Jb adventure travel blog
In April 2024, I travelled 5,400km by bike from Europe to China along the Silk Road.
For some time, I wanted to learn marketing. Not just the theory, but the practical, hands-on stuff. So, I decided the best way to do that was to build something. What better project than a blog to share stories and tips from a recent bikepacking adventure? This is the story of that blog, the platforms I explored, and the lessons learned along the way.
Goals for My(Blog) Design
Before diving in, I set a few key objectives for this project:
Share Our Adventures: Create a space to share our bikepacking experiences and know-how with other travellers, as well as our friends and family.
Simple & Scalable Design: Opt for a clean, straightforward design that could accommodate more content as the blog grew.
Track Performance: Integrate Google Analytics to understand what content resonated and how visitors found the site.
Learn by Doing: Most importantly, use this project as a vehicle to learn about content creation, website design principles, and the basics of SEO.
First Stop: Squarespace – The User-Friendly Choice
As a complete beginner to website building, Squarespace seemed like the logical starting point. Their reputation for user-friendly templates meant I could focus on getting content up and running quickly.
The Good: Setting up on a laptop was pretty easy. Squarespace is a mature platform, and true to its promise, almost every feature you might need is available and relatively simple to use.
The Not-So-Good: Trying to manage or edit the Squarespace site on a mobile device was, to put it mildly, a frustrating experience.
I even created a quick Loom video to capture my initial setup experience. If you want to see the real thing, head over to jb-adventure.com.
Detour: Firebase – The Allure of (Almost) Free
While Squarespace was functional, the idea of paying a monthly fee for a blog that, at the time, had zero views, felt a bit premature. This led me to explore alternatives. Inspiration struck in the form of a YouTube video titled, "Let's build a web app with AI in 191 min (Cursor AI, VS Code, ChatGPT, Firebase)". The video claimed you could build and host a website without ongoing hosting fees, which was exactly what I was looking for: a way to have the blog online at a minimal cost.
Armed with VS Code, ChatGPT for assistance, and Firebase for hosting, I embarked on building the "jb adventure" website.
The Reality: This path was much steeper. It took me a solid week just to get a basic version up and running. The main challenges were:
Setting up Git deployment pipelines correctly (which took two or three attempts).
Understanding the necessary folder structure for a React Vite project.
Getting to grips with various deployment packages.
I eventually paused this effort before fully populating the blog pages. I had already invested a significant amount of time, and I realized that finishing a production-quality version would take many more hours. Plus, the rapid advancements in AI website builders made me question the efficiency of building everything from the ground up when AI could generate sites in minutes.
Quick Pit Stop: Replit – The AI-Powered Alternative
My experience struggling with Firebase and manual deployment pipelines made Replit's approach incredibly appealing. Having built (partially) with Firebase first really highlighted how quick and largely painless deployment could be with a platform like Replit, where much of the process is automated.
The Decision: Back to Squarespace (For Now)
After exploring these different avenues, I made the decision to stick with the Squarespace website. Here’s why:
Professional Polish: Ultimately, the Squarespace site simply looked the most professional. Its animations and overall design sophistication were things I knew would take considerable extra work to replicate on the other platforms.
Effort vs. Reward: When I weighed the cost and effort, the alternatives didn't offer a substantial enough advantage to warrant a full migration and the additional development time. As my notes (and a handy comparison table I made, see below) showed, while tech stacks and initial pricing varied, the overall "effort" and eventual "price" (factoring in time and potential subscription costs for tools like ChatGPT Plus for the Firebase build) weren't drastically different for a simple blog.
Here's a quick overview of how I saw the options for the "Travel blog":
| Tech Stack | Price | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Notion | Notion Plus - $10/month for a custom domain | Low |
| Squarespace | $27 USD/month | Low |
| Firebase, VS Code & ChatGPT | Domain transfer + ChatGPT Plus $20USD/month | High |
| Replit | Domain transfer + Replit $25USD/month | Medium |
Key Takeaways from My Website Building Journey
This whole exercise was less about the final blog (though sharing bikepacking stories is still the plan!) and more about the learning process. I gained valuable insights into:
Content Creation: Thinking about what makes engaging content.
Website Design: Appreciating the nuances of user experience and clean design.
SEO Basics: Understanding the fundamentals of getting found online.
Platform Trade-offs: Realizing that there's no single "best" platform – it always depends on your technical skills, budget, time commitment, and desired level of customization versus ease of use.
The Power of AI: Witnessing firsthand how AI is changing the development landscape, offering rapid prototyping and build capabilities.
While my marketing education is an ongoing journey, this hands-on project of building a blog, and exploring various ways to do it, has been an incredibly insightful first step.
This blog is based on my notes, compiled by Gemini, and edited by me. This was a project compiled in January 2025.