The stack I use to run this blog

In this post, I will describe the technologies and tools I use to run my blog. From the site platform to hosting, and even my workflow for posting articles, I’ll cover it all.

The site platform

This blog is built using Astro, a static site framework. While I previously used Hugo, I found that I enjoy creating user interfaces with JSX more. Astro, like Hugo, generates fast pages that can be easily deployed on platforms like Netlify or Cloudflare Pages.

Where do I host the site

Initially, I hosted my blog on Netlify. However, I now use Cloudflare Pages due to their offering of free unlimited bandwidth.

The posts

I write my blog posts using Markdown. Depending on my preference or the situation, I may use tools like Notion, Bear, or VS Code directly for writing. Markdown is a versatile format that allows easy portability of content.

My workflow for posting an article

I strive to publish as frequently as possible. While I used to have a daily posting routine, I now aim to publish regularly without a strict schedule. Sometimes, while working on a project, I come across multiple ideas that I find worth sharing. To publish an article, I push the content to a private GitHub repository, which is then synchronized to Cloudflare Pages or Netlify using their Git integration. This ensures that the site is updated automatically upon each GitHub push.

Images

To optimize page speed and reduce bandwidth usage, I make sure to optimize all the images used in my posts. I rely on ImageOptim for this purpose.

I maintain a newsletter where I sometimes send emails containing a list of the posts I’ve written, along with any new resources I create. To manage the newsletter, I use a self-hosted solution called Sendy, along with AWS SES. If you’re interested, you can find more information on why you should create an email list.

Books

I have written and distributed several ebooks, which are available on my website. Readers have the option to either read them online or purchase PDF or epub versions. To generate these formats, I use a tool called Honkit. If you want to learn more about my ebook creation process, you can read about it here. So far, I have authored 15 books and plan to create more in the future.

That’s it!

My tools and workflows are continuously evolving. I aim to keep this post updated to reflect any changes or improvements I make.

tags: [“blog stack”, “static site”, “Astro”, “Hugo”, “Netlify”, “Cloudflare Pages”, “Markdown”, “workflow”, “images”, “newsletter”, “Sendy”, “AWS SES”, “ebooks”, “Honkit”]