Ghost Blogging Platform: Should You Care?
When John O’Nolan wanted to make a difference, he decided to take the idea of blogging and completely transform it. He envisioned a place on the Internet where anyone could go and publish whatever they want. He wanted to see a platform that was different than anything else on the Web, without being clouded with cute cat videos and porn.
After working as the head of the Wordpress User Interface team for several years, John decided to create the Ghost blogging platform. He wanted to create a blogging site that was for, well, blogging only.
So, after I heard about the Ghost blogging platform, I decided to check it out.
First, I found the platform to be very welcoming and simple. It’s made with the beginner in mind, and not just for super-experienced WordPress types. Although, I’m sure someone with more HTML experience than I would be pleased to know that the blogging interface is completely customizable. Ghost truly has everything you’d want in a blogging site.
Secondly, I found that the price is so much better than some of the other blogging platforms. It’s only five bucks a month if you’re looking to have around ten thousand views a month, not too bad. If you’re planning to have about five hundred thousand plus, you’re still looking at a low eighty bucks a month. They also offer you a way to purchase your domain, so you’re not stuck using an .ghost.io forever.
I checked up on mine, I’d only be looking to pay fourteen ninety for my domain. Ghost clearly offers some great pricing. The competitive pricing comes from the founder wanting to take a step away from WordPress and other ‘blogging’ websites that tend to cost way more than they should.
Keep in mind that just like Wordpress.org, you can download the Ghost source code and host it on your own server, with your own domain name. For the experienced, this option is great because you’ll get to save money.
Why is Ghost Different?
![ghost-platform[1]](http://inspirationfeeed.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ghost-platform1.jpg)
So, you might be wondering what makes Ghost so much different from the other blogging platforms? Let’s take a look at its standout features:
- Ghost is an open source application.
- You don’t need to download anything to start blogging.
- The layout is very simple and straight forward.
- You can drag and drop widgets to create your own custom dashboard.
- Elegant stats. (seriously, will make any designer blush)
- You can customize your websites however you want. (If you know HTML, you’re golden. If not, there are numerous themes.)
- All around responsive design. Looks beautiful on laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- Everything you do is on one page, plus you get to see everything you’re creating, as you’re creating it.
If the Ghost hasn’t sounded great yet, think about this; it’s built for the love of free speech, publishing, and journalism – not for making profit. To prove this, John O’Nolan decided to make Ghost a not for profit organization. The team behind Ghost want to see journalism grow and develop with bloggers. They’re not looking to make millions and sell to some bigger tech company down the line.
With this incredible tool, we can change the world, publish freely and use a great open source software that will allow us to edit and format as we please. The project just opened a few months ago and is totally worth any investment of time!
If you’re looking to try out ghost, we’ve got a great treat for you. We’ve collected some sexy Ghost themes for you to consider for your blog. Enjoy!
Phantom – Flat Parallax Responsive Theme $18
Phantom, is very clean and flat ghost theme for bloggers.
- Parallax cover image
- 5 cover images included
- Psd Included
- Flat and minimalist
- Easy to install and configuration
- 100% Responsive
Writr – $18
Writr is a beautifully styled, and bold Ghost theme. Eye-catching with modern, subtle design elements, and gorgeous, complementary typography, created not to overpower your content.
Content is key with your Ghost blog, and Writr appreciates this, but also allows your content to truly stand out in a truly stylish way.
Typography is key with any Ghost blog, so that is why we chose certain type that complements each other beautifully, allowing your content to really shine, without distraction.
GhostWall – $22
GhostWall is a clean and simple theme for Ghost, it was created by using the latest techniques. Include 6 widget that you can easy custom your blog.
Storylane – $18
![01_Preview.__large_preview[1]](http://inspirationfeeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/01_preview-__large_preview11.png)
Storylane Theme is timeline style, modern blog design for Ghost blogging platform. It’s packed with nice features like optional feature image, youtube, vimeo & soundcloud for every post. The theme is fully responsive and is also retina ready.
Toffee – $22
Toffee is a tidy pin-board style theme built for the Ghost blogging platform. It features a stylish masonry grid layout inspired by Pinterest and slick AJAX post loading on the homepage. It’s also responsive so it looks great everywhere!
Gamma – $18
Gamma is beautiful minimal Ghost theme built for blogging. The minimal design focus on the basics like great typography, spacing, and readability. These elements combine to provide a simple and enjoyable reading experience. Gamma is fully responsive, retina ready, and very easy to use and customize.
Suave – $16
Suave is a clean responsive designed for the best blogging experience on Ghost platform.
Spacex – $18
SPACEx is a 100% responsive Ghost theme. It works just as good on your phone as it does on your desktop computer!
mots. – $18
Built upon the simplicity and awesomeness of Ghost, mots. focuses on what you love to do most: write.
Nerdy – $22
Nerdy is a simple theme for the elegantly simple Ghost platform. Built mobile first for speed, we’ve added some little extras for Vimeo/YouTube video support and SoundCloud support plus the ability to set your first image in a post as the main image on the index page.
Heroic – $22
Heroic is a timeline based theme for the new Ghost Blogging Platform. The theme includes a FitVids.js to rescale any YouTube or Vimeo video, and the rest are CSS3 animations and transitions!
Chroma – $16
A clean and colorful theme built exclusively for the Ghost blogging platform.
Curri – $22
Curri Ghost theme is a simple but eye catching Ghost blog theme with many slick features.The theme is built with Twitter Bootstrap 3.0 and features a timeline blog list with 5 different timeline styles to choose from. Its fully mobile first and responsive and supports all types of media within posts (images, videos & sound clips) and even Tweets & Facebook Statuses!
Travelfly – $22
Travelfly is a bold & bright Ghost blog theme perfect for sharing your travel adventures. Share your favourite travel images, text, videos, sound clips and even Tweets & Facebook statuses.
Various – $18
Various is responsive masonary style theme for your ghost blog. This clean, simple & minimalist template includes all bootstrap features.
Blogify – $18
Blogify is an awesome Ghost theme which brings clean & flat design. It’s ideal for personal blogging. It’s responsive and light. Focus yourself and others on your awesome content.
Omikron – $18
Omikron is a minimal, simple and responsive Ghost theme built for maximum readability.
Penoolis – $18
Penoolis is a personal blog theme for Ghost platform. This Ghost theme is designed for bloggers or writers who like something personal for their blog.
Goody – $18
Goody is a responsive theme made for Ghost. It comes with a flat design and it works amazing on mobile and desktop. Goody is just the ideal solution for bloggers!
Blogr – $18
Blogr is a wonderful Ghost Theme, for Bloggers, Freelancer, Developers, Designers.. well… For everyone, that want to write random stuff and post it on the inter-webz.
