You Don't Need WordPress
Create a blog with only Google Docs
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Pat Walls

You Don't Need WordPress - Create a blog with only Google Docs

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Create A blog with just Google Docs for free. Integrate directly with Google Drive. Work from your phone or computer.

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Pat Walls
Maker
Hey PH 👋 Super excited to launch this (and very tired) YOU DON'T NEED WORDPRESS: Every time I log into Wordpress, my head hurts. I love Google Docs so I had the shower thought to use Google Drive as a CMS for a blog. I wanted to build something: 😎Dead simple and easy to use 🛠Get set up in a breeze 📝Start writing immediately! 💪Access to powerful Google Docs features ⚙️Highly customizable (tables, shapes, charts export with ease) 🚫No markdown 💻Open source Cool example: Export native gDocs charts, tables, formatting with ease: https://www.youdontneedwp.com/pa... HOW I BUILT THIS: I set a goal to build and launch this product in 24 HOURS! I live streamed the whole process on Twitch! [Recorded live stream 👉 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/313...] 5,000 people came to watch the live stream! It was nerve-racking and epic to have thousands of people watch me program, provide feedback, and ask questions. Special thanks to @alec_joness and many others! P.S. I'm sorry my Google API account is not fully approved/verified - I sent in the application and should hear back soon. Thanks for reading and let me know any feedback you have on the product!
Cam Adair
Way to go @thepatwalls! Had so much fun watching parts of the livestream - more products should be shipped this way.
Pat Walls
Maker
@camerondare Thanks Cam and I agree - most importantly it was just a really fun experience.
levelsio
This is absolutely insane in a good way. Many people can learn from your sheer persistence and rigor! 👏👏👏
Pat Walls
Maker
@levelsio Thank you 🙌🙌 You are one of my biggest inspirations Pietz!
levelsio
@thepatwalls You're mine too haha, I need to ship faster if I see you do all of this!
Cosmin Popovici
Interesting experiment :) Although bragging about exhausting yourself with work and 'you don't need X'-type of products aren't my cup of tea, I thought I'd give it a try and see if it really removes the need for WordPress || [insert CMS/blogging platform here]. It's quite featureless right now (totally understandable!), but it gets the job done, which is creating a simple page that shows content from a Google Docs file. So the most basic functionality is there. Also, besides the warning from Google (which I understand is temporary), the sign up process was smooth 👍 I couldn't find any info, so I want to ask: do you have any plans for the following? - working homepage (currently blank?) - posts index page - taxonomies (categories or tags), w/ index pages - pagination for index pages - pretty permalinks - search - open graph/social meta tags - custom code (i.e. add analytics script) - embeds (video, tweets, forms, etc) - sitemap, RSS Besides these basic requirements for blogging, I also couldn't find: - a way to change my password - a way to delete my account (had to revoke Docs access) - a way to get to my homepage (had to manually remove the post ID from the 'view draft' URL) - a link to the repo - it says on the homepage that it's open source? I know my comment looks a bit 'negative', but please don't take it the wrong way: this is my honest feedback on your current (very early) iteration, and I'm genuinely curious what your plans are with it. Cheers!
Mary Job
@cossssmin1 Following, valid questions, i want to know the answers too.
Andrey Azimov
Amazing in 24 hours! Great job! How I can connect my custom domain?
Pat Walls
Maker
@andreyazimov thank you! sheet2site.com was a huge inspiration for this project. I'm thinking of adding a pro plan if enough people like the project.
Primož Cigler
@andreyazimov @thepatwalls aweseom! What's your criteria for 'enough people'?
Akshay Kadam(A2K)
Wow I went offline for a day & Pat already launched a startup till I came back 🤣 Many people (like me ^^) just keep thinking on their next idea for weeks & you went from idea to launch in mere 17 hours Incredible Pat 👏
Pat Walls
Maker
@deadcoder0904 Thank you my man. I had this idea in the back of my head for a while. I was on a run the other day, and I realized I had no plans on the weekend... So I wrote that tweet and it kinda blew up. Idk if I would have pulled through without everyone's support yesterday! So much fun!
Pete
Great idea! I know it's early days but I'd be interested in things like custom domains and analytics .
Pat Walls
Maker
@petecodes Yes!! Custom domain, analytics, remove branding. If enough people like the project then maybe I can charge for a pro plan.
Alec Jones
It was very cool watching you build this throughout the day. Not many people could stay that focused on something for 17 hours! Congrats on all the success 🎉
Pat Walls
Maker
@alec_joness ☝️☝️☝️ It would have taken me 27 hours without your help. Thank you and I hope we can continue working together!!
Adriaan
This is super cool. From idea do launch in 17 hours. We can learn from that! Very inspirational Pat!
Pat Walls
Maker
@harianus Thanks Adriaan 😁
Daniel Sodkiewicz
I learned about this on reddit last night and I was watching Pat for a couple of minutes working live. Impressive and you gotta have balls to do such experiment. To all the potential haters: this project was done in 24 hours, while most people don’t go out of dreaming and planning stage for their big idea. Congrats!
keshav kishore
How about using Medium publications for blogging?
Umar Pharouk
@keshav1 Medium is good and this one is good too. It's always good to have too many alternatives.
keshav kishore
@pharouk90 that's true.. Best of luck
Joe Thomsett

