Of course! Creating a blog from a Jupyter Notebook is a fantastic way to share your code, data analysis, and research. It combines narrative text with executable code and its output, making your posts incredibly clear and reproducible.

Here is a comprehensive guide covering the most popular methods, from simple to more advanced, along with best practices.

Why Blog with Jupyter Notebooks?

• Reproducibility: Anyone can run your code and see the exact same results.
• Clarity: You can explain your thought process step-by-step, right next to the code that executes it.
• Rich Output: Notebooks support not just text and code, but also Markdown, LaTeX, images, videos, and interactive widgets.
• All-in-One: The notebook file (.ipynb) contains everything: text, code, and outputs. You don't have to manage separate files for images and code snippets.

Method 1: The Easiest Way - nbconvert & GitHub Pages

This is the most popular and straightforward method. It involves converting your notebook to a static HTML file and hosting it for free on GitHub Pages.

How it Works:

1. Write your notebook in JupyterLab or classic Jupyter Notebook.
2. Convert the .ipynb file to an .html file using a tool called nbconvert.
3. Host the generated HTML file on a static site service like GitHub Pages.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Step 1: Install Jupyter and nbconvert If you don't have them, open your terminal or command prompt and install them using pip:

pip install jupyter
pip install nbconvert

Step 2: Write Your Notebook Create a new notebook. For this example, let's call it my_blog_post.ipynb. Write your content using a mix of:

• Markdown Cells: For titles, paragraphs, explanations, and images.
• Code Cells: For your Python code.
• Code Output: The results of your code (plots, tables, print statements) will be automatically captured.

Step 3: Convert to HTML Open your terminal, navigate to the directory where you saved your notebook, and run the following command:

jupyter nbconvert --to html my_blog_post.ipynb

This will create a file named my_blog_post.html in the same directory. You can open this file in any web browser, and it will look just like your notebook.

Step 4: Host with GitHub Pages (Free)

1. Create a GitHub Repository: Go to GitHub and create a new public repository (e.g., my-awesome-blog).
2. Push your HTML file: Commit and push the my_blog_post.html file to your new repository.
3. Enable GitHub Pages:
   • Go to your repository's Settings.
   • In the left menu, click on Pages.
   • Under "Source," select the main branch (usually main or master).
   • Click Save.
4. View your blog! GitHub will provide you with a URL, usually in the format https://<your-github-username>.github.io/<your-repository-name>/. Your blog post will be live!

Pro-Tip: To make your blog look better, you can use a template. The most famous one is Felix Kratz's Jekyll template. You create a gh-pages branch, add the template files, and then place your converted HTML files in an nb or posts folder.

Method 2: The "Notebook-as-a-Post" Approach - Pelican, Nikola, Hugo

This method is more powerful if you want a full-featured blog system with multiple posts, categories, tags, and a custom theme. You treat your notebook files as the source for your blog posts.

How it Works:

A static site generator (SSG) like Pelican or Nikola is configured to:

1. Scan a specific folder for .ipynb files.
2. Use nbconvert in the background to convert each notebook into an HTML file.
3. Extract metadata (like title, date, tags, summary) from the notebook's front matter or cell metadata.
4. Generate a complete, navigable website with all your posts.

Step-by-Step Guide with Nikola (Nikola is particularly well-suited for this):

Step 1: Install Nikola

pip install nikola

Step 2: Create a New Nikola Site

nikola init my_blog
cd my_blog

This will ask you a few questions to set up your site.

Step 3: Configure Nikola for Notebooks Open the conf.py file in the root of your new blog. Find the POSTS and PAGES sections. Change them to look for .ipynb files.

# In conf.py
# Posts are stored in posts/
POSTS = (
    ("posts/*.ipynb", "posts", "post.tmpl"),
    ("posts/*.rst", "posts", "post.tmpl"),
    ("posts/*.md", "posts", "post.tmpl"),
)
# Pages are stored in posts/
PAGES = (
    ("posts/*.ipynb", "pages", "page.tmpl"),
    ("posts/*.rst", "pages", "page.tmpl"),
    ("posts/*.md", "pages", "page.tmpl"),
)

Step 4: Create Your First Notebook Post Create a new folder called posts inside your my_blog directory. Inside posts, create a new notebook, for example, 2025-10-27-my-first-post.ipynb.

In the first cell of your notebook, add metadata using Jupyter's "Notebook metadata" feature (you can edit this in the GUI). Nikola can use this for the post title, date, and tags.

// In the notebook's metadata
{: "My Awesome First Post",
  "tags": ["python", "data", "intro"],
  "date": "2025-10-27"
}

The rest of your notebook can be the content of your post.

Step 5: Build and Run Your Site From your terminal, run:

nikola build
nikola serve

Now you can view your blog at http://127.0.0.1:8000. Nikola will automatically detect your new notebook post and include it in the site.

Step 6: Deploy You can deploy the generated output folder to GitHub Pages, Netlify, or any other static host just like in Method 1.

Method 3: The Interactive Approach - Voilà & Voilà Gallery

This method is for when you don't just want to show your results, but let your readers interact with them.

How it Works:

You use a tool called Voilà to convert your notebook into a standalone, interactive web application. The code is hidden, and only the interactive widgets (like sliders, dropdowns, and buttons) and outputs are visible.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Step 1: Install Voilà

pip install voila

Step 2: Create an Interactive Notebook Your notebook should have interactive widgets. A great example is a simple plot that changes based on user input.

# In your Jupyter Notebook
import ipywidgets as widgets
from IPython.display import display
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Create a slider
slider = widgets.IntSlider(value=5, min=1, max=10, description='Number of points:')
# Function to update the plot
def update_plot(n):
    plt.figure(figsize=(6, 4))
    x = range(n)
    y = [i**2 for i in x]
    plt.bar(x, y)
    plt.title(f'Plot of x^2 for {n} points')
    plt.show()
# Use the interact function to link the slider to the function
widgets.interactive(update_plot, n=slider)

Step 3: Launch with Voilà Save the notebook (e.g., interactive_plot.ipynb). Then, from your terminal, run:

voila interactive_plot.ipynb

This will start a local server. You can then open http://127.0.0.1:8866 in your browser to see and interact with your notebook.

Step 4: Share Your App

• Voilà Gallery: You can upload your app to the official Voilà Gallery.
• Binder: For reproducibility, you can use MyBinder.org. Users can click a link and launch your notebook in a free, temporary cloud environment.
• Private Hosting: You can deploy Voilà apps on cloud platforms like Heroku, AWS, or Google Cloud.

Best Practices for Notebook Blogging

1. Narrative First: Write your text and plan your structure before writing complex code. The notebook should tell a story.