This domain got online August 1 2023. Congrats to me; I've always wanted an online space and hence I got a .space domain and yes it was cheap when I purchased it from a NameCheap offer.
This site located at www.sdavidprince.space (I have other sub-domains e.g comics.sdavidprince.space ) is currently hosted on blogger because I want simplicity and something I can still have full control of to an extent.
This is not an easy decision to make as I have tried other platforms; I would have loved to self host this site maybe on a CMS like WordPress or a static site generator like Eleventy or Jekyll.
But, I considered the long run cost setup and maintenance. 😁 I'm not sure I'm in for the money and self hosting would require a maintenance and updating or upgrading routine which would take out of the time I'm supposed to spend on other things I do.
I could have opted for WordPress.com, but it offers only 3GB of free hosting. While 3GB is quite large, especially since most of my posts are text and hardly take up 1KB, it still felt limiting.
And again, there would be ads. I don't mind the ads since WordPress earns from them and keeps the server that hosts my site running. However, my will went for unlimited space, as the 3GB still felt like a limitation.
Blogger works almost similarly to WordPress.com but with no storage limitations. Ultimately, I chose Blogger because of the customization and setup freedom it offers; no other platform has beaten that. I’m in the position to say this because I’ve tried almost all platforms and ways to host and set up a website.
I first tried blogger in 2019, then I saw blogger as too simple and boring; and Yes that is how blogger is by default.
Blogger’s default templates were made for simple note-taking blogs and have a nostalgic 90's feel. While I appreciate that these designs shaped the web as we know it today, I wasn't born in that era. However, I saw how websites used to look while growing up and from archives I explore now.
My primary school had a computer setup with a tower system unit and a CRT monitor - the hunchback box. I know the feel; Those school days became my backstory as a computer enthusiast.
Thanks to the internet again and my exploration skills, I stumbled on fine blogger sites and I learnt about third party templates. These are templates built for blogger by good wonderful people and are not provided default on blogger dashboard but any blogger user can install them by customising their blogger template code.
Mid 2022, I reinstated my blogger blog 'sdavidprince.blogspot.com' and I started trying out coding and adding different possible customizations. Thanks to W2school, and the blogger codes I found from wonderful sites which formed the blogger community, I started my web developing journey.
Shoutout to Mohammad Mustafa of MyBloggerTricks, Abhishek padhi of TechyLeaf, Syed Faizan Ali of MyBloggerLab. 2024 update - Indonesians remade Blogger: I'm adding Wernayasa of Emissionhex and partners, Arlinacode, Fineshop and JagoDesain.
My old .blogspot subdomain site used the Inbio Template, a third party theme designed by soratemplates. But since I discovered those people and sites I shout out, and some others, I started adding and removing functions and features.
The free inbio template has limited design and functionality compare to what the premium template would offer. This is how most blogger templates are.🫂
Wished I had brought myself to purchase the premium back in 2022 when i stumbled across this template, but back then I was not in that capacity to make the purchase. I was up to the age but still using a kids bank account 🥴.
Goodbye to the purchase, these things are in dollars and purchasing from Nigeria is a headache; we use verve card (they won't give a mastercard) and no paypal and stripe in Nigeria which is widely used for online payments. This country is fun; a workaround always work 😅. I still managed to get a Namecheap domain and a hosting plan which I never got to use and I completed all purchases in dollars. 👏🏾
I decided to make mine from scratch. It started as just copy and pasting Sourcecodes and with a lot of trials, errors, frustration and time I discovered I had self learned XML, HTML, CSS Javascript and libraries and Frameworks like JQuery, Bootstrapp and Tailwind CSS.
I didn't write nor draw for a whole year and the worst I was using a borrowed mobile phone 3 hours per day. Yes it took time. I made this site template I calk it AllOne. It started as a simple empty blogger xml code file and to having everything I wanted. - at least those which are possible to have on blogger.
Check the changelog page or use the SiteLog label tag to see changes and evolvement on this site template.
In more recent posts I would be sharing my scripts, widgets and plugins I built or modified.
As I said, coding has created a distraction 😑 from writing and drawing, but it's worth it. I've done some freelance gigs in web development, website creation, and blog setup.
It's interesting, and I plan to continue coding and sharing it. These are small feat codes - I'm not the best, but I'm not the worst either.
I look forward to knowing it too well and expanding to other languages. I partially know Python, PHP, and basic terminal commands.
If you are looking to start your site on blogger I hope this site would also be a helpful resource.
happy blogging
