Tech Tag: Blogging

Introduction

People often talk about Ghost like it’s the newest, coolest blogging platform. It looks clean. It runs fast. But after using both Ghost and WordPress, I learned modern doesn’t always mean “better for everyone.” Here’s what I found out.

Why Ghost Looks So Modern

1. The Technology

Ghost uses something called Node.js. That makes it faster and more up-to-date than WordPress, which still runs on older tech like PHP.

It also uses a lot of modern JavaScript. That helps Ghost keep up with the latest web tools.

2. The Editor

Ghost gives you an editor that feels fresh and simple. There’s not a lot of clutter—it’s built for people who want to focus on writing.

You can use something called Markdown to format your text quickly. You can also add things like images and cards without adding extra plugins.

3. Memberships and Newsletters

Ghost makes it easy to add memberships and send newsletters. You don’t need to install extra pieces—it’s all there from the start.

4. Easy for Developers

If you know some code, you’ll see that Ghost’s APIs are built to be simple and clear. This is nice for making custom features or connecting to other web tools.

But Where Does Ghost Fall Short?

Even though Ghost feels modern, it doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. Sometimes, it can even be frustrating.

1. Changing Themes Is Harder (on Cheap Plans)

If you’re on Ghost’s cheapest plan, you can’t upload or change your site’s theme very much. You have to pay extra or run your own server to really make your site look unique.

WordPress lets you swap in any theme or plugin you want.

2. Not as Many Choices

WordPress has thousands of plugins and themes. If you want your site to do something new, there’s probably a plugin for that.

Ghost’s library is much, much smaller. Sometimes, you have to know a bit of code to get what you want.

3. Managing Content Could Be Easier

WordPress is great at letting you sort, tag, and organize all your posts, pages, and media. It can also connect to things like music players easily.

Ghost can do some of this, but you might hit a wall if your site gets big or very complex.

When “Modern” Isn’t Enough

If you care most about:

• Choosing your own design and plugins
• Having tons of choices for new site features
• Making your site run just how you want, even on a tight budget

WordPress just does more.

Ghost is great if you want a clean look, built-in membership tools, and are okay with some limits—or if you want to keep things simple and fast.

But if you need more freedom to control every detail, or want tons of features at a low cost, Ghost’s modern style might not be enough to spark a switch from WordPress.

Conclusion

Ghost is really built with new tech and a modern style. If you love simple, fast sites or need a newsletter, it’s a top choice.

But sometimes, “modern” doesn’t mean “best fit.” If you care about total control, easy upgrades, and big feature choices, WordPress still wins for a lot of people.

Starting a paid subscription for your blog is a great way to monetize your content and build a loyal audience. Understanding the difference between free and paid content is crucial to successfully implementing this strategy. Here are some key points to consider:

Free Content

Purpose

• Attract Audience: Free content is designed to attract new readers and build your audience. It serves as a sample of what you offer and helps establish your authority in your niche.
• SEO Benefits: Publishing free content can improve your search engine rankings, driving more traffic to your site.

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Here’s a step‑by‑step roadmap to turn your blog into a magnet for paying customers:

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1. Clarify Your Niche & Value Proposition

• Narrow your focus
  Pick a specific problem area or audience segment (e.g., “vegan meal prep for busy professionals” vs. “vegan cooking”).
• Articulate the transformation
  Spell out exactly what your reader will get: “Lose 5 lbs in 30 days with simple plant‑based dinner plans,” not just “healthy recipes.”

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Ads have long been a blogging staple, but I’ve chosen to remove them. Here’s why:

1. Better User Experience: Ads disrupt content flow. Removing them ensures a seamless, enjoyable visit.
2. Content Integrity: No ads mean unbiased, authentic content.
3. Reader Trust: A focus on quality builds loyalty and connection.
4. Clean Design: No ads = a minimalist, professional look.
5. Smarter Monetization: Alternatives like affiliate marketing, digital products, and memberships prioritize quality.
6. Improved SEO & Speed: Removing ads boosts performance and search rankings.
7. Reigniting Passion: Without ad pressure, I focus on creating meaningful content.

This decision enhances my blog’s authenticity and value. If you’re considering a similar move, it might be worth exploring. Thanks for your support—share your thoughts!

