Forem: GhostlyInc

I built a menu-driven hosting tool for Blazor Server on Ubuntu

GhostlyInc — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 22:01:42 +0000

Self-hosting a Blazor Server app sounds simple…
until you actually do it.

Nginx, systemd, SSL, firewall, Cloudflare —
it quickly turns into a lot of manual setup.

So I built GhostlyHosting.

A small, menu-driven CLI that prepares a fresh Ubuntu VPS and deploys your .NET app step by step.

⚙️ What it does

Instead of setting everything up manually, you just run:

ghostly-hosting

And follow the menu.

It helps you:

deploy apps directly from GitHub
configure nginx as reverse proxy
create and manage systemd services
setup Let's Encrypt SSL
integrate Cloudflare (DNS + proxy)
configure firewall + Fail2Ban
host multiple apps on a single server
🧠 The idea

I didn’t want:

complex CI/CD pipelines
Docker setups for simple apps
hours of server configuration

I wanted:

👉 a simple, repeatable workflow
👉 that works on any Ubuntu VPS
👉 without hiding what’s happening

🚀 Typical workflow
Fresh Ubuntu VPS
Install GhostlyHosting
Run the tool
Add your app
Done

Behind the scenes it:

clones your repo
builds your .NET app
configures nginx
creates a systemd service
sets up SSL
💸 Cheap hosting is enough

You don’t need an expensive server.

You can run multiple apps on a ~3€ VPS without problems,
as long as your apps are lightweight (which most Blazor Server apps are).

🔁 Reroll instead of fixing

One thing I really like:

If something breaks or gets messy, you don’t debug for hours.

You just:

spin up a fresh server
run GhostlyHosting again
redeploy your apps

Clean, fast, predictable.

🎯 Who it's for
solo developers
side projects
MVPs
people who want full control over their VPS
🔗 Links

GitHub: https://github.com/Nix1983/Ghostly-Hosting
Website: https://ghostlyinc.com/en-us/tools/ghostly-hosting/

💬 Final thought

For many projects, simple beats complex.

You don’t need a DevOps stack.

You just need a server that works.

What are you using for self-hosting your .NET apps?

Why Most JSON-LD Implementations Are Useless (Even When They’re “Correct”)

GhostlyInc — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:56:10 +0000

Most developers think their JSON-LD is fine.

It validates.
No errors.
Google accepts it.

So it must be working… right?

Wrong.

Most JSON-LD implementations are technically correct —
but structurally useless.

What usually happens over time:

duplicated Organization schema everywhere
random @id values with no consistency
mixed schema types with no clear relationships
FAQ markup that doesn’t reflect the actual page

The result?

👉 search engines get weak signals
👉 rich results don’t show up
👉 your content gets ignored

JSON-LD isn’t about validation.

It’s about meaning.

Search engines (and AI) don’t “read” your site.

They build a graph.

If your data isn’t connected properly,
you don’t exist in that graph.

That’s the real shift:

Stop asking:
“Where do I add schema?”

Start asking:
“What entities am I building?”

A solid structure looks like this:

Site: WebSite, Organization, Person
Page: WebPage + BlogPosting / Service
Optional: FAQPage, BreadcrumbList

Everything connected.
Consistent @ids.
One coherent graph.

Most sites don’t fail because JSON-LD is hard.

They fail because there’s no system behind it.

If you care about SEO in 2026:

JSON-LD isn’t optional anymore.

It’s your interface to search engines and AI.

I broke this down properly (with real examples):
👉 https://ghostlyinc.com/en-us/json-ld-schema-markup-seo-guide/

Curious:

Are you structuring your data as a graph —
or just making it “validate”?

I got tired of uploading images, so I built my own converter

GhostlyInc — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 02:11:49 +0000

Every time I optimized images for a website, I ended up doing the same annoying loop:

upload images
wait
download again
repeat

It sounds small, but it completely kills your flow when you're working on real projects.

Especially when you're dealing with:

batches of images
WebP / AVIF conversions
multiple iterations

At some point I just thought:
why am I still uploading files in 2026?

So I built a small local tool that does exactly what I needed:

drop a folder
convert everything to WebP / AVIF
done

No uploads. No browser tabs. No friction.

It’s not meant to be another "online converter alternative".
It’s just a faster workflow.

Curious how others handle this.

Do you still use online converters or do you have a local setup?

See the full workflow (real examples, no uploads):
Full local workflow (no uploads, batch, WebP & AVIF)

What’s your workflow for converting images to WebP?

GhostlyInc — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:26:19 +0000

GhostlyInc

Mar 19

How to convert PNG to WebP on Windows (fast & offline)

#webdev #seo #performance #images

Comments 1

1 min read

How to convert PNG to WebP on Windows (fast & offline)

GhostlyInc — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:25:11 +0000

If you want to convert PNG to WebP on Windows, here’s the fastest way:

Use Pixel Press, a fast offline image converter for Windows
Drag & drop your images
Export as WebP

That’s it.

Why convert PNG to WebP?

WebP images are significantly smaller than PNG while keeping high visual quality.

