GitHub Pages: A Complete Guide

Learn how to host your blog for free with GitHub Pages — from setting up your first repository to running live design experiments at your own custom domain. This series takes you through everything step by step, with practical examples you can follow immediately.

What You’ll Learn

This series covers everything you need to get your blog live and keep improving it with confidence:

• Part 1: Getting Started - Creating a GitHub account, setting up Jekyll, choosing a theme, writing your first post, and connecting a custom domain
• Part 2: Testing Designs with Git Branches - Using branches to safely preview design changes live before touching your main blog
• Part 3: Live Design Testing with Separate Repositories - Running two independent design experiments at domain.com/test1 and domain.com/test2 simultaneously

Series Progress

All Posts in This Series

Getting Started

This series is coming soon! Check back for Part 1, where we’ll cover everything you need to get your blog live on GitHub Pages.

Who Is This Series For?

This series is designed for:

• Bloggers and writers who want a free, reliable home for their content without a monthly hosting bill
• Developers who want a personal site that lives in a proper Git workflow
• Jekyll users looking to get more out of their setup — themes, design testing, and custom domains
• Anyone curious about static sites and how to publish one without managing a server

You should have:

• Basic comfort using a terminal or command line
• A GitHub account, or a few minutes to create one
• A custom domain if you want one — but it is entirely optional

No prior experience with Git or static sites required — Part 1 starts from the very beginning!

Series Philosophy

Throughout this series, I emphasise:

• Safety first: Learn to experiment with your design without ever risking your live blog
• Practical examples: Every technique is shown with real commands and real file structures
• Honest guidance: I share the gotchas I have run into myself, so you do not have to
• Progressive learning: Each post builds naturally on what came before

My goal is to give you a blog setup you genuinely understand and enjoy maintaining — not just one that works until something breaks and you do not know why.

Questions or Feedback?

If you have questions about any of these posts, or there is a GitHub Pages topic you would like me to cover next, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me through the contact form or leave a comment on any of the individual posts.