Escaping Tutorial Hell: I’m Building My Own Blog from Scratch This Summer

Escaping Tutorial Hell: I’m Building My Own Blog from Scratch This Summer - Join Me!

Publish Date: May 30

12 15

Hey folks 👋

This summer, I’ve challenged myself to finally escape tutorial hell and start building real websites — learning by doing, not just watching.

🚀 What’s the Challenge?

I'm building and maintaining a personal blog from scratch. As I learn web development, I’ll continuously improve this blog and post updates about:

What I learned today
Challenges I faced
Resources I used
Thoughts and reflections

To kick it off, I created a static site using plain HTML and inline CSS, and hosted it using GitHub Pages. It’s simple, but it’s live — and that’s what matters.

Now I can push updates with Git, learn as I go, and have a real site to show progress.

I’ve already published a Day 01 post — written in plain HTML. And my first real struggle? Templating.

I wanted a shared navbar across pages, but ended up copy-pasting the same code to every file. It works... but it’s messy and not scalable.

If you know any good ways to handle templating in static sites, I’d love to hear your suggestions!

🖼️ Here's a peek:

🌐 Check out the live blog:

👉 https://codingtheself.github.io/webdevblog/

I'd really love your feedback — ideas, suggestions, or even if you want to join me on this journey, reach out! Let's grow and build together.

See you tomorrow!
Sourav Yadav

Comments 15 total

csmMay 30, 2025
I think you can use svelte without sveltekit!
Since its a compiler, we get a thin layer of abstraction for reusing nav bar component and others but still will be writing plain html and css code.

If you want, I can share the setup instructions for svelte!
- Sourav YadavMay 31, 2025
  Okay but first, I am using GitHub pages to host the blog, so will svelte even work in it??
  If yes then Sure share it, I would want to setup
  - csmMay 31, 2025
    Svelte is a compiler and when we build or compile we get an index.html with all css and js as static files.Yeah, the problem is when we build we get the end app in dist folder.
    So, GitHub pages works only when the index.html file is at root of the repo.
    What we can do is first we write our code locally in a different folder, build it and then manually place all the dist folder content at root of the git repo and push it to github.
    - Sourav YadavMay 31, 2025
      yeah, that would be fine it can also easily be done by a simple script
csmMay 31, 2025
Steps:
1. npm create vite@latest my-svelte-app -- --template svelte
2. cd my-svelte-app
3. npm install
4. npm run dev (for development purpose)
5. npm run build (compiling for end app)
- Sourav YadavMay 31, 2025
  okay, well it's working. and it's great actually. I can create components for navbars and footer and blog content.
  
  THANKS a LOT man I really appreciate it. Let me know if you need any help for something.
  - Sourav YadavMay 31, 2025
    hey can I mention you by linking your dev.to profile link in my next blog article as I am documenting my experience and want to give you credits.
    
    Let me know if it's fine with you?
    - csmMay 31, 2025
      Yep! No problem!
      Actually am also a beginner not an expert.Just told you the stuff that I learned!
  - csmMay 31, 2025
    You're welcome!
    Currently, am a cs student and just like you learning and building stuff!
    In future, if you like I have some collaboration ideas.
    Here is my LinkedIn link:
    link to my profile
    - Sourav YadavJun 1, 2025
      Okay bro I already connect with you on LinkedIn, sure I also want to collaborate on some cool projects. I never done it properly it would be fun..
      
      I am also a CS student BTW
csmMay 31, 2025
For a beginner project, I think there is no need to rush for a framework yet, just learn the basics first.Then, you will understand why you need a framework and how many types of them are there!
If you want to follow a curriculum for learning full stack development then you can follow The Odin Project curriculum:
link to odin project

But, if you want to go with svelte, then you can refer the docs for help on how svelte works:
link
Nathan TarbertMay 31, 2025
pretty cool move tbh, building in public’s always harder than sticking to tutorials. you think showing up every day beats having stuff all planned out first?
- Sourav YadavJun 1, 2025
  Well if you are a beginner then, you can't really plan out everything since, you don't know what's ahead.
  
  so, I think its best to just get started in public and when stuck ask for directions, form a group, move together and you will reach your destination before you know it
Parag Nandy RoyMay 31, 2025
This is exactly how real growth happens...you’re building, learning, and sharing at the same time...
- Sourav YadavJun 1, 2025
  Still at the start and that's also where I can fall off easily so thanks for your encouragement

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Sourav Yadav @coding_self