Benefits:

Smaller file sizes → faster websites
Better performance → improved SEO
Reduced bandwidth usage

The problem with online converters

Most PNG to WebP converters are online tools.

That means:

You need to upload images
Slower workflow
Potential privacy concerns

If you're working with many images, this quickly becomes painful.

A better approach (offline)

A better solution is using a local tool.

For example, Pixel Press is a fast offline image converter for Windows that supports WebP and AVIF.

It allows you to:

Convert images instantly
Batch process hundreds of files
Keep everything local (no uploads)

Example workflow

Open Pixel Press
Drag your PNG images into the app
Select WebP as output format
Start conversion

Done in seconds.

Final thoughts

Converting PNG to WebP is one of the easiest ways to improve website performance.

Using an offline tool like Pixel Press makes the process fast, simple, and privacy-friendly.

What’s your current workflow for image conversion?

I’ve noticed I’m more productive coding away from my desk. Curious how others feel about this 👇

GhostlyInc — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:52:32 +0000

GhostlyInc

Mar 18

Are you more productive coding outside your desk?

#discuss #programming #beginners #productivity

Comments

1 min read

Are you more productive coding outside your desk?

GhostlyInc — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 01:29:17 +0000

I’ve noticed something weird:

I’m actually more productive coding on the couch or in bed with my laptop than at a desk.

It feels less “formal” and I get into flow faster.

For complex tasks I still sometimes switch back to a desk, but for many things this setup just works better for me.

Do you have a “non-standard” coding spot that works better for you?

Or is the classic desk setup still king?

I Built a Fast Image Converter for Windows (WebP / AVIF)

GhostlyInc — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:28:47 +0000

I Built a Fast Image Converter for Windows (WebP / AVIF)

Modern websites rely heavily on optimized images. Formats like WebP and AVIF can significantly reduce image size and improve page load times.

To make this process easier, I built a small Windows tool called Pixel Press.

It focuses on fast batch image conversion and simple drag & drop workflows.

Features

Batch image conversion
WebP and AVIF support
Drag & drop workflow
Local processing (no cloud uploads)

The goal was to make image optimization quick and simple for developers and content creators.

Demo

I also posted some short demos showing how the tool works:
https://www.youtube.com/@Info-GhostlyInc

Download

https://ghostlyinc.com/en-us/tools/pixel-press/

I would love to hear feedback or ideas for improvements.

How to optimize images for websites (WebP, AVIF, responsive images)

GhostlyInc — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:38:30 +0000

Image optimization is still one of the easiest ways to improve website performance.

Many websites still serve large JPEG or PNG files even though modern formats like WebP and AVIF can significantly reduce size while keeping good quality.

In this guide I cover:

WebP vs AVIF
responsive images
hero images and performance
metadata and SEO impact

Full guide:
https://ghostlyinc.com/en-us/how-to-optimize-images-for-websites/

Who decided CSS should fail silently? One typo and it just pretends nothing happened. No error. No warning. Just silent failure.

GhostlyInc — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 20:06:30 +0000

Deploying Blazor from Windows to Linux: the friction nobody talks about

GhostlyInc — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:01:21 +0000

Everything works perfectly on Windows.

Then you deploy to Linux… and suddenly something breaks.

If you build Blazor apps on Windows but run your servers on Linux,
you probably know this pain.

I ran into the same problem over and over again.

My development environment was Windows.
My servers were Linux.

Every small deployment check meant:

opening SSH
switching terminals
checking logs
verifying services
jumping between tools

It felt slow and fragmented.

So I started building a small tool for myself.

Something simple that lets me:

• see my servers instantly
• connect via SSH or RDP
• upload files quickly
• verify deployments without opening five different tools

That tool became Ghostly Bridge.

Ghostly Bridge is a lightweight desktop tray app for managing servers.

Instead of jumping between browser tabs and terminals,
everything lives in one place.

Features I use the most:

• one-click SSH/RDP
• drag-and-drop uploads
• quick server overview
• no telemetry (local-only)

I'm curious how others handle the Windows → Linux workflow gap.

Do you just SSH into servers constantly,
or did you build tools to simplify it?

Why I built Ghostly Bridge: Blazor on Windows, servers on Linux — without the pain

GhostlyInc — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:07:31 +0000

You know that feeling when everything works perfectly on Windows…
and the moment you deploy to Linux, something breaks.

For me, that happened way too often.

I build Blazor apps on Windows, but my servers run on Linux.
Every time something felt off, I had to stop what I was doing, jump into SSH, resize terminals, double-check configs — just to see if the server was actually fine.

It got annoying fast.

So whenever I needed to test something quickly, I’d spin up a fresh server on UpCloud, deploy, and check if everything behaved as expected.
That’s exactly where Ghostly Bridge was born.

I wanted a fast, calm way to:

see my servers

connect instantly

verify that things actually work on Linux
without friction, noise, or tool overload.

Ghostly Bridge is the tool I wish I had years ago. Ghostly Bridge runs local-only, with no telemetry, and gives me instant access to servers without jumping between tools.

How do you handle the Windows → Linux gap in your workflow?
Do you just live with the friction, or did you build your own tools too?