Hi,
I’m looking into hosting a blog site for myself - nothing fancy, just a site where I can publish some of my thoughts and ideas. Maybe I also want a section to publish images. So, basically something lean and mostly text only.
What’s the easiest way to set this up for myself?
Depends on what you want exactly. Easy and self-hosted are not usually go well together unless you’ve got enough experience.
Easiest way for blog - use a platform. WordPress.com is great and has free tier.
More involved, but still relatively easy - static site generator. I use Hugo myself, there is Jakyll that is popular too. Host it for free on GitHub or GitLab pages.
I would not self-host a public web site for security reasons. But you can run a static site on some cloud service. A personal blog with small audience should be fine on Oracle free tier.
I do that. I have WordPress.org with classic editor enabled and the raw html plugin. Use a classic layout like twenty twelve if you don’t want the fancy effects. Look for a host that has softaculous or something similar to automate the installation. My host charges about £60 pa with unlimited bandwidth.
You can also use WordPress.com for free but it has Gutenberg, which I absolutely cannot bear. Some people like it though. It’s also less customisable.