Build an Affiliate Site With Cursor AI (Step-by-Step)

What Is Cursor AI?

Cursor is a code editor built on VS Code and enhanced with deeply integrated AI capabilities. It's not just a VS Code plugin — Cursor has purpose-built AI features that go beyond what GitHub Copilot offers in the standard IDE.

The core features that make Cursor different:

• Composer / Agent mode: You describe what you want to build, and Cursor plans and implements multi-file changes. It can create new files, edit existing ones, and run commands — all from a single natural language prompt.
• Codebase chat: Ask questions about your entire project. Cursor reads all your files as context and answers questions like "what CSS class controls the article header layout" without you needing to search.
• Inline editing: Select any block of code, press Cmd+K, and describe the change you want. Cursor edits just that selection while preserving surrounding code.
• Automatic context: Cursor automatically includes relevant files as context for your requests, reducing the need to manually paste code.

Cursor is free to get started (limited AI requests per month) and $20/month for Pro (unlimited Claude requests — the model I use for all site work).

Why Cursor Is Particularly Useful for Affiliate Sites

For static HTML affiliate sites specifically, Cursor solves a specific problem: repetitive structure with per-page variation.

Every article page on an affiliate site follows the same structure: head, header, article-header, article-body, related posts, footer. The structure is identical. The content, meta tags, schema, breadcrumbs, and internal links are unique per page. Without AI assistance, creating each new page requires careful manual editing to get every unique field right. With Cursor, you can describe a new page and have it generate the full HTML with all unique fields populated correctly in seconds.

Specific places where Cursor accelerates affiliate site building:

• Creating new article pages from a brief description
• Generating correctly structured JSON-LD schema for every post type
• Updating navigation, footer links, and internal links across all files simultaneously
• Writing and styling comparison tables from raw data
• Debugging CSS layout issues by describing the visual problem
• Reviewing all pages for consistency (meta descriptions present, canonical tags correct, etc.)

Step 1: Set Up Your Project in Cursor

Install Cursor at cursor.sh — it replaces VS Code and imports your existing VS Code settings and extensions automatically.

Open your affiliate site project folder in Cursor. If you're starting from scratch:

mkdir my-affiliate-site
cd my-affiliate-site
git init
mkdir css images

In Cursor's Composer, describe your project context once — this becomes the shared understanding Cursor uses for all subsequent requests in the project:

This is a static HTML affiliate site for [your niche]. 
File structure:
- index.html (homepage)
- css/styles.css (global styles)
- [category]/[post]/index.html (article pages)

Key design decisions:
- Static HTML only, no JavaScript frameworks
- Deployed to GitHub Pages
- All styles in one styles.css file
- Schema: BlogPosting JSON-LD on all article pages
- Navigation: [your nav items]

Saving this context in a .cursorrules file at the project root means Cursor uses it automatically for every request.

Step 2: Build the Initial Site Structure

Use Cursor's Composer to generate the initial homepage and CSS file. A good starting prompt:

Create index.html for my affiliate site about [niche].
Requirements:
- Dark theme with these CSS variables: [paste your colors]
- Hero section with headline, subheadline, and CTA button
- Category grid showing 4 main content sections
- Navigation: Affiliate Marketing, AI Tools, Build With AI, Workflows, Free Course, Blog, About
- Affiliate disclosure in footer
- Full standard footer with 4-column grid
- Mobile responsive with hamburger menu
- Clean semantic HTML, no inline styles

Cursor will generate the full HTML. Review it, give feedback in Composer ("move the CTA lower," "make the hero headline larger"), and iterate. This is dramatically faster than writing it from scratch — even if you're an experienced developer.

Step 3: Build Article Pages Faster With AI

Once your first article page is built, the workflow for every subsequent page becomes:

1. Open Cursor Composer
2. Drag in an existing article page as reference: "Use this page as a template"
3. Describe the new page: title, target keyword, content outline, breadcrumb path, badge type, KD level
4. Ask Cursor to generate the full HTML page
5. Review, edit, and save

Example prompt for a new article page:

Create a new article page at build-with-ai/my-new-post/index.html.

Title: "My Post Title"
Target keyword: "target keyword phrase"
Meta description: "150-character description"
Canonical: https://alternativeentrepreneur.com/build-with-ai/my-new-post/
Breadcrumb: Home / Build With AI / My New Post
Badge: Build With AI (blue)
KD chip: Very Low KD
Date: March 4, 2026

Use the same structure as build-with-ai/build-affiliate-site-nextjs/index.html.
Include: TOC, 6-8 H2 sections, 2 callout boxes, 1 tool card, related posts section, full footer.

