🚀 From “What If” to Self-Hosted — Building My First Ghost Blog 👻

I’ve never built or hosted a website before. No blogs, no portfolios. But recently, I found myself wondering… how hard could it really be to self-host something?

What started as a random idea became a project that took me deep into Docker, Linux and NGINX.

• I spun up a Hetzner Cloud CX22 VPS - €3.95 a month is hard to beat!
• Once I had access, I dropped straight into Docker Compose running Ghost, MariaDB and also added Watchtower to handle container updates automatically.
• I love LazyDocker basically a TUI for managing containers. No idea why, but watching those little graphs update live is way more satisfying than it should be.
• For SSL and reverse proxy, I went with NGINX Proxy Manager usually certificates are a headache but this was a breeze. Automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates, clean UI, HSTS, the works.
• Finally, I grabbed a domain kerrbo.dev $5 thanks to Porkbun - solid pricing with free WHOIS privacy and DNSSEC. Seeing that little lock 🔒 pop up in the browser was a genuine win.

🧠 Stuff I’ve Learned (so far):

• Docker is great… right up until one random indent breaks everything and you question your life choices.
• Locking down SSH and sorting firewall rules feels more important when it’s your server exposed to the internet.
• Seeing your own site load for the first time is so satisfying especially knowing you actually built it.
• Turns out, self-hosting isn’t really about saving money it’s about figuring out how all this stuff actually works (and breaking it a few times along the way).