Over the past few months, I’ve been on a journey to transition my blog from self-hosted WordPress, where it has lived for nearly two decades, to hosted Ghost Pro, a platform designed for a more streamlined, distraction-free writing and publishing experience.

With the launch of my new site, Studio6, now firmly on the horizon, I wanted to share an update on the final stages of this migration and what’s next.

The Migration: A Technical Success with a Few Challenges

One of the biggest hurdles in moving a site that spans over 5,500 posts and pages (and a similar number of images) is ensuring that everything functions as expected. The actual migration has gone far more smoothly than I anticipated, which is a testament to both Ghost’s import tools and the support I’ve received from Ghost in working through the transition.

That said, there have been some necessary refinements along the way. Much of the work has centred around ensuring images are displayed correctly in every post. Because Ghost handles featured images differently from WordPress, we’ve had to address instances of duplicate images appearing on imported posts, as well as posts with featured images not appearing at all.

There’s also the matter of URL structures. Ghost uses a different permalink format, so we’ve been planning to implement redirects and checking for any potential 404 errors to ensure continuity for long-time readers.

Additionally, we’ve had to tweak some CSS and JavaScript elements to refine the site’s design and functionality. While Ghost offers a clean and modern framework, fine-tuning has been necessary to ensure the reading experience is as good, if not better, than it was on WordPress.

Studio6: More Than a Blog

For 18 years, my online presence has primarily revolved around my name. While my work remains intensely personal, I wanted a brand that better reflects what this space is becoming. Enter Studio6.

The name has personal significance: ‘studio’ speaks to my evolving workspace and the garden studio at my home in Somerset, where writing, podcasting, and creating come together, and ‘6’ represents this studio being the sixth such workplace I’ve had over the years (although this garden studio is the first of its type).

This move is more than just a shift in platform; it’s an opportunity to refine my focus and create a more cohesive identity for everything I do in the digital space.

The Newsletter: A Core Part of Studio6

A key feature of my new presence on Ghost is the built-in newsletter functionality. At its core, it does what WordPress does – allowing blog posts to be sent automatically to subscribers – but it does so in a way that feels more integrated and intentional.

Ghost’s approach is designed to foster a more engaged audience, with tools to create and nurture a community around the content rather than just sending out an email digest. My goal is to make Studio6 a space for conversation and interaction beyond just passive reading. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and I see the newsletter as a significant step in that direction.

If you’ve been subscribed to the WordPress newsletter, that will continue from Ghost, so you don’t need to do anything to continue receiving it for free.

Ghost is known for its appeal to individuals and businesses wanting to monetise their content, ie, offer paid subscriptions to their newsletters. I don’t intend to do that, so my newsletter will be free of charge. In the future, I may decide to offer a subscription-based newsletter if I think I have an appealing value proposition where subscribers are willing to pay for content. But this is not my intention right now.

I’ll have more to say about the newsletter once Studio6 is open on Ghost.

What’s Next?

Once the move is complete, my goal is to go live with Studio6 on Ghost by early March. The website address will be the same as now – https://nevillehobson.com/. Between now and then, I’ll be finalising the last design and technical elements, ensuring the user experience is as seamless as I can make it, and setting the stage for the Ghost-delivered newsletter.

When the site is up and running, I’ll be sharing more details about what Studio6 represents and how I see it evolving. If you’ve been following this transition, I appreciate your support and patience – it’s been an exciting challenge, and I can’t wait to take this next step forward. Stay in the loop by subscribing now.

Related Reading:

• Ghost Embraces ActivityPub and the Fediverse (17 January 2025)
• From WordPress to Ghost: Embracing Simplicity in Blogging (16 January 2025)