Every once in a while someone asks me what tools I use to do something related to my blog, so here’s a list of tools I use to keep JAVEBRATT running:
Development
For building the actual blog I use Hugo, it’s a static site generator that lets me write in Markdown and then builds the full site as static HTML, CSS, and some JS.
Deployment
My site is currently hosted at Netlify, and I love how easy it was to set up, basically I chose a branch of my Github repo and every time I push to it they build and re-deploy my site automatically 😃.
Analytics
I don’t use Google Analytics, they collect way too much personal information on you, and I do my best to respect your privacy, that’s why I use Fathom Analytics, which is a privacy-focused service.
Also, one of the founders is Paul Jarvis, who wrote one of my favorite books, Company of One.
Email Sending
I send a lot of emails, I have a newsletter with over 7,700 people subscribed to it, the company powering it is called ConvertKit.
ConvertKit is super easy to use and they now have a free plan! You can check them out here.
Education
I take my education seriously, I heavily invest in 3 types of courses/books: programming, freelancing, and business.
For programming I buy courses on specific technologies when I fo¡ind good ones, and I keep an active EggHead.io membership.
Their courses are really short and all are thought by industry professionals that are actually building production apps.
For freelancing (or consulting), I read everything by Brennan Dunn from Double Your Freelancing, he has a free pricing course that should be enough to get you started.
For how to run a product business, you won’t find better advise out there than from Amy Hoy & Alex Hillman, they run Stacking the bricks.
They helped me go from almost losing my apartment to having a system that allows me to take multi-month vacations when something happens (for example, my daughter was born on Jan 2019, I worked a total of 3months that year 😃).
Got any questions or think I missed something?
Let me know!