Spectral Web Services
2023 year in review
Just the highlights
Thanks for coming along for the ride this year! It's been a crazy year for us, and I thought it'd be fun to look back at some of the stuff that happened during our Ghost blogging/newsletter journey.
Relaunch and rebrand
We relaunched as Spectral Web Services, including the best rebranding ever. (Yes, I might be slightly biased about these ghosts. Can't help it. Sorry not sorry.)
Single sign-on
We launched a single sign-on service for Ghost CMS, which has been frequently requested on the Ghost forum. My post announcing it got tons of interest and hearts; it was my most popular forum post of the year.
And then, nothing happened. I've had a few nibbles, and I cannibalized bits of my login code for a related paid project, but mostly, it sat there and gathered dust. I built what I thought was a super easy to use, no technical skill needed solution, and no one wanted it. Well, boo.
I'm suspicious that the folks who were tech savvy enough to want single sign on didn't want to pay for it (although I have a free tier), or wanted to self-host it, to have better control of their own information. Or maybe I was just wrong about people wanting it? Do you have thoughts? I'd love to hear them!
(Update: As I was drafting this, I got hired to do a Facebook SSO for a client. Whoo hoo! And it works great - no more bouncing out of the app to do the magic link dance in the browser!)
Retainer plan
Spectral Web Services also launched a 'retainer plan' this year. I'm excited to have this more consistent income source, in addition the the regular waxing and waning of freelancing. If you want regular technology help, whether that's tweaking your css, improving your page loading speed, checking for major SEO blunders, adjusting DNS, or just showing you which buttons to click to make your theme look like it does in the demo, I'm here for you.
Some of the sites we worked on this year:
- Theme development for https://www.csofutures.com
- Ghost-editable footer, breadcrumbs, and topics page for https://bubble.io/blog
- Alternate payment processor and comments fixes for https://www.activatorhq.com/ . (It's complicated, and I should probably write a post about it.)
- Bulk repricing of subscriptions (via Stripe API) and MailChimp/MemberPress to Ghost import for https://austinpolitics.net/
- Institutional access (IP-based) to Ghost, along with access logging, for https://chinatrademonitor.com.
- Set up full text indexing, including paywalled and PDF file content, for https://library.rolltoroll.org.
- Full text search and Algolia recommendations for https://www.shesabeast.co/
- Custom sign-up page for https://www.thesustainableinvestor.org.uk/, including role and data collection (as Ghost labels).
- Content imports from: SendFox, Joomla, WordPress, Hugo, and more. If it's online, we can migrate it!
Wishing you and yours some peace, tranquility, and rejuvenation. See you in 2024!
~Cathy
