I've always been irked by blogging platforms and website builders posing as blogging platforms. I've made various attempts at blogging in the past, but always got hung up on the platform.

Most blogging platforms seem to have one or more of the following problems:

• Too expensive for personal use.

• Provide a poor writing experience (e.g. finicky editing and controls).

• Aren't designed for writing long-form content (e.g. tiny text boxes).

• Focused on building full-blown websites; blogging is an afterthought.

• Have cluttered and distracting interfaces.

• The platform's brand overpowers your own.

Progress is slowly being made on some of these problems, like improving the writing experience. But you'll have a hard time finding a home for your blog that addresses all of these issues. So, I've set out to make something that does.

Introducing Proseful

I'm building a lean, mean, distraction-free blogging machine. It's called Proseful.

The vision is a platform that's focused on standalone blogs and blog-as-a-homepage. A platform for those of us who want something light, fast and easy to use, so that we can focus on writing and our readers can focus on reading.

Random launch stats

• 10 months in development: Although the first commit was on Feb. 1, 2018 (I was just experimenting during some downtime), work on Proseful didn't truly start until late June, 2018.

• 1,744 commits: That's the total number of commits across the primary application repo and a separate infrastructure repo.

• 2 pivots: Work began with the lean blogging platform, then switched to a headless platform, then back to the original idea 🤷‍♂️.

• 6 locations coded from: Montague PE, Charlottetown PE, Brule NS, Fredericton NB, Toronto ON and Rodanthe NC 🏄‍♂️.

• 1 paying user: I'm using and paying for Proseful for my personal blog. Proseful itself, however, will use its own product (for the company blog) for free .

• $7 recurring revenue: One paying user (me) equates to $7 monthly recurring revenue.

What's next

For the launch, I've tried to build half a product, not a half-assed one.

Build half a product, not a half-ass product.
— Getting Real, 37signals (Basecamp)

This leaves lots of features and improvements still to be done. I want Proseful to be a great home for your blog, and mine too. I've worked hard to get here, and am excited to keep going.

If you're frustrated with your current blogging platform and looking for something focused and easy to use, give Proseful a try. I think you'll like it.

You can find Proseful at proseful.com and on Twitter.

I'm Jonathan. You can find me on my personal blog and Twitter.