00:00what's up everybody welcome back to the
00:01channel my name is david so i'm gonna
00:03walk you through step one to step down
00:05how do you create a professional website
00:07and blog using ghost ghost is a free and
00:09open source content management system
00:11with a strong focus on blogging email
00:14marketing and subscription revenue ghost
00:16comes in two flavors so you have a
00:18ghost.org which is sort of like a done
00:20for you service where you pay for
00:21hosting and they take care of all the
00:23technical details on the backend like
00:25software updates your ssl certificate
00:27and more or you can just download ghost
00:28for free as a script and install on your
00:30own hosting account in this tutorial
00:32video we're going to be using a
00:33ghost.org pro account because it's the
00:36easiest and least technical solution for
00:38any type of aspiring content creator now
00:40don't worry i will create a tutorial
00:42video on how you install ghost on your
00:44own hosting account so i'll link that in
00:45the description when it's done anyways
00:47in this tutorial video i'm going to
00:48cover all the steps that you need to
00:50know to get started with ghost i'm going
00:51to show you how to create an account how
00:52to set a custom domain name how to
00:54design your website with different
00:55specific themes how to set up membership
00:58and subscription revenue on the back end
01:00as well as important integrations that
01:01you need to know about so if you're
01:02ready to get started make sure to check
01:04the links in the description for
01:05timestamps and any resources mentioned
01:07in the video so let's begin okay so this
01:10is the website i'm going to show you how
01:12to make we're going to begin by adding
01:14in this gorgeous hero image how to
01:16adjust and edit theme with ghost how to
01:18add in some type of clear call to action
01:21edit your blog post edit your menu edit
01:25overall how to design your website with
01:27ghost how to actually blog with ghost
01:30how to send your blog post to an email
01:32list how to make some blog posts private
01:35for some specific paying members etc how
01:38to set up the subscription function over
01:39here so people can subscribe to your
01:41website completely for free or if you
01:43want to set up some type of recurring
01:45revenue model within your blog you can
01:48totally do that with ghost and just
01:50every little detail that you need to
01:52know to take full advantage of what
01:54ghost.org has to offer so let's get
01:57started welcome to my laptop let's begin
02:00so this is a ghosted.org and this is the
02:02home page for this content management
02:04system right here and to get started is
02:07very simple you can click on this button
02:09that says get started for free and we
02:11can also come over here to navigate to
02:14the pricing tab so right here if you
02:17click on the sign up button you're going
02:19to be presented with the option to
02:20create an account and then you get a
02:21free 14 a day trial but how much does
02:24this all cost so if we come down here uh
02:27the pricing plans are varied so the
02:29starter plan is nine dollars a month
02:31creator 25 team 50 and business is 199.
02:35uh not too expensive in my opinion
02:38because i mean these are pretty
02:40reasonable rates now obviously if you go
02:42with something like digitalocean and a
02:44droplet and install ghost on your own
02:49accounts it's going to be way cheaper
02:50but you have to take care of all the
02:52little technical details like the
02:53updates sso certificate etc etc etc so
02:57that's what what that's the big
02:58advantage of using ghost pro is it just
03:01it's just done for you it all works so
03:04if you're looking to get started i
03:05definitely would again
03:07as a new creator go with the starter
03:09plan right there just nine dollars a
03:10month and you get 14 day free trial so
03:13go ahead and enter your email address
03:14and set a password now once you submit
03:17everything you're going to have to put
03:18in your name and a credit card now again
03:20your account won't be charged it's just
03:22to prevent spam as they say so go ahead
03:24and do that all right welcome to ghost
03:27io so once you submit payment you're
03:29going to be presented with an onboarding
03:31process where you can just set your
03:32domain a name just go ahead and take
03:34care of all that additional information
03:36that ghost is going to ask you and then
03:38once you arrive at this spot this is
03:40your dashboard so your dashboard tells
03:42you how many members you have how many
03:44paid members you have as well as your
03:45email open rates then it presents to you
03:48a bunch of different uh pages and guides
03:50that you can jump into to learn more
03:51about how to use ghost properly
03:53now the next menu item right here is to
03:56view the site so we'll click on this one
03:57so it opens in a new tab
03:59and here's our website so right now it's
04:02just a subdomain so i have it as
04:05i'm going to change it to vloghow.com
04:07i'll show you how to do that in just a
04:10and yeah so the themes out of the box
04:13look quite nice they're very focused on
04:15blogging and content marketing and just
04:17very nice simple and readable i really i
04:20just really like ghosts i like how
04:23just very effective for what it you're
04:25supposed to do which is get people to
04:26subscribe and then send them content
04:28anyways let's navigate back over here so
04:32right over here we have our post section
04:34so that's self-explanatory those are
04:35your blog posts drafts and then schedule
04:38means like you can schedule a blog post
04:40to be published in a week a month etc
04:42then your published piece of content
04:45now over here we have pages and now
04:47pages are for things like your about
04:49page your contact page terms of use
04:51privacy policy all that stuff now tags
04:54are quite important with ghost so think
04:56of tags like categories and it's how you
04:59organize all your posts so when you have
05:01a specific website like a topical
05:03website like this is vlogging for
05:06appropriate tags would be like cameras
05:09vlogging tips tags like that okay you
05:11want to pick like four to seven tags
05:13that make sense for your website members
05:15are people who have joined your website
05:17so they're paying members total members
05:19people who have subscribed then your
05:21integration so any wordpress users
05:23watching this integrations is
05:25functionally the same as plugins so like
05:27when you want to add in an additional
05:29feature to your ghost website you just
05:31navigate over here and then search for
05:33what you want so for example like if you
05:35want to use convertkit for example they
05:37have some type of integration with
05:38convertkit same with various ecommerce
05:41plugins etc now staff that just means
05:44like who has access to the website like
05:46the person who owns the website maybe
05:48any authors you have for the website etc
05:51and then right down there ghost pro
