John O'Nolan worked as the Deputy Head of UX for WordPress for several years before he got fed up with the direction it was taking.

He decided to launch a non-profit, open source platform called Ghost in 2013, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

With so much to unpack, there was a lot to discuss, including:

01:25 What it’s like to work for Wordpress
5:25 Launching a Wordpress competitor
10:37 Using non-profit and open source to create interest
12:06 Why Ghost is better than Wordpress
20:33 Using Recommendations and Web Mentions
30:01 Passive ways of acquiring an audience
39:40 How Ghost is different than Medium
45:16 The problem with Quora (and Medium)
53:06 Ghost’s major competitors and customer base
58:04 Ghost’s priorities for publishers
1:03:09 Journalists vs creators
1:08:56 The Fediverse/Activity Pub
1:31:21 The Fediverse vs media companies
1:37:07 How to become a top publisher
1:44:12 Marketing Ghost
1:47:33 Why a personal brand isn’t everything
1:53:04 Will Ghost ever go “for profit”?

We hope you enjoy our first in-person episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find John:
X: @JohnONolan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnonolan/
Website: https://john.onolan.org/

Where to find Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/
X: @timsoulo
Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

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Referenced in the episode:

Space campaign: https://space.paddle.com/
Anthony Kenneda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/
Goldenhour: https://www.goldenhour.net/
Adam Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/
Marketing Against the Grain:

Resources:
Fediverse/Activity Pub: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse
Ev Williams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrepreneur)
MKBHD: https://www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee