The Inkwell Blog
Guides and essays on self-hosting your blog, .NET publishing, content ownership, GDPR, and the craft of typography — from the team behind Inkwell.
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How to Start a Blog in 2026: A Step-by-Step Guide
Everything you need to go from a blank page to a live blog in 2026: choosing a niche, picking a platform that fits you, getting a domain, and publishing your first post.
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The Best WordPress Alternatives for Developers
WordPress runs much of the web, but developers often want a leaner stack they fully control. Here are the strongest alternatives, grouped by the runtime your team already knows.
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How to Migrate From Ghost to a Self-Hosted Blog
Ghost is an excellent platform, but if you want a different stack or fewer moving parts, here is how to export your Ghost content and import it into a self-hosted blog without losing your URLs or search rankings.
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A Self-Hosted Medium Alternative You Actually Own
Medium is a frictionless place to publish, but you are a tenant there, not the owner. Here is what a self-hosted Medium alternative gives you, and how to move your writing to a site you control.
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The Best Free, Open-Source Blogging Platforms in 2026
A vendor-neutral roundup of genuinely free, open-source blogging platforms in 2026, grouped by stack, with an honest look at what free really costs and how it differs from free hosted tiers.
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What Is llms.txt, and Why Your Blog Should Have One
llms.txt is an emerging convention that hands AI answer engines a clean, plain-text map of your site. Here is what it is, how it differs from robots.txt and sitemap.xml, and how to publish one.
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Answer Engine Optimization: Getting Your Blog Cited by AI
Search is no longer only blue links. AI answer engines summarise and cite sources directly. Here is what answer engine optimization is, and a practical checklist to make your blog quotable by them.
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How to Back Up a Self-Hosted Blog (SQL Server)
A practical, SQL Server-specific backup plan for a self-hosted Inkwell blog: what to save, how to script and schedule backups, and how to test restores.
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EU Data Residency: Hosting Your Blog in the EU
Data residency is about where your data physically lives. Here is why EU organisations require it and how self-hosting lets you deliberately choose an EU region for your blog.
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Audit Trails for Multi-Author Blogs
When several people or many tenants publish to one install, an immutable record of every write action turns access into accountability. Here is why a blog audit trail matters and what Inkwell logs.
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A Self-Hosted Substack Alternative You Own
Substack makes starting easy, but you rent your audience and share revenue. Here is how a self-hosted blog plus newsletter on your own domain compares.
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Inkwell vs WriteFreely vs Plume
WriteFreely and Plume bring federated, minimalist writing to the fediverse. Inkwell takes a different path for editorial teams. Here is an honest three-way comparison.
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The Self-Hosted Blog SEO Checklist
A scannable, practical checklist for self-hosted blog SEO, from titles and canonicals to structured data and llms.txt, and how much Inkwell handles for you.
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Run a Newsletter From Your Self-Hosted Blog
Owning your email list instead of renting it, and how Inkwell pairs newsletter and subscriber management with your own SMTP so the post and the email ship from one place.
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Privacy-First Blog Analytics (No Google Analytics)
Why writers are dropping Google Analytics, what first-party analytics really means, and how Inkwell's built-in dashboard gives you the numbers that matter with no third-party scripts.
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Migrating From WordPress to a Self-Hosted .NET Blog
Why teams leave WordPress, how to export and map your content to Markdown, and how to set up redirects so a move to a self-hosted .NET blog keeps your SEO.
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Markdown vs WYSIWYG: Choosing a Blog Editor
Markdown or WYSIWYG? A fair comparison of portability and speed against visual ease, plus how Inkwell's full WYSIWYG editor handles writing.
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Deploy a .NET Blog with Docker and Caddy (HTTPS in Minutes)
A step-by-step walkthrough for deploying a self-hosted .NET blog with Docker, Caddy for automatic HTTPS, environment variables, and SQL Server.
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Web Typography: Designing a Blog People Actually Read
Good web typography is the difference between a post that gets read and one that gets bounced. Here is how measure, line height, scale, and dark mode come together.
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Why Content Ownership Matters: Leaving Medium and Substack
Medium and Substack are convenient, but you are renting. Here is the case for owning your domain, content, audience, and data — and a fair look at the trade-offs.
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Multi-Tenant Blogging: Many Blogs, One Install
Multi-tenancy lets a single Inkwell install power many independent blogs, each with its own layout, preset, and isolated data. Here is when it matters and how it works.
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Static Site Generators vs a Database-Backed CMS
Hugo, Jekyll, and Eleventy trade a build step and a git workflow for raw speed. A database-backed CMS like Inkwell trades that for instant publishing and a real editor. Here is how to choose.
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Is Self-Hosting Your Blog GDPR-Compliant? A Guide for EU Writers
Self-hosting makes you the sole data controller of your blog. Here is what GDPR actually requires, how EU data residency works, and why hosted platforms complicate compliance.
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The Best .NET Blog Engines for ASP.NET Developers
A balanced rundown of the best .NET blog engines for ASP.NET developers, covering BlogEngine.NET, Miniblog.Core, Orchard Core, and Inkwell.
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Best Self-Hosted Ghost Alternatives in 2026: An Honest Comparison
A fair, balanced comparison of Ghost against self-hosted alternatives including WordPress, Hugo, WriteFreely, and Inkwell — strengths, weaknesses, and who each suits.
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How to Self-Host a Blog on a Linux VPS (Step by Step)
A practical, step-by-step walkthrough for self-hosting a blog on a Linux VPS — from choosing a server to running Inkwell behind nginx with HTTPS.
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Self-Hosted Blogging Platforms in 2026: A Practical Guide
A vendor-neutral survey of self-hosted blogging platforms in 2026, what "self-hosted" really means, the trade-offs involved, and how to pick the right one for you.
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