05:52that's your current account and then you
05:53can upgrade your account right there
05:55then over here we have a little dial so
05:56you can switch it black or white and
05:59then we have the gear icon and this is
06:00actually quite funny because it's just
06:02like hidden not hidden away but it's
06:04actually quite important the gear icon
06:06you're going to be spending a lot of
06:07time over here setting up your website
06:09and so this is where you can navigate to
06:10all your settings general branding theme
06:12navigation membership email newsletter
06:14code injection so code injection is like
06:16say you want to run google adsense or
06:18something like that you go to google or
06:20you go to code injection now labs is
06:23grounds for testing new features so
06:25lab's actually quite helpful because one
06:27you can import content quickly and
06:29easily right here you can export your
06:30content again ghost is a free and open
06:32source system so if you write a bunch of
06:34blog posts you can just easily export
06:36your pieces of content right there you
06:38can delete all your content
06:40over here you have your redirect so you
06:41can set this up again everything's a
06:43little bit more technical with go so for
06:45example you have to download this yml
06:47json uh you know note open it with a
06:50notepad and add in the redirects
06:52manually not too complicated but if
06:54you're a complete beginner it may be a
06:55little bit complicated but that's really
06:57it and so that's overall a nice broad
07:00overview about what to expect with ghost
07:03now let's set a custom domain name for
07:05our website so currently we're using a
07:08subdomain of a ghost.io this is okay to
07:11get started but again over time you
07:13would definitely want to get your own
07:14domain name like your.com
07:16so to set a custom domain name with
07:18ghost is very simple so first thing
07:20navigate back to your dashboard then you
07:22actually have to click on the upgrade
07:24accounts when you do that you'll be
07:27section right there then go ahead and
07:28click on domains now we have custom
07:31domain name right there and then simply
07:32click on setup and really that simple
07:35now you just put in the domain name that
07:37you want to use as your customer name
07:39then you have to make sure that you set
07:40a dns record a cname and an a record
07:43that's it so how do you get a domain
07:45name so i personally use and recommend
07:49namecheap they are one of the best
07:50domain name registers around free whois
07:53protection low domain name renewal
07:54prices and just low prices overall
07:57so right here they're currently running
07:58a special for domain names for 5.98 like
08:01you're not gonna beat that so let me
08:03open up this tab right there
08:06okay and then okay so this is the coupon
08:08code fantastic okay we'll take that let
08:10me copy that to my clipboard okay so
08:13anyways to get started just search for
08:15the domain name that you want to
08:16register so i'll type in something like
08:17i don't know my superamazingblog.com
08:22there we go let's click on search
08:24wonderful so mysuperamazingblog.com
08:27is available to add it to cart now if
08:30your domain name is not available then
08:32you just have to come up the top here
08:34and then just change with different word
08:35combinations if this is your first
08:37website i strongly suggest you try to
08:39geta.com you can also click this button
08:42right there for beast mode which gives
08:44you a lot more uh just granular features
08:46to kind of narrow down your domain
08:48search anyways let me x out of this
08:51there we go okay let's go ahead and add
08:57okay and let's go ahead and check out
08:59okay so right here is where our domain
09:02name registration happens so up front
09:04here you can register a domain name for
09:06up to 10 years in advance if you want to
09:08have auto renew on or off you can just
09:10click the dial right here domain name
09:12privacy you get one year subscription
09:14but it's free forever okay free forever
09:17big deal because most website builders
09:20most web host will charge you for this
09:22this just keeps your private information
09:24private okay because as part of icann
09:26registrations when you create a
09:27namecheap account and you buy a domain
09:28name you have to submit your actual
09:30email your actual address etc and so
09:33domain name privacy just keeps all that
09:34personal information private which is
09:36why i love namecheap and then any type
09:39of promo code you have which is for
09:40example uh this promo code that they're
09:43currently running we can just take that
09:44and put that right there click on apply
09:46that's it and so when you're ready to
09:48purchase just simply click on confirm
09:50order submit payment create a namecheap
09:52account not that hard and you are good
09:54to go okay so once you finish purchasing
09:57your domain name from namecheap it's
09:59time to actually set the customer name
10:01by editing the dns records which you get
10:04here in step two where it says create
10:07now we need to navigate back to
10:09namecheap and then jump in the domain
10:11name that you want to edit so i'm going
10:12to be editing vloghow.com right here on
10:15the domain tab name servers are
10:17namecheap basic dns they actually want
10:20to click on this one right here where it
10:21says advanced dns and this is what
10:23advanced dns looks like now you want to
10:25navigate down here you want to make sure
10:27that this says choose dns template and
10:29right here are you where you add in
10:31different records it's really that
10:33simple so if you see any records already
10:35in there you can just go ahead and
10:36delete it it's not going to break
10:38anything now you need to add in a c name
10:40record non-negotiable this is the most
10:43important one what this cname record
10:45does it has all your traffic redirect
10:47from the subdomain which for me is
10:49vloghow.ghost.io to the com version or
10:53url you registered here at namecheap and
10:55so it's very simple you just click on
10:56this drop down find where it says cname
10:58record boom then the host name is www
11:02target is your subdomain then you want
11:04to make sure to click this little green
11:07and that's it okay and that will set a
11:09custom domain name now the a record
11:11right here this is totally optional you
11:13don't have to put this in but what this
11:15will do is it will redirect from the www
11:17dot version to the non-www version which
11:21is actually called a naked domain name
11:23so if you want your website to be
11:27or you just want it to be vloghout.com
11:29if you want to be just vloghout.com
11:31justyourwebsite.com then you want to put
11:33in a record so i personally want an a
11:35record so again simple click the drop
11:38down then find where it says a record
11:40boom at symbol and then this long string
11:43of numbers right there and that's it and
11:45so once you do that very simple you want
11:47to come up here then boom type in what
