[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":383},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fblogs\u002Fmedium-vs-static-site-generators":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"coverImage":370,"description":373,"extension":374,"meta":375,"navigation":376,"path":377,"publishedOn":378,"seo":379,"sitemap":380,"stem":381,"__hash__":382},"content\u002Fblogs\u002Fmedium-vs-static-site-generators.md","Medium vs Static Site Generators: Which Should I Choose?",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":366},"minimark",[9,18,25,46,56,59,62,67,78,83,98,101,104,107,110,117,126,130,137,140,191,194,219,223,232,235,242,249,252,260,263,267,296,299,306,328,351,359],[10,11,12,13,17],"p",{},"The day I took a plunge & went full-time freelance, a lingering thought has\nbothered me ever since; “",[14,15,16],"em",{},"How do I make my presence known to my prospective\nclients?","”.",[10,19,20,21,24],{},"A quick Google search on the same question helped me come up with the following\n",[14,22,23],{},"quick"," conclusions:",[26,27,28,36,41],"ol",{},[29,30,31,32,35],"li",{},"“",[14,33,34],{},"Share content out there through blog posts.","”",[29,37,31,38,35],{},[14,39,40],{},"Be consistent about writing.",[29,42,31,43,35],{},[14,44,45],{},"Maintain a personal blog site.",[10,47,48,49,52,53,35],{},"Cool! I got the “",[14,50,51],{},"answers","” I was looking for, as I thought & wondered, “",[14,54,55],{},"how am\nI supposed to set up a website that I can call my own?",[10,57,58],{},"Enter Static Site Generators(SSGs) & SSG Hosts like GitHub Pages & Netlify were\nthe few that I tried, albeit miserably.",[10,60,61],{},"So here’s my opinionated documentation of the ordeal I suffered from for the\npast year or so while trying to build my own identity on the Internet.",[63,64,66],"h4",{"id":65},"choosing-the-rightssg","Choosing the Right SSG",[10,68,69,70,77],{},"Perhaps I’m wrong about it but as far as I know, SSGs are supposed to ease our\nlives. Little did I know, even they come packed in with a slight learning curve.\nFor example, ",[71,72,76],"a",{"href":73,"rel":74},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gatsbyjs.org\u002F",[75],"nofollow","Gatsby",", a React framework promising\ndevelopers to build blazing static sites does live up to its expectation but\nwith a catch!",[10,79,80],{},[14,81,82],{},"Prior knowledge about React Components is a massive added advantage.",[10,84,85,86,91,92,97],{},"Similarly, ",[71,87,90],{"href":88,"rel":89},"https:\u002F\u002Fgohugo.io\u002F",[75],"Hugo"," & ",[71,93,96],{"href":94,"rel":95},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.getpelican.com\u002F",[75],"Pelican","\nare based on Golang & Python programming languages, respectively. The former is\ndefinitely quite simple & easy to use, not to forget how the super-fast the\nbuild times are but lacks detailed documentation. This stumbling block was a\nmajor setback for me as I did not know to code on Go.",[10,99,100],{},"Hence, without a doubt in mind, I chose Pelican as supposedly perfect\nalternative for building the site as I was already proficient with Python.\nProblem solved, I got back to my comfort zone, everything’s fine & dandy or\nthat’s what I thought it would be.",[10,102,103],{},"Heck, if that was the case, I wouldn’t be writing this article, would I?",[10,105,106],{},"The major setback of setting up a site using Pelican is its themes, in general.\nDon’t get me wrong, the authors of Pelican have detailed everything in the\ndocumentations but the existing themes just lack some lustre. Perhaps, if only\nthey did focus on improving that aspect of their product, more users would flock\ntowards using Pelican as their go-to SSG. In fact, it’s the eye-catching &\nmodern-looking themes that make the other popular SSGs, Gatsby & Hugo, what\nthey’re among their users.",[10,108,109],{},"On a side note though, Pelican does allow customizing the existing themes as\nmuch as I wanted but think about it for a second. Would you compromise your time\n& effort in tinkering with front-end web development stuff when your precious\ntime could be better utilized elsewhere, like running a business?",[10,111,112,113,116],{},"By now you must be wondering, I should’ve just chosen GitHub Pages in the first\nplace considering its built-in support for static pages powered by Jekyll. All\nthat’s required of me was to upload the static pages to a repository & host it\nin a “",[14,114,115],{},"\u003Cusername.github.com>","” subdomain.",[10,118,119,120,125],{},"Well, I could do that but did you take a look at the list of supported themes?