Spent about an hour getting everything deployed. Pushed the repo to GitHub, connected it to Vercel, and pointed the DNS from Cloudflare.
The build on Vercel passed clean on first try. No surprises — the static generation works exactly as expected. All 10+ pages pre-rendered, no runtime errors.
DNS propagation
The domain propagated faster than expected. About 15 minutes after updating the CNAME record it was resolving correctly. SSL cert issued automatically by Vercel.
What is live now
- Homepage with all three sections
- Blog with tag filter
- Agency with tag filter
- $100 Challenge with project list
- All individual post and project pages
- Dark/light mode working
- Search overlay with "/" shortcut
- Reading progress bar on all long-form pages
What is not wired up yet
- Beehiiv subscribe form (still placeholder)
- RSS feed (no feed.xml being generated yet)
- Open Graph images
Cost so far
$0. Everything is on free tiers. Vercel hobby plan, GitHub free, Cloudflare free DNS. The $100 budget is untouched.
The domain itself — mustafapiplodi.com — was already owned. No new cost there.
Observation
Shipping something is a different feeling than having it running locally. Even though nothing changed functionally, seeing it at the actual URL made it feel real. Worth noting.