When I first had an interest in creating a blog website for my custom domain, I was excited to learn that I could host my website for free on GitHub pages. Github, then, was sponsoring a Ruby gem called Jekyll--a blog-centered package for users who want to create static web pages.

Although I admit that it was fun learning more about Ruby gems and all, I didn't seem to progress in building my website the way I expected it to be. There were a lot of installations going on and I grew frustrated doing them as I had been switching between my Windows and Linux. I also had to make sure that I had the correct version of Ruby installed in my respective OS. I also couldn't get the themes and layouts to work. So I just used the basic theme of Jekyll... but it seemed too basic for me.

I always thought that if I had just set up my Jekyll files, all I have to do is post content.

My requirements for a blog website were simple: no ads on the side, organized content, and a newsletter subscription.

One day, I stumbled upon a Twitter user named Kingsley and I found out that he was using Hashnode. It was free to use at that time and I took the opportunity to research more about the website.

Apparently, it seemed to be the solution to all of my problems! I realized that all I needed to do is just focus on content and not having to rely much on code (there's still .markdown but that's easy now, thanks to Jekyll).

You can follow Quincy Larson's blog or Mubin's Hashnode 101 on how to setup your Hashnode blog.

Writing is a skill that improves over time. One way to improve one's writing is to start a blog.

If you want to focus on content and take advantage of the built-in features of the platform, use Hashnode. But if you want to explore more about web design, layouting, and have full control of your website, you can use Jekyll and host it on Github pages.