Rebuilding the blog from zero

rewrote the whole thing from scratch, but this time it is quite different! I promise

This is probably the 5th if not 6th time redoing the blog but I have a legit reason this time

the previous blog was created using a Gatsby template which served its purpose but adding one thing or removing something was somewhat of a pain so I decided to take matters into my hand and redo it from scratch.

The Gatsby template relied on a git-based CMS called Forestry (tho the UI of Forestry is lit 🔥 and I really liked it) but it is time to move to a new CMS! so I chose Prismic which offered a very generous free tier (and an actual client library to mess around with 🤷‍♀️)

I went beyond the edge and used Nextjs and Tailwind, rewrote the entire thing from scratch even though I have postponed the development of the site for quite some time (exactly 3 months, it should have been finished 3 months ago but anyway)

This is a beta version of the site, there are a lot of things that needs modifications and a lot of features coming on the way but for a starting point it is not bad

Admin panel for anyone to post!

you can access this admin section and post whatever you want! no restrictions no boundaries whatsoever!

admin panel

Better SEO, Better analytics, Better tagging

in the previous template, it lacked SEO to a point that any blogpost pointed to nowhere. This time I have written the SEO tags according to the standards so they should appear on Facebook, Google, and Twitter as expected.

The site now uses Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics as expected, this functionality is also written from scratch whereas the previous site relied on a Gatsby plugin (and it was performing poorly)

Better Lighthouse results

This version of the blog is optimized for performance and speed, although it is still in beta mode the results are not so bad after all! There is more room for improvement but as a starting point, it is not that bad.

Getting back to my blogging times

2020 was tough, I stopped blogging for quite some time to focus on the things that mattered the most. Now that I have recreated the blog and starting to have a little bit of time on my hand, I might dedicate around 30 mins to write more.

No more spamming

I used to write a blogpost and spam it on Facebook, even though some might be interested yet the majority aren't so I have decided to post it on the Facebook page and some subreddit groups on Reddit where it reaches the right people. I might utilize the Instagram page to add the blog posts there as well.

As for the content, I have made a promise in the past that I will deliver high-quality content and I am still on my promise.

Upcoming features✨

here are the upcoming features that I have in mind for the next update:

Newsletter (serverless, secure, and always on the first day of the month but also made from scratch)

Support page (if you felt that the blog is benefiting you and you wish to support it)

Book recommendations page (separate thing and it can be included in the newsletter)

Contact page (plans is to make a Slack bot not emails which are easier for me to manage)