What you actually end up with
Not a "website builder" subscription. Not a monthly bill. A real website that you own, at your own address, that collects client inquiries even while you sleep.
Download the free starter kit (templates included)
A homepage + client questionnaire, pre-wired for free forms — you fill in the brackets (or let Claude do it).
Hero, services, your process, about-you, and an inquiry form — brand colors changeable in one labeled spot, host-agency logo slot included.
A full trip-intake form with traveler roster, priorities, and a terms checkbox — submissions land in your dashboard and inbox.
Copy-paste requests for Claude that take you from brackets to a finished, branded site — including the exact bug-report trick that fixes anything.
At your own domain, with your branding, photos, and story.
Submissions saved to a dashboard and emailed to you.
Client questionnaires, terms & conditions, follow-up forms.
One site that reshapes itself for phones.
Browsers mark your site secure — set up automatically.
What it really costs
| Item | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name (yourbusiness.com) | Namecheap (what we used) — Porkbun and Cloudflare are good too | ~$10–15 / year |
| Hosting (where the site lives) | Netlify free plan | $0 |
| Working forms | Netlify Forms, included | $0 up to 100 submissions/mo |
| Design, logo, pages, photo editing | Built with Claude | Your AI subscription |
| If your business uses a new trade name (DBA) | Your county clerk | Small filing fee (varies) |
Total ongoing cost: about a dollar a month. The only thing that renews is the domain. If your forms ever exceed 100 submissions a month, Netlify's paid tier is $19/month — a lovely problem to have.
The guide — six stages, one page each
The whole thing in one paragraph
Gather your brand rules, legal terms, photos, and facts. Choose a name you love and buy the domain for the price of lunch. Build with Claude by describing, choosing from lineups, and sending blunt screenshots when something looks wrong — expect a few rounds, and correct the AI freely on how your business really works. Insist on knowing where form submissions land, and test it yourself. Publish by dragging one folder onto a free host; connect your domain; flip on the email notifications. From then on, your website costs about a dollar a month and works the night shift for you.
Mine went from first request to live-with-working-forms in one evening. Yours can too — the kit above is everything I wish I'd had on day one. If it helps you, come say hi: The Long Distance Mouse on YouTube, or @thelongdistancemouse everywhere else.
