So if you know me, I have a “habit” of constantly moving my site cause “reasons”. This time, hopefully this will be permanent now that I got great software and money to keep it alive!
Great Software: Ghost
In the past I have done many different CMS, Blog, and Static services for my sites. Wordpress, Blogger, Weebly, Webs, and even Tumblr are some of those many.
Another one I used is Jekyll. I used it more than the others as it’s static (aka fast) and can be freely hosted via GitHub Pages. While this is nice, one big issue is Mobile publishing. Git on phones is not the easiest to do and managing the site became an issue but of course, I’m not going back to the other ones as while they have great mobile tools, many of them are really slow.
Now I’m using Ghost which is different in a few ways!
- Node.js (instead of PHP) means it’s faster like Static pages but still with the interactivity of CMS platforms like Wordpress.
- Use Markdown just like most Static sites like Jekyll.
- No mobile app but the website is mobile-friendly and it’s open source with an API so there’s awesome 3rd-party clients like Quill.
The major issue with Ghost though has to do with that first point some…
Let’s Talk About The $$$
PHP has lots of hosts that are free. (Yes they maybe really limited but for a simple personal site with rarely any views, not a big deal) Node.js however basically has none. Heroku and OpenShift exists but are super complicated to set up or can’t run newer versions easily.
Just under a month ago (August 24th, 2016 to be exact) I started doing some money sites. Yeah, I know you are going to say “They are scams aren’t they?” (Not all are) or “Those things can’t pay out enough for a server”. Well you would be right normally for the second point except 1 key detail… I have no job.
That means I’m at home 24/7 doing these but what’s even better is I’m not really doing anything! All the ones I use are passive video apps. This means I open it up, let it run on my old devices, and forget it. (Well mostly, sometimes there’s a broken ad that needs manually closed but otherwise all automatic). On average for just 1 of the 3 main ones I use (and I do experiment with others), I get on average $3 a day. Add the other 2 sites and each does about $2 on average. So $7 just for having videos run while I’m doing other things!
How much does hosting Ghost cost? Well for that…
Ghost Host: Ghosted
Ghosted is an interesting host made specifically for Ghost! They cost $5 a month which is really inexpensive for web hosting at $60 per year. However if you buy that full year, it’s 20% off at only $50. In not even a full month with those sites (and the few others outside the main 3), I’ve redeemed around $55 and have another $25 I can cash out in a few days on only the one site! I already spent most of that initial $55 for phone stuff on Amazon but still, I can get the $50 pretty fast!
Ghosted manages the server and everything for you so all I have to do is make the content.
About The New Site
Now that all that is out of the way… What about my side of it? The content? Well here’s how the site is going to work.
- Occasionally I post long-form content here about things I’m interested in.
Whether it be about tech products, talking about new food items, or anything
else, if it needs lots of words, it will most likely be here.
- I’ll share links to them on existing social accounts like my Twitter.
- Want to find info about my projects? I’ll have dedicated pages in the Menu. Currently I have a “Support Me” page where you can find ways to support me via donations or using my referral links.
- More may happen but the main thing is unlike my past personal sites, I will not do a scheduled post series! I always forget about them or don’t have enough things to make one each week! So I may do post series but they won’t be “Every Sunday” or something, just when I get to them!
The site is currently being actively worked on so please be patient as things could be wonky, stuff missing/broken, or offline at times! So for the meantime, you can find the old website here.
Please tell me any feedback by commenting below with Disqus or emailing me at [email protected]! Thanks!