Remember the thrill of building your first website? The pure joy of writing HTML, styling it with CSS, and seeing your creation come to life. Then, somewhere along the way, things got complicated. We were told we needed complex Content Management Systems (CMS), endless plugins, and clunky admin panels just to publish a simple blog post.
What if you could get back to that initial joy? What if you, as a developer, could have ultimate control over your website, make it blazing fast, and deploy updates for free—all using the skills you already have?
Back to Basics: Your Code is the CMS
I wrote a simple Python script that acts as a Static Site Generator (SSG). Think of it as a personal assembly line for your website. You give it two things: content files and a master template. You run the script—python build.py—and it intelligently combines them into a ready-to-publish website, placing all the final files into a neat little `dist/` folder.
Your content management tool isn't a slow, web-based dashboard. It's your favorite code editor.
Getting Your Site Online: The 5-Minute Deployment
Okay, you've run the script. Now what? Your entire website is sitting in that `dist/` folder. Getting it online is shockingly easy thanks to a free service called Netlify. Simply drag the `dist/` folder from your computer right into the Netlify dashboard. A few seconds later, your site is live!
Level Up: The Automated Pro Workflow
For a truly professional workflow, you can connect Netlify to a GitHub repository. The setup is a one-time thing: you push your project to GitHub and tell Netlify how to build it. From that moment on, your workflow is seamless. Write a new post, `git push`, and Netlify automatically rebuilds and deploys your site.
What About Contact Forms?
Static sites can’t run server code, but Netlify has you covered. Just add the `data-netlify="true"` attribute to your `