\nCheck them out at\n",[71,121,124],{"href":122,"rel":123},"https:\u002F\u002Fpages.github.com\u002Fthemes\u002F",[75],"GitHub Pages Supported Themes",". Most of them\nsport a minimalist look which is pretty satisfactory for “just blogging” which\ncan be customized to my heart’s content but then again why should I bother?",[63,127,129],{"id":128},"whats-the-fuss-about-theming-designs","What’s the fuss about theming & designs?",[10,131,132,133,136],{},"There’s something called “",[14,134,135],{},"Visual Hierarchy","” & it consists of 6 principles.\nBear in mind, I’m no designer by profession so it’s a waste of effort & time, if\nI had to customize my themes adhering to the time-tested principles of visual\nhierarchy.",[10,138,139],{},"But briefly put, the principles states the following:",[26,141,142,151,159,167,175,183],{},[29,143,144,150],{},[14,145,146],{},[147,148,149],"strong",{},"Reading Patterns"," — Certain optimized ways to get the readers’ short\nattention span.",[29,152,153,158],{},[14,154,155],{},[147,156,157],{},"Just The “RIGHT” Font Size"," — Explains how using an optimal font size\nis useful to grab the reader’s attention & make them feel obligated to read\nfurther.",[29,160,161,166],{},[14,162,163],{},[147,164,165],{},"Space & Texture"," — This is a testament that adequate spacing between\nlines & other content is key to creating modern-looking sites on the\nInternet today.",[29,168,169,174],{},[14,170,171],{},[147,172,173],{},"Typeface Weight & Pairing"," — Mostly crucial for branding as this is\nwhat brings about specific characteristic looks & visuals of a brand on the\nInternet.",[29,176,177,182],{},[14,178,179],{},[147,180,181],{},"Color & Tint"," — Humans perceive visual characters more prominently than\nany other beings on the planet. Using the right color & tint in your themes\nis of utmost importance.",[29,184,185,190],{},[14,186,187],{},[147,188,189],{},"Direction"," — Perhaps the most crucial principle of all is the page\nlayout of the site. This is how the writer can make the most out of the\nreader’s short attention span. No single site will have obviously the same\npage layout as the other & each of them is usually optimized according to\nits audience.",[10,192,193],{},"Hence, as you can see those were quite a handful of principles to keep in mind.\nBy doing so, makes the reader comfortable reading the content. It’s an\nobligation a writer has to adhere to strictly.",[10,195,196,197,204,205,210,213,214,218],{},"For more information definitely this,\n",[71,198,201],{"href":199,"rel":200},"https:\u002F\u002F99designs.com\u002Fblog\u002Ftips\u002F6-principles-of-visual-hierarchy\u002F",[75],[147,202,203],{},"6 principles of Visual Hierarchy For Designers","\nblog post written by the guys at ",[71,206,209],{"href":207,"rel":208},"https:\u002F\u002F99designs.com\u002F",[75],"99designs",[147,211,212],{},","," a\nread.[",[71,215,217],{"href":199,"rel":216},[75],"1","]",[63,220,222],{"id":221},"medium-appears-to-be-the-perfect-alternative","Medium Appears To Be the “Perfect” Alternative",[10,224,225,226,231],{},"To be honest, no platform is perfect! At least none that I could find till now,\n",[147,227,228],{},[14,229,230],{},"in my opinion",", but I’ll have to live with what’s available for now.",[10,233,234],{},"Certain aspects of Medium, I dislike are the obligations to share content behind\na paywall to be eligible for curation & publishing the content with major\npublishers in order to find more eyeballs on my content. Granted it’s not\nenforced on me to necessarily publish an article behind a paywall or with a\npublication but let’s face it, if I didn’t, my articles willn’t accumulate\nenough readers.",[10,236,237,238,241],{},"Regardless of Medium’s setbacks, I find the platform still good enough for my\npurpose! With built-in SEO tools, a UI, specifically designed keeping in mind\nthe ",[14,239,240],{},"Principles of Visual Hierarchy"," & much more. To be honest, asking for more\nwould be too greedy of me.",[10,243,244,245,248],{},"Besides, until