11:49you want to put in so this is going to
11:54and then let's come down here then you
11:56want to click on the activate button so
11:59it does take some time so like once you
12:01set everything up on the back end over
12:03here it may take a little bit of time
12:05it's not going to be instantaneous so
12:06let's go ahead and click on activate
12:08let's see if this actually works okay so
12:10it says try again please refresh the
12:12page update your status blah blah blah
12:14so what that just means is you just
12:17gotta wait so just again just jump into
12:19your advanced cns set the a record c
12:21name record click on the save icon right
12:23there make sure to put your domain name
12:25right there click on activate and then
12:28just give it time okay maybe go get a
12:29cup of coffee and then come back now
12:31it's been about 20 minutes and the
12:34domain name is working as appropriate so
12:37let's click on and view our websites
12:40and yeah this looks great so now we have
12:42blackout.com now the next thing that we
12:44want to do is design our website
12:48so with ghost you design using themes so
12:52let's navigate back to our dashboard and
12:54let's go ahead and click on the little
12:56gear icon right down there then you want
12:58to click on where it says theme
13:00now right over here you have a few
13:02different options so you have the theme
13:05directory where you can choose a bunch
13:06of free themes from or you can navigate
13:08down here and click on upload a theme
13:11now you're like upload a theme how does
13:14well if you're using an installation of
13:16ghost on your own shared hosting account
13:19or whatever you have to upload themes
13:21but because we are using ghost
13:23pro version everything's kind of built
13:25in so that makes it really easy but you
13:27can also buy themes from something
13:29called themeforest for example
13:31and so right here they have ghost blogs
13:33and ghost themes from themeforest and so
13:36if we open up this uh here we have a
13:38bunch of premium themes that you can
13:40jump into and explore
13:42and if you want to buy one it seems very
13:44easy you just purchase it download it
13:46save it to your laptop and then you just
13:48go back into your settings and then boom
13:51click here and upload a theme
13:53anyways let's go ahead and click on view
13:55more and we're going to be looking at
13:57the ghost marketplace professional ghost
14:00themes discover a beautiful custom
14:02design perfect for your publication
14:07let's calm down all right anyways we
14:09have the price so we have official free
14:11and paid so totally up to you so there's
14:13a plenty of great looking free themes
14:18there are quite a few paid themes and
14:20some paid themes are quite expensive
14:24not gonna sugarcoat it so we come down
14:26here for example like this one is a
14:28hundred and forty nine dollars
14:32that's a bit expensive anyways i'm gonna
14:34go ahead and click on free
14:36and i'm gonna show you one of my
14:37favorite free themes that goes actually
14:39also let's come down here
14:41boom this one i love it's called
14:43massively let's go ahead and open it up
14:46and let's click on visit the demo so
14:50massively.goes.i o so i just like the
14:52way this looks very subtle detail so the
14:54image in the background has a slow fade
14:56in nice big text right there contents
14:59front and center overall it looks really
15:04again totally up to you whatever you
15:06want to do so but i'm going to install
15:07this theme so enter the site's address
15:10all right so let's go ahead and do that
15:12because we just set our custom domain
15:16there we go all right let's click on
15:20okay now it says you're about to install
15:22massively from the theme directory yes
15:23we are let's go ahead and click on
15:26and let's click on activate
15:30all right and that's it literally that
15:33simple so now we have massively and we
15:35have downloaded it and installed it as
15:38our primary theme let's design our
15:40website so this is the massively theme
15:43and it looks okay uh we definitely want
15:46to add in a custom image in the
15:47background but every otherwise it looks
15:49good everything's in place so let's
15:51begin customizing our website so first
15:54off navigate back to your dashboard then
15:56you want to go ahead and click on the
15:58gear icon and we're going to be working
16:00in the general tab and the branding tab
16:03so let's go ahead and click on general
16:06now right over here with title and
16:07description this is where you can change
16:09literally the title and description so
16:11if you don't want the if you want this
16:12to say something else you just jump over
16:14here and edit as appropriate now the
16:17time zone self-explanatory you can just
16:19change the time zone for where your blog
16:23now the publication language you can
16:25adjust right there then the most
16:27important one right here is the site
16:29meta settings and so right there you can
16:31set an seo title and a meta description
16:34so what i personally recommend doing is
16:36setting something like the site title
16:38page separator and then a keyword
16:40description of your website and then a
16:42meta description that incorporates
16:43various related keyword phrases just
16:45something that describes your website
16:48literally that simple now if we come
16:50down here we have twitter card and we
16:52also have facebook card for like what is
16:54that oh it's very simple if someone
16:56shares your website on twitter or
16:57facebook how do you want the link to
17:00look you with your with ghost you can
17:01adjust and customize the look and feel
17:04of your presence on these social media
17:06websites so you can add a twitter image
17:08twitter title description etc now if we
17:11come down here we have social accounts
17:13so you can link your social accounts if
17:15you have a facebook page or a twitter
17:17account that's associated associated
17:22you can just add it in here to get full
17:24structured data and rich card support
17:27and then last you can just make your
17:28website private if you want to go ahead
17:31all right so let's come back up top
17:32there let's navigate back to our
17:34settings yep i'm going to leave now
17:36we're going to navigate next to the
17:39and over here is where you can adjust
17:41the branding so for example if you're
17:43not a big fan of this like hot pink
17:44color well you can adjust it right there
17:47a publication icon was that publication
17:50icon is this little thing right up top
17:51there so if you want something a little
17:53more custom other than this like weird
17:54thing i definitely recommend
17:56uploading a publication icon uh i'll get
17:59to that next and then we have
18:00publication logo so it depends on your
18:03theme so for the massively theme i
18:05definitely don't recommend a logo
18:07because it's just going to plop the logo
18:09right here front and center and i think
18:11it looks really bad but i'll show you
18:14because again if you're using a
18:15different theme then you may want to
