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AI & Automation

The $0 Content Engine: How to Build & Launch Websites with Claude Code

A content site that ranks. Built in under an hour. Updates itself daily. Costs nothing to run.

I've been experimenting with this system for the past few weeks, and the results are good enough that I wanted to share it. Here's how it works, and where I see the applications:

Recruitment: An industry news hub for your vertical that actually ranks. Preconstruction hiring trends. Fintech compliance updates. Every recruiter talks about building their personal brand - this is how you own your niche's search results and have candidates coming to you.

E-commerce: You're already spending money on ads. Imagine a content site ranking for every "best [product category]" and "how to choose [product]" query in your space - funnelling organic traffic to your store 24/7. That's what programmatic content does. And unlike your ad spend, it compounds.

Consultancies & Agencies: Stop competing on the same LinkedIn content as everyone else. Build topical authority sites that demonstrate expertise and capture leads while you sleep. One pillar page ranking for your key service term is worth more than a year of social posts.

The economics are absurd once you see them. But let me show you a working example first.

The Proof: Inch Island

I grew up on Inch Island - a small island in Donegal. There's actually tons of material about the place scattered across the web: historical archives, council documents, local news mentions, Facebook groups. But no single resource that brings it all together and ranks for "inch island" searches.

So I built one. Not as a client project - as a proof of concept for this exact system.

The stack:

  • Eleventy (11ty) - static site generator
  • Tailwind CSS - styling
  • Cloudflare Pages - hosting (free)
  • GitHub Actions - daily automation (free)
  • Apify - web scraping (~$0.50/month)
  • Claude Code - content creation (your existing subscription)

Everything except Apify is free. And Apify is optional if you want to do manual discovery.

How It Works

Phase 1: Build (One-Time, ~45 Minutes)

Claude Code built the entire site structure:

"Create an 11ty site with Tailwind CSS for a local
community news site. Include: homepage with hero,
news listing page, article template, about page.
Dark theme. Mobile responsive."

45 minutes later: complete site, ready to deploy.

Phase 2: Content (Ongoing, ~10 Min/Day)

This is where it gets interesting. I use a hybrid automation model:

  1. Daily at 6am: GitHub Action searches Google for news about the island
  2. Topics saved to queue: Not published - just flagged for review
  3. Morning routine: I review topics over coffee, pick the good ones
  4. Claude Code researches: Pulls from 5+ sources, compiles facts
  5. Claude Code writes: Original synthesis, proper SEO structure
  6. I publish: One click, auto-deploys

The automation handles the boring stuff (discovery, research grunt work). I handle the judgment calls (what's worth covering, what angle to take).

Phase 3: Scale (Optional)

Once one site is running, spinning up another takes minutes. Same template, different niche, different domain. The system is the asset.

One Thing Worth Knowing

I initially tried full automation - discover, write, publish, no human in the loop.

Bad idea. Claude invented an article about causeway maintenance that sounded completely plausible. Cited the local council, included specific dates. None of it was real.

LLMs fill gaps with confident fiction when given incomplete information. So the system I landed on separates discovery (automated) from creation (Claude Code with proper research, human QA). The automation finds topics; I decide what's worth covering and make sure the facts are real before anything goes live.

What the System Produces

The site launched this week, so I can't claim rankings yet. But here's what Claude Code built:

Pillar pages - comprehensive guides targeting specific keywords. "Inch island walk", "inch island tide times", "inch island accommodation". Each one synthesises 10+ sources into a single resource. Not thin content - properly researched guides that answer every question someone might have.

Spoke articles - supporting content that links back to pillars. Bird watching, best times to visit, local history. Classic pillar/cluster SEO structure.

Selective news - the automation surfaces topics daily, but most get skipped. I only publish when there's something genuinely worth covering with verifiable sources.

I'll report back in a few weeks on what's actually ranking. The impressive part so far is that Claude Code can produce this volume of quality content in a fraction of the time it would take manually.

What Working with Claude Code Actually Looks Like

Here's the actual flow when I create content:

Starting the site:

"Create an 11ty site with Tailwind for a local community
news site about Inch Island, Donegal. Homepage with hero,
news listing, article template. Dark theme, mobile responsive."

Claude Code scaffolds the entire project - creates the folder structure, writes the config files, sets up Tailwind, creates the templates. It asks clarifying questions along the way ("Do you want the news listing paginated?", "Should I include an RSS feed?"). 45 minutes later you have a working site.

Creating a pillar page:

"Research 'inch island walking routes' comprehensively.
Find at least 5 sources - official sites, tourism pages,
local guides. Compile all the facts. Don't write yet."

Claude Code searches, reads multiple pages, and comes back with a structured research document. It flags things like "The council site mentions a 5km loop but this blog says 4km - might be different routes or outdated info."

Then:

"Write a comprehensive walking guide using that research.
Target keyword 'inch island walk'. Include practical info:
parking, difficulty, what to bring. Structure with clear H2s."

Adding to an existing page:

"The accommodation guide is missing info about camping.
Research camping options near Inch Island and add a
section to the existing guide."

Claude Code reads the existing file, researches the new topic, and edits in the new section - matching the existing tone and structure.

Daily content workflow:

"Check the pending-topics folder. Pick the most interesting
one, research it properly, and draft an article. Show me
before publishing."

The key is treating Claude Code as a collaborator, not a content mill. Ask it to research first. Review what it finds. Then ask it to write. Check the output. This catches hallucinations before they go live.

What You Could Build

The island site is just one application. The same system works for:

Industry verticals:

  • Preconstruction news hub (my recruitment niche)
  • Amazon seller insights (my e-commerce niche)
  • Recruitment founder resources (Recwired adjacent)

Local/community:

  • Neighbourhood news
  • Local business directories
  • Event aggregators

Topical authority sites:

  • Product category guides
  • Comparison sites
  • Resource hubs

The pattern is the same: find a niche with scattered information, build the home for it, let automation surface topics, let Claude help you create comprehensive content.

The Economics

One-time costs:

  • Domain: ~$10/year
  • Your time: 1-2 hours to set up

Ongoing costs:

  • Hosting: $0 (Cloudflare Pages)
  • Automation: $0 (GitHub Actions)
  • API usage: ~$0.50/month (Apify, optional)
  • Content creation: Your Claude Code subscription
  • Time: ~10 min/day

Compare that to:

  • Hiring a content writer: $500-2000/month
  • Agency retainer: $2000-5000/month
  • Your time writing manually: 5-10 hours/week

The ROI is absurd.

Getting Started

If you want to try this:

  1. Pick a niche - Something you know, with scattered information online
  2. Install Claude Code - The CLI is essential for this workflow
  3. Ask Claude to build the site - 11ty + Tailwind + Cloudflare Pages
  4. Create your first pillar - Research 10 sources, write the definitive guide
  5. Set up discovery - GitHub Actions + Apify (or manual)
  6. Establish the routine - 10 minutes daily, coffee in hand

I'll be writing more about the technical details - the exact GitHub Actions config, the Apify setup, the prompt patterns that work best. Follow along if you're interested.

Built with Claude Code. Hosted free on Cloudflare. Time to first indexed page: 3 days.