21
votes
Blogging recommendations?
Hi,
I was thinking of starting a blog, but I was wondering, what's a good (free) platform to use?
Hi,
I was thinking of starting a blog, but I was wondering, what's a good (free) platform to use?
BEARBLOG!!!
I really like bearblog.dev!! Big recommend. It's super lightweight and keeps it all about the writing. It has a very endearing small internet vibe about it. I like it's customization options personally because of it's limited options. Keeps me from getting bogged down in playing with customization all day. They have a pool of styles for you to choose from, and you can play with the CSS style sheets if you really want. It's free but has a very affordable paid option that opens up stuff like using your own domain. It also has a cute Discover page where you can see what others are writing about on bearblog.
If I struggle to figure out how to host via GitHub I'll definitely check this out! Thank you!
Did you try following the tiny tutorial on their landing page? It's pretty short, maybe give it a go. Link: https://pages.github.com/
Not yet, but I will check it out and give it a try, thanks!
You can host pretty painlessly and for free on github using a static site generator. This gives you a bit more control compared to using a platform like WordPress, at cost of a little more effort.
I host my blog using Jekyll on GitHub Pages. It's dead easy, although I think that's because I have experience with writing code and using git. If you're after something without any kind of learning overhead, and aren't familiar with markdown and/or GitHub, this isn't the one.
I haven't heard of Jekyll, but I will look into it, thank you!
I'm still new to coding so it might be a bit tricky for me, but once I familiarize myself with markdown and/or GitHub is it alright if I reach out to get more information about Jekyll/ask questions?
You don't need to be a full-fledged programmer to use a static site generator like Jekyll or Hugo. Most of the time and effort cost is up front, and after that you are literally just editing text files in Markdown for your content. You could probably just tap a tech friend to do that initial setup for you, and then take the reins from there.
I really like github pages. One thing that freaked me out at first is the delay from saving to having it actually published. Its only half a minute (or less), but if you're unaware of this, it feels like you did something wrong somehow.
Its a great choice, though. The overall setup is a breeze and you don't have to really worry about bloated wordpress or self-hosting.
By all means :)
I'm not OP, but I am experienced in markdown and GitHub and am interested in this Jekyll setup with GitHub pages. Would you be willing to share more about how it works or how it's set up?
Certainly! Feel free to drop me a DM and I can give you an overview :)
Awesome thank you! I've actually been learning to code so this is perfect! It never crossed my mind to start a blog via GitHub.
Do you have any tips/pointers for getting my blog up and running (I'm still relatively new to coding) or direct me somewhere that could answer any questions I have?
Glad my suggestion was useful! This looks like a very comprehensive guide to everything you might want to know, although I can't vouch for it personally simply because I haven't read it in detail. Github has an official doc page too that might be useful. In general just googling "Github pages with jekyll" will bring up a lot of resources.
Have you used Github before? The way this will work is that essentially you will have a repository on your local machine containing markdown and theme files for your website. To create a new page, you'll just create a new markdown page, fill it with what you want, and run jekyll which will take that markdown and build HTML pages according to the theme you're using. Then when you're satisfied you push your changes to your Github repo and it will appear on the web! Obviously my few sentence description here is not at all detailed to get you going — check out the above links for that. Just wanted to provide a bit of a primer to orient you.
Thank you, I'll check those guides out!
I've heard of GitHub, but I haven't gotten a chance to click around and actually use it. I'm currently working through the Full Stack Engineer path on Codecademy and am at the section about 'Developing Websites Locally' and 'Deploying Websites' so I think most of what you talked about will make more sense once I get through that, but I think I get the gist of what you're saying.
I set mine up in similar fashion thanks to this thread on tildes, and I've been pretty happy with it. I am a techie by profession and I did have to flex some of those skills to get it up and running, but it's now pretty easy to just edit markdown to publish.
Free: Best is probably github
Cheap as heck: omg.lol for $20/yr with a ton of other useful services
Either way: Do not use any service without also getting a domain. They're cheap, and they'll future-proof your online life.
Noted, thank you! I'll look more into hosting using GitHub.
The first thing you need to do is to write 5-6 blog posts, then you can start bikeshedding about the blogging platform :)
Github and Notion both allow you to put stuff on the internet completely free.
And always remember to follow POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere). Always keep whatever you produce on a platform you control a 100%.
If you want a low-effort "just write and publish" option WordPress is a good choice.
wordpress.com just randomly remove my blog one day and would never add it back. they removed it for content.
(content was a blog that was very critical of and impolite to the bible)
One unconvential method which I have seen some use is google docs (using option file->share->publish to web). I have also heard good things about writefreely, but it is paid.
+1 for static site generators on a free static hosting like GitHub Pages or Netlify. I don't have any experience with Jekyll, but I have used Hugo and it's really great. You can just use a pre-made theme and write your posts in simple Markdown files, or you can also customize every part of your website because under the hood it just uses Go HTML templates with a bunch of custom logic.
The primary motivator in my blog is me writing what I want to blather about, regardless of reader interest or growing my presence. To that end I write my blog on my personal website (which uses WordPress as the CMS) that I currently buy hosting for, but will eventually self-host. If you want the possibility of people stumbling across the blog to be greater than 0.1%, then I'd go with GitHub as people have recommended, or if you want a quick and easy platform to experiment with, Medium.com. It's easier to get people checking out your posts on Medium, but it's definitely not meant to be anyone's primary web presence (IMO).
Static site generators like Hugo or Gridsome are a good idea. I use Nuxt, but just for fun and because I wanted to try it out. It's good, but it has too much power for a simple blog I think. You can painlessly host with either GitHub pages or Vercel. I use the latter option, and I like it.