As a coder who had to support the software I coded, I am very familiar with times that I said, “But it works for me!” Persistent users convinced me to look more closely, upon which I would discover and fix the reason it was not working for them. 
Good luck! 
This is why I recommended against using a self installed Wordpress. Once you install the dance of plugins, configurations, security, etc begins and these can be extremely time consuming and be broken by the next update. Wordpress is a high maintenance platform. If you’re developing in it every day then you’ll be able to take this in your stride. If you’re looking for an install once and then just use—that’s not Wordpress imho.
I ran into the XMLRPC issue when trying to publish with Ulysess to my Namecheap hosted WordPress blog. Fortuantely I was able to create a support ticket with NameCheap and they were able to make some internal adjustments and now Ulysses functions properly.
Some further thoughts on this topic:
I think the best option for someone looking for a no-hassle personal blog host might be to just blog on Twitter. Or Facebook, but you’re selling your soul to the devil if you use Facebook. I’m very active on Facebook but I don’t feel great about it. If somebody has resisted its gravitational pull until now, I strongly suggest they just stay away.
Also great: Tumblr, with a few things to watch out for:
The Tumblr community is weird. I like it and feel like in my heart I fit right in. I am a weirdo myself, even though my corporeal self is a normie middle-aged corporate dude. However, many people will be uncomfortable with the Tumblr community.
Tumblr has a very sketchy reputation in the wider Internet community. If you’re an adult on Tumblr, you’ll get the side-eye.
Tumblr has had a bumpy corporate history, and at times it seemed to be on the verge of shutting down.
On the other hand, you can get your own domain on Tumblr, and in that way keep the weirdos at arm’s length.
And Tumblr’s sketchy reputation acts as repellent for the grifters and self-promoters. Nobody’s building their personal brand on Tumblr. People are there because they like it.
Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019 and they seem to be in it for the long haul. They knew it was a fixer-upper when they got it. I’m optimistic we’ll see some changes in Tumblr. We can even hope for an Apple-in-the-2000s-type renaissance for it!
Tumblr is dead easy to use, you don’t have to worry about administering the site and it’s just in general a nice blogging platform, once you get used to a few technical quirks that are easy to get used to.
Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook seem to be my primary blogging platforms nowadays. I do a lot of copy-and-paste between the three places.
My Wordpress blog seems to be fallow at the moment. I keep thinking I’ll post longer, more polished, and thoughtful articles to my Wordpress blog, but it never seems to be a good time to do that.
I regularly change this workflow up. I am perpetually dissatisfied with the state of blogging here in the 2020s.
My only caution about blogging on someone else’s platform: there are many ways it can vanish. The owner doesn’t have to go out of business. It can just change focus, come out with a shiny new alternative, get bought by a company with other plans…
There was once a blogging platform called, iirc, Posterous. Silly name, but it was great, especially if you just wanted to fire off an email with some photos and get a blog post out of it. Great when traveling. Then it shut down – I think it got bought.
I was able to export my blogs, sure. But then what? I think someone came up with a WordPress import. It still didn’t look right, and my workflow had changed (even with plugins that allowed posting by email). It kinda sucked.
I don’t think the answer is that everyone should run their own web server and hand code artisanal html. But there’s a fair bit of room between that and the big platforms.
You are absolutely right and I don’t know the answer.
You know the expression popular among engineers: Cheap, good, fast—pick two/.
There’s a corollary with blogging platforms and social media: You can have a futureproof platform customized to your needs—but you have to be willing to learn the tools, and spend time as an administrator. And not everybody has time to do that, wants to do it, or should have to do that.
True.
For my purposes there’s a good middle ground: platforms like blot.im that run off plain text files that exist on your drive already (and so don’t need to be exported to be preserved).
Looks like WordPress.com has revised their pricing and removed the $4 and $8/month lower tier plans. Then they reduced the cost of the professional plan to $15/month down from $25/month.
Gotta admit that new pricing is tempting.
But I’ve moved to Tumblr and it’s time for me to stop doing the blog shuffle.
Tumblr seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance, finally getting some love from its corporate owners.
I want to report back.
After using my own managed WordPress site on a shared hosting service for about 2 months, I am moving my blog to Ghost.org. Cost wise, it may be slightly more ( I am on a tight budget). However, I think it is worthwhile especially I do not have to worry about updating all the plug ins, and may have to pay for premium plug-in to make it suits my needs.
I am on the Ghost Starter Pro plan (again, budgetary constraints). It may not be as customisable as WordPress but I have very basic needs. It comes with the bonus of newsletter and membership management. I may not need all these features for now but good to know they are all included for $9/month
More details of my move are in here
@fuzzygel that link doesnt work. I assume this is the link you are reffering to:
https://blog.fuzzygel.com/migrant-to-ghost-org/
sorry about that, have updated the link, can you try again
Took awhile but here is the post
I’m still enjoying Substack. Very early days for me but the blogging process is quite easy, you can add podcasts (and I just made the video beta) and they seem to be quite an active and upbeat developer. 
There’s also a case to be made for apps like Rapidweaver. I’ve used Rapidweaver with Alloy to great success. The initial outlay maybe about £200 ($245), but that sets you up to create what you want and is a one-off. You will need to pay for upgrades, but they will be less and only every few years. If you use Setapp you can subtract £100 as I believe Rapidweaver is part of their app range. The benefit of this approach is that you can curb your itch to change blogging platforms, by redesigning your site. You can create multiple blogs and simply host them with your own hosting service. Rapidweaver even connects via FTP and uploads your site. Rapidweaver is mac only, but if you use Alloy, it gives you a log in portal for creating posts. I very simple controllable blog setup.
EDIT
I had failed to mention that Alloy requires Foundry which costs an additional $89, bumping up the cost. But for that you can create a very feature rich blog.
very interested to know more details. Is this $245 to buy Rapidweaver? I bought it for $19.90 from Bundlehunt but it may be an older version. I have not used it since 
. How do you find Alloy? , I cannot figure out exactly what they are offering, are they a CMS (content management system?)
Rapidweaver allows you to create websites. It is heavily dependent on themes and frameworks that need to be purchased separately. It has a built in FTP client that allows you to configure it with your hosting server to upload your files directly onto the server. Rapidweaver is essentially a drag and drop interface with some ability to configure the elements you drag and drop onto a page.
Foundry is a framework that works within Rapidweaver. Frameworks provide you with many more drag and drop elements, from navigational elements to videos, accordians, social media etc.
Alloy has been really good for me. Simple to set up and simple to use. It’s a simple flat file markdown blogging platform that allows embedding media. Posts are created online through a login portal so you do’t need to use Rapidweaver for blog posts. Posts are stored as markdown files on your hosting server and are easy to export and backup.
thanks @svsmailus , so I guess Alloy can be self sufficient to publish blog but Rapidweaver and Foundry enhance the look and feel, correct?
All three are needed. Alloy and Foundry need Rapidweaver to work. I’m realising in having written these posts that Stacks is also needed which will bump up the cost yet again. I’ve purchased these things over 10+ years so the cost is spread. But this may make it unviable. Rapidweaver produces fully featured websites (which is why I purchased it in the first place). It would allow you to create a blog easily, but you could also create different kinds of pages too on the same site. You might want a portfolio or photo gallery, etc. It adds some flexibility for what you can create.
I clicked through all of this; pretty interesting. Definitely something people should consider before they automatically reach for WordPress and a page builder. Do they have some way to iterate through a data source and display them with partials in a template? E.g., to list recent blog posts and snippets, generate a custom employee directory, show 5 most recent photos, etc.