How this portfolio website came to be

Hello everyone! I am excited to share with you the journey of how this blog site came to be. It was a process filled with learning, challenges, and ultimately, a lot of satisfaction.

Setting up the domain

The first step in this journey was acquiring the domain. I got the domain from Combell via Academic Software. However, I soon realized that I needed more managing options for my site. So, I decided to transfer the domain to Cloudflare. The transfer process was smooth, and I was impressed with the extensive management options that Cloudflare offered. With Cloudflare, I could fine-tune DNS settings, set up SSL certificates, and optimize performance—all essential for a successful portfolio website.

What about the CMS?

Now, let’s talk about content management. Many blogs rely on CMS systems like WordPress or Joomla. But my blog does not (yet). I decided not to use a CMS system. Instead, I opted for integration with Markdown. This decision was driven by my desire for a lightweight and flexible solution for managing the content of my blog.

The Tech Used: Next.js and Tailwind CSS

The website was developed using Next.js and Tailwind CSS. If you’re not familiar with these, Next.js is a React framework that enables functionality such as server-side rendering and generating static websites, while Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that is highly customizable and allows for rapid UI development. I also used Shadcn UI for lots of UI components. I like that all the components are still fully customizable and the clean look that they give.

SEO

One of the most challenging aspects of this project was implementing correct sublinks for SEO. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is crucial for increasing the visibility of a website to users of a web search engine. Properly implemented sublinks can make a website more user-friendly and can improve its ranking on search engine results pages.

The end!

I must admit, I only had a little bit of experience when it came to Next.js. But with some help from a friend and the comprehensive Next.js documentation, I was able to overcome this challenge. It was a great learning experience, and it reinforced the importance of having a strong and supportive community when working on such projects. And that’s how this blog site came to be! It was a journey filled with learning and challenges, but also a lot of satisfaction. I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy creating them. Stay tuned for more!