This Blog Only Costs $10 a Year — How I Built a Fully Custom Static Site Using Astro + GitHub Pages + Cloudflare
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This Blog Only Costs $10 a Year — How I Built a Fully Custom Static Site Using Astro + GitHub Pages + Cloudflare

🌐 This Blog Only Costs $10 a Year — Yes, Really

How I Built a Custom Static Website Using Astro, GitHub Pages, and Cloudflare

Most people think websites are expensive — $20 to $40 a month on platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress.com.
That’s $240 to $480 a year, often for a site that looks like every other template on the platform.

But this website?
LifeLoggerz costs $10 a year.
The same price as one fast-food meal.

And here’s the best part:

You don’t need to know how to code,
you don’t need a hosting plan,
and you don’t need to install anything on your computer
(I built everything straight from GitHub.dev and Cloudflare Pages — zero local setup).

In this post, I’ll show you exactly how I built it.

🧩 What Exactly Is a Static Site?

A static site is just a collection of:

  • HTML files
  • CSS for styling
  • optional JavaScript
  • images, icons, fonts, etc.

No databases, no logins, no server code.

⭐ Advantages

  • Extremely fast (no server processing)
  • Very secure (no CMS vulnerabilities)
  • Never breaks randomly
  • Costs basically nothing
  • Perfect for blogs, portfolios, business sites, documentation, or templates

⚠️ The “Limitations” — and How I Overcame Them

Static sites traditionally can’t do things like:

  • user accounts
  • comments
  • real-time updates
  • dynamic pages

But with modern tools, these “limitations” hardly matter:

Traditional LimitationMy Solution
No backendCloudflare Workers or APIs
No built-in downloadsI host downloads directly as static files
No CMS dashboardI edit posts in GitHub.dev (browser-based VS Code)
Hard to add images/videosAstro components handle everything elegantly
Hard to add analyticsCloudflare Analytics + external scripts

Static ≠ limited anymore.
Static now means fast, affordable, and customizable.

🚀 The Exact Stack I Used

My setup is intentionally simple:

🟣 Astro — modern static-site framework

  • Markdown files for posts
  • Components for reusability
  • Partial hydration for speed
  • Extremely easy styling

🟡 GitHub Pages — free hosting

Where the code actually lives.

🔵 Cloudflare — DNS + CDN + caching

  • Makes the site globally fast
  • Handles SSL
  • You can even host the site directly on Cloudflare Pages if you want
    (I use GitHub Pages for the repo + Cloudflare for DNS.)

🛒 Domain registrar

I bought my domain for $10/year.

No hidden fees.
No subscriptions.
No hosting plans.

🛠️ Step-by-Step: How I Built LifeLoggerz (And How You Can Too)

Here’s exactly how I got from nothing → a polished site.

1️⃣ Step 1 — Buy a Domain ($10/year)

You can buy a domain anywhere:

  • Cloudflare Registrar (cheapest, no markup)
  • Namecheap
  • Google Domains (R.I.P., now Squarespace)

I recommend Cloudflare Registrar — they sell domains at wholesale price.

This took me: 5 minutes

2️⃣ Step 2 — Connect Cloudflare to GitHub Pages

This sounds complicated but it’s super simple:

  1. Create a GitHub repo
  2. Enable GitHub Pages
  3. Add your domain to the Pages settings
  4. Go into Cloudflare → DNS → add the required CNAME records
  5. Wait 5 minutes for propagation

That’s it — your domain now points to your GitHub Pages site.

This took me: 10–15 minutes

3️⃣ Step 3 — Pick an Astro Template & Customize It

Astro has tons of templates:

  • Blog starters
  • Portfolio layouts
  • Documentation themes
  • Fancy animated templates
  • Minimal text-first designs

You don’t need to code.
You just edit:

  • .md files for posts
  • config.ts for site settings
  • src/content for structure
  • Layouts for styling

I built LifeLoggerz entirely in the browser using GitHub.dev (online VS Code).

