Setting up a blog

Software
1

I love to write. I use to have a blog and I let it languish. I’d like to set up another one and I’m clueless. It’s been a while. Think: simple and inexpensive. (I was on blogspot).

I have a subscription to Setapp services/software. I know I can use MarsEdit but my memory about it all is vague. I’m thinking there was another piece of software I’d need and of course I need a place to post my blog. I recall once I got started it was pretty easy but then blogging was immensely popular at the time.

Any help or advice you may have would be useful and much appreciated. We have such a brilliant and patient community in MacPowerUsers! I love it!

2

MarsEdit, HANDS DOWN.

Amazing piece of software.

1 Like
3

I’d encourage you to host on micro.blog and Mars Edit supports posting there. The basic service costs $5 per month. You can get a domain if you want but it’s not required. Set-up is very easy. In addition to hosting your blog there are other features you can use if you choose to. Namely, a community timeline for conversations based on blog posts. Micro.blog has native support for Activity Pub which means your blog can also be an account visible in Mastodon if you want to do that (it’s an option). Micro.blog also supports cross posting your blog posts to other services if you want to do that, again, it’s optional. The owner/creator, Manton Reese is always around to help out and is himself a daily blogger.

A fantastic hosting service.

3 Likes
4

MacSparky used to recommend Squarespace for easy start up.

I have been using Wordpress.org since 2008. I didn’t, and don’t, have any coding experience. You would need to arrange hosting and a domain name ( I am using icdsoft.com). Alternatively, you could use the Wordpress.com hosting service.

1 Like
5

As do most podcasters and YouTubers for some reason. :wink:

3 Likes
6

If you have SetApp and are okay with Markdown, you cannot find a better app than Ulysses (Ulysses App Review and Tutorial for 2022 - Best writing app for Mac?) for writing a blog.

I use Ghost Pro (https://ghost.org/) for running my blog. It’s cheap and you can get started for $9/month. It offers some beautiful free themes.

You can publish directly from Ulysses to Ghost.

1 Like
7

Katie, if you want inexpensive and easy, take a look at substack.

It’s positioned as a newsletter service, but people can also subscribe via rss.

Their blogging page positions it as a blog that people can also read by email.

Free and easy to use - especially if you mostly just want to get writing again.

2 Likes
8

And to micro.blog, mentioned above.

1 Like
9

I used micro.blog for a good while and really liked it. It’s a very good citizen of the open web and an excellent product.

My experience (in 2023) was that Manton managed the support emails himself. That meant that I got excellent replies, but I sometimes had to wait for them. After waiting for a month on one occasion, I eventually got a reply after I posted a rather grumpy message in their support forum. So not ideal, but you may have more patience than me!

That said, I stopped using it because I ultimately decided that blogging wasn’t for me, but if I went back to blogging it would probably be to micro.blog.

1 Like