18:17upload a logo then last right down here
18:20we have the publication cover so there
18:22we can just upload a cover image of our
18:24choosing so for example i have
18:26this image i took with my canon 90d
18:30and i'm gonna set that as the background
18:33and yeah that looks good okay so let's
18:36go ahead and click on it save and close
18:38fantastic so now we have a nice big
18:40gorgeous image in the background and we
18:42have our text front and center and our
18:44website looks good it's coming together
18:46quite nicely creating a logo and a
18:49favicon for our website so the service
18:52i'm going to recommend you check out is
18:56completely free to sign up and create an
18:58account now let me come over here and
19:01let's go to youtube thumbnail now it
19:04really doesn't matter i just like the
19:05youtube thumbnail format
19:07and this is where we're going to be
19:08designing our logo with
19:11all right so let's wait so it opens up
19:14there we go okay so first off we want to
19:16navigate to where it says text let's go
19:18ahead and click on that let me go ahead
19:19and click on heading and i'm going to
19:21type in a heading so my site is called
19:24vlog house so let's go ahead and add
19:25that in vlog how there we go
19:28all right so with canva a couple of
19:30different things that you can do first
19:31off you can come over here and change
19:32the font that you you want to use for
19:35example if i want to use anton for
19:36example i could just click on that
19:38and change everything to anton so we can
19:40make this big like this
19:43and i think that looks good all right so
19:45we can go ahead and click on spacing
19:47maybe i want this to be the letters to
19:49be a little bit closer together so click
19:51on negative 22 there we go
19:54all right so i think that looks okay and
19:56let me take this again
19:58and let's go to effects for example and
20:01let's go ahead to drop shadow
20:04and i think that looks okay so we can
20:06just leave that as our logo
20:10maybe i want to add some type of icon to
20:12go along with it so we can go here to
20:14say effect elements sorry elements
20:17and then we can type in something like i
20:18don't know camera see what comes up
20:21all right so we have a bunch of
20:22different little images for cameras
20:24so just pick the one that you like again
20:27takes time to find something but we'll
20:29just minimize that and we'll take this
20:32alright so make this a little bit bigger
20:37and that looks good okay so
20:40let's go ahead actually i'm gonna go
20:42ahead and remove this drop shadow
20:43actually let's get rid of that
20:45have it be normal there we go okay just
20:48leave it like that so again very simple
20:51logo so again by default
20:54simple is good okay you don't need to
20:56have an overly complicated logo
20:58anyways i'm going to go ahead and
20:59download and we're going to have it save
21:03let's go ahead and download this
21:09all right drag and drop it to our
21:10desktop and there's our logo so one
21:13quick little thing i want to do is i
21:15want to remove the background so
21:17we're going to go to remove
21:22it's called remove b g
21:24and i love this website so you can just
21:26upload any image and then it removes the
21:28background so go ahead and do that
21:32now we have the original
21:34and it's going to remove the background
21:36for us and there you go we now have a
21:38transparent logo so let's go ahead and
21:42and there we go that's it
21:44all right yep perfect all right so let's
21:46go ahead and then we just have to crop
21:48it so i'm just going to use a tool to
21:50crop it you can use any image editor to
21:53crop so let's just take the top down a
21:55little bit right there
21:57and we'll take this right there and a
21:59little bit off there and a little bit
22:01off there click on ok
22:03click x click on save
22:06there we go all right so now let's
22:08navigate back to our website go to
22:12and now we want to upload a publication
22:15logo so we can go here to upload logo
22:17and then boom there we go let's upload
22:20our logo see how that looks all right
22:21and it looks terrible
22:24now it doesn't look terrible it just
22:25looks bad on this specific theme okay
22:28so again that's what i said earlier it
22:30depends on the theme you're using i
22:31don't like the way that this looks at
22:33for the massively theme text
22:36simple looks good as the user scrolls
22:38down kind of transforms into this look i
22:40think it's perfect doesn't need anything
22:42all right so let's go ahead and add in a
22:44favicon for a website or publication
22:46icon as it's called right here now you
22:48have to pay attention to the
22:49instructions a square social icon 60 by
22:5260 pixels so that doesn't mean it has to
22:54be 60 by 60 but it's if it's 100 pixels
22:56it has to be 100 by 100 otherwise it
22:59won't let you upload the icon
23:02so we have to navigate back to canva let
23:04me go ahead and delete this and we're
23:06just going to we're just gonna take this
23:10right there i think this looks that's
23:13all right let's go ahead and click on it
23:14download again go through the same
23:17process as before we'll download this as
23:19a png we'll drag and drop that right
23:22there we'll go to remove background
23:24click on upload image click on the uh
23:31i can't remember what's called vector
23:32graphic there we go let's click on it
23:35download and there we go drag and drop
23:40all right so let's go ahead and open
23:43this up and make sure it's a even square
23:47alright so let's go ahead and crop
23:49all right so we have 375 all right let's
23:51just adjust this as good as best we can
23:56370 yeah let's eyeball it a little bit
24:02there we go okay there we go click okay
24:05there we go so our favicon's ready click
24:08on that we'll click on save
24:11all right so now let's navigate back to
24:14our website and there we go x out of
24:17this let's go ahead and upload our icon
24:19and then we have our icon right there
24:21go ahead and upload that and there you
24:23go okay so now click on save and close
24:27and let's go back and reload our website
24:32all right so we have our image there let
24:34me just click that one more time
24:37there we go okay so now our favicon has
24:39been updated to something a little bit
24:40more custom and that's it menus and
24:43pages so if we scroll down right here
24:46you're going to notice that this is your
24:47main menu bar right there and this is
24:50populated with specific pages that are
24:51already created for your website so if
24:54we want to edit this very simple so
24:56first off again like always navigate
24:58back to your dashboard
25:00now your pages are controlled by the
25:02pages tab and then your navigation let
25:04me open up this in a new tab
25:07so your navigation is controlled by the
25:09navigation setting right over here in
25:11your settings so we just click on this
25:13over here and then right here is where
25:15all your specific pages are linked to
25:18and then you can adjust everything as
