How I Made this Website

Chapter 1: A New Start

I started this website with the intention of documenting the process of creating this website. I will be writing Guides that detail how everything is done. I hope these guides, and the narrative blog posts that accompany them, will be helpful and informative to others.

Here, to start things off, are the notes I took while performing the initial setup of the website.

Ready, Set, Go!

I opened Google Keep, started a new note titled "How this Website Got Made" and started taking notes, like this one, about how I made this website
I created a project on GitHub

I opened git-bash and created a directory for my new website:

$ cd /c/dev/git
$ mkdir isaac.truett.info
$ cd isaac.truett.info/
$ git init
$ echo "# isaac.truett.info" >> README.md
$ git add README.md
$ git commit -m "Hello, world."
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:itruett/isaac.truett.info.git
$ git push origin master

I went to the project settings for my GitHub project and enabled GitHub Pages.
I registered a domain with Google Domains
I added my new domain name as a custom domain in the GitHub Pages settings
I created an A record for my domain pointing to 185.199.108.153
I created a CNAME record for a subdomain pointing to itruett.github.io

I created a CNAME file for my repository:

$ echo "isaac.truett.info" >> CNAME
$ git add CNAME
$ git commit -m "Added CNAME file."
$ git push origin master

In Summary

I was able to create a website live on the internet in a few steps, and the only thing I paid for, the domain name, is optional. I could have stopped with the default GitHub Pages URL, itruett.github.io/isaac.truett.info. I could have selected a shorter project name for a better URL, or used GitHub Pages for my account instead of a project, but I wanted to spend the $12 to register a domain. It was a small price, and made for a useful commitment device. I also had a Windows 10 laptop and an internet connection, already paid for. You could do the same thing from a library computer, or any other internet connected computer you have access to.

I will publish a guide for How To Create a Website on GitHub Pages with a more detailed look at the process.

It's also worth a moment to take note of what this is not:

This is not the only way to make a website. It's a set of tools that I decided to use this time, mostly driven by cost and convenience.
This is not a professional-quality website. Don't expect to make a fortune following these 9 steps.
This is not pretty. This website has no style (yet). In fact, the only reason it has content at all is that GitHub Pages decided to show the contents of the README.md file by default.
This does not perform any server-side processing. Everything is pre-compiled by GitHub and served up as static pages. I'll set up a more robust server later.

Isaac.Truett.info