A Fresh Start

A few months ago, I made what I now realize was a terrible decision: I attempted to deploy a Next.js project directly to my shared web hosting server. I was excited to build a modern portfolio page for internship applications. Next.js seemed like the perfect fit. It's fast, popular, and looks good combined with shadcn/ui. I didn't realize how resource intensive it can be, especially on shared hosting.

Things didn't go well.

The deployment didn't just cause minor issues like slow load times. It crashed the entire server. My portfolio page went down, along with every other site I owned and the management panel. I tried everything I could to bring it back online. I even upgraded to a more expensive hosting plan, but that didn't solve the problem. The server couldn't handle the workload. With no other options left, I had to wipe it and start from scratch. The experience was frustrating and expensive.

To make matters worse, when I tried to restore my old WordPress blog, it simply would not work. There were no error messages and no obvious reasons why, it just kept loading infinitely. Fortunately, I had a backup that I downloaded to my personal computer. Thanks to that file, I was able to recover years of content and avoid losing everything I had built.

After that, I knew I needed a more sustainable approach. I stepped back and reconsidered how I build and manage personal projects. This time, I'm prioritizing systems I can maintain without risking every site on the server.

I rebuilt my blog from scratch using Next.js (properly this time) and shadcn/ui for the UI components. For content management, I integrated a headless CMS, which lets me update posts without relying on WordPress. Everything is deployed through GitHub and Vercel, which fits my needs and costs nothing. Git gives me version control, and I no longer have to manage the deployment on shared hosting.

The lesson was painful, but I'm glad to start fresh with this blog. It's more flexible, built with tools I understand better, and this time it's (almost) mine from scratch.

I'll also recover and upload my old blog posts one by one. It may take time, but I want to preserve the content and experiences I've shared over the years. I hope readers still find something useful in them.