25:20required so for example maybe i don't
25:23want this home link right there i can
25:24just go ahead and delete that or maybe i
25:26don't want to have this collection link
25:29this collection link is about how to get
25:31started with the uh ghost content
25:33management system so for example let's
25:34go ahead and delete this one then i'll
25:36click on save there we go so now the
25:38collection item in the menu has
25:41literally that simple so again these are
25:44all pages on the site and you can link
25:46to whatever you want so for example if
25:48we notice this one right here we're
25:50linking to an author bio page you can
25:52link to your tag page whatever you want
25:56so anyways to add a new page is very
25:58simple you just click on the pages tab
26:00then right up top there you have a new
26:03page button which you can just go ahead
26:07okay so we have a few pages with our
26:09website already so we have a contribute
26:11privacy contact about this site and so
26:13if you click on add a new page then it
26:15just opens up in your standard designer
26:18uh similar to the blog post section
26:20where you can just add in a new page so
26:22you can add in a feature image right
26:24there page title and then you can begin
26:25writing content for any type of page so
26:29what pages do you really need honestly
26:31you're going to want a few things you're
26:33probably going to want maybe like an
26:34about page a contact page legalese pages
26:37like your privacy policy terms of use
26:39which you already have right here so you
26:41have a privacy page so again totally up
26:43to you i would probably go ahead and
26:44create like an about page edit this
26:47contact page keep the privacy page maybe
26:49like a resources page something like
26:50that it's literally that simple and so
26:53just come in here and start editing and
26:54designing your page with content and
26:56then when you're reading you want to
26:57link it in your menu bar you just come
26:59over here to settings and you just type
27:01in the specific page that you want to
27:03add so for example we can just click on
27:05this little plus sign add a label then
27:07add in the url you can copy and paste it
27:09from up top there to go over here and
27:11copy and paste it in that sort of thing
27:13and then that's it then when you're
27:14ready to save your menu just click on
27:17the save button let's get started
27:19blogging with ghost so this is where
27:21this content management system really
27:25so if we come to our website i went
27:26ahead and created an example post right
27:29here so let's just take a quick look at
27:31it and so first off this is why everyone
27:33likes ghosts so much this looks
27:35beautiful so we have the title of the
27:38boom front and center the piece of
27:40content feature image right there then
27:43contents nice and readable h2 title tag
27:46image a gallery so again like attention
27:49to detail see how the gallery is kind of
27:51like a little bit wider this has a
27:53little bit more padding so it's a little
27:54bit more narrow and easy to read uh and
27:56then we have the little author bio right
27:59ghost is really great for blogging so
28:01anyways how do you blog so let's jump
28:04over to our post section right here now
28:07to add in a new post you can click this
28:08button right there to add a new post or
28:10you can click the plus sign over here so
28:12let me go ahead and click on the button
28:14to add a new post in okay so now you
28:16have a few things just to pay attention
28:18to first thing if you want to add in a
28:20feature image it's right here all you do
28:22is click on this little plus sign then
28:24you add in the image that you would like
28:26to be associated with your blog post and
28:29now over here this is the post title
28:31this is important because this is your
28:33h1 title tag and then you can just jump
28:36in and start writing your blog post so
28:39start start writing your
28:42blog post there we go
28:45all right so a few little details also
28:47to be aware of you want to navigate over
28:49here see where it says settings
28:52this is really helpful because this is
28:53where you can adjust the settings for
28:55your blog post so one thing that i
28:58really love about ghost is that they
29:01don't add dates to the url structure and
29:04that's really nice because that's
29:05appropriate seo then right here you can
29:07just change the post url as you want so
29:11custom or just a custom url there we go
29:14now we have a published dates i know a
29:17lot of you ask like how do i hide dates
29:19etc etc well with ghost you can't
29:21everything has to have a specific date
29:23associated with it right here that's
29:25going to be front and center but
29:27normally i hate dates but actually ghost
29:30is pretty good because when you update
29:32your post you can just update the date
29:34so that's wonderful because that's great
29:36seo so some you know again it's not a
29:38huge deal if your content is going to be
29:41six months old even a year two or two
29:43years old if it's like an evergreen
29:45piece of content but it is nice that
29:47whenever you jump into your content
29:48update it you can just update the date
29:51now right over here is where you can add
29:53in tags for your specific
29:55blog post so tags work the same way is
29:58categories so for any type of content
30:01oriented website i would recommend four
30:03to six tags that are related to what
30:05your website is about bad categories bad
30:08attacks or things like thoughts or blogs
30:11or things like that like no no like if
30:13this website is again about like
30:14vlogging then a great like tag would be
30:17like vlogging tips vlogging gear how to
30:20vlog cameras whatever that sort of thing
30:24now right down here we have post access
30:26so you can change like who has access if
30:28this is going to be public if this is
30:30only going to be members only members
30:33are people who navigate to your website
30:34and boom click this button
30:36and go ahead and subscribe to your
30:38website and then you can also have paid
30:42and so you can offer a subscription
30:43oriented service on your blog and it's
30:46everything's just built in and then the
30:47excerpt means like that's the excerpt
30:50for your website okay so for your
30:52individual blog post so let's just go
30:54ahead and type in website creative pro
30:58all right so right here that's the
31:01my website and so you can control that
31:05okay so we come down here we have meta
31:07twitter card facebook card so again the
31:09cards that just influences how your blog
31:11posts will look when it's shared on a
31:13social media website metadata again how
31:17your piece of content is going to appear
31:19in the serps which means search engine
31:21results page so your meta title and so
31:24again for the title of any type of blog
31:27post i definitely recommend blog post
31:30title comes first page separator and
31:33then name of website then the meta
31:37description again just describe what the
31:39blog post is about mechanical url all
