I'm a Civil Engineer. I Used AI to Build an English Finance Website in One Week.
No coding experience. No AI background. Just a 36-year-old dad trying not to fall behind. The complete story of building moneytipshub.com.
I’m a Civil Engineer. I Used AI to Build an English Finance Website in One Week.
No coding experience. No AI background. Just a 36-year-old dad trying not to fall behind.
The Result
Last week, I launched MoneyWise Tips — a personal finance website targeting English-speaking beginners.
Here’s what it looks like:
- 9 SEO-optimized articles (1,700–2,500 words each), covering topics from saving money tips to the 50/30/20 budget rule
- 12 video pages with embedded YouTube videos and ~800-word companion articles
- 110 total pages including category pages, tag pages, and topic hub pages
- Deployed on Cloudflare Workers & Pages with a custom domain
- Google Search Console verified, sitemap submitted and accepted
Total cost: $10.46/year for the domain. Everything else is free.
I didn’t write a single line of code.
Who Am I
I’m not a developer. I’m not a designer. I’m not a content creator.
I’m a civil engineer. For the past 10+ years, I’ve drawn structural blueprints, managed construction sites, and supervised concrete pours at 3 AM.
My most-used software is AutoCAD. My most-used tool is a hard hat.
I have two kids (ages 6 and 3). Most of my “free time” is spent making sure nobody puts crayons in the microwave.
So how did I end up building a website?
Why I Did This
The AI wave hit, and I felt it.
Construction isn’t exactly booming. I’m 36. I have a family to support. And everywhere I look, someone is talking about how AI will change everything.
I didn’t want to just watch. I wanted to do something.
I read an article (in Chinese) about “building websites as a retirement plan” — the idea that ordinary people can create English content sites, attract Google traffic, and earn passive income through ads.
One line stuck with me: “You don’t need to be a programmer. You just need to find a real demand.”
Finding demand? That’s what engineers do every day.
How I Did It
Step 1: Keyword Research (Free Tools Only)
I used a combination of:
- Keyword Surfer (free Chrome extension) — shows search volume and CPC right in Google search results
- Google Trends — to verify long-term interest
- A custom Python script — written by Cursor, that automatically opens Chrome, reads Keyword Surfer data, evaluates SERP competition, and saves everything to CSV
The winning keyword: “saving money tips” — 301,000 monthly searches, $2.75 CPC, and mostly inner pages in the SERP (meaning low competition for a new site).
Step 2: Building the Site with Cursor
Cursor is an AI-powered code editor. For me, it’s not a coding tool — it’s a translator.
My workflow:
- I describe what I want in plain language
- Cursor suggests a technical approach (with pros/cons)
- I choose
- Cursor writes the code
- I check the result and give feedback
The tech stack it recommended:
- Astro 5.x — generates pure static HTML, excellent for SEO
- MDX — write content in Markdown with optional components
- Tailwind CSS — utility-first CSS framework
- Cloudflare Pages — free global CDN deployment
Step 3: Content Creation
I created a 6-step article template:
- Pain point / Hook
- What it is
- Why it matters
- Who it’s for
- How to do it
- Call to action
Using this template, Cursor helped me write 9 articles forming an interlinked content cluster around “saving money.”
For videos, I have a YouTube channel where I publish short finance lessons. Each video gets its own page on the site with an embedded player, an 800-word article, and VideoObject structured data for Google Video Rich Results.
Step 4: Deployment
- Domain: moneytipshub.com ($10.46/year on Cloudflare)
- Hosting: Cloudflare Workers & Pages (free, unlimited bandwidth)
- SSL: automatic
- Google Search Console: domain verified, sitemap submitted
The whole deployment took about half a day, including troubleshooting a few configuration issues.
What’s Next
This is just the beginning. SEO is a long game. Google needs 1–3 months to start sending meaningful organic traffic.
My roadmap:
- Add more high-value articles (targeting keywords like “passive income” and “money management tips”)
- Apply for Google AdSense
- Grow email subscribers through the newsletter
- Continue publishing YouTube videos
What I Learned
- You don’t need to code. AI tools like Cursor have fundamentally changed who can build things on the internet.
- Engineering thinking transfers. Designing site architecture isn’t that different from designing a building. Managing a project timeline is managing a project timeline, whether it’s concrete or content.
- The hardest part is starting. Not the technology, not the English, not the SEO. Just deciding to begin.
- Cost is not a barrier. ~$10/year for a domain. Free hosting. Free keyword tools. The real investment is time and persistence.
I’ll be documenting this entire journey in a 10-part series. If you’re interested in building something with AI — especially if you’re NOT a developer — follow along.
Site: https://www.moneytipshub.com/ YouTube: @yiyiyi-1226