# How to Build Your Own Blog Website?

> In this post, I explain how you can launch your own blog website.

- URL: https://kayhan.blog/en/how-to-build-your-own-blog-website
- Language: en
- Published: 2026-09-03
- Category: Software
- Author: Kayhan (https://kayhan.blog/en/about)

---
Hello,

In this post, I’ll walk you through, step by step, how to build and deploy a setup similar to my live blog website from scratch. Depending on your needs, you can either run it directly in a Node/PM2 environment or deploy it as a container using the Docker setup included in the repository.

The Git repository we’ll use: [https://github.com/SwitchAlpha/myblog](https://github.com/SwitchAlpha/myblog)

As a first step, you need to obtain a virtual server (VPS) from a price/performance-focused provider such as **Hetzner** and point your domain’s DNS (A) record to that server’s IP address. Once you have connected to your server via SSH, we can get started by cloning the source code:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/SwitchAlpha/myblog.git && cd myblog

```

From here, you can choose between two different deployment methods:

---
## **Method 1: Direct Setup (Node / PM2 & Nginx)**
### **1. Installing Dependencies and Testing**

```bash
pnpm setup
pnpm dev

```

After confirming that the site runs smoothly on the local test server, we can create the production build:

```bash
pnpm build

```
### **2. Keeping It Running with PM2**

To ensure that the application runs continuously in the background and starts automatically when the server reboots:

```bash
pm2 start pnpm --name "myblog" -- start
pm2 save
pm2 startup

```
### **3. Nginx Reverse Proxy Configuration**

```bash
sudo apt update && sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/myblog

```

Add the following proxy block to the file that opens (adjust `alanadiniz.com` and the port information to match your own setup):

```nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name alanadiniz.com www.alanadiniz.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

```

We enable the configuration, test the Nginx service, and restart it:

```bash
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myblog /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

```

---
## **Method 2: Setup with Docker & Docker Compose**

If you want to run the project in an isolated environment without dealing with package and version dependencies on the server, you can use Docker Compose to bring up the `Dockerfile` already included in the repository.

Create a `docker-compose.yml` file in the project directory:

```yaml
version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: myblog_app
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production

```

To build and run the container in the background:

```bash
docker compose up -d --build

```

Once the container is running on port `3000`, simply follow the Nginx steps above to route traffic to `http://localhost:3000`.

---
## **Final Step: SSL Certificate (HTTPS)**

Whichever deployment method you choose, set up a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate with Certbot to move your site to a secure HTTPS connection:

```bash
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d alanadiniz.com -d www.alanadiniz.com

```

That’s all there is to it! Your blog website is now live and securely accessible through your domain name.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and see you in future posts!