Building a Personal Blog as a Backend Developer: My Journey with Custom Styling and Design

As a seasoned backend developer specializing in the .NET framework, my expertise has always been focused on building complex, behind-the-scenes systems that users rarely see. Stepping outside my usual domain to create a publicly accessible website presented an exciting new challenge.

My goal was to craft a straightforward, lightweight platform where I could share my thoughts and display some of the reusable libraries I’ve developed over time. After considering various options, I decided to use 11ty (Eleventy), a static site generator known for its speed and simplicity, enabling me to focus on content rather than infrastructure.

Throughout this process, I gained valuable insights into front-end development and design, expanding my skill set beyond back-end systems. It was a refreshing change from the usual technical puzzles like optimizing memory management, handling garbage collection, or debugging multithreaded race conditions.

Today, I’m excited to share the fruits of my labor – my personal blog: ByteAether Blog. I’ve also included Lighthouse performance benchmarks to illustrate the site’s efficiency.

If you’re interested in custom CSS or just want to see how I styled my site, feel free to reach out! I hope you find some inspiration or useful insights from my journey.