When you create a new site in Jottings, something unexpected happens.
You create the site. You see the dashboard. You're ready to write your first jot. But before you even write anything, we're already building your site.
Not prepping it. Not planning it. Actually building it—generating HTML, compiling pages, uploading files to the CDN. All for a site with zero content.
This seems wasteful, right? Why would we do that?
Because it's the right way to think about provisioning.
The Philosophy: Sites First, Content Second
When you sign up for WordPress, you get a database entry and a URL. That's it. The site itself doesn't really exist until you publish your first post.
When you sign up for Medium, you get a profile, but your publication doesn't have a real "site" in the traditional sense. Your content is buried in Medium's global feed.
With Jottings, you get an actual website. A real site with a real URL, real pages, real feeds, real SEO infrastructure. The moment you create it, it's live.
This changes things psychologically. You're not writing into the void. You're writing to a real place on the internet that you own.
What Gets Built for a Zero-Jot Site?
Here's the radical part: even with zero jots, your site has:
- A home page - Currently empty or with a "No posts yet" message, but it's a real page with your site title, theme, and branding
- An RSS feed - Valid feed.xml that readers can subscribe to (they'll get new posts automatically when you publish)
- A JSON Feed - The modern alternative to RSS, also ready to go
- A sitemap - Tells search engines where your content is (or will be)
- SEO files - robots.txt, humans.txt, ai.txt telling crawlers what's on your site
- A site.webmanifest - PWA metadata for when you want app-like features
- Tag pages - Generated even though no tags exist yet (they'll populate as you write)
- A complete theme - CSS, fonts, layouts, all compiled and uploaded to the CDN
This isn't a placeholder site. It's a complete, functional website with zero content.
Why We Do This
The short answer: Because your site isn't your content. Your site is your presence.
The longer answer gets into how we think about static site generation.
Reason 1: Atomic Provisioning
If we didn't build on creation, you'd hit that first publish button and... nothing would happen immediately. We'd have to spin up the build system, compile all the site metadata, generate the HTML, and upload it. That first jot would have a noticeable delay.
By building before you have content, we ensure that the infrastructure is ready. Your first publish happens instantly because the site structure is already there.
Reason 2: Feeds Exist Before Content
Here's something most platforms get wrong: feeds are only built when there's content. So if someone discovers your RSS feed early and subscribes, then you go dark for a month, they see nothing and unsubscribe.
With Jottings, the feed URL is real and valid from day one. It's just empty. When you publish your first jot, their feed reader updates automatically. They never miss a post.
This seems like a small thing, but it's actually profound. It means your site is real from the moment you claim it. You're not launching a site—you're turning on a publication that's already there.
Reason 3: SEO From Day One
Search engines discover and crawl new sites. If your site has a valid robots.txt and sitemap from the beginning, search engines see it as a real property, not a placeholder.
When you publish your first post, Google knows where to find it because the infrastructure is already indexed. Again, not a huge difference, but it compounds over time.
Reason 4: Consistency with Our Architecture
We built Jottings on static site generation. Every time you publish, we rebuild your entire site. Every time you delete a jot, we rebuild it. Every time you change your site title, we rebuild it.
This means the "rebuild" operation is always the same: fetch your data, fetch your settings, generate all pages, upload to the CDN.
It doesn't matter if you have 0 jots or 1000 jots. The process is identical.
So provisioning a zero-jot site isn't extra work. It's just running the normal build process with empty data. The build system is already designed to handle it gracefully.
The Philosophy Underneath
Zero-jot site provisioning reveals something about how we think about Jottings:
Your site is a first-class citizen, not a container for content.
Most blogging platforms think of it the other way around. The platform is the main thing. Your blog is a feature of the platform.
We think of it differently. You are the main thing. Your site is your real estate on the internet. The Jottings dashboard is just the tool you use to maintain it.
This is why we generate your entire site structure upfront. This is why feeds exist before content. This is why you can set custom domains from day one. This is why your site's data is portable—you can download all your HTML files and run them anywhere.
Your site isn't part of Jottings. Jottings is a tool for building your site.
The Cost of This Philosophy
Building sites with zero content has a tiny cost. We're computing resources (Lambda seconds), bandwidth (uploading empty pages), and storage (files on R2) for a site with no readers.
We absorb this cost because:
- It's negligible at scale. An empty site takes almost no computing time to build.
- It's the right way to provision. The alternative—lazy provisioning when you first publish—creates complexity and inconsistency.
- It aligns with our values. You own your site. Ownership starts when you claim it, not when you have something to show for it.
What This Means for You
If you're used to WordPress or Medium, this is different:
- Your site exists immediately. Not in potential. Actually exists, right now, on the internet.
- Your feeds are real. People can follow your site before you've written anything. (Though they'll probably wait until you publish to subscribe.)
- You're in control. Not subject to platform algorithm changes. Not fighting for visibility. Your site is yours from the start.
- No first-post anxiety. Your site isn't "launching" with your first post. Your site already exists. You're just adding to it.
This might sound like a subtle distinction, but psychologically it's huge. You're not starting a blog on a platform. You're launching a website.
The Bigger Picture
Jottings is built on a philosophy: your content deserves to be published on your terms, on your domain, in a way that lasts.
Zero-jot sites are a small part of that. But they represent something bigger—a commitment to treating your site as a real thing from day one.
No "coming soon" pages. No waiting for infrastructure to warm up. No second-class citizenship on someone else's platform.
Just you, and your site, ready to go.
Ready to Claim Your Space?
If this resonates with you—if you want a real website that's yours, that's built to last, that's privacy-first and bloat-free—create a site in Jottings. See what it feels like to own your corner of the internet.
Your site is already waiting for you to write something. No platform friction. No algorithm. Just you and your readers.
Thanks for reading. If you have questions about how Jottings works, or thoughts on site ownership and indie publishing, I'd love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter, Mastodon, or through my personal site.