When I first starting looking for a blogging platform a few months ago I had the following priorities: it needed to be free, it needed to be easy to use, and it needed to be able to run scripts. My first inclination was to use a blogging site like Wordpress. Although Wordpress is free and easy, it didn't allow me to runs scripts on my pages. I wanted a perfect mix of control and ease that would give me the freedom to customize my site heavily, but allow me to ignore complexity. Enter GitHub Pages and Jekyll Now.

Alone, GitHub Pages is both free and flexible to use. Making a website is as simple as creating a new repo and pushing to it. GitHub Pages also fully supports using a website build system called Jekyll. Jekyll takes markdown files and turns them into beautiful webpages for you.

Of course, learning how to use Jekyll to build a good looking website takes a lot of time. Jekyll Now is Barry Clark's solution to this problem. All it is, is a template repo that is ready to use as soon as you fork it. To start, adjust the "About Me" page, update the site with your contact information, and write a quick first blog. The repo comes with plenty of helpful examples to get your site running as fast as possible. Over time, if you want to add any extra flourishes to your site, you can add them at your own pace.

If you don't have a blog or are curious about using Jekyll, all you need is an hour and this repo. Enjoy!