Okay, so I made the decision. I was going to build something of my own. But deciding and actually doing are two very different things, and the gap between them is where most people get stuck. So let me tell you exactly what I did to bridge it.
My goal was clear: make money online, on my own terms. And after thinking it through, I landed on building a website. No dancing on camera for visibility, no begging the algorithm for attention. Just a space where I could share my experience, grow an audience, and build something real.
So what have I actually done so far?
I built the website. Now, here’s something that might surprise you: I’m a software developer by background, so you’d think setting up a website would be easy for me. And in some ways it was. But WordPress? Completely new territory. Different tools, different logic, a whole ecosystem I had never touched before. So this has been a learning curve even for me, which honestly makes it more fun.
I made a conscious decision to launch before it was perfect. If you visit the site right now, you’ll notice it’s very much still a work in progress. I probably should put up an “under construction” sign. But waiting for perfect means never actually starting, and I’ve done enough waiting.
Choosing a host: why I went with Hostinger
Once I committed to WordPress, I needed a hosting provider. After looking around, I chose Hostinger and for where I am right now, it made total sense.
For $48.49 a year, I got a free domain, a business email, weekly automatic backups, and a hosting plan that’s fast, secure and reliable enough to handle a growing site. It’s budget-friendly without feeling cheap, which is exactly what you need when you’re just starting out and every dollar counts. They describe themselves as “secure, speedy, and reliable” and so far, I have zero complaints.
If you’re thinking about starting your own site, this is my referral link. You get 20% off and I earn a small commission that goes straight back into this experiment. Genuinely win-win.
Building The Actual Site
With hosting sorted, I chose the free version of the Astra theme for the design. Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes out there, lightweight, fast, and very easy to customize, which is exactly what I needed as a first-timer on the platform.
For the customization itself, I used the free version of Elementor, a drag-and-drop page builder that lets you design your pages visually without touching a single line of code. Even as a developer, I appreciated how intuitive it is. You can move things around, change colors, adjust layouts, and see the result in real time. And the best part? The free version is genuinely enough to get started. It made the whole process much less intimidating than I expected.
I kept the structure simple for now: Home, Blog, Create, and About. The Create page is where I’ll showcase the designs I make, partly as a portfolio, partly as a personal reminder to keep creating even when motivation dips. Getting a website live also means sorting out things most tutorials skip over, like connecting your domain, installing an SSL certificate, setting up your business email, and making sure everything loads properly on mobile. It takes a day or two of figuring things out, but it’s very doable. I’ll do a dedicated post on this soon.
What's coming next
Here’s where things get exciting. My next steps are all about getting this experiment in motion.
I’ll be connecting the site to Pinterest to start driving organic traffic, which from what I’ve been learning is one of the best free traffic sources for blogs. I’m also working on creating a lead magnet, a free resource that people can download in exchange for their email address. That email list becomes one of the most valuable things you can build as a content creator, a direct line to people who actually want to hear from you, no algorithm in between.
On top of that, I’m planning to open an Etsy page to get my designs in front of a different audience and test what actually resonates. And I’ll be building out my first round of affiliate links with products I genuinely use and recommend, Hostinger being the first one.
The idea is simple: launch, test, see what works, and adjust. No waiting for the perfect moment. Just moving forward and figuring it out as I go.
Sound familiar? That’s kind of the whole point of this blog.