Welcome to my Blog! This Blog is based on my Newsletter - whenever I publish a new Newsletter issue, it'll show up here! (That's nice, isn't it?)

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What was my motivation to start creating things 4 years ago? Why did I learn to code?

Tough questions.

Seriously, I didn't thought about that back then. I just started to create thing. I mean, I was 12.

But now, 4 years later I understand it. I wanted to make something on my own. And with a few lines of code, I could do it. I remember building a small piece of software to generated dynamic Invitations for my Birthday Party which I could send to my friends. I realized that "code" could help me save time at every-day tasks. (Okay, making those invitations manually would have been way faster that writing that software, but hey: It was fun!).

Later I started to create Tools I published. I wrote WordPress-Plugins and could see that other people (even in other countrys 😲) used something I made. Stunning.

For me, It was a way to make something...

1. ...that others could use and which helped them.

2. ...I liked to do. Writing software was (and still is) a lot of fun!

Later I started creating Tools just for others. I made stuff people would eventually use and not something solely because it's fun. I mean, I integrated features into Tools I made, just because others wanted to have something like that. I didn't create Projects out of fun and to learn something new anymore. Don't do that. If you don't have fun creating something - leave it! Seriously, do things that don't scale. Make things nobody would use. Make something with no sense (a Cat-Clicker! 😸). If it's fun and you enjoy doing it: Do it! And maybe someone uses your Cat-Clicker. Maybe they like what you do. Maybe you even get money out of your Projects. But all of this are just unexpected benefits of what you do. The main reson to create something should always be to have fun. Seriously.

Conclusion

I don't know if the stuff I just wrote matches the title. But that doesn't matter. I just wrote what came to my mind. I wrote to have fun. I created a piece of text to clarify that we all should create to have fun. An that's it. ✌️

tl;dr

You should create things to have fun. To learn something new. Things that make your life easier.

And now: have fun creating things! 😄

That's all for now.
Bye 👋
Stay healthy & keep coding
An

Hello World! 👋
Remember when I said that I've planned to pack my Newsletter into a Blog? Yes, I did it. In under an hour.

So first of all: Thank you for even reading my Newsletter! 😊 I really appreciate it!
So now, let's get right into how I built my Blog (and how you can, too!)

What I used 💻

Glitch

Glitch.com is a great site which allows you to build and host your own Websites (and other code) for free! It supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP and a lot more! Additionally, every Project gets its own free glitch.me-Subdomain with build-in SSL.

I decided to use Glitch for hosting my Blog and a new Project is created in just a few seconds (you can even "remix" [~clone] other Projects to get started even faster).

Bulma

Bulma is an awesome open-source alternative to Bootstrap or similar CSS Frameworks. It's great because you can get cool-looking websites pretty fast. (And hey: It's 100% Mobile Responsive!)

I used Bulma to create the Blog-Website itself.
I used a great free Bulma Blog Template together with some own CSS and JavaScript Magic 🚀

For the Header background-Image I coose a cool Photo from Steve Halama on Unsplash.

But where's the content coming from?

The Blog is based on my Newsletter - whenever I publish a new Newsletter Issue, it'll show up on the Blog!
Technically, the Blog just reads my Newsletters RSS Feed and displays the posts.

Wrapping Up 💬

That's all for now!
I know, it wasn't much but I hope you still enjoyed reading it! If you want to talk with me, you can always contact me on Twitter or Telegram.
I'm happy to hear from you :)

The Blog I'm talking about all the time lives here 👉 ans.glitch.me
And here's its Code 👉 glitch.com/~ans

Stay healthy & keep coding!
An

Seems like this is my first Post ever... Hello World! 👋

Maybe I should first introduce myself... I'm An, a 16yo student who loves to code in his freetime :) I thought myself how to code when I was 13 (basically I started with Scratch when I was 12, but that's no real coding, isn't it?). Back then I did some HTML and I was about to start with PHP. Afterwards I learned CSS and basic JavaScript. Today I can fluently code in HTML, PHP, CSS, JS, Java, C and a bunch of other languages like BASIC 😅. I already coded basic stuff in Python too (shout-out to my friend Pete 😉). So now I'm starting a Newsletter (obiously). I already thought of packing my Newsletter in a real Blog too, but I guess I should start writing Posts first :P

So as the Title of this Post suggests, I want to talk a little bit about Makers Up today. Makers Up is a News Source for Indie Makers. I discovered it a little over a Month ago and it sounded great. It was founded by Zachary and he was searching for volunteers to help him. I said yes. Honestly, I didn't had much freetime but I said I could help a bit. I enjoy being part of such a great team. We covered the 24hrstartup Callenge and I basically helped to tweet News every day. I met great people on Twitter back then (looking at you Sergio, Ethan, Kerr, Adith, Miguel and all of you others). It was fun! When we finally launched on 3rd of January we got over 300 upvotes on ProductHunt in the first 24 hours being #2 Product Of The Day 🤗

So what did I learn?

1. Offer your help Seriously, even if you don't have much freetime: you can always help a little bit.

2. Be friendly If you find something useful, just message the Maker a short "Thank you for this helpful Product! 🙌" and you made his/her day!

Thank you

This is for all of those who read this far: Thank you! 😀

So apparently this was my first Post - I hope you liked it! I'm planning to write as often as I can. Maybe about some more tech-related stuff too. If you want, you can always contact me on Twitter or Telegram.

Bye 👋
Stay healthy & keep coding!
An