Okay, I just needed to get this blog working somehow. By this point, it was my fifth attempt.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re in tech—or maybe just curious.
Something pretty common in this field, especially among developers, is wanting to have a blog. The idea sounds awesome—until you fall into the first trap.
1. Having a blog means actually building one
I jumped in right away: started a React project with server-side rendering, set up eslint, plugins, sass yes, people still used that not long ago haha,
and everything was moving along fine—until I hit the first roadblock: actually starting.
But why would starting be a roadblock? Well, I had no idea where to begin. So I opened Adobe XD and started sketching a layout. That’s when I ran into the same problem as before: I didn’t just want a blog, I wanted a beautiful blog—one that showcased all my knowledge. The problem? I had zero UI/UX skills still don’t, but it’s a little less bad now rs.
In my mind, a blog should scream technical skills the moment someone lands on it: full of animations, particles, the works. But I wasn’t focusing on the basics—just building a blog and actually writing posts. And in those posts, I could’ve shown my skills in a much more meaningful way. Rookie mistake.
This same issue kept coming back in different forms. First it was the design, then choosing a theme, then picking the right framework. Every time I quit, I’d only come back a year later. This cycle went on until… well, now.
So I decided to be as pragmatic as possible: I went with Hugo, grabbed a ready-made theme, and called it a day. Nothing fancy.
You write posts in Markdown, it spits out a static site, done. No SSR, no React, no overengineering.
2. The blog is built—now where do I host it?
Here’s where I almost fell into the same trap again: “What if I try Oracle Cloud? What if I set it up with Terraform? Maybe wire it into GitHub Actions…”
And suddenly, I had burned an entire day tinkering with pipelines, without delivering what actually matters: THE BLOG.
So I took a step back. The simplest solution was best: use something with built-in automated deployments, like Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare.
3. Now comes the real challenge: writing
After dodging all the technical rabbit holes, I finally hit the real challenge—writing. The blog was live, running smoothly. But now the hard part: creating content.
I realized I didn’t need a groundbreaking topic or an in-depth analysis of some cutting-edge tech. To start, I just needed to share my own journey, with all its struggles and lessons learned.
So I began with this very post you’re reading. Simple, honest, and to the point. No pretending to be an expert in everything—just my experience building this blog and the obstacles along the way.
The secret is to start small, stay consistent, and, most importantly, stop chasing perfection. A blog doesn’t need to be flawless on day one—it grows with you.
And if you’re thinking about starting your own blog, here’s my advice: keep it simple, pick tools that make life easier, and focus on the content. Everything else will follow with time.