September is almost over, so it's time for a quick update on what has happened here at Magic Pages. Looking back, there are many small things that were all done to make your experience even better – and there's one thing I am especially happy with. So, let's start with that.
💾 Full backup downloads
Backups with Ghost are a bit weird. You technically have an export/import function, but that doesn't take care of uploaded files (such as images, themes, etc.). Or export all member and newsletter data 🙃
So, to get a backup that you can simply take somewhere else (or spin up a local installation of Ghost for your theme development efforts) you have to jump through loads of hoops.
You basically need two things: a so-called "dump" of the MySQL database that's powering your Ghost site, and the "content" folder on the server's file system, that includes all images, themes, etc.
If you're on a managed Ghost hosting provider, chances are you can get access to all of this, by emailing their support (though I have seen instances where that request was refused as well). On Magic Pages, I put together 1-2 of these backups per week. Doesn't sound like a lot, but the time does add up.
So, a few weeks ago, I decided that true open software, like Ghost, needs a no-barrier backup option. Without human intervention.
As of last week, this is possible on Magic Pages:
Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
In your Magic Pages customer portal, you can simply head to the "Support" tab and find the option to either download the latest backup (Magic Pages creates this on a daily basis for you) or manually trigger a new one. The backup is split into a the content folder and the database.
No more emails (though, I love hearing from you) – just download whatever you need with a few clicks.
🧑💻 New Infrastructure, turned old again
In the last two updates I told you about new infrastructure for the database servers.
Well, scratch that.
I have done quite a bit of experimenting with different MySQL cluster setups, and I have come to the conclusion, that the management and maintenance overhead doesn't pay off.
Magic Pages already runs a Kubernetes cluster that takes care of making all services highly available. Adding another – separate – cluster for datbase operations has certain advantages (separation of concern, dedicated resources), but in reality they just added more cost, both financially and in regard to my time spent on managing them.
After running a handful of test sites on a separate cluster for 2-3 weeks, I had to jump in every 2-3 days to fix something.
So, databases migrated back to the Kubernetes cluster (this all happened without interruption). This means that Magic Pages' Kubernetes cluster needed some more servers, but so far the cost of these have been about the same as running a completely separate cluster.
🖼️ GIFs enabled in editor
It took almost 1.5 years for somebody to notice that Ghost's native GIF selector in the post editor wasn't enabled on Magic Pages.
This was a configuration oversight on my end – apologies – and has been fixed. You can now use the GIF card in your editors.
🪙 Stripe Tax Beta for memberships
Around two weeks ago, Ghost has introduced a beta for their Stripe Tax integration for Ghost memberhsips.
This enables you to charge your members the appropriate tax, depending on their country of residence. Stripe takes care of that for you.
While this is not Magic Pages specific, I want to mention it here, since the beta needs a manual configuration change, that cannot be done through the Ghost admin. Should you be interested in this beta, please let me know, and I'll enable it for you.
Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
🙋Potential price increase
Just a quick heads-up (since I do not want this to come as a surprise). I am currently re-evaluating plans and pricing for Magic Pages.
Ghost has recently introduced quite a few changes in how email events (click, open, etc.) are handled in their code. This has shown a big problem. The current email integration of Magic Pages uses Amazon SES. While most email events work, there are some in Ghost's native Mailgun integration that SES doesn't even have.
I am therefore evaluating a migration to Mailgun for email sending. Since Mailgun is significantly (10x) more expensive than Amazon SES, this would also mean an increase in email sending costs on Magic Pages.
Rest assured, the prices will not go up by 10x. Some of the extra cost will be compensated by reducing my margin, some by the fact that barely anyone goes over the included email limits in their respective plans.
Additionally, there will be a re-evaluation of all plans and their pricing at the end of 2024. Right now, I am leaning towards removing the lifetime plans. Not because they are unprofitable, but because they are too unpredictable in terms of financial planning.
However, all existing lifetime plans will be honoured, of course. Please also keep in mind that nothing is set in stone and I am literally just sharing some thoughts on this. If you have any feedback, I would really appreciate a quick email or chat message :)
👻 What has happened on Ghost's side?
Ghost has released two major features that I want to highlight for you:
Tips & donations
You can now ask your readers for tips and donations, if Stripe is enabled on your Ghost site:
Team Ghost
Sales tax on autopilot (beta)
As mentioned above, Ghost has introduced a beta for automatic sales tax collection for all your payments:
Team Ghost
So, that's it for September. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback about the topics I mentioned – or anything else that comes to your mind.
–Jannis