Deleting a post on Mastodon is not always guaranteed to completely remove it from the entire Fediverse due to its decentralized nature:

• How Deletion Works: When you delete a post (or “toot”) on Mastodon, your instance sends a deletion request to other instances where the post was shared. However, this relies on those instances honoring the request.
• Limitations:
  • Some instances may ignore or fail to process deletion requests, leaving copies of your post visible.
  • If other users or instances have cached, boosted, or copied your content, it might persist elsewhere.
• Best Practices: Assume anything posted online could potentially remain accessible indefinitely. Mastodon also offers automated deletion tools for older posts, which can help manage your content.

Nostr accounts cannot be fully deleted because they are based on a decentralized protocol. Instead of traditional “accounts,” Nostr uses key pairs (public and private keys) to represent users. Here’s what you can do:

• Clear Metadata: You can delete or clear all metadata (e.g., username, profile picture) associated with your public key. This effectively “empties” your profile.
• Abandon the Key: Simply stop using the key and generate a new one. The old profile will persist on relays but remain inactive.
• Delete Content: Some apps, like Damus, allow you to mark content as deleted, but this is not enforced across all relays and doesn’t guarantee full removal.
• OpenVibe App: If you used OpenVibe to manage your Nostr activity, removing your account there only affects the app, not the underlying Nostr data.

Due to the decentralized nature of Nostr, true deletion is not possible, as data may still exist on relays or in backups.

Personal blogs, even if they don’t generate income, hold immense value as tools for self-growth, thought organization, and connecting with others. Below is a detailed explanation of why personal blogging is worthwhile.

1. Organizing Thoughts and Fostering Personal Growth

• “Visualizing” Your Thoughts
  Writing allows you to turn vague ideas into concrete ones. By putting your thoughts into words, you naturally prioritize what’s important and clarify your thinking.
• Improving Logical Thinking
  To communicate effectively with readers, you need to structure your ideas logically. This process enhances your ability to think critically and ask yourself questions like, “Why do I think this?” or “What evidence supports this?”
• A Record for Reflection and Learning
  Revisiting past blog posts helps you track your growth and see how your perspectives have evolved over time. Documenting goals or problem-solving processes also provides a valuable resource for future reflection.
• Emotional Clarity and Stress Relief
  Writing about daily frustrations or worries can help you process emotions objectively. This often leads to fresh insights and a sense of emotional relief.

2. Self-Expression and Building Connections

• A Platform for Self-Expression
  Blogs offer a space to freely share your thoughts, experiences, and ideas. By focusing on specific topics, you can shape your identity and showcase your unique perspective.
• Fostering Interaction and Empathy
  Engaging with readers through comments or feedback can provide new viewpoints and foster meaningful connections. Blogging also helps build communities with like-minded individuals who share similar interests.

3. Personal Branding and Career Development

• Showcasing Expertise and Building Trust
  Consistently writing about a specific field or topic helps establish yourself as an authority, enhancing your credibility and personal brand.
• A Portfolio for Opportunities
  Your blog can serve as a portfolio to demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and achievements. This can open doors to new career opportunities or business ventures.

4. Long-Term Value and Freedom to Experiment

• Even if it doesn’t lead to short-term financial gain, blogging offers long-term benefits such as personal growth, expanding networks, and discovering new opportunities.
• Starting a blog requires minimal investment, and since it can be done anonymously, it’s easy to experiment without fear of failure.

Conclusion

Personal blogs offer far more than monetary rewards. They serve as tools for self-reflection, helping you organize your thoughts while also enabling self-expression, fostering connections with others, building your personal brand, and facilitating personal growth. The act of writing itself often leads to new discoveries and insights that positively impact various aspects of life.

A blog is not just a medium for sharing information—it’s a powerful tool for deepening self-awareness and unlocking new possibilities.

Digital gardens are a pretty cool twist on how we share knowledge online. Unlike regular blogs that list posts by date, digital gardens are more like growing a web of connected ideas and thoughts. You can publish rough, unfinished ideas and keep building on them over time – no pressure to make everything perfect from the start!

What Makes Digital Gardens Special?

