Aravindh Raju

Software engineer, avid reader, sports enthusiast, and lifelong learner who enjoys exploring new ideas and challenges.

2 minute read

Hey all! In this guide, we will walk through setting up a Jekyll-based personal website using the Minimal Mistakes theme. We will cover installation, customization, enabling key features like blogs and categories, deploying to GitHub Pages, and even setting up a custom GoDaddy domain.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure you have the following installed:

Step 1: Fork the Minimal Mistakes Starter Repository

Minimal Mistakes is a popular Jekyll theme. The easiest way to start is by forking its starter repository:

  1. Go to Minimal Mistakes Starter
  2. Click the Fork button (top right corner)
  3. Rename your forked repository if needed

Step 2: Clone and Set Up the Project

# Clone your forked repository
$ git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/minimal-mistakes
$ cd minimal-mistakes

# Install dependencies
$ bundle install

Step 3: Customize Your Website

Update _config.yml

Modify _config.yml to reflect your personal information:

title: "Your Name"
url: "https://yourusername.github.io"
theme: minimal-mistakes-jekyll

Modify _data/navigation.yml

Update navigation links:

main:
  - title: "Home"
    url: /
  - title: "Blog"
    url: /year-archive/
  - title: "About"
    url: /about/
  - title: "Contact"
    url: /contact/
  - title: "Categories"
    url: /categories/
  - title: "Search"
    url: /search/

Step 4: Enable Features

Blog

Minimal Mistakes includes a blog section where you can post articles. To create a new post, add a Markdown file inside _posts/ with the following format:

---
title: "My First Blog Post"
date: 2025-03-24
tags: [jekyll, minimal-mistakes]
categories: [blog]
---

This is the content of your first post!

About Page

Create an about.md file in the root directory:

---
layout: single
title: "About Me"
permalink: /about/
---

Write about yourself here!

Categories & Tags

Minimal Mistakes supports categories and tags. Ensure you have _pages/categories.md:

---
layout: categories
title: "Categories"
permalink: /categories/
---

Enable search by adding _pages/search.md:

---
layout: search
title: "Search"
permalink: /search/
---

Then, ensure search: true is enabled in _config.yml.

Step 5: Run Jekyll Locally

To preview the site before deploying:

$ bundle exec jekyll serve

Then open http://localhost:4000 in your browser.

Step 6: Deploy to GitHub Pages

Enable GitHub Pages

  1. Go to your repository on GitHub
  2. Navigate to Settings > Pages
  3. Under Source, select gh-pages (or main if applicable)
  4. Click Save

Push Changes to GitHub

$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Initial commit"
$ git push origin main

Your website should be live at https://yourusername.github.io/ after a few minutes.

Bonus: Use a GoDaddy Custom Domain

Step 1: Buy a Domain from GoDaddy

  1. Go to GoDaddy
  2. Purchase a domain (e.g., yourdomain.com)

Step 2: Configure GitHub Pages with GoDaddy

  1. In your GitHub repository, create a CNAME file in the root directory: 
    echo "yourdomain.com" > CNAME
git add CNAME
git commit -m "Add custom domain"
git push origin main
  2. Go to GoDaddy DNS settings
  3. Add the following A Records (remove any existing A records): 
    Type: A
Name: @
Value: 185.199.108.153
Type: A
Name: @
Value: 185.199.109.153
Type: A
Name: @
Value: 185.199.110.153
Type: A
Name: @
Value: 185.199.111.153
  4. Add a CNAME Record: 
    Type: CNAME
Name: www
Value: yourusername.github.io

Your custom domain should be working within 24 hours!

That’s it! Your Jekyll site is now live on GitHub Pages with a custom domain and essential features like a blog, about page, categories, and search.

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