Hey 👋
If you’re reading this, my blog actually works — which still feels a little unreal.

I wanted my first post to document exactly how I built this site. Not just the idea, but the actual commands, mistakes, and workflow that got everything live.

This is the post I wish I had when I started.

Why Hugo + GitHub Pages?

I wanted a setup that was:

• 💸 Free
• ⚡ Fast
• 🧠 Simple
• 📝 Markdown-based
• 🔄 Fully version controlled
• 🗄️ No database to maintain

Hugo and GitHub Pages checked every box.

The Tech Stack

• Hugo – static site generator written in Go
• Theme – PaperMod (clean, minimal, dark mode)
• GitHub Pages – free static hosting
• GitHub Actions – automatic build & deploy

Once everything is wired up, publishing is literally:

git push

Step 1: Installing Hugo

First, I installed Hugo locally so I could build and preview the site.

sudo apt install hugo

Verify the installation:

hugo version

Step 2: Creating the Site

Creating a new Hugo site is straightforward:

hugo new site masarajames.github.io
cd masarajames.github.io

Initialize Git (important):

git init

Hugo generates this structure:

content/ # Blog posts layouts/ # Custom templates static/ # Images, CSS, JS themes/ # Themes (submodules) hugo.toml # Main configuration

Step 3: Adding a Theme (Git Submodule)

Instead of copying theme files, I added the theme as a submodule:

git submodule add https://github.com/adityatelange/hugo-PaperMod.git themes/PaperMod

This keeps the theme clean, separate, and updateable.

Step 4: Configuring Hugo

Most of the configuration lives in hugo.toml:

baseURL = "https://masarajames.github.io/"
languageCode = "en-us"
title = "James Masara's Digital Garden"
theme = "PaperMod"

[params]
  description = "My corner of the internet"
  defaultTheme = "auto"
  ShowToc = true
  ShowReadingTime = true

  [[params.socialIcons]]
    name = "github"
    url = "https://github.com/masarajames"

Once this was set, the site finally had styling.

Step 5: Creating My First Post

Hugo generates posts with front matter automatically:

hugo new posts/my-first-blog-post.md This creates a file like:

---
title: "My First Blog Post"
date: 2024-01-15T10:00:00Z
draft: true
---
I write everything in Markdown — no CMS, no editor lock-in.

Step 6: Previewing Locally

Before deploying anything, I preview locally:

hugo server -D

Then open:

http://localhost:1313

The -D flag shows draft posts.

Step 7: Automating Deployment (GitHub Actions)

I wanted zero manual deployment, so I set up GitHub Actions.

.github/workflows/hugo.yml:

name: Deploy Hugo site to Pages

on:
  push:
    branches: ["main"]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          submodules: true

      - uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v2
        with:
          hugo-version: 'latest'

      - run: hugo --minify

      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: ./public

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      pages: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Now every push automatically builds and deploys the site.

Step 8: Publishing

When the post was ready:

git add .
git commit -m "Add first blog post"
git push origin main

GitHub Actions took over from there.

How It All Works (Behind the Scenes)

• I write Markdown
• Hugo converts it to HTML
• GitHub Actions builds the site
• GitHub Pages serves it
• Markdown → Hugo → GitHub → Live website

Issues I Ran Into (And Fixes)

Theme not showing → Forgot theme = “PaperMod”

Images broken → Images must live in static/

404 after deploy → Wait a minute and check GitHub Actions logs

If you want next, I can:

• tune this to be more playful or more technical
• add architecture diagrams
• optimize it for SEO
• split it into a multi-part series

Just tell me 👍