They work totally differently from the usual “write it, publish it, done” approach of traditional blogging. Garden creators gradually nurture their content, adding little pieces and connections as they go. Everything gets linked together, creating this knowledge web that visitors can explore however they want – no need to read things in order.

The AI Scraping Problem

Here’s where things get tricky. AI tools are increasingly scraping content from websites to train their models, and this is becoming a real headache for digital garden creators. The whole point is to share knowledge publicly, but AI might be sucking up all that content without sending any visitors back to the original garden.

Regular search engines at least link back to your site, but AI tools often just give direct answers without crediting where the info came from. That’s pretty frustrating for creators who put time and effort into building these knowledge spaces.

Why Everyone’s Worried

Individual creators don’t have the same bargaining power as big media companies when it comes to negotiating with AI firms. This could create a situation where people feel less motivated to maintain public digital gardens if their work gets repurposed without any recognition or traffic benefits.

We might end up with a more fragmented internet where creators retreat to private, paid, or gated platforms that are harder for AI to access. That goes against the whole spirit of open knowledge sharing that makes the internet great.

What Can Be Done?

There are some technical solutions like using robots.txt files to control AI access, or adding “NoAI” tags to your content. But here’s the thing – most digital gardens are built by individuals with custom, sometimes fragile code, making it tough to implement solid protection measures.

Moving forward, digital gardens might need to focus more on creating uniquely human experiences and community-driven content that AI tools can’t easily replicate or replace.

Free blogs used to be the go‑to for anyone wanting to share knowledge or build an audience without barriers. Nowadays, changing search‑engine algorithms, sinking ad revenues, and the rise of social/video platforms have relegated most free blogs to the shadows. If you’re serious about turning expertise into a sustainable business—and forging a loyal community—it’s time to rethink the “free” model and explore subscription‑based membership blogs.

1. Three Reasons Free Blogs Have Become Obsolete

1. Search‑engine algorithm shifts

Back in the day, “long, detailed, free” posts could snag top SEO spots.

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Digital gardens were created as open spaces for sharing knowledge and ideas freely. The original spirit is to update content casually, grow knowledge over time, and keep everything accessible without paywalls or commercial pressure. However, the rapid advancement of AI-powered web scraping has widened the gap between this ideal and current realities.

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Challenges Posed by AI Scraping

• Unauthorized Collection and Reuse
  AI systems can automatically collect and repurpose publicly available web content. This means personal insights and knowledge shared on a digital garden may be used out of context or without credit, often for purposes the original author never intended.
• Open Access = Risk of Exploitation
  While the ethos of digital gardens is openness, in the age of mass AI scraping, “free and open” can also mean “unwittingly exploited.” Content may be harvested and used in commercial products or AI models without the creator’s knowledge.
• Creator Motivation at Risk
  When hard-earned knowledge is reused by AI services or other sites without permission, the motivation to keep sharing freely can decline. The sense of contributing to a community can be replaced by the feeling of being taken advantage of.

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Practical Strategies for Today

1. Clear Licensing and Terms of Use

• Explicitly state copyright, “No AI Training,” or similar terms on your site and articles. This at least deters ethical AI developers.
• Use Creative Commons licenses (e.g., CC BY-NC-ND) to clarify that commercial use, modification, and AI training are prohibited.

2. Technical Defenses

• Use robots.txt to block AI crawlers and bots from accessing your content.
• Embed watermarks or “Do Not AITrain” messages in images and text to help identify unauthorized reuse.

3. Selective Sharing and Partial Paywalls

• Consider limiting public access to your most valuable or unique content, using partial paywalls or restricted sections to reduce scraping risk.
• Require agreement to terms before granting access to sensitive materials.

4. Prepare for Infringement

• In case of unauthorized use, collect evidence and be ready to issue takedown requests or pursue legal action if necessary.

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Balancing Ideals and Reality

The ideal of a “free and open” digital garden remains powerful, but new risk management is essential in the AI scraping era.
Decide what to share, how to protect it, and where to draw the line between openness and safeguarding your work.

To keep the joy of “growing and sharing knowledge,” creators now need to cultivate wisdom about protection as well.

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This article summarizes the current challenges and practical strategies for running a digital garden in an age of AI-powered content scraping.