How I Built My Blog from Scratch (And Why You Should Too)

Hey there 👋

Welcome to my blog; the very first post of what I hope will become a long-running collection of thoughts, experiments, and stories from my life as a developer.

I’m George Ongoro, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with building things. From simple desktop tools to full-fledged mobile apps, creating stuff that works (and looks good doing it) is what I love. After years of working on apps behind the scenes, I finally decided: it’s time to share more — not just the final products, but the process, the challenges, and the lessons I pick up along the way.

That’s how this blog came to life.

Why I Decided to Build My Own Blog

There are plenty of blogging platforms out there. I could’ve published on Medium, Dev.to, or Hashnode. But I wanted full control, over the design, the features, the domain name and more importantly, I wanted it to feel like mine.

No ads. No algorithm games. Just me and my keyboard.

Also, I see this blog as a kind of digital garden, a place to document what I’ve learned, explore what I’m curious about, and connect with others who are walking a similar path.

If it helps even one person avoid a bug I’ve struggled with, discover a tool I love, or get inspired to start something of their own, that’s a win.

The Stack I Used

Building this blog wasn’t just a creative decision, it was a technical one too. Here’s the tech stack powering it:

Next.js – For fast performance, file-based routing, and seamless server-side rendering.
MongoDB – Used for storing blog posts, votes, comment threads, and subscriptions.
Tailwind CSS – My go-to utility-first framework for styling and responsiveness.
Vercel – For deployment and blazing-fast edge delivery.

I also added a few cool features to make the experience more interactive and useful:

Subscribe Button – Readers can sign up to get notified of new posts.
Comment System – Every post has its own discussion space.
Voting System – You can like or dislike posts based on your experience.
Analytics – I’m tracking visits and interactions to improve what I publish over time.

It’s clean, lightweight, and built exactly the way I wanted, and that’s the beauty of building it yourself.

Things I Learned (and Struggled With)

Let’s be honest; no dev project ever goes completely according to plan.

Some of the challenges I ran into:

Figuring out serverless database interactions in Next.js (MongoDB can be tricky at scale)
Building a dynamic comments + voting system from scratch
Optimizing page loading speed while pulling in rich content from MongoDB
Making everything look great on both desktop and mobile using Tailwind

It was frustrating at times; but also so satisfying once I solved each problem.

What’s Coming Next

This blog won’t just be technical. Sure, I’ll share dev stuff, how I built my apps, cool tools I discover, tutorials, and personal projects, but I also want to get real about:

Staying productive as a solo dev
Dealing with creative burnout
Growing up in Kenya and learning tech independently
What it means to build your own path in software

There’s no roadmap, just vibes. I’ll post when I have something valuable or fun to say and I hope you’ll follow along.

🧠 Why You Should Start Your Own Blog Too

Seriously, you should.

You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need a “perfect” design. Just start.

Writing makes you a better developer. It helps you think clearly, grow your knowledge, and connect with others in ways you never expect.

Plus, years from now, you’ll have this amazing archive of progress. A timeline of how far you’ve come. If you want your own blogging platform, whether you are a business, institution or individual, reach out to me on WhatsApp, or leave a comment below.

Final Thoughts

This is just the beginning, but it's a beginning that matters.

If you're into coding, creating, or just being curious, I hope you'll stick around.

Hit Subscribe if you want to get future posts sent straight to your inbox.
Drop a comment below if you’ve built your own blog (or want to!).
And don’t forget to vote, it really helps me improve what I’m putting out here.

Thanks for reading. Let’s build something awesome.