# Create a Free Tech Blog

DevFeed: [Create a Free Tech Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/create-a-free-tech-blog-21032.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://jakeyesbeck.com/2015/07/12/create-a-free-tech-blog/>)

Published: 2015-07-12T12:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Jake Yesbeck](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jake-yesbeck.md>)

Topics: [Jekyll](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/jekyll.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>), [Markdown](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/markdown.md>), [HTML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/html.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [RSS Feed](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rss-feed.md>), [Ruby](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ruby.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>)

Tags: [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration.md>), [github](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github.md>), [github-pages](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github-pages.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [jekyll](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jekyll.md>), [markdown](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/markdown.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [rss](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rss.md>), [ruby](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ruby.md>), [tutorials](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tutorials.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains how to create a free technology blog using Jekyll and GitHub Pages. Jekyll generates a static site from Markdown into HTML, while GitHub Pages hosts the generated files and updates the blog when changes are pushed to a public repository.

## Source excerpt

The Internet is wondrous technology. If anyone remembers Geocities and Personal Home Pages, you can appreciate just how much the Internet has evolved. This evolution has recently enabled creating a tech blog completely for free. When I say free, do I mean completely free? Yes, completely free! Even this very blog, my Year of Commits, is hosted for free using the same technologies outlined in this post. You too can have a free tech blog after following these 2 simple steps. Step 1. Use Jekyll Jekyll is a free open source static site generator. The Jekyll documentation page has some great tutorials that make getting started extremely painless. Jekyll is also a ruby tool. To contribute to Jekyll, check out their github page. Jekyll makes it easy to start creating content without worrying about CSS, page templates, or link architecture. It even generates an RSS feed of your content. All pages can be written in Markdown and automatically converted to HTML upon building or serving the site. The jekyll build command is what this post will focus on, but jekyll serve is worth checking out too. To get started with Jekyll: $: gem install jekyll $: jekyll new mytechblog $: cd mytechblog/ $: touch _posts/2015-07-12-my-first-post.markdown This will create a new directory with some default configuration files and subdirectories. Inside this new directory, the example created a 2015-07-12-my-first-post.markdown file within the _posts/ subdirectory. This file will contain the content for the first blog post. Jekyll Markdown pages require a specific format at the top of the file. This format is called front matter. It is imperative that all Jekyll posts have proper front matter in order to be converted to HTML. Step 2. Use Github Pages Github has been a great tool for managing version controlled software for years. Now, Github has released an equally awesome tool called Github Pages. To get started with Github Pages, simply create a public repository with the pattern: <yourusername>.