How to create a blog using Hexo, Github Pages, Cloudflare with SSL - Step by step with images

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We need:

Process

1. Enter to cloudflare.com and add a site







2. Enter to godaddy.com and config nameservers

Setup Nameservers

Click on “DNS”

In the section “Nameservers” click on “Change”

Select custom and add cloudflare’s nameservers

Delete any nameserver if exist.

Cloudflare nameservers

  • joan.ns.cloudflare.com
  • nash.ns.cloudflare.com

Validate Nameservers

According to Cloudflare and Godaddy the process to change nameservers can take up to 24 hours, but normally take a few minutes, you can validate in two ways:

From CLI

Open the terminal and paste next command

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$ nslookup -type=ns randomtechguy.com

From web

Enter to https://dnschecker.org/

3. Create a repo in Github

Enter to github.com and create repo

Add a name to your new repo and click on “Create repository”

4. Verifies security certs availability(SSL)

At this time your domain is management by cloudflare so we have an SSL certificate.
Enter to cloudflare.com
Click on your site created at step 1
Click on Crypto and verify certificate status, it should be active like under image:

Go to section “Always Use HTTPS” and check “On”

From here we will use the terminal :D

5. Install hexo (https://hexo.io/)

Open the terminal

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# Install hexo globally
$ npm install hexo-cli -g
# Start a hexo project
$ hexo init myawesomeblog
# Enter to project folder and install dependencies
$ cd myawesomeblog
$ npm install
# Test our new blog
hexo server
# This command should return
INFO  Start processing
INFO  Hexo is running at http://localhost:4000 . Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Open a browser with url http://localhost:4000.
Don’t close the terminal, we will use later

The next steps are based on a awesome post by Jeff Ferrari
https://www.poweredbyjeff.com/2018/05/14/Deploying-Hexo-website-to-Github-Pages/

6. Setup hexo for upload to Github

Edit _config.yml

Edit URL
url: https://randomtechguy.com #your domain with https

Edit public dir from public to docs
public_dir: docs

Comment deploy config
#deploy:
# type:

7. Generate files and upload to Github

Open the terminal

Generate files

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# Remove plugins
$ npm uninstall hexo-generator-cname hexo-deployer-git
# Create CNAME file in source folder, use nano, vim or your prefer editor
$ nano source/CNAME #no extension, all uppercase
# The contents of this file should be the domain of your website
$ echo myawesomeblog.com > source/CNAME
# Generate files
hexo generate
# This commando should generate a folder named docs

Add remote origin and make first commit

You can see original post in Github Help
https://help.github.com/articles/adding-an-existing-project-to-github-using-the-command-line/

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$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "First commit"
# Add remote origin URL, use URL from your repo created at the step 3
$ git remote add origin remote https://github.com/diegofcornejo/myawesomeblog.git 
# Verifies the new remote URL
git remote -v 
# Push changes
$ git push origin master

8. Setup Github Pages

Open your repo on the web
Now should see files in your repo

Click on Tab “Settings”

On section “Github Pages” Select master branch / docs folder and Save

9. Finally open a browser and write your domain, will see your blog running on your domain.