Publishing a Markdown Blog: Technical Options

Static Site Generators (SSG)

1. Jekyll (Ruby)

   • GitHub Pages integration

   • _posts directory structure

   • Front Matter support

   • Example workflow:

     bundle exec jekyll serve
     

2. Hugo (Go)

   • Blazing fast builds

   • Theme ecosystem

   • Shortcodes for extended functionality

   • Deployment:

     hugo -D && hugo deploy
     

3. Next.js (React)

   • MDX support

   • Dynamic routing

   • Example structure:

     // pages/posts/[slug].js
     export async function getStaticProps({ params }) {
       const post = await getPostBySlug(params.slug);
       return { props: { post } };
     }
     

Markdown-First Platforms

• Ghost (Node.js)

  • Native Markdown editor

  • API-driven headless CMS

  • Docker deployment:

    FROM ghost:alpine
    

• Medium
  • Markdown import support
  • API for programmatic publishing
• Hashnode
  • Dev-focused platform
  • GitHub-flavored Markdown

CMS + Markdown

1. Forestry.io

   • Git-backed CMS
   • Previews with Netlify/Vercel

2. Netlify CMS

   • Open-source

   • React-based UI

   • Config example:

     
     collections:
       - name: "blog"
     
         label: "Blog"
     
         folder: "_posts"
     
         create: true
     
         fields:
           - {label: "Title", name: "title", widget: "string"}
     
     

Hosting Options

Advanced Options

• Pandoc (Document conversion)

  pandoc post.md -o post.html
  

• GitBook (Documentation-focused)

• Obsidian Publish (Note-taking ecosystem)

Recommended Stack

1. Simple: Jekyll + GitHub Pages
2. Dynamic: Next.js + Vercel
3. CMS: Hugo + Netlify CMS

Tips:

• Use prettier for Markdown formatting
• Add syntax highlighting with Prism.js
• Implement RSS feed generation
• Set up Git hooks for linting