Shanto Roy

I Explore Research, Tech, Travel, and Business. PhD Student @UHCS.

5 minute read

You guys have already found out that I do blogging on regular basis in this site.

In this post, I will list the tools and platforms I use on regular basis for blogging.

Hosting -> Github-Pages

I use Github Pages to host by blog. Github provides free hosting for your website. If you are planning to use static website, this is the best solution as it is completely free.

You have to open an account in GitHub and you can create your site under the domain <username>.github.io. For example, when I created my site, I got the domain shantoroy.github.io because my username is shantoroy. You can check my website repository for other setup information.

Blog Platform -> Jekyll

Jekyll provides functionalities to create static websites. Jekyll is simple but elegant and uses markdown, liquid, HTML, and CSS to create a static site. Also, there are a lot of templates available for blogging. You just need to know markdown language, which is very easy to learn and you can learn within minutes.

Blog Theme -> Minimal Mistakes

Minimal Mistakes is one of the most popular Jekyll-based blog theme out there. It is a blogging-aware neat theme that already has everything ready. You just need to configure yourself based on your need. The documentation is provided in the site. Also, you can check the Official Repository for cloning.

Post Editing and Sync -> StackEdit

Stack Edit is a free online platform to edit and manage markdown files. It comes with a default workspace and a markdown editor.

The best thing about this platform is: it can integrate your github repository. This is why I don’t need to manage my post from my PC. I just need a browser and write post instantly here which automatically syncs with my blog repository.

You can also add workspace from CouchDB, Gitlab, and Google drive.

Here is a screenshot of the platform:

Comment Management -> Facebook Comments plugin

There are a number of comment platforms available to integrate with your blog. I use Facebook Comments Plugin for my blog so that anyone logged in his FB account can directly comment on my posts. There are other popular comment tools as well. For example, Disqus is another popular comment management tool out there.

If you want to know how I integrated the FB comment plugin in my blog theme, you can check my other post:

How to Enable Facebook Comments Plugin in Jekyll Blog Posts

Post Cover Photo Editing -> Canva

I use Canva for creating cover or teaser image for my posts. you can blog without using any cover or teaser in Minimal-Mistakes theme. However, i liked to add these images in each post. Canva is an excellent platform where you can create different designs including social media cover images, banners, logos, etc. for free. I use a free account and that does enough for me.

Photo Storage -> Flickr

Although you can use Github to store your photos, I prefer to use Flickr to store all cover images or post images used in my blog. Flickr is free and provide huge space to store your images for free. I just link the images in my posts. The following example code is used to link a photo from flickr to my post.

<figure>
  <a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51711838360_f41553d5c1_o.png"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51711838360_f41553d5c1_o.png"></a>
</figure>

Monetization -> Google Adsense

If you want to monetize your blog, you can start doing that by integrating your Google Adsense to your blog. After creating an account you can add advertisement code snippets to your site or blog. Remember, you have to be eligible to have Google Adsense. You can do that by writing $20-25$ quality posts and then apply. If your blog does not have good contents or there are pliagiarisms, they will not allow you to post ads on your site.

If you want to check how I added Google Adsense to my blog, you can check my other post:

Google Adsense in Jekyll Static Site or Minimal Mistakes Blog Theme

Analysis -> Google Analytics

I use Google Analytics to analyze and monitor my site traffic. If you want to check which posts are more popular or people from which country visits your blog the most, you can find all these analysis using the Google Analytics.

If you want to check how I added Analytics to my blog, check this post:

Google Analytics in Minimal Mistakes Blog Theme

Notes and Plans -> Evernote

I use Evernote to note my daily thoughts and other stuffs. It is a notebook platform which is free to use. If you are a student, Evernote is the best note-taking online platform that you should use on regular basis.

Latex Tutorial Platform -> Overleaf

Maybe, you have find out that I post many Latex tutorials on this blog. For instant output checking, I use the Overleaf platform, which is free use and provide collaboration opportunities in the Latex platform.

Python Tutorial Platform -> Google Collab, GitHub

I also post a lot of tutorials on Python programming language. To provide code snippets, I use Google Collab or Github, which are also free platforms for code sharing.

Donation/Royalty platform -> Buy Me A Coffee

For taking donation or royalty, I use Buy Me A Coffee platform where readers can donate a few dollars to support this blog.

So, that’s it for now. Feel free to let me know if you want to set up a blog like me or having some issues doing any steps I mentioned here.

All the best, cheers!

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