Replace AllMyLinks with own static site

Now that dimaginar.com had become a static site, it was time for another digital puzzle. I had an AllMyLinks page with various links to places where people could find more: my website, LinkedIn, Reddit, GitHub. It worked fine, but I never looked at it. The visitor statistics sat in a portal I never visited. And now that dimaginar.com ran entirely in my own stack, that external dependency no longer fit.

So I built Dimaginar Go. Again, my own static site, own subdomain, integrated into my stack. And I could say goodbye to another "free" tool.

Control Over Data and Analytics

I didn't really have a problem with AllMyLinks. It worked well. But something started to gnaw at me. You're giving away data to an external party, you have no control over how it looks, and your analytics sit somewhere you rarely check.

Dimaginar runs on Cloudflare Pages, my analytics run on Ackee. Adding a single links site is then a relatively simple step.

From Template to Live Site

I didn't want to just start with instructions in my AI coding tool. Shortly before, I had watched a course by Andrew Ng (Build with Andrew) where he used a simple design template: Goal, Input, Layout, Features, Output. You don't have to fill everything in, but it helps to think before you begin.

I used Mistral AI to convert my raw thoughts from template to design document. That works well because I can then think about a project without sitting at my computer. I save the design documents in Joplin, also accessible from my phone. When I'm ready to build, I pass the document to Google Antigravity.

The first version ran in about ten minutes. The branding was right, but the links weren't properly copied. One iteration later, the right links were in place. Then the real work began. It took about an hour to get the layout right on both desktop and mobile, and to make the fonts more readable.

Deployment to Cloudflare Pages took fifteen minutes. Setting up Git, configuring DNS, adding to Ackee. I know this workflow well enough now that it's becoming routine.

The Challenge: Ackee Event Tracking

I wanted to track how often each link was clicked. In Ackee you need to create events, where you have four options. On advice from Google Gemini, I chose "chart with total sums" and that turned out to be wrong. I only saw a rising number, not which link was clicked. Just shows you can never fully trust generative AI.

Tried multiple things. Troubleshooting in the browser. Testing code. Everything seemed to be set up correctly, but it didn't work as I wanted.

I started on an alternative solution on advice from Perplexity AI, which apparently also didn't know about the difference in event behavior. For one event, I then tried a different view, "list total" instead of "chart". Immediately I saw what I wanted. The link names appeared in Ackee with the number of times each link was clicked. Now I had to roll back the setup of multiple events. All this took about an hour, but it works now.

Own Stack, Own Terms

Go.dimaginar.com now runs entirely in my own stack. I see the visitor statistics in the same dashboard as dimaginar.com. 5 links, but on my terms.

As far as I'm concerned, another perfect example of digital autonomy in practice. Not replacing everything for the sake of replacing, but making conscious choices about where your data lives and which tools you use. AllMyLinks works fine if that's what you want. But if you want control, you can build it yourself. And that's easier now than it's ever been.

About The Author

Peter van Barneveld is a Group Innovation Manager exploring practical paths to digital autonomy. He tests what actually works in daily use. His approach: figure it out, document the journey, share honest results.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn or join the discussion on r/Dimaginar.

FAQ

How long does this take if you do it for the first time?

I already had experience with Cloudflare Pages and Ackee, so deployment was routine. That's why it took me 3 hours in total including troubleshooting. If this is new to you, you definitely need to add more time to learn the different steps. Building the site itself with AI help can be relatively quick. Then you have a good starting point to learn further. Fine-tuning the layout takes the most time.

Why Cloudflare Pages instead of Netlify or Vercel?

I already use Cloudflare for DNS and dimaginar.com. Keeping everything together makes it simpler. Netlify or Vercel work fine too, choose what fits your stack. By the way, I use Netlify for Ackee as frontend, because I found that the best option from the possibilities described by Ackee.

Do you have to use a design template?

No. I found it useful to think ahead without directly coding, but you can also start directly with instructions in your AI coding tool. The template especially helps with projects where you don't know exactly what you want yet.

Where can I learn more about AI coding?

The courses on deeplearning.ai are highly recommended if you want to learn more about AI coding. Free, accessible, and practically oriented. Andrew Ng's Build with Andrew is a good starting point if you have no experience at all.