Wow, making a website in Jekyll is great, but it definitely has a learning curve.
Even after purchasing a domain, figuring out the DNS records for github, and getting an HTML page initially stood up there was still a lot to learn.

Here are the steps I followed on windows:

  1. Download Ruby (with Bundler by default) and Jekyll on Windows
    • Here’s the Ruby+Devkit for windows install page - I had to use 3.3.8-1
  2. Read a bunch of how to guides that are based on varying deployments of jekyll and jekyll themes
  3. Double check that all software installed correctly in the Path variable.
    • This includes not installing the most up to date version of jekyll because github pages uses an older version. They will likely not update because of stability concerns for users.
    • Confirm installs with bundle exec jekyll -v and ruby-v
    • Very important Gemfile line: gem "github-pages", "~> 232", group: :jekyll_plugins
  4. Spend a lot of time figuring out what the _config.yml file does and how to configure it.
  5. Learn about what gems, bundler, _layouts and _includes are for and what jinja syntax is being used in jekyll.
  6. More that I thought to myself “wow this would be good to write down” but didn’t.


What you get for all the effort:

  • Strong thematic elements across all pages.
  • A templating implementation to avoid repeating yourself in html.
  • The option to write posts in markdown and html - instead of all html.
  • Examples from other users that you can use to improve your own site.
  • An easy and auto-reloading localhost:4000 testing environment
    • bundle exec jekyll serve
  • Ultimately, the knowledge of how to do this again in the future and a fast way to add new projects.


Here’s a link to the repo where the project is stored.