The idea is simple. I want everything I post on this website to last forever, or at least for a very long time. I know what you’re thinking: nothing lasts forever, and eventually, I’ll be dead too. Books can be burned, data can be erased, and memories can be forgotten. But for fun, I’d still like to make this website available for as long as I can, without spending a dime.
There’s an Easier Way
There’s a simpler way to achieve what I want. I could create a free WordPress blog on wordpress.com or convert my existing blog to Blogger and then assign a domain name to it. In truth, that’s probably what I should have done a long time ago. In fact, I did exactly that back in elementary school.
A Blogging Journey
I started blogging around 2009, creating some blogs just for fun. I’m not much of a writer anyway; I’m more interested in creating the platform, the website, rather than the content itself. Years passed, and I eventually moved on in life, starting a new blog that lasted the longest compared to the others.
This website has been around since 2018, going by many different names that I can’t even remember anymore. I try my best to be consistent with writing here, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Most of the time, I just post stories without much context.
What’s ServerlessWP?
This is going to get a bit technical…
I found a GitHub project where the author tries to host a website using the free tiers of various SaaS platforms, so it basically costs nothing. I followed the guide and managed to transfer my personal blog from a $1 per year hosting provider to completely free hosting using multiple services.
From what I understand, the website files are stored in GitHub and then imported to Vercel, which magically runs everything. As for the database, I use a free remote database server from Aiven. So far, it works just as well as a normal self-hosted WordPress installation. Of course, there are some limitations.
Free Hosting Limitations
I can’t directly install plugins or upload files like I could with normal web hosting since the service only provides temporary storage. In that case, I use Cloudflare R2’s free cloud storage to store my images. As for themes and plugins, I can still install them manually by uploading the files directly to GitHub and then deploying them under Vercel.
So yes, every piece of my website is stored in multiple places. But hey, at least it’s free. For now. Remember, nothing lasts forever.
Backups
Back it up! I still need to back up some things occasionally, at least the database. If I can’t keep the pictures, I can at least keep some of the writing I personally wrote. I used to have a backup plugin for that, but I think I disabled it a while ago. I just felt like since the data was stored everywhere, I didn’t need to back up anything at all.
The story might change if I want to physically back up everything and store it on a physical hard drive. Oh well, that’s a project for another time.
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