Automating the most annoying aspects of blogging

In a recent blog post, Matt Sephton discusses his efforts to automate various tedious aspects of blogging, particularly focusing on his experience with the Jekyll theme "Type." After optimizing his blog's performance, reducing build time from approximately 12 seconds to 1 second, he identified repetitive tasks that hindered his workflow. These tasks included entering links and tags, as well as uploading images to his CDN server. To address these issues, he developed tools such as a Markdown File Linker and a YAML Tag Picker to streamline the process of linking and tagging. Additionally, he created an automated system for uploading images using a GitHub Webhook that triggers a git pull on his server whenever new files are pushed. This system involves a PHP script that validates and creates a trigger file, which is monitored by a service that executes the git pull command. Sephton provides detailed instructions for setting up this automation, emphasizing the importance of efficiency in managing a blog.

- Matt Sephton optimized his Jekyll blog, reducing build time significantly.

- He developed tools to automate the entry of links and tags.

- An automated image upload system was created using a GitHub Webhook.

- The setup process for the automation includes specific commands for system services.

- The blog post highlights the importance of streamlining repetitive tasks in blogging.