Content outline:
[paste your outline]

The output won't be perfect on the first generation — you'll edit the actual content to add your specific experience and details. But the structure, meta tags, schema, navigation, footer, and boilerplate will all be correct, saving 30–45 minutes per page.

Step 4: The CSS Workflow in Cursor

CSS debugging is where Cursor saves the most time for non-expert developers. Instead of inspecting elements and guessing at CSS fixes, describe what you see:

• "The article header is not full-width on mobile — there's a gap on the right side. Fix it in styles.css."
• "The comparison table overflows horizontally on mobile. Make it scroll horizontally on small screens."
• "The CTA button doesn't have enough contrast in dark mode. Adjust the background color."

Cursor reads your full styles.css context and makes the targeted fix. For a single-file CSS setup, this is usually accurate on the first attempt.

For adding new components (a new callout style, a tag chip, a card format), prompt Cursor to add the CSS to your existing file and provide a single example of how the HTML should look. It will write the CSS to match.

Step 5: Generate Schema and Meta Tags

JSON-LD schema is one of the most error-prone parts of building article pages manually. Cursor handles it well with explicit prompts:

Add correct BlogPosting JSON-LD schema to the <head> of this page.
Include: headline, description, url, datePublished (2026-03-04), 
dateModified (2026-03-04), author (name: Alternative Entrepreneur, 
url: https://alternativeentrepreneur.com/about/), publisher 
(name: Alternative Entrepreneur, url: https://alternativeentrepreneur.com/), 
keywords: ["keyword1", "keyword2", "keyword3"]

Cursor also handles bulk meta tag updates well. If you want to update all pages in a folder to add a missing meta tag, describe the change in Composer and ask it to apply it across all files in the directory.

Step 6: Debugging and Refining With Cursor

Use Cursor's codebase chat for debugging across files. Useful queries:

• "Check all HTML files in build-with-ai/ and tell me which ones are missing a canonical tag"
• "Find all hardcoded internal links that should be relative paths"
• "Identify any article pages that don't have a breadcrumb section"
• "List all pages where the footer copyright year is wrong"

Cursor can audit your entire site against any rule you specify — this is particularly useful before deploying a batch of new pages.

Step 7: Deploy to GitHub Pages or Vercel

Once your pages are ready:

git add .
git commit -m "Add 7 new posts: [brief description]"
git push origin main

For GitHub Pages, the push triggers automatic deployment. The site is live within 1–2 minutes. For Vercel, the same push triggers a build and deployment via the Vercel GitHub integration.

After deployment, submit any new URLs to Google Search Console via the URL Inspection tool. This speeds up initial indexing for new articles.

Cursor vs VS Code for Affiliate Site Building

Cursor is built on VS Code — the same editor, same extensions ecosystem, same keyboard shortcuts. Switching from VS Code to Cursor is a one-click install, not a migration.

The specific advantages Cursor adds over plain VS Code + GitHub Copilot:

• Composer/Agent mode: Multi-file generation and editing in one prompt. Copilot does inline completion only.
• Codebase awareness: Cursor reads your entire project as context automatically. Copilot context is limited to the current file.
• Model choices: Cursor Pro gives access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o. Claude is significantly better for HTML/CSS generation in my experience.

For affiliate site building specifically, Cursor Pro ($20/month) pays for itself on the first few pages you build with it. The time savings — especially on multi-file operations like schema updates and nav changes — are substantial.

Effective Prompts for Affiliate Site Building in Cursor

A reference list of high-value prompts for common affiliate site tasks:

New Article Page

"Create [path]/index.html using the structure from [existing page] as template. 
New page details: [title, keyword, meta description, canonical, breadcrumb, date, content outline]"

Comparison Table

"Add a styled comparison table to this article showing [Tool A] vs [Tool B] vs [Tool C]. 
Columns: [list columns]. Use semantic HTML with <th> headers. 
Style should match the existing table in programmatic-seo-affiliate-site/index.html."

Internal Links Audit

"Review all HTML files in [directory] and identify any articles that don't have 
an internal link to /affiliate-marketing/best-affiliate-programs-2026/. 
List the files so I can add the link manually."

Footer Update

"Update the footer in all HTML files in the project to add a new link: 
'[Link Text]' pointing to /path/to/new-page/ under the '[Column Name]' column."

Schema Audit

"Check all HTML files in build-with-ai/ and list which ones are missing 
BlogPosting JSON-LD schema in the <head>."