A bunch of people have asked how I built my blog, favourfelix.com, more times than I expected. I thought it might be interesting to turn the process into a story.
Let me be clear: I have no intention of making this story sound profound, leaving me with quite the herculean task—considering the profound journey it took to get to this point. And you might wonder—what’s so special about building a blog? Absolutely nothing; it’s the story that precedes it that holds the most substance.
We live in an age where very few people get excited about reading. No one seems interested if it’s not audio-visual content or a short tweet. Amid all this chaos, there’s me. The one with an inexplicable desire to do things differently than everyone I encounter—this is why I still write.
Here’s a quick outline for the story I am about to tell:
The beginning (2011 - 2015)
As a young child, I never had an internet-enabled phone, yet I constantly sought ways to establish a presence online. You might wonder why. Well, it all stemmed from my childhood ambition of becoming a computer engineer. I eagerly seized any chance that seemed to validate that career path, even if it involved signing up for platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, and 2go, without actively engaging in any of them.
The goal to build a blog began with a simple Google search: “How to make a website” sometime in October 2011. The search result pages almost always led to something technical requiring a personal computer, which I did not have then. Hence, I went for a more accessible option: Microblogging sites. I could add my name or any word as a subdomain to personalize the website and make it feel like mine, so it felt perfect.
My first stop on the microblogging train was Blogger—arguably the most popular one in 2011, but I soon realized it wasn’t the best and switched tracks to WordPress. The WordPress track introduced me to even greater customizations and a less skeletal User Interface. So, I stuck with it for the longest.
References: felixfavour.blogspot.com, felixfavour.wordpress.com (now discontinued)
The middle (2016 - 2021)
The middle was exceptional; this season, I really began blogging even though the preliminary years involved me lifting content from the internet—in my defence, that was what blogging meant to me.
I and a long-time friend began a blogging group called The Niclex (His first name is Nicholas, and my last name is Felix. Get it?). It grew to be one of my most significant achievements. The Niclex grew from a team of two to over ten authors and editors, and we wrote content that outlived our early tenacity. The blog was most active from 2018 to 2021 and was very prosperous by numerous standards.
Image showing all-time organic stats on theniclex.wordpress.com blog.
Thanks to Nicholas Onyeanakwe, Salim Oyinlola, Tobi Wesey, Ajibola Matthew, Inioluwa Adeniyi, Temi Adesanya, Daniel Okafor, Adeyemi Ayodeji, Bolu and everyone else who engaged and supported the cause.
References: theniclex.wordpress.com, crufftechnologies.wordpress.com
There will be no end (2022 - forever)
Finally, 2020/2021 was a pivotal season for me, especially from a faith perspective. I was becoming an adult, a 9-5er, and I needed a personal outlet to share a few discoveries and thoughts aside from my notebook; that was how this blog came to life.
I wrote my first piece on the 17th of September, 2022, after teasing a launch in October 2021.
Technical Jargon and Conclusion
This story has transcended from being a story about the technicalities of this blog to one of my early blogging experiences. Sharing how I designed and built this would fit better in its own article.
To wrap things up, one of the key takeaways from this article, along with some context from previous posts on this blog, is my inclination always to start something. There was a time when I didn’t particularly appreciate this aspect of myself because it seemed like I embarked on numerous endeavours without much tangible progress to showcase.
However, in hindsight, each of these experiences played a crucial role in preparing me for the unforeseen challenges that awaited me in my subsequent experiences. Moreso, the drive I displayed during those initial phases has proven to be an invaluable asset in my little achievements within the corporate world.
Glossary
Subdomain: This is an additional word that might precede a domain name (facebook.com, twitter.com) to categorize a site’s content. For example, mobile.facebook.com is a subdomain of facebook.com, and it is used to serve users who visit facebook.com on their mobile phones.
User Interface (UI) - This is simply the components and design of a digital product that defines how a user can interact with it. For a website, this could be the colour, font, use of images, layout, and more.
9-5er: A person who works a mundane job that typically runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.