To build a personal blog there's no need to make it complicated. At the core it's just an HTML page.
I would like to create an online course on user interface design. How can I then find students?
I could blog about UI design topics, and hopefully get some people interested.
All right then, which blogging platform should I use?
I don't want to use platforms, I'd like to have control over my content and the publishing process. Also, it can't be that complicated to build a blog. Let's make a very simple one.
A blog post is just an HTML page; a blog is a list of posts, that means a blog is a list of HTML page. Let's create the first post. I need to create an HTML file and fill in the content.
Then I need to host somewhere this file. Github is a convenient free option. So I create a new repository on Github.
Last thing is I'd like to choose the blog web address. So I buy a domain name, and point it to Github servers.
The whole process took me a few minutes, the page is online and people can reach it at the web address I choose.
Basically I have set up my own basic public blog.
That's great, but what about allowing people to comment my posts? It seems inevitable that I have to add a form, write some JavaScript, and add a database, right?
Wrong! I'll add two paragraphs:
OK, I admit it, it was quick, but... it's not professional. First of all everything is manual: writing the HTML for the post, publishing the comments. Second, a lot of features - the ones all blogging platform offers - are missing.
The post is published. I own the process and people can comment. I don't need anything else for now.
It took me a long time to understand that there is almost always a simple-and-quick solution.