Ghosting

As of today, Wordloaf is no longer being hosted on Substack. I've sent out a farewell post there explaining my reasons (which you should have received), so here I'll focus on what to know about the move:

• Not much will have changed! The look and feel of the Wordloaf site should be familiar to you, since I have set it up similarly. Most of the posts should have carried over intact, though it may take me some time to clean them up fully.

• If you are subscribed to Wordloaf, you have an "account" already, since I imported your email address in the move. The first time you access the website, you'll need to login by clicking the sign-in link in the upper-right corner of the screen and entering the email address associated with your account. After that it should all be straightforward. If you feel like it, leave a comment to let me know it all works.
• Those of you who have paid subscriptions to Wordloaf still do, at the same rate and renewal date. You should not need to reenter payment information, because I'm using the same payment processor as before, and you should not be billed twice (if you do, please let me know, and I will sort it out). (You MAY have been charged $1 yesterday as a test that your card is still linked to the account, but it was only a test, and should have been immediately refunded. I am making sure this is the case and waiting to hear back.)
• One of the few negatives about moving platforms is that all of the comment threads on Substack have been lost, like tears in rain. For the time being, they still exist on the "old" Wordloaf, but there is no way to migrate them over, so feel free to start commenting here anew.
• I'll leave the Substack site up for the time being, though I don't plan to spend time addressing new comments there, except to encourage people to ask them here instead.
• For Wordloaf paid subscribers: I have pinned an information post to the front page outlining your benefits, including the current discount codes for products and online workshops, which I will keep updated.

As for my choice of Ghost over other newsletter platforms, it mostly came down to user experience, aesthetics, and the ease with which I was able to rebuild the site using it. It was a lot of work to do (I started the process a few months ago), but it's gone pretty smoothly, especially since Ghost's support team has been very responsive to my never-ending stream questions. And they did a lot of the heavy-lifting for me, for no charge beyond the standard user fees.

All of which is to say that I am very happy with Ghost as a newsletter host, and would encourage others to consider the same, if you are looking for a new home yourself. Pricing is comparable to other platforms, and it works as advertised. It is more expensive if you don't have (m)any paid subscribers, but it is much less pricey if you have enough of them, since they do not take a cut of fees.

There is a bit of a learning curve to sort out how the dashboard and post editor work, but that would be the case no matter the platform. If anyone has any questions about Ghost or the transition process, feel free to email me, I'm happy to help or to point you in the right direction. If you do decide to go with Ghost, please consider using my referral link, which will give me a little extra flour money, at no cost to you.

Wordloaf will return to its usual programming next Wednesday. Thanks for your patience during the transition; I have loads in store for you all, including previews and outtakes from Breaducation, which somehow will be done in a few short months.

—Andrew