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Moving From Substack to Ghost — My Experience
Digital nomads. The flavour of the day. Looking for a better digital experience? Every reason is good to move from one place to another in the digital world. It’s about having some fun. I recently came across this blog post from Greg Morris where he writes: “I look at blog designs like Birchtree.me* and think to myself “I want a blog like that” and then go out and try to build one. Continue reading →
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Migrating My Content From HEY World to Substack
Yesterday, I put an end to my HEY World experiment. After making the call, I wanted to keep my content and migrate it to Substack. So, I tried the Substack RSS feed import feature, but it wasn’t working. As shown in the following screenshot, the error wasn’t explicit enough to pinpoint the cause of the problem. I had 23 posts to import, which was not a big deal, but I preferred not to move my content manually. Continue reading →
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Bye Bye Universe — It Was a Nice Ride
Nearly a year ago, I introduced my Numeric Citizen Visual Space, a website made with Universe, a website creation application running on iPhone, iPad and macOS. This space never really took off and never attracted traffic, probably because of its lack of a social network dimension. In retrospect, this was an experiment more than anything else. Universe is a special application where websites are built using a visual block metaphor. There is nothing like it. Continue reading →
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Getting Ready for Google's May 2021 Algorithm Update
Getting ready for the upcoming Google May 2021 algorithm update. See how I improved my Page Insights score by more than 225%. In May, Google will tweak its ranking algorithm again by including new experience metrics into the equation. Those changes were first announced back in May 2020. According to a recent post on Yoast’s blog: In May 2021, Google will add Core Web Vitals as ranking factors in its algorithm. Continue reading →
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Should I Try Write.As? I Came, I Saw, Then I Left
I saw someone on Micro.blog using Write.as a platform for publishing a blog. After spending a few minutes on the blog and Write.as website, I find it very tempting; it’s clean, super simple, well-thought-out, and cheap. Maybe I should try it? Or maybe not. I’m already spread too thin. I feel it would be another rabbit hole. If all my current platforms were fully satisfying, I wouldn’t be looking at other places. Continue reading →
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My Blogger Workflow as of 2021-03
This is the first post on Numeric Citizen I/O about my blogger workflow. This website’s mission is metablogging, which means writing about the tools and services that I use as a blogger and content creator. I hope you enjoy the ride here. This is the most comprehensive update yet. In this workflow release, as of 2021-03, there are many important changes. Here is a run-down, in no particular order. First, as stated earlier, I created a new website about meta-blogging. Continue reading →
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Ghost 4 is Out! So What?
Ghost 4 is out, but is lacking one major feature. Now, at version 4, Ghost, a self-hosting publishing platform, is buzzing again. To me, Ghost always looked like a modern version of WordPress. They share many similarities. The close integration of website and newsletter publishing is way better than it is on Substack. I’m thinking, what if I moved my main blog over there? I was tempted once to make a move. Continue reading →
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Tips and Tricks on Optimizing Articles Exposure on Medium
To make a dent on Medium, optimizing exposure is a must. I’ve been on Medium for many years, and I learned a few tips on maximizing article exposure along the way. These tips and tricks made a difference for me. If you plan to submit an article to a Medium publication, beware of busy publications: the exposure might not be what you expect. The turnover is too high, and your article won’t stay fresh for long. Continue reading →
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Cleaning up my WordPress Blog
Simpler is better. If you know about WordPress, you probably know how bloated your WordPress site can become with heavy visual themes and lots of more or less useful plugins installed. Those using WordPress.com for hosting their WordPress website know how pushy WordPress.com can be. They really want you to use WooCommerce or ExactMetrics. I decided to do some spring cleanup this week by removing WooCommerce. Why did I have it set up? Continue reading →
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A Really Useful Git Beginner’s Guide
I’m using Git to maintain this blog, which runs on Blot. Up until now, my Git knowledge has come from YouTube. Today, I came across this Git beginner’s guide that I wish I had on hand before starting this blog. The nice thing about this guide is that it covers the command line commands plus a GUI-based tool, Atom, in that case. I’m mostly a GUI type of guy, but it’s always interesting to see what happens behind the scenes when interacting with Git. Continue reading →
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This Blog Uses Commento - Here is Why - Updated 2024-03-10
You can leave a comment on each blog post, thanks to Commento, you’re not being tracked. When I created the Numeric Citizen I/O blog, I thought it would need a way for visitors to be able to leave comments as they see fit. I decided to go the Commento route because of its tight integration with Blot, but also for a more profound reason: privacy protection. According to Commento’s website: Continue reading →
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Testing wall.blot.im
Testing a web-based blog post publishing tool for posting directly to Blot from a webpage. I’m currently testing a straightforward blog post publishing tool running on a webpage. The tool is accessible at https://wall.blot.im. I wrote a front matter; I guess Blot will process it as usual. The editor provides a character count, a word count, and a way to export the current blog post or publish it directly on my Blot website. Continue reading →
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Learning a Bit of Blot’s Internals
I made a few layout changes to my archives page. Someone on Micro.blog posted something from its Blot website and I noticed he was using an unknown meta tag in the post’s front matter: metadata.icon. He used a tag to add an icon to each of its blog post. I wanted to know how Blot actually used this tag to format the blog post, so I asked the guy. His answer made me look deeper into Blot processing of meta tags. Continue reading →
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The Initial Blot Setup
Setting up this blog with Blot was pretty straightforward. It all started as an experiment. But now, it’s not. It’s something permanent1. In less than a day, everything was set up and running. From the setup of the domain name (with GoDaddy) to having an actual site available for browsing. This is the very short story behind setting up the Numeric Citizen I/O website with Blot. My interest in Blot came from the desire to have better control over the visual appearance of my microblog, which is hosted on Micro. Continue reading →
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Where Micro.blog Fails for Me
I’ve been a user of Micro.blog since 2018. At first, I wasn’t sure I would like the place. Eventually, it grew on me because it is such a quiet place1, with more engagement from the community members and with much more respect. There is something that I don’t like about Micro.blog, though. It’s the lack of easy control over the visual appearance of my blog. Micro.blog is based on Hugo, a static site generator. Continue reading →
