Within a month, my blog life changed a lot.
Currently, this blog was a separate blog where I operated content such as development tips and other general knowledge that I had been writing on a Naver blog until 2021.
Initially, I considered trying Media or other services, but due to my principle of trying everything myself, I deployed a WordPress image on Azure and set up a WordPress site directly. I operated a WordPress blog site for about a year and a half.
SOONSOON STUDIO
I first tried WordPress... it was probably more than 10 years ago.. During that time, various extensions appeared, and the ecosystem had grown incredibly massive.
I didn't just use WordPress to run a simple blog; I used it for community sites, magazine sites, and even e-commerce sites for trading.. It was used for truly diverse purposes, and there were truly a variety of plugins and themes.
From the standpoint of having half-heartedly given up web development a decade or so ago, the WordPress ecosystem, with its scalability and custom elements, sparked a sense of challenge for a developer looking toward middle age. Over the course of a year, I studied whenever I had the chance and watched various tips, pouring my heart into building my own site, however shoddily.
And as I wrote information suited to the purpose of that blog, I had written over 70 articles, giving the feeling that another "soonsoon" brand had opened an office.
Among them, some information aligned well with the trends, resulting in significantly high view counts. As a result, the number of people flowing into the blog pages increased, and I began to pay more attention to SEO. Through this, I was able to acquire various knowledge and tips that I had been unaware of because I had relied on Naver Blog for so long.
Was I just being arrogant because I realized something?
My blog site got infected with malware.
When I clicked on news related to soonsoon blog on Google, it all redirected to an unknown Japanese Amazon site.. Hehehe..
I had only ever heard the word malware in my life.. I thought it had nothing to do with me, but by clumsily trying to customize things and sticking all sorts of plugins onto the homepage, it seems a security loophole was created somewhere.
Well, I hurriedly installed security plugins, changed FTP permissions, looked things up, applied all the malware removal methods I could find, rebuilt the sitemap, and re-registered it with Google Search Console... I stayed up all night and finally managed to recover the site.
And two days later, when I clicked my blog link again, it started redirecting to an unknown Japanese Amazon site..
Oh...
I had a major existential crisis.
If I were in my 20s, or even early 30s, I would have been driven by a desire to explore new knowledge, a competitive spirit, and perhaps even a stubbornness to solve the problem myself, leading me to realize new directions and possibilities for knowledge.
But I was now maturing (?), and there were too many things I had to do to invest that much time, and I was short on time..
Busy with other things, I couldn't do much and wasted days and nights, so I made up my mind.
"I had to give up WordPress."
Just as I was getting to know the Headless CMS field for another reason, I learned that Ghost, a blogging service, has been widely used as a WordPress alternative for quite some time.
Especially, Ghost is specialized in blogging compared to other Headless CMS services, although it is said to be quite lacking in e-commerce or forum setup... The conclusion I reached after struggling with WordPress for about a year and a half while trying various things is..
Because I thought, 'Let's just keep blogging consistently for now.'
To focus on choice and focus, I switched from WordPress.
But then, you might think there's no need to give up on WordPress. However, after searching and testing to solve my problem, I learned that the WordPress ecosystem already has too many users. Since many plugin features are implemented for functionality that is mostly essential (SEO, optimization, mailing, etc.), there are too many security vulnerabilities exposed. If hackers know about these issues, they can easily exploit them.
And, the biggest advantage of WordPress, its various plugins.. while providing mostly free features, if a certain amount of traffic occurs requiring optimization, or if you, like me, suffer from malware and want to resolve it through plugins.. you really have to pay a lot of money.
In other words, at some point, the belly button became much larger than the belly itself.
By this time, I realized how cost-effective a service Naver Blog is in terms of optimization, exposure, and security. (Sorry for the misunderstanding, God Iver..)
After running WordPress for about a year, I tried to operate it handling a certain amount of traffic.. When I looked at hosting costs + plugin costs + theme costs + using Elementor Pro, etc., which are essential and functionally considered.. it seems the cost would easily exceed 1 million won a year.
For business purposes, this is a cost worth considering, but the problem is that you have to handle all of this yourself, and even that, no one is giving you a commission. (excluding labor costs .. shit)
And I set up WordPress using the OpenLiteSpeed image through my own web server. However, since the method of accessing permissions via the web was openly disclosed in such a friendly manner, it was possible for me to easily have my permissions stolen and abused if I operated it foolishly like I did..
Also, I did consider setting up and running WordPress again.. But in the meantime, so much data had been uploaded, and I had installed various things while trying out blogs, forums, and webzines.. The migration was so messy because of the data..
Originally, if the road gets dirty and messy, it needs to be cleaned up, and sometimes moving is the answer.
So, I ultimately decided to move to Ghost CMS.
Although Ghost essentially requires you to run it by installing it directly on a server like WordPress, it is possible to use it by paying a monthly fee on the official website, so I plan to pay for and use it until I am fully accustomed to it.
After actually switching to Ghost, the WordPress -> Ghost migration method didn't work properly (no, it just said it would work on the webpage!!), so I had to invest almost another week to barely recover the posts, focusing only on them.
And even after that, I'm still struggling because I don't know how to set up SEO or other settings.
Most importantly, even if I re-register with my existing domain in Google Search Console.. it seems to have been blocked due to quality issues because there were too many spammy links when I was previously infected with malware.. No matter how long I waited, Google wouldn't properly expose my blog..
So, I even ended up buying a new domain.
soonsoon.ghost.io
Sigh...
From a personal perspective, I think switching away from a long-used domain is the worst move for branding, but I went ahead and did it.
Anyway, I wonder if I'll be running a blog using Ghost from now on..
Thinking about it again, I ended up having to start learning something new by abandoning WordPress, which I had been using for a year and a half to gain some experience?
No.. I clearly said I was switching from WordPress for better efficiency and time management.. but as I write, it seems like this is even more work.. (actually, I'm wasting a lot of time..)
Thinking about it, it seems like I ultimately made a choice that is very "SoonSoon"...
Well, I guess I have to try it..