Crystal's Blog (New Version)

Live Demo

1st Deployment as of 15 September 2024: Visit the Blog

Domain name change as of 5 November 2024: https://crystalsawers.co.nz/

Note: the https://crystal-websiteblog.vercel.app/ url will still work but it will redirect to the new one

Table of Contents

• Crystal's Blog (New Version)
  • Live Demo
  • Table of Contents
  • Overview
  • Project Timeframe
  • Features
  • Technologies Used
  • Future Plans
  • References
  • Contact

Overview

This is a free-lance solo project that I'm developing based on everything I've learned while studying my Bachelor of Information Technology degree from 2021-2024. The blog serves as a personal outlet for sharing my journey, opinions, and reviews on various topics of interest.

If you are seeing my site thinking that it would be straight forward to be able to make your own blog website, this is not the case. While there are many platforms and tools like Wordpress, Wix.com, etc. that you can make your own blog to post your life on, when making it from scratch as a relatively knowledgable IT person, you have to consider MANY things:

• How big is your blog going to be? What features will you implement? The scope of your blog plays a HUGE role in how you design and build it. Are you just creating a simple personal blog with text and images, or are you adding complex features like comments, user profiles, media uploads, and social media integrations? The more features you include, the more planning, coding, and testing you’ll need to ensure everything works smoothly. Keep in mind that adding too many features can complicate the user experience and increase the chances of something breaking down, and that something too complex could make you lose motivation to create it.

• How is your data within your blog going to be stored and where is it being stored? Choosing the right database solution is critical, whether it's some form of SQL, Firebase, or some other database tool. Data always needs to be backed up, because things will inevitably end up going horribly wrong and you could lose all your data.

• How will you handle user authentication and authorization? If you want to allow comments or user-generated content, you'll need to implement secure login systems and manage user roles effectively.

• What about security? What would happen if someone hacked into your blog and you lose everything? Protecting your blog from vulnerabilities and attacks is essential. This includes securing user data, backing up all your blog data, implementing HTTPS, and regularly updating your software.

• What are you actually going to do as a poster of your blog, as someone who is managing content? Even if you're building your blog from scratch, you'll need a way to create, edit, and manage your posts efficiently.

• Choosing Your Front End: You'll need to decide on the front-end technologies you'll use. This could involve selecting frameworks like React, Angular, Next.js or Vue.js, or just simply using vanilla JavaScript with HTML and CSS. Each option has its own learning curve, advantages, and drawbacks that will shape how users interact with your blog.

• What will your hosting solution look like? Choosing a reliable hosting provider is crucial. You’ll need to consider factors such as uptime guarantees, server performance, scalability, and support. You might also explore options like shared hosting, VPS, or cloud hosting based on your needs and budget.

• How will your design and user experience adapt across devices? Since many users will likely visit your blog from their phones, it's crucial to ensure your design is mobile-friendly. This means making text easy to read, buttons and links large enough to tap, and navigation simple to use on smaller screens. Yes it is important to make it look good on your flash 24-inch monitor, but you gotta think about how consistent, responsive and visually appealing your UX design is across all devices, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or an older laptop. If your blog is hard to use on any device, visitors will quickly leave and might not come back, users will get increasingly frustrated.

• How will you scale and maintain your blog in the long run? As your blog grows, you might face challenges with scaling. Will your hosting plan handle increasing traffic? How will you handle database growth, your backup strategies, or site maintenance tasks like security patches and bug fixes? Planning for scalability early can really save you headaches down the road.

Project Timeframe

Start Date: 13 September 2024
Current Status: Active

Features

• About Me: A section introducing myself and my background.
• Journey in My IT Degree: Insights into my experiences and learning throughout my degree.
• Opinions: My thoughts on my main interests, including Formula 1 and Cricket.
• Reviews: Insights on lifestyle products and miscellaneous things.

Technologies Used

• Frontend: Next.js with TypeScript
• Backend: Firebase
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Deployment: Vercel
• Custom Domain: GoDaddy

Future Plans

• A full automated backup and restore system for all my blog data, currently I am just manually backing my data up. Main barrier is that I have to use Google Cloud as Firebase is linked with Google Cloud, and that I may have to pay to do it

References

• This Next 13 Crash Course series on Youtube took a big inspiration into starting this project
• ChatGPT was used a fair bit to progress on some ideas like subscription and feedback.
• I created my own logo from Logo.com
• For registering my custom domain I used GoDaddy

Contact

Crystal Sawers

• Email: crystalsawers39@gmail.com
• Email for ONLY regarding this blog: crystal.websiteblog@gmail.com
• GitHub: crystalsawers
• LinkedIn: Crystal Sawers