31:42right so let's back out of that okay and
31:44that's it literally that simple then
31:46right over here you have email
31:47newsletter and code injection so over
31:50here you can send a test email if you
31:52want to see what this piece of content
31:54would look like when someone receives it
31:55via email then you have code injection
31:58so again like if you want to add in any
31:59type of code like some type of uh google
32:03share buttons or whatever it's really
32:05nice that you just have this built in
32:07where you can add in any type of code to
32:08the header or the post footer all right
32:12so anyways that's it for settings
32:14all right so here's our piece of content
32:17now as we begin writing the piece of
32:20content we click this plus sign and then
32:22right over here you can add in different
32:24things so you can add in images okay so
32:26images self-explanatory if you want to
32:28add an image that's what it's going to
32:29look like right there a little bit of
32:31animation to go along with it
32:32or you can just scroll down oh sorry
32:35this is the blog post there we go so
32:38right here you can add in a gallery if
32:39you want as well so we have that's what
32:41images functionally do so markdown is
32:44actually very helpful
32:46so markdown allows you to add in
32:48different types of like just code or
32:49whatever it is you want to add in uh
32:53so for example let me click the plus
32:55sign so click on markdown for example if
32:57i want like bullet points
32:59you go you use the markdown block that's
33:01literally it so point
33:06etc alright so let's click the plus sign
33:08over here now html fantastic so you can
33:12insert html code so for example if you
33:15want to promote an amazon associates
33:17product and you get the code from amazon
33:18associates you'd click the html block
33:20then just copy and paste the code in
33:22right there and you would be good to go
33:25now we have a gallery so a gallery is a
33:28gallery i just showed you that divider
33:30divider just sets a line to help break
33:31up your blog post to make it a little
33:33bit more visually appealing and readable
33:36and then let's come down here to the
33:38email content this is a really helpful
33:42this is not to be uh
33:44i want to really emphasize this so what
33:47this does is that this is only visible
33:51it's delivered in the email so for
33:53example like you could write a blog post
33:55for example and write 300 words and then
33:58uh have a call to action subscribe to
34:00your email list so you can have like a
34:02quick little introduction a paragraph
34:04right up top there and then to read more
34:06subscribe to the list something like
34:08that whatever but what this will do is
34:11that any content you put in here so put
34:16will only be visible by people who are
34:19getting this via email and so again just
34:22take a step back and think about how
34:23wonderful and creative you could do that
34:26because you're going to take a step back
34:27it's like well why should i subscribe
34:29and get blog posts just sent to my email
34:32when i can just visit the website and
34:34get the content over here
34:36well because of this type of content you
34:38can actually have a compelling reason
34:39for people to subscribe
34:41and that's really it okay so that's
34:42really one of those powerful features i
34:44think that ghost has just built in just
34:47so smart email content i love this block
34:49it's so helpful then right down here you
34:51have all your various embeds so again
34:54like you want to embed a video someone's
34:56twitter feed or a specific tweet
34:58unsplash vimeo codepen spotify
35:01soundcloud you know if you have a
35:02podcast really simply just click that
35:04button and then boom add what you want
35:06in and that's it it's really nice so
35:08anyways now when we're all kind of set
35:11to and ready to publish click on the
35:14now you can schedule it to be published
35:16later and then you can set it up to send
35:19totally up to you so if you want this to
35:21go to your email list again you can
35:23toggle it on and off
35:25and right now i have free members set up
35:27but you can also set up a subscription
35:29service so for example if you have
35:32you can send this email only to
35:34subscribers so you can take a step back
35:36and be like okay i'm going to create a
35:38post agree with the post title i'll say
35:40something like subscribers
35:42only or whatever or i could type it down
35:45here like subscribers only that gives
35:47people a compelling reason to subscribe
35:49and then have like a little 300 word
35:50paragraph that kind of leads into what
35:52the content is going to be about and
35:53then write the entire blog post in this
35:56section right there so when people get
35:58the email they get only people are on
36:00the list get the content for example or
36:02i can save only people who are paying
36:04members get this specific blog post
36:07whatever so this is what this is why
36:09gross is great is why in the
36:11introduction i said that ghost has a
36:13strong focus on content marketing
36:15email list and building a subscription
36:18revenue service because it does all this
36:20is just built in to ghost.org and
36:23something that's really powerful and
36:24that's really it and so just go ahead
36:25and click on publish when your blog post
36:27is ready and it'll be sent out
36:30automatically to anybody who subscribed
36:31to your website based on your settings
36:33anyways that is it for how to blog with
36:36ghost managing subscribers for your
36:39website so within goes subscribers are
36:41actually referred to as members so again
36:43people click the little subscribe button
36:45boom and they sign up
36:47now how does this whole thing work so on
36:49the back end the first thing you need to
36:51do is navigate over to where it says
36:53members this is going to show you
36:55everybody who has subscribed to your
36:56website so you can add in different
36:58labels and then you can also sort by
37:00members so who's a free member who's
37:02paid and then all members now you can
37:05also go over here and click on this new
37:08member right here then just add in a
37:10test member for example that's what i
37:12did just so you kind of understand and
37:14can see like what your content is going
37:16to look like in someone's email now
37:18again if you click on the little gear
37:19icon you can import and export all
37:24so this is what it looks like within
37:26someone's email so you can just adjust
37:31the way that this appears pretty easily
37:33but this is one of those email specific
37:35only pieces of content so i wrote a blog
37:37post and i just tested this out to see
37:39what it looks like and again i use that
37:40email block within the blog post really
37:43interesting and so you can just adjust
37:44everything over here so for example like
37:46we have the vlog out and then no reply
37:48like we can customize all this to have
37:50to have a little bit more of a personal
37:52touch anyways so let's go back to
