It's been 4 years since I started my tech blog

It’s 2021, and before I knew it, this blog has continued for 4 years.

Although I call it a tech blog, it’s really more of a miscellaneous blog with a lot of tech content.

Still, 4 years! I think that’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

The reasons this blog has lasted so long are:

I run it almost for free
It even generates some income

Free operation

First, this blog is built with HUGO. For details about HUGO, please google it.

Thanks to running it with HUGO, the maintenance cost for this blog is only about 1,500 yen per year for the domain. Server costs are free.

I think the fact that there are almost no maintenance costs is why I could keep it going at my own pace.

Low maintenance cost is important. If it cost money, I probably would have quit halfway, thinking it was a waste.

Income

This blog generates about as much income as a junior high schooler’s allowance each month.

It’s basically just a personal memo pad, but the fact that it makes money for me is pretty nice.

Having income, even a little, gives you a tangible reason to keep maintaining the blog. I’ve even changed the design from a borrowed theme to a fully customized one, and even though it’s a static site, I went so far as to implement a search function.

Money matters.

What I’ll do in 2021

So, what should I do in 2021? Here are some ideas:

Get an AWS certification
Be able to use all three major frontend frameworks
TypeScript
OSS activities
English

First, AWS. I never thought much of certifications before, but after starting to work with AWS, I realized that having a certification could actually be useful for gaining knowledge that directly impacts my work.

There have been many instances where I thought, “If I had known this, the implementation would have been much simpler.” However, I can’t possibly read the documentation for every single AWS service. So, I figured it would be more efficient to study for a certification that covers a broad range of topics.

Next up, TypeScript.

Despite working primarily in frontend development, I still don’t know TypeScript very well. I’m also only at the tutorial level with the three major frontend frameworks. It’s about time I seriously tackled these technologies.

And last but not least, English.

I had similar intentions last year but made no progress.

I at least want to be able to read documentation fluently. A lot of AWS documentation is in English, after all.

I’m also considering getting involved in translation OSS activities to improve my English skills.

That’s all for now!