Build your own website in one chat

I built this website in one conversation with Claude. Not a template I filled in, but a real site with its own design, a blog, a newsletter sign-up, and pages that look good on a phone. Claude designed it with me, wrote the code, and walked me through every account and setting, one step at a time.

A lot of people have asked me to create a site for them too, so instead of doing that here's the whole recipe.

Why I chose each tool

I wanted three things: a site I fully own, as little monthly cost as possible, and nothing so technical that I'd get stuck. Here's what I picked and why.

• GoDaddy for the domain. Your domain is your address on the internet, like yourname.com, and it's the one thing worth paying for, since it's yours as long as you renew it. GoDaddy is familiar and buying a domain takes a few minutes. Any domain company works, though.
• GitHub to store the site. It's free, and it keeps a history of every change, so nothing is ever lost and any mistake can be undone. It also means the site is truly mine. It isn't locked inside a website builder, and I can move it anywhere. And I've used it at every startup so I know it.
• Cloudflare to host it. For a simple site like this, Cloudflare's free plan has no traffic limits, it's fast everywhere in the world, and it adds the secure padlock for free. It rebuilds the site automatically every time a file changes in GitHub, so publishing is just saving a file. Compare that with paying a website builder every month.
• Kit for the newsletter. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. I send each newsletter myself for now, since automatic sending is a paid feature. I own my subscriber list and can export it anytime, and the sign-up form lives on my own site, so readers stay here instead of being sent to another platform.
• Typefully for social posts. Claude drafts a short LinkedIn post for each article, I tweak it if I want to, and Typefully posts it on the day the article goes live. Its free plan covers about 10 posts a month, which is plenty for a monthly blog.
• Claude to build it. Claude handled the parts I'd never want to do alone: design options, code, and step-by-step help with each account. Because it all happened in one conversation, Claude remembered every decision along the way, so each change built on the last. I can always go back to the conversation and keep working on it.

How updates work

Once the site is set up, publishing is simple. I tell Claude what I want in my website chat, like a new blog post, a new photo or a tweak to the wording, and pick the day it should go live. From there, three things happen: the site updates, a social post goes out, and a newsletter gets drafted. Most of it is automatic, Claude reminds me about the rest, and the only hands-on part is sending the newsletter:

The newsletter could be automatic too. Kit's paid plans can email your subscribers on their own whenever a new post shows up on your site. I don't want to pay for that yet, so for now sending it is the one step I do by hand, and it takes about two minutes. But like any good build vs. buy, it feels like Kit will grow with me if I do need more support in the future and that feels good.

Have these handy

You don't need anything ready to start, because Claude will ask you about everything. But it goes faster if you have a few things nearby:

• Photos you'd like to use, like a headshot if you're building a personal website.
• A logo, if you have one. If not, Claude can work with you to create options.
• Anything you've written about yourself, like a LinkedIn summary or a bio. Rough notes are fine.
• A few websites you like the look of.

The prompt

Copy the prompt below, paste it into a new chat with Claude, and answer its questions. You don't need to change anything in it. Claude will interview you first, then build.

I'd like your help building my own personal website in this conversation, using free tools wherever possible: a domain I'll buy from GoDaddy, GitHub to store the site, Cloudflare to host it for free, Kit's free plan for an email newsletter, and Typefully to schedule social posts. I'm not a developer, so please do the building, and give me simple, numbered steps for anything I need to click or set up myself.

START BY INTERVIEWING ME
Before you design or build anything, interview me. Ask one or two questions at a time and wait for my answers. Find out:
- Who I am and what I do
- Who the site is for, and the one thing I most want visitors to do (for example: book a call, subscribe, read my writing, contact me)
- Which pages or sections I want. Suggest a simple starting set if I'm not sure.
- What the site should say. Ask me to paste anything I've already written about myself, or to just talk it through, and offer to draft the words from my answers.
- Which links to include, like my email, LinkedIn, a booking page or social profiles
- Colors, fonts and overall feel I like, and any websites I admire and why
- Whether I have a logo, or would like you to suggest some
- Which photos I'd like to use. Ask me to attach them.
- The domain name I want, and whether I already own it
When you have enough, summarize what you heard and check it with me.

THEN, STEP BY STEP
1. Show me 2 or 3 options for colors, fonts and logo side by side so I can pick or mix and match. Then show me a preview of the home page before building the rest.
2. Build a simple, fast static site: plain HTML and CSS, plus a small build script that turns Markdown files into blog posts, so I can write new posts later without touching code. It must look great on a phone.
3. Walk me through creating a free GitHub account and a repository, and save the site there. If you can't save files to GitHub yourself, give me the files and tell me exactly how to upload them.
4. Walk me through connecting the repository to a free Cloudflare account, so the site rebuilds automatically every time a file changes.
5. Walk me through buying my domain on GoDaddy and pointing it to Cloudflare. Tell me what to expect while it switches over.
6. Walk me through setting up a free Kit account and a sign-up form, then add the form to my site so people can subscribe without leaving the page. Help me write a friendly confirmation email.
7. Add the basics that help people find me: page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, a preview image for when the link is shared, and a favicon.
8. Help me set up a simple publishing routine. When I give you a new post and a publish day, publish it on that day, draft a short LinkedIn post in Typefully that goes out once the post is live, draft a newsletter email for Kit, and remind me what's left for me to do.
9. Write a short guide in the repository explaining how I publish a new blog post and how I change text, colors or photos later.
10. When we're done, check the live site with me on desktop and phone, and give me a short list of anything left for me to do.

GROUND RULES
Never ask me to paste passwords, payment details or secret keys into this chat. I'll sign in and pay on each website myself. Keep explanations short, explain any technical words, and check in with me before big decisions.

A few tips from doing this myself

Ask for options before building. Choosing between a few side-by-side designs is far easier than describing what you want from scratch. When something feels off, say it plainly ("too corporate", "the colors feel too serious") and ask for new options.

Give it your real words. The site will only sound like you if you feed it your own material. A messy brain dump beats a polished paragraph that sounds like everyone else's.

Go one step at a time. Setting up a new account or connecting a domain can take a few minutes to kick in. If something doesn't work right away, tell Claude what you see and it will help you sort it out.

Keep the chat going. Come back to the same conversation to add a page, write a post, or try a new color. Claude already knows how everything fits together.

If you build one, I'd love to see it.