37:54members now what i want you to do is
37:56click on the gear icon right here
37:59and then navigate over to where it says
38:01email newsletter go ahead and open up
38:03that then right here that's it so this
38:05is where you can customize the look and
38:07feel of your email so let's go ahead and
38:10okay so right over here you have your
38:12header image publication icon
38:14publication title header style feature
38:16image body then email footer text so any
38:19like legalese you want to add in you can
38:21do that right there maybe tell people
38:23how to unsubscribe whatever that's
38:25really it okay then you kind of just can
38:27view the way your email will appear over
38:30here so let me go ahead and cancel okay
38:32so default newsletter recipients let's
38:34go ahead and expand that so sends email
38:37by default again when you publish a
38:40you can choose if it goes to free or
38:42paid members so not really that
38:44important over here then the email
38:46addresses so this is actually quite
38:47important so support email addresses so
38:50i definitely would suggest updating this
38:52so like by default it's going to have
38:55subdomain vlogout.goes.io
38:57that's not trustworthy i'd rather have
38:59it like dave at vlogo.com something like
39:01that something that people would
39:02actually like click and open not some
39:04corporatey no reply email so just go
39:08ahead and update that to a real email
39:10address that you actually have access to
39:12then newsletters sign up replies go to
39:15wherever you want okay so like when
39:17people hit the reply button because
39:18people can reply i can just hit reply
39:20and then send myself an email
39:23where does that reply go that's what
39:25that's what you adjust over here with
39:27newsletter replies then email newsletter
39:30open rate analytics obviously you want
39:31that you want to know like hey are
39:33people opening your list etc because
39:35again within the members section so if
39:38we click on this you get a bunch of
39:39different emails emails you get a bunch
39:42of different analytics so for example
39:43this email is received to emails they've
39:45opened two emails so average open rate
39:48and so yeah you can just pay attention
39:49like kind of just maybe remove people
39:51who are not opening your emails etc all
39:54right let's go back here to email
39:55newsletter customizer and then that's it
39:57okay right here we have email newsletter
39:59open analytics and so you can toggle
40:01this on or off to your liking and that
40:04is it and so when you're ready just go
40:06ahead and click on save settings when
40:07you've adjusted everything to your
40:09liking creating a subscription or
40:12revenue source for your blog and website
40:16so again this is something that ghost
40:18really shines because it's just all
40:19built in with ghost.org so you're going
40:21to need a stripe account go through the
40:23rigmarole to create an account okay
40:25you're going to submit your business
40:26information phone number etc you're
40:28gonna have to create a real account then
40:30this is your stripe dashboard now once
40:32you create your account and you're
40:34logged into stripe then go back to your
40:37website and then we want to click on our
40:39best friend which is the little gear
40:41icon then you want to click on a
40:44all right so now we have a few different
40:46options we have customized portal no
40:48we're not talking about the game portal
40:50this is the portal for
40:52how people subscribe to your website
40:55okay so right over here you have the
40:57sign up page and so when people click on
40:59this subscribe button over there this is
41:01what's going to appear right here so
41:03again you can just change things as you
41:04like so you can change the button text
41:06you can add in different icons show
41:09whatever now if you click over here to
41:10the account this is your uh the
41:12subscribers account this is what it's
41:14going to look like their name their
41:15payment plan etc then we have links and
41:18so this is actually quite important
41:20because you can sign up monthly yearly
41:22free your account account plans etc
41:25so for example like if you're writing a
41:27blog post on your website and you want
41:29people to subscribe you can maybe have a
41:32within your blog post so you just want
41:34to come over here and get like this
41:35piece of content so for example you can
41:37come over here i'll take this one just
41:40and maybe like within my blog post i can
41:42go ahead and just add a button link the
41:44button to that url then this is what
41:47it'll look like or maybe i have a
41:48youtube channel and i just want to link
41:52like subscribe to my website and then
41:53people click on the subscribe link then
41:55they open up and then boom they're right
41:57over here and so again you can just
41:58change the copy here to make it a little
42:00more interesting and compelling etc and
42:02that's really it so let's go ahead and
42:04click on cancel all right so
42:06subscription access again
42:08you have a lot of granular detail anyone
42:10can sign up you can change that only
42:14if you want then access to post so be a
42:18public members only paid members
42:20and so again if you want to have a
42:22private blog where everybody has to
42:24subscribe in order to read the content
42:26you can just do that from right here
42:27just set this up paid members only or
42:29maybe just make it so like hey at a
42:31minimum you have to subscribe to my
42:32website in order to get access you could
42:37that's good and bad so that's going to
42:39obviously hamper your seo because you
42:41know google's not going to rank an index
42:43pieces of content that are hidden
42:45totally up to you though so again if you
42:47have some type of other traffic source
42:49that you're you want to drive like for
42:51example you're a youtuber you want to
42:52drive and you want to like maybe you're
42:54a finance youtuber and you want to have
42:55like these detailed pieces of content
42:57about how to do something within m1
43:00finance i don't know that's where you
43:02can kind of just get creative anyways
43:04right down here we have membership tiers
43:05we have free and then
43:07we can expand this then the welcome page
43:10so this is important when people
43:11subscribe to your email list regardless
43:14if it's free or paid direct people like
43:16go ahead and create a thank you page so
43:18you just want to create a page like this
43:24uh there we go i can't spell thank you
43:29and so that's important because like
43:30when people subscribe and they go
43:31through everything and sign up
43:33have them automatically be directed here
43:35and then just let them know like what to
43:37expect and then if they have a like
43:39they're sending for free that's where
43:41you can then incorporate maybe some
43:43pricing tiers like hey sign up and get a
43:46discount something like that you can
43:48leverage it like that okay so it's
43:50really important to have a thank you
43:51page again just to let people know what