I really love the idea and the live streaming and achievement in under 24 hours is an inspiration to all makers!

I would really consider using this as a blogging tool if I could connect a custom domain and do basic SEO, page tagging etc

Pros:

Super cool and done in under 24 hours

Cons:

Couldn't view my blog

Stephen Johnson
🎉 Great work @thepatwalls! It has ben super fun watching and chatting with you as you shipped all day. The day is over you can now sleep 😴 I have my YDNW account and will let you know when I uncover any bugs!
Pat Walls
Maker
@stephenfjohnson Thank you for hanging out on the stream I couldn't have shipped it all without you. Now your turn!! ☝️☝️
Adam Cochran
Love this @thepatwalls - great work! Always looking for a way to replace bloated WP blogs - and flat file has been a pain. On your lander, might want to add details on if this can support custom domains/sub-domains? Big selling point that I didn't see listed under features (and possibly a way to monetize?)
Pat Walls
Maker
@adamscochran Yes thank you! Yeah I wanted to implement a paid plan but I just ran out of time in my 24 hour challenge. I'm thinking custom domain, analytics, and removing branding for a monthly fee. Thoughts?
Adam Cochran
@thepatwalls Let people use a domain, but, just have them buy it through a registrar you are affiliated with. Then analytics + remove branding on a plan. I'd make both a monthly price and an annual price and have the annual price be a 40%-60% discount so people lock in for the year. Give them time to build out content on their blog so it is a very low churn.
TheSEOGuy India

Liked the idea

Pros:

Easy to use

Cons:

Hard to built trust on this

Faris Zacina
Amazing story! this will certainly inspire many people to launch earlier than they think it's possible. Also very smart marketing move to stream it live and collect early adopters! I believe You have a lot of feedback.
Raymond Duke
Very cool. I support this because I don't understand why people use WordPress. It is, for me, the most-annoying service to use. It's confusing, user unfriendly, and requires too many plugins, themes, etc. to be useful. As a writer (copywriter), I simply want to write... and make money. If I wasn't already using Squarespace, I'd gladly use YDNW.
Mo
Amazing! Also, the idea is super cool imho. Pat, you're my role model now :D
Pat Walls
Maker
@morajabi Ah dude 😇Yeah I've had a notion of the idea for a while. Stoked to just get it done and out of my system in one day!
Sebastian Kinz|inger
Nice! Love the afford! 🙌 Do you do anything to clean the code/formatting that comes out of g-docs?
Pat Walls
Maker
@derkinzi Nope nothing too crazy! The gDoc exports formatted html with inline styles. It's cool because it can format tons of stuff from the gDoc like colors, shapes, etc. The only thing I had to do was rip out the and tags and it works quite nicely. For example, Google will export a gDocs chart to an image automatically - see this example: https://www.youdontneedwp.com/pa...
Igityan Hayarpy
Great ideas. Thank you
Davis Baer
Love it!