a bit. The UI of admin users and the standard theme are also incredibly well-designed and intuitive. It’s a very responsive platform that is optimized for configuring and writing posts from tablets or phones with an identical approach.
Ghost is a simple blogging-only platform, and even though the admin center is different from WordPress, the editor tool has a quite similar UX. It really is one of the simplest and most reliable platforms that beginners can learn to use very quickly and do something useful with it. However, it is very functional and very well designed.
The fact that it’s designed for simple tasks really proves that beginners won’t have any difficulty using it. However, the platform is still in development and all of the money from the paid packages goes towards expanding it and making it a better all-around CMS.
This post was brought to you by Duke Vukadinovic.