A bit of a backstory: The first version of blogstatic (about a year ago) was built in 30 hours over a course of a month. Since then, it has gone through multiple iterations with 95% of requests coming strictly from registered users. The "newsletter" feature was included around December '21 after a long hesitancy on my end to implement it.
Everything started around December '20. I wanted to create a Medium like platform without the paywall. However, being that 'distribution' is quite a hard thing, especially when working solo on a product, I decided to not pursue it.
Here's a cringeworthy tweet I had posted back then : ) https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1337540047470551040
Then, around March 2021, I exited a product that I was running since 2017 (Claritask), which created the perfect conditions (read: more runway) to create something I've been wanting to do for quite some time, even if it didn't make any money: an online CMS's of sorts for bloggers, which makes it easy to create a blog and start writing, with as little hoops to jump as possible.
Hence, blogstatic.
Since implementing Stripe so users can pay the low yearly fee, I've added 1 new payment per week on average. Fingers crossed this continues.
If you want to give it a go, there's a forever free plan. And you don't have to confirm your Email address. So your blog will be created a few seconds after you hit "Register" — it takes a minute or so for the SSL to be created.
Here's what it looks like inside (the editing area) — a tweet from announcing a new feature: https://twitter.com/blogstatic/status/1458507499263430663
You can also hook up your own custom domain/subdomain on the free plan. No restrictions there.
Next: I plan to upgrade the "Newsletter sending" section, which I had avoided for so long to implement initially, but I have noticed that users are wanting to do more with it.
Sort of maybe go a bit into Sub*tack territory and implement payment plans for bloggers, without taking any fees whatsoever.
I know I will be leaving a ton of money on the table, but I have no investors and can spend my time listening to my users.
Mainly to add blogging alongside existing Carrd sites.
Nice and simple!
Other ways it differentiates is: Multiple blogs under a single account (same price) and lower pricing ($39/year at the time of this writing).
Stats (Newsletter and visits) is something I want to further advance and giving bloggers a way to monetize their blog without any fees (besides Stripe fees from connecting their account).
