In July this year I was possessed by an idea — that I could combine the idea of a blog and a newsletter into one. I might even have given it a crazy name like ‘bletter’.

I was a little nuts.

How does that song go again?

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.

I can see all obstacles in my way.

Yeah. I’m back to hosting this site for free on Netlify using the Gatsby static site generator.

The main reason for the switch back is cost. Ghost has cost me $11 per month since July and I’ve made $2 in subscriptions. Funny how that subscriber was actually someone trying to recruit me for his startup. It’s like everyone is trying to hustle.

The main thing I’ve missed while on Ghost was the in-between place of publishing thoughts on the internet that I didn’t want to broadcast to an audience but wanted to make available for people to access (or stumble upon).

Okay, that’s a lie. I’m aware that you can publish posts on Ghost without pushing it as a beautifully formatted email to the list. But doing that felt tantamount to waste: if I want to publish quietly most of the time, why would I pay $11 per month when I could pay nothing for the same ability?

Now that I’m back with this simpler, cheaper setup, I can combine it with Substack to send out periodic newsletters that contain links and snippets from this blog. All for the grand cost of $0. And no, in this case, I own my content fully, so I’m not the product even though I’m not paying for the product.

Anyway,I’m sure this move back to Gatsby is not final. Like my previous migrations from WordPress to Gatsby, Gatsby to Substack, and then to Ghost, I’ll change my mind about what I need or want in the future.

It is, however, what feels right for me now.