We’re living in the cyber dark ages. The primary way most people interact with the internet is through social media. This is the default space people not only listen to others, but also try to make their voices heard - which is sad, because social media isn’t very good for that.

It is liberating to have complete control of your own cyberspace. I’ve been running lagomor.ph, or some derivative of it, for almost ten years, and it’s been an incredibly fulfilling project - Without it, I would have missed out on countless opportunities to express myself and interact with interesting people - the number of friends I have made on account of this blog are countless.

So I thought I would take the time to outline how one could start their own blog, much like this one, in some broad strokes. While not covering everything, this article should be a good starting place for how one should get into the nitty gritty of owning their own slice of the internet.

Where to Start?

A lot of people start out blogging using either an all-in-one solution (like Blogger or Tumblr) or a self-hosted Content Managment System (like Wordpress or Ghost). I think both of these are bad solutions for different reasons:

• If you go with the all-in-one solution, you don’t really own your content 100%; its availability relies on the graciousness of your hosts, who could easily choose to ban your type of content or may just disappear entirely without a word.
• Hosting your own Content Managment System solves problem one, but can come with surprise expenses and is overall more difficult to maintain.

If you’re a curious person, have the time to learn something new, and are excited about the prospect of complete control of not just your writing, but also exactly how its presented to your reader, I suggest the following:

1. Learn basic, semantic HTML. (This is easier then it sounds)
2. Eventually extend that website with a Static Site Generator.

We used a lot of new words here, so what does this mean? It means learning how to draft a website by hand (again, easier then it sounds) and then, when you’re ready, automating out the bits you get bored of doing. That’s all.

Now, this article is not a complete guide to everything you need to know. I don’t cover things like domain management, source control, or other advanced topics - essentially, there is a requirement to search up answers to questions you may have while following this broad outline.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Option B: I just want to write stuff

Listen, I get it - learning a new skillset seems daunting when you just want to get your words out on the internet. Below I’ve highlighted what I think are the best options for people who just want to start blogging. You can get started in under an hour and just start writing!

If however you someday feel the limitations of your host and want to make your blog more your own, in both content and self-expression, please return to this article!

Step One: Buy a domain

This is a contraversial step one, but I think its the most important. Having your own domain gives you a first-class identity on the internet, completely under your ownership and control. It establishes your web presence, empowers you as an author, and identifies your writing as your own.

Owning your own domain costs often only a few dollars a year, and its entirely worth it. To purchase one, you’ll need to use a Domain Registrar.

When seeking a domain registrar, you’re looking for a company that is upfront and transparent about changes in their pricing. Most deals around domains are on the initial registration, and you may be bit on renewal with your domain costing more then you originally bought it for.

Porkbun is the only registrar who has never betrayed me (yet). They have personally earned my loyalty and I reccommend them heartily.

Cloudflare is okay too.

• Porkbun Domains
• Cloudflare Domains

Step Two: Build a Blog

Now’s the fun part, building out your website! If you have no background in writing HTML, I highly reccomend the tutorial series HTML for People. Frankly, discovering this tutorial inspired assembling this article in the first place. It’s a simple, fun tutorial series and the best place to start.

But where to go from there? Well, below are resources for simple templates that you can use as design inspiration (or use outright, no shame.)

• Sadgrl’s Layout Builder
• Sadgrl’s Layouts
• EggRamen Layouts
• Themekings Oldschool Themes
• Codesharing Layouts

All coding is a process of building off of what has come before. There’s no need to build something completely from scratch; feel free to borrow and recombine as you please (as long as the template creator is okay with it, of course).

Part B: Static Site Generators

An SSG is a tool that takes a template, directories of content, and compiles it together into a website. This takes care of a lot of the manual layout work you’ve learned how to do in HTML for People.

The best place to start with an SSG is probably a template; below are a few options for different SSG’s you can look into. For reference, this blog uses Hugo; Here are a few more options, and some themes for these tools I like.

Hugo

• Hugo Console
• No Style Please (CSS Free)
• Archie
• Cactus

Jekyll

• Swiss
• Athena

Astro

• Milky Way
• Dante
• Brutal

Step Three: Host it

Hosting is a lot easier then it used to be, and there are a plethora of options. I’ve highlighted a few that I’ve had personal experience using, and that I think combine the right balance of features and simplicity.

All of the options I outline below that are highlighted as free allow custom domains. If their free plan doesn’t allow custom domains, I didn’t count that as a truly free plan.

Step Four: Blog!

You now have your own personal website. You can put whatever you’d like on it, but heres a few places to start:

• An About Me Page
• How do you like to be contacted?
• What are your values?
• How do you design things?
• Write up your CV
• Tell us about the other blogs you like to read

Blogging is a game of consistency. Personally I have five or six draft articles on the backburner at any one time; publish date doesn’t really matter as long as you’re writing something - but - readers dislike long gaps between posts, so I try to aim for one article a month at least.

Step Five: Follow Blogs!

Now that you’re blogging, its good to keep up with other people in the space. The primary way of doing this is via RSS, and there are a lot of choices in “Feed Readers”.

I use Fraidycat. It can not only follow blogs, but youtube channels, reddit feeds, and more - conveniently pinned and tracked in my browser.

You can see the kinds of blogs I follow in my blogroll.

Additional Resources

Here’s some additional links that I couldn’t fit anywhere else.

General Resources

• Yesterweb Manifesto
• Indieweb

HTML Resources

• HTML For Humans
• HTML Cheatsheet

CSS Frameworks

• Tufte CSS
• Simple CSS
• Pico CSS
• Sakura CSS
• Water CSS
• Spectre CSS