No Node.js installation.
No terminal.
No NPM on my laptop.

Just edit → save → GitHub Pages rebuilds automatically.

This took me: ~40 hours (because I customized heavily)
You: 2–4 hours for something simple
Beginner portfolio: 30 minutes

4️⃣ Step 4 — Set Up SEO & Search Visibility

I connected:

  • Google Search Console
  • Sitemaps from Astro
  • Meta tags + Open Graph tags
  • Structured data (JSON-LD)
  • Analytics via Cloudflare + simple scripts

Within a few days, I could type “LifeLoggerz” into Google and my site appeared.

Search visibility is surprisingly easy once:

  • the sitemap is indexed
  • the site loads fast
  • Cloudflare serves the pages globally

This took me: 10 minutes

5️⃣ Step 5 — Perfecting the Website (Still in Progress)

The structure is done.
The posts are forming.
The templates are solid.
The design is coherent.

Now I’m adding:

  • images
  • graphs
  • logo
  • hero banners
  • collapsible sections
  • API integrations
  • more blog posts
  • GitHub Actions for automation
  • a stats page pulling from a dummy Google Sheet

This is the part that takes love — not money.

A website is a living system.
You refine it slowly.
That’s where the beauty comes from.

📦 What About Downloads, Images, Videos, or PDFs?

With static sites, you can host anything:

  • PDF files → /public/files/…
  • Excel files → /public/downloads/…
  • Images → /images/…
  • Thumbnails → /assets/…

Just drag the file into public/ and Astro will serve it automatically.

No backend needed.
No CMS.
No complexity.

💡 What Else Should You Know?

A few more tips I wish someone told me early:

🧱 1. Static Sites Are Future-Proof

No plugin updates.
No broken themes.
No PHP errors.
No monthly fees.
No vendor lock-in.

Your site will still load 20 years from now.

🖥️ 2. You Don’t Need a Laptop Setup

I built LifeLoggerz with zero local environment:

  • no Node install
  • no VS Code install
  • no local preview server

I used:

GitHub.dev (a cloud IDE)

open any repo and press .

And Cloudflare Pages / GitHub Pages handle deployment.

🎨 3. Templates Save Your Life

Even though I know how to code, I did not build the front end from scratch.

I grabbed an Astro template and customized:

  • colors
  • typography
  • spacing
  • image layout
  • blog + tags system
  • navbar
  • theme
  • card design

Templates let you start at Level 7 instead of Level 1.

📈 4. Design Takes Longer Than Deployment

Deploying the site is easy.
Making it feel right is what takes time.

Your voice.
Your style.
Your system of categories.
Your navigation.
Your aesthetic.

The entire LifeLoggerz site took me 62.5 hours because I wanted it well-structured, elegant, and cohesive.

Someone else could make a simple version in 30 minutes.

🔧 So… What Can You Build for $10 a Year?

Honestly? Anything.

  • A personal site
  • A resume site
  • A research portfolio
  • A small business page
  • A photo gallery
  • A “premium-looking” landing page
  • A full blog
  • A documentation hub
  • A web-based notebook
  • A product page
  • A template marketplace
  • A developer portfolio

Static sites scale beautifully with your ambition.

🧠 Final Thoughts

If there’s one message I want people to take away, it’s this:

A website’s value isn’t determined by hosting cost—it’s determined by structure, clarity, intention, and design.

Yes, you can build a static site for $10 a year.
But what you build on top of that foundation — the taste, the organization, the branding, the writing — that’s what makes it powerful.

LifeLoggerz is a great example:

Cheap to host.
Expensive in time, attention, structure, and care.

And that’s where the real value lies.

🔗 Related Posts

(You can add links once you create them.)

If you want, I can also create:

✅ A shorter version
✅ A “marketing angle” version (to attract freelance clients)
✅ A more visual version with diagrams
✅ A downloadable PDF version
✅ A version written for absolute beginners (“Grandma-safe guide”)
✅ A version focusing on your personal story of building LifeLoggerz

Just tell me which one you want next.