43:54kind of content they're going to be
43:55getting what they can expect and then a
43:57call to action if you want if you're
43:58going to be going the paid route
44:01all right so now let's go ahead and
44:03actually set up a premium pricing plan
44:06so connect with stripe okay so we're
44:08already logged in so all you have to do
44:10is yes we want to use this in test mode
44:12and i want to make sure that this is
44:14also in test mode so there we go
44:17all you have to do is connect with
44:18stripe that's it click that button then
44:20everything kind of takes care of it for
44:22you and so unnamed account yep okay
44:25let's go ahead and click on connect
44:27it's going to load your account and then
44:29just fill out this information as needed
44:32okay so once you go through that entire
44:34process of adding in your checking
44:36account your routing number business
44:38information etc you're going to land on
44:40this page where you've successfully
44:42generated a key and then just copy this
44:45to your clipboard then navigate back
44:47over to where you were with setting up
44:49stripe then copy and paste in your key
44:51right here and then click on save stripe
44:55and there we go okay so now everything
44:56should say you are connected and you're
44:58good to go so let's click on ok
45:03all right so now we can come down here
45:05and click on expand now right here we
45:07can add in different price points so we
45:09come down here you can change the
45:11currency so you have set prices and paid
45:14member settings so we have prices five
45:16dollars a month how many a year and then
45:18the welcome page and that's it and
45:21finally integrations for our ghost.org
45:24website so with ghost.org you do have a
45:27few built-in integrations that you can
45:29take advantage of so we have zapier
45:33unsplash and first promoter so zapier is
45:36actually quite important and so it's
45:38automation for your favorite app so like
45:40for example you want to use convertkit
45:42with ghost no problem but you're going
45:44to have to sync the data that you're
45:46collecting from ghosts to convert kit
45:49that's what zapier does so it takes care
45:50of that for you now we have slack that's
45:52a messaging app for teams google
45:54accelerated mobile pages unsplash is a
45:56place to get images and then we have
45:57first promoter very interesting so let's
45:59go ahead and configure this one
46:01so what first promoter allows you to do
46:04is to create your own dedicated referral
46:06program so for example you can just say
46:08sound to be an affiliate for me and
46:09refer people refer your email
46:12subscription service and then people
46:14sign up then you have affiliates
46:16whatever that's simple so first promoter
46:18you are going to actually have to create
46:22so this is affiliate and referral
46:24tracking for saas so for sas companies
46:27now let's go here to pricing and then
46:29this is the current pricing for first
46:32promoter then once you sign up create an
46:33account then you just put in your
46:35affiliate and referral tracking id here
46:37then you're able to have dedicated
46:39referrals or dedicated affiliates
46:41however you want to think of it and
46:42that's really it so let's go back yep i
46:44want to leave okay so we have a bunch of
46:47other integrations up top there
46:49now by integrations it's not like you
46:52click it and then install a button it's
46:54good good to go unfortunately like for
46:56example google analytics what it's going
46:58to do is direct you to a how-to page
47:01like how do you integrate this so for
47:03example like with google analytics all
47:04you have to do is sign up to google
47:06analytics create an account then once
47:09you finish create an account you want to
47:10come down here then you just want to go
47:12to the code injection section of the
47:14website over here so go here to code
47:17injection and then put your google
47:19analytics code right there not too
47:21complicated uh and so let's go back to
47:24integrations let's go to more
47:27and now there's a whole host of
47:28dedicated guides about how to integrate
47:30different types of services so for
47:33example you want to have like maybe a
47:35physical product you want to sell you
47:36can use something like snip cart uh snip
47:39card is great because it doesn't require
47:42fee it just charges two percent of
47:44anything you sell but again ghost.org
47:47it's not really designed for e-commerce
47:49if you want to do e-commerce i would
47:51definitely stick to like wordpress and
47:52woocommerce or shopify uh ghost is
47:55definitely more geared for blogging
47:57collecting emails getting people to
47:59subscribe to your email list etc but
48:01otherwise over here you just have a wide
48:03variety of different integrations so you
48:05know it'll tell you how to install use
48:08any one of these various services so for
48:10example like gumroad okay maybe we're
48:12going to use gumroad to sell some type
48:13of like ebook no problems we come over
48:16here to eb to gumroad and just it
48:18literally walks us through the process
48:19so it navigates your product on gumroad
48:21get the embed code then paste it into
48:24the block editor over there so again
48:26like the html editor again very simple
48:29stuff you don't really need many of
48:31these pages once you've kind of figured
48:33how the different aspects work like for
48:35example my html block if i have like
48:37amazon associates code whatever and so
48:39that's what you can kind of leverage
48:41with the integrations these are all just
48:42kind of like user guides about like how
48:44do you install and set this up on your
48:46website pretty self-explanatory and then
48:49right down here again the built-in
48:50integrations are quite nice particularly
48:53first promoter i think that's really
48:54unique interesting so interesting avenue
48:57and so overall i'm quite impressed with
48:59ghost i think it's a unique offering a
49:01really good blogging platform with good
49:03seo beautiful design so getting people
49:06to subscribe subscribe to your email
49:08list as either a free member or a paid
49:11you can integrate first promoter to have
49:13your own referral program really nice
49:15and really interesting and then right
49:17down here we can add a custom
49:19integration if we really want so if
49:20there's some type of like something that
49:22you have a dedicated need for you can
49:25just type in your integration over here
49:27then go ahead and click on create and
49:29then you just navigate over here and add
49:31in the web hook so if you're a little
49:33bit more tech savvy you can leverage
49:34this but anyways that is it for this
49:37tutorial all right everyone that's it
49:39for this tutorial video on how to get
49:41started with ghost.org i hope you
49:43enjoyed the video and i hope you got a
49:44lot of value out of it anyways my name
49:46is david from website creditpro.com
49:48thank you very much for watching and
49:49have a great day bye
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