New Website
Tags: webdev, gatsby, react
Published: 2020-04-28 13:14:54

I'm releasing my [new website](https://gledsleymuller.com/?utm_source=Dev.to&utm_medium=blog+post) built with Gatsby<sup>\*</sup>. I've been working on this rebuild for a while but now I managed to find time to complete the project. It's still a prototype but I wanted a blog desperately.

![Jim Carrey typing.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8jqn3v5na718xc8zhpin.gif)


It's been ages I wanted to write again but I was always postponing. I wanted to create a solution where I posted on my website and then republish the same content on Medium and Dev.to as well... it seems to be the best approach to reach out a lot of other developers out there. Not sure if I'll have interesting things to say but I'll do my best to share some things I know here and there 😉

_<sup>\*</sup>The first version of this blog was actually with Nuxt.js but I decided to use Gatsby because I wanted to give it a try. I can't really say if it would be easier with Nuxt or make any real comparison, but I'm just leaving this comment here in case someone gets curious about my choice._

## Downsides of the new build

As I mentioned, this is still a prototype that I managed to push live. I mean, I took my static HTML website and just started rebuilding it on Gatsby. I tried to take shortcuts (yeah, sometimes we do the things we preach not to do) and ended up with a working blog that may or may not work well for SEO. But for lack of time, I had to kill two things I liked about my previous build:

1. the hero interactive background 🌟
2. the interactive growing tree 🌳

Both of them use canvas and I simply didn't have much time to investigate how to handle the interaction with React. I will, at some point, get back to them, but I also tried to optimise the website and I know for a fact that my interactive background was leaking memory (there, I said it!). So, for now, those nice to have things are on hold...

![Screenshot of hero section of my previous website.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/vjc46ijxftv5hk7rwsvb.png)

I still miss the tree though... that was not really my code and I'll have to refactor it to make it work properly here. That's a Sunday maybe item for now...

![Screenshot of interactive growing tree of my previous website.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/tbdj0pkrb5olbjs7neht.png)

## Upsides of the new build

In a nutshell:

1. there's a blog now 🎉
2. I can, in theory, get my posts and publish them on Medium and Dev.to 🤔
3. I can extend content on my [mentorship page](https://gledsleymuller.com/mentorship?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=blog+post) 🤓

My first goal was to be able to publish some articles in little time, using my own website and keeping my – previously handcrafted by me – designs with some tweaks. So, that has been ~~partially~~ accomplished. The second goal was to publish these stories on Medium and Dev.to... that will only be possible once I do publish this and test the SEO side of things of my build...

![Jake Peralta saying cool, cool, cool.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/eonw16ioycz4p0f506ne.gif)

In regards to my [mentorship page](https://gledsleymuller.com/mentorship?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=blog+post), I've been officially mentoring some devs for a couple of years now and I'm planning to make this program a bit broader, if possible. For that, I'll need a dedicated page so... mission accomplished in that sense 🎉

Well, now it's time to push the button and see how it goes 😱

Constructive feedback is welcome btw 😉