This is the story of how this very site was built β and the strategy behind it.
The idea
Instead of building another AI content farm, I decided to combine two things:
- Tutorials that teach developers how to build with AI
- Free embedded tools that people can use right on the page
The tools drive traffic (people share useful free tools), and the tutorials build authority with Google.
The tech stack
- Astro β static site generator, perfect for SEO
- Vercel β free hosting with great performance
- Markdown/MDX β write posts in Markdown, embed interactive components
- Vanilla JS β for the embedded tools (no framework overhead)
Total cost: $0/month (plus ~$12/year for a domain).
How to replicate this
1. Set up the project
npm create astro@latest my-blog -- --template blog
cd my-blog
npm install
2. Customize for your niche
Update src/consts.ts with your site name and description. This gets used across the site for SEO meta tags.
3. Write your first tool post
The key insight: embed working tools directly in your Markdown posts using inline <script> tags. No React, no build complexity β just HTML and vanilla JS.
4. Deploy
# Push to GitHub, connect to Vercel
git add -A
git commit -m "initial commit"
git push
Vercel auto-detects Astro and deploys. Zero config.
Whatβs next
Iβll be publishing new tools and tutorials weekly. Each post will include:
- A working demo you can try
- The full source code
- An explanation of how it works
Follow along to see if this actually makes money. Iβll share real numbers.