Introduction
This note is especially convenient for students that have an .edu email account that can be used for the GitHub Student Education Pack. I even got my first .tech website by making use of the free things given.
Overview
Of course, you can use your email to apply for the GitHub Student Education Pack. You can just search it online and the link will be the first thing to pop up. The application process is really easy, you just need to put your full name in your GitHub profile. Add your school .edu email to your account. Take a photo of whatever proof is needed and boom you’ve got it.
Most beginners do not know or might feel lost after purchasing their first domain. Don’t worry, I have been in y’all shoes before. This guide will tell you how to host your first domain that other people can search and find easily on Google.
Some of you guys might have tried hosting before. There are tools and free hosting services online that provide what you actually need (like Vercel). Though, I also believe some of you students would like to have a domain of your own name (like mine).
Starting
After purchasing your free .tech website from get.tech provided by GitHub, you can use a free and reliable hosting service like Cloudflare. The process itself is confusing, especially if you are just starting. The thing I like about Cloudflare is that it gives free SSL certificates for root domain, www., blog., and so on. It is also fast and well-known for providing high security even in the free tier.
After signing in, you can just connect your .tech domain by clicking on the “Add Domain” button on the Cloudflare dashboard interface. Later, it will ask you to configure your CNAME. Don’t panic, just copy the given address, go to get.tech, click on your domain, select custom DNS, and put the address in there. After you’ve done that, BOOM your domain is officially hosted using Cloudflare.
Congratulations, you have finished the easiest part.
Actually making the website show something
After finishing the easy part, now you need to actually show something through the website. You can do this by making use of Cloudflare Pages. You need to create a new repository in GitHub specifically for your website. If you are making websites with real users, I suggest you add 2 branches in your repository (production and development) where the development branch is for testing your website before pushing it into production. If you are just a normal user making a website for a portfolio, it is alright.
After you have initialized your repository, this is where the coding starts. Of course, I won’t show you how to do the coding. Also, you can also ask an AI agent to do it for you (it’s up to you of course). Though some people might flame me for encouraging the use of AI??? There are several web dev frameworks you can use online such as React.js, Vue.js, and more.
After you have done your website, you can finally configure your Cloudflare Pages to connect your GitHub repo to your domain. If you are using a well-known framework, Cloudflare can actually automatically detect what is needed.
Conclusion
This is what I usually tell my friends. Of course, anyone is free to give suggestions on how to improve this guide. Contact me!