Learn more about my blog

I got tagged by Haripriya ↗️ in her blog to take up this blog questionnaire.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I started writing blogs back in my college days. During my first year of college, I regularly sat in the first couple of rows. And from the second year, I started sitting in the last bench. The lectures became boring for me and I used to spend my time scribbling in my notebook. Very soon, writing drafts of blogposts in my notebook became my favourite activity in class. I used to write about a lot of things that time: Philosophy, Movie Reviews, my encounters with technology and some raw thoughts.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

I built this blog using Astro ↗️ and hosted it on Netlify ↗️ . I use BlogExtras ↗️ to manage comments and forms on the blog. I like the freedom of building my own blog, changing layout and building new features as I choose. Secretly, I enjoy using my favourite library, TailwindCSS ↗️ to create new components and style them.

I started many blogs before this one. They were on different platforms namely, Blogspot, Wordpress and Medium. My last blog on Medium was fairly successful with almost a 100 subscribers. I have plans to bring all my old blogs to this platform, once I amass some good content and traffic.

Along with this blog, I also run a travel blog called Holistic Travellers ↗️ where I post about my travel experiences, guides and travel tips.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?

I use Obsidian ↗️ to write all my notes. Then I copy the notes to my code editor and edit it before publishing. I have plans to use a headless CMS to edit the posts in the future.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

Whenever I have something to say, I jot them down in Obsidian and evolve them into a blog post. These days, I write when I have learnt something new or have recently attended any interesting event.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

Mostly, I publish immediately after writing in this blog. However, in my travel blog ↗️ , I spend days editing the posts before publishing.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

Let me pick two posts (from my two blogs):

1. Technical blog on JWT Tokens ↗️
2. Travel blog on my experiences staying at a Forest Lodge ↗️

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

Yes, I am still experimenting with the layout of my blog and plan to stabilise it over the next few months. I am also constantly adding new features to my blog (eg. Table Of Contents feature which I added recently).

Who’s next?

For this challenge, I would like to nominate Mridu ↗️ .
I also enjoy reading blogs from Haripriya ↗️ and Thejesh ↗️ , who have completed this challenge.