I came across @jasonjamesweiland’s article — “",[14,246,247],{},"4 Types of\nCreatives Who Don’t Need a Blog or Website","”, I was still stuck in the dilemma.",[10,250,251],{},"The final nail in the coffin for me was when I read the following line from his\narticle & I quote.",[253,254,255],"blockquote",{},[10,256,257],{},[147,258,259],{},"Do we need to be adding to the noise on an already crowded web?",[10,261,262],{},"Granted, Jason’s article was primarily targeted towards a very specific niche of\ncreative writers. But advice on improving one’s writing skills, in general, is\nall the same, irrespective of one another’s field of expertise.",[63,264,266],{"id":265},"wrapping-up-the-reasons-behind-choosing-medium-over-a-personal-blogsite","Wrapping Up & The Reasons Behind Choosing Medium Over a Personal Blog Site",[26,268,269,281,288],{},[29,270,271,272,275,276,218],{},"Setting up a personal site doesn’t mean I would find an audience right then\nthere. Medium makes my job significantly easier with over 200M total visits\nfrom around the world to the site(",[147,273,274],{},"as of writing this\narticle",").[",[71,277,280],{"href":278,"rel":279},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.similarweb.com\u002Fwebsite\u002Fmedium.com",[75],"3",[29,282,283,284,287],{},"No additional hosting expenses required, neither is there any need to worry\nabout “",[14,285,286],{},"building","” my site.",[29,289,290,291,218],{},"The built-in SEO tools are way too good to overlook! As of writing this\narticle, Alexa ranks the site at 87 in global Internet\nengagement.[",[71,292,295],{"href":293,"rel":294},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.alexa.com\u002Fsiteinfo\u002Fmedium.com",[75],"4",[10,297,298],{},"So from a Computer Vision Engineer’s point-of-view Medium appears to be just the\nright platform to share his\u002Fher ideas and\u002For content. No more tinkering around\nwith Dev Ops or Web Dev stuff. I can now put aside the idea of owning my\npersonal site temporarily & focus on delivering content to my audience first.\nAnything else to worry about can be taken care of tomorrow.",[63,300,302,305],{"id":301},"references",[147,303,304],{},"References",":",[10,307,308,309,316,317,323,324,327],{},"[1] ",[71,310,313],{"href":311,"rel":312},"https:\u002F\u002F99designs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fauthor\u002Falex-bigman\u002F",[75],[147,314,315],{},"Alex Bigman",",\n",[71,318,320],{"href":199,"rel":319},[75],[14,321,322],{},"6 principles of visual hierarchy for designers","(2019),\n",[71,325,209],{"href":207,"rel":326},[75],".",[10,329,330,331,316,338,345,346],{},"[2] ",[71,332,335],{"href":333,"rel":334},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002F@jasonjamesweiland",[75],[147,336,337],{},"Jason James",[71,339,342],{"href":340,"rel":341},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002Fbetter-marketing\u002F4-types-of-creatives-who-dont-need-a-blog-or-website-4b70697d0c41",[75],[14,343,344],{},"4 Types of Creatives Who Don’t Need a Blog or Website","(2020),\n",[71,347,350],{"href":348,"rel":349},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002Fbetter-marketing",[75],"Better Marketing",[10,352,353,354,358],{},"[3] medium.com Analytics,\n",[71,355,357],{"href":278,"rel":356},[75],"Similar Web","(2020)",[10,360,361,362,358],{},"[4] medium.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix & Traffic,\n",[71,363,365],{"href":293,"rel":364},[75],"Alexa",{"title":367,"searchDepth":368,"depth":368,"links":369},"",2,[],{"url":371,"alt":372},"https:\u002F\u002Fik.imagekit.io\u002Fjarmos\u002Fmedium-vs-static-site-generator.png?updatedAt=1702974989261","Medium vs Static Site Generators","Explore the challenges of building an online presence using Static Site Generators (SSGs) like Pelican, Hugo, and Gatsby. Delve into the principles of visual hierarchy for effective design. Discover the advantages of Medium over personal blogs in terms of accessibility, SEO, and audience reach. Understand the rationale behind choosing Medium and explore relevant references.","md",{},true,"\u002Fblogs\u002Fmedium-vs-static-site-generators","2020-05-13",{"title":5,"description":373},{"loc":377},"blogs\u002Fmedium-vs-static-site-generators","oPbt86336qO6VPWRrAj8uWSlacONDLURi2n24z81oYY",1788775653172]