I started blogging in 2002, officially. Before that I had a What’s new page at the root level of my site (which was hosted on AOL!) that in some respects (reverse chronological dated entries, but on a sing html file, so not a blog) was a blog.
The “digital garden” movement is very much like old-school blogging.
I recently published a blog post about How I Use Ulysses, Craft & MindNode to Write & Publish Blog Posts.
Just an update, that IA writer can publish to the Ghost platform on the Ghost Pro Starter Plan now. Previously it required an API admin key, but now it only requires a Staff Access Token which is available on all Ghost Pro plans.
Noticed that I missed posting here when this thread was new. Haven’t posted anything this year as I’ve too many family issues to deal with, but I do have one I expect to put up this week!
Anyway, my workflow used to be to write directly to the WordPress website, then I would copy and paste into a Scrivener page to have a local archived copy.
Now I write in Scrivener and then paste carefully into Wordpress. Unfortunately a simple cut and paste doesn’t work as images and some formatting don’t transfer directly. But I’m so infrequent now that the cumbersome entry process isn’t really an issue.
Additionally, I still have a traditional (20th century) website which I’ve written in raw(?) HTML. Edits to that are done using Coda II at least until it stops working (discontinued and Intel code).
Welcome back. Family first, always.
One of the things I think a lot of people perhaps don’t understand is that the WordPress editor, particularly the new block editor, is actually a pretty decent tool. I barely blog these days, but I either write directly in WordPress, or at the most, I might draft the text in Ulysses, but then paste that into WordPress to actually create the blog post.
Maybe I’m old school, but the mere thought of producing rich content in one system and then expecting another to make sense of it seems like madness. WordPress will be delivering the content, so it’s the logical place to build the content.
I left (self-hosted) Wordpress behind during the fairly recent nastiness. Now I use Hugo to generate a static site, using iawriter directly on the markdown source files. It means that what is in iawriter is the definitive file. I’ll often make minor corrections and updates as I come across them, and they’ll be changed when I next generate the site and upload it (e.g. when I write a new post)
It took a while to tweak iawriter to be completely reliable (e.g. to NOT replace quotes with smart quotes, breaking the metadata) and there are some strange things that happen sometimes when doing detailed editing in iawriter (e.g. text not appearing where the cursor is) but I feel in control in a way that I never did with Wordpress.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you don’t include images, sized to suit their purpose, sometimes floated left or right, and with occasional other inclusions like maps, ‘aside’ boxes, and the like.
If all you do is “write words” a Markdown approach is fine. For anything even modestly rich, it’s creating more work than it’s saving, I reckon.
I like to write short, untitled posts. I’ve always gotten the impression that can create problems on Wordpress. What’s the reality?
I’ve been closely watching Dave Winer’s recent Wordpress work. His blogging philosophy and mine are in close alignment.
This logic makes a lot of sense to me. In my case, the Ghost editor is excellent and offers all the features of the platform delivering the content. Ulysses and IA writer offer text and images, but don’t offer other features like image galleries, video, CTA forms, etc. I like writing on the platform that’s the ultimate destination and format everything as I go.
After the content is posted, I use the markdownload extension to backup the post in a Markdown files on my Mac.
I tend to write nonlinearly, and do a lot of rearranging. This isn’t easy to do in the Wordpress editor. Scrivener is much better suited for this.
I include a lot of images. Every post has a cover image and there are often images in the content too. I don’t float them let or right: the templates I created myself (which control how markdown is rendered to html) does the sizing and positioning, and the associated style sheet handles responsiveness - I gave up worrying about fancy positioning, sizing and formatting when I realised that the pages were being served to everything from tiny phones to desktop machines - I can do pull quotes simply by using > in markdown: the templates I wrote determine how they will appear.
I realised that for my blog, I didn’t need most of Wordpress.
Big second for MarsEdit!
I am the same, I just write and publish in the Wordpress editor. I haven’t had any issues with the editor, and have been happily doing it this way for 20 years! I’m not a super frequent blogger though and only write up event summaries from notes I make during events. I’ve never understood the need to edit in one editor and then send it to another editor to finish up, and I always like to include images, so I don’t use markdown when blogging.
I have been experimenting with using Apple Notes to manage my blog writing, and so far, it is working well.
My motivation is straightforward: I want to consolidate and minimize the number of apps I use while remaining efficient, and I prefer to avoid subscriptions whenever possible.
My workflow is simple:
Note: This article was written by me, not by AI. AI may have been used for titles, grammar, or editorial refinement, and any AI-generated images are clearly disclosed.
This approach allows me to focus on the substance of writing rather than managing tools. By consolidating everything in Apple Notes, I maintain a simple, efficient, and sustainable workflow that serves both my writing and publishing needs without unnecessary complexity or recurring costs. It is a method that not only reduces distraction but also helps me steward my time and attention more effectively for the work that truly matters—writing.
