I Rebuilt My Blog Twice in One Month

Ngoc-Anh Mai
4 min readOct 15, 2024

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1. Why a Blog?

Over four years ago, I built my first blog on BlueHost. However, after three years of use, I could no longer access my BlueHost account’s cPanel. Despite multiple attempts to contact their support, I never received a response.

That’s when I decided to abandon my blog.

A little over a month ago, my Facebook account, which I had created in 2012, was locked. That account contained countless photos, statuses, and messages with friends and family. I tried reaching out to Facebook and even asked friends working at Meta to help, but I got no response.

In that moment, it felt like I had lost my online identity. After nearly 15 years of living online — spanning platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — everything I did was tied to these social networks. They felt like an online diary, recording my every move on the internet.

But what if one day my Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube accounts were all locked? Would that mean I lose my entire online identity?

That didn’t sit well with me.

I realized I needed something of my own, a place where I could establish my online presence independently from platforms I couldn’t control. And that’s why I decided to restart my blog.

2. Two Key Steps to Rebuilding the Blog

Choosing a host

Choosing a theme

Choosing a Host

Previously, I used BlueHost, but recently it seems they’ve blocked Vietnamese IPs — I kept encountering errors trying to access it.

After some research and reading reviews, I narrowed it down to the following hosting providers:

Hostinger: Friendly interface with Vietnamese support. I’m currently using this host. The pricing is good, and I got a 4-year business plan for about 4 million VND (~$170).

HostArmada: A newer company established in 2019, offering plans for $36 in the first year with a free .com domain.

FastComet: Great first-year pricing (around $26) with some free domains, though they don’t offer a .com domain for free.

Choosing a Theme

The theme is the interface I’ll interact with daily to post content, and the one readers will see when visiting the site. So, I prioritized themes that are easy to use and require minimal coding or configuration.

Some friends recommended Flatsome since it’s versatile — it works well for blogs, e-commerce, and even online courses. Since I only planned to blog, the other features didn’t matter much. However, Flatsome has a large user community, so I decided to give it a try.

After some time using Flatsome, I realized it’s best suited for e-commerce. When it came to blogging, Flatsome required more customization than I was comfortable with, so I decided to switch themes again.

I continued searching and found a theme that looked perfect, but the pro version was quite expensive ($360 per year). Thankfully, it also had a free sample version, which I tried and found to be sufficient for my needs. That’s how I ended up with the Genesis theme to continue my blog-building journey.

Setting up the theme was quick, but it took a lot of time to adjust the interface to my liking.

Even though I don’t know how to code, I used ChatGPT to help me modify the default layout. Here’s an example of how I used it:

Issues with Genesis Framework:

• The feature image of blog posts wasn’t showing up.

Comments were missing from posts, even though I had enabled them in the settings.

I spent a lot of time tweaking the theme’s layout, so these issues were really frustrating. I even relied on ChatGPT to help troubleshoot the blog’s interface.

Finally, I decided to look for a theme that would be easy to use, offer support, and require minimal customization. I was willing to pay if the theme met all three criteria.

This time, instead of Googling, I asked ChatGPT for recommendations. Here’s a list of the most suitable themes it suggested for blogging.

After some research, I decided to go with GeneratePress since it met all my requirements.

Why GeneratePress?

GeneratePress comes with built-in elements, so I didn’t need to make many adjustments or customizations. I could use the pre-made components provided by the theme.

The theme also offers its own blocks, allowing users to customize their layouts — similar to how Notion works. This meant I didn’t need to install many additional plugins.

Additionally, GeneratePress has Generate Cloud, which allows users to create and share design patterns between websites.

In conclusion, after two theme changes, I’ve settled on GeneratePress and am satisfied with the result.

I plan to post a detailed review of GeneratePress after I’ve used it for a while longer.

Read more at: https://maingocanh.com/blog

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