I am a website geek.
I built my first website when I was 14 or something. I used Yahoo’s Geocities and thought it was the coolest thing. My first site was all about me, my hobbies, pictures, branding ME even then. I was always fascinated with being able to publish something that anyone in the world could stumble across.
It was magic and it caught my interest so intensely.
My first “commercial” website was to sell hemp jewelry that I made myself.
The pictures weren’t the greatest, the website was tacky – and I never sold any. I thought I could just put it up there and people would come buy from me. I hadn’t learned about getting traffic and actually promoting yourself yet.
The jewelry thing was short lived, but something else followed it. I had to keep trying different things and learning different things. I knew there had to be something to this website and Internet thing. If only I could find it, or if only I just kept trying, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
I eventually took an online course in website design and learned html, css and some other fun stuff. I loved that I could write out this code that would show up as a cool web page.
Shortly thereafter I started “marketing” myself as a web designer. I still didn’t know how to market, of course, and had no idea how to get traffic or build an email list. I didn’t even know I should build an email list.
I started with websites for family and friends. I helped my parents get their first site for their dog kennels, and my brother with his first site for his fiction writing. I did one for my uncle for his Adventure Counseling.
Then I got a job as an IT intern at the local library and helped them with their site, as well as re-designed one for another local organization. All simple stuff, but they all thought I was the greatest.
The first designs were amateur, simple. Looking back at them now I cringe, seeing how little I knew and how very much I had to learn.
I’ve come so far since those early website days. It wows me to look at the sites I can create now, and everything that I have learned about Internet marketing. I’ve made my first few dollars online, I’ve built mailing lists and created products. I’ve created websites that made people feel proud to be on the Internet.
And it awes me to see the evolution of myself, to step back and view the world from my younger eyes, and to see how far I have really come. From the early days building my personal website on Geocities, to hand-coding websites with html, to experimenting with Joomle, to now, working with WordPress and creating sites that impress even me.
It’s the evolution of a website geek, and I will continue to evolve. Who knows where I’ll be in another 5, 10 and 15 years when I’ll be looking back at where I am now…
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I remember Geocities. Wow, talk about a blast from the past! I for one am so, so thankful for WordPress. I have a handful of sites I built the slow way that I’m gradually moving over because it’s just so much easier and pretty. But this “All simple stuff, but they all thought I was the greatest.” was the line that made me smile. It’s a fab feeling isn’t it? I’m not trained like you and some of the stuff I’ve done for family and friends is, in the big scheme of things, basic and slug like. But they love it! And I love them for that
Yes, WordPress is a lifesaver!
It’s a really fab feeling. Love how you put it, “And I love them for that”. That sums it up quite nicely.
Thanks for stopping by and connecting!
Jess, thanks for sharing your story. I just found you through your comment on Alex Whalley’s SEO piece on TheInfopreneur.
Good lookin’ website you have here. You definitely know what you’re doing.
Hi John;
Heading over to check out yours right now…
Thanks for the compliments on my site.
Hey Jess, Love your story. It reminded me of when I first created a “chore chart” for my 5 siblings and myself to follow. We needed a routine and accountability. The funny thing is that my parents did not ask me to do it, it just felt like a good way to keep track of things;-) And we used! All of us consulted it on a daily basis. The funny part is that it took me hours and hours to create it because I used a type writer and had to “type” a table, so I turned the paper until and made lines until I had a grid.
Thanks for sharing your story, it made me reminisce about my own evolution as an organizer that makes decisions based on the way it makes me feels.
Hi Melody!
That’s an awesome story about making a “chore chart” on a typewriter! I love it!
Isn’t it neat to look back and see where we’ve come from and how we got here?
Thanks for dropping by!
Jess,
Nice post! I thought the story was very inspirational… It’s all about trying different things and learn from it. Creating and editing websites is fun when you publish something really nice for the world to learn more about you.
Yes, it certainly is fun!
Thanks for dropping by, Justin!
Jess, this is great. I am definitively NOT a website designer…my coding skills are laughable and until three years ago I could barely check email, use a word processor and surf the web. And now I’m editing CSS code and inserting dynamic content galleries, coordinating web hosting and building an email list. It’s funny where our entrepreneurial journeys do take us!
Sukie;
Yes, it’s fascinating where our journeys take us.
I always enjoy looking back and seeing how far I’ve come, how much I’ve learned, and where I am today compared with where I was. I wonder what it’ll all look like in another five years from now? 
Thanks for dropping by!
I started blogging in 2006. But it’s only now that I decided to go pro-blogger. The reason is that I am hearing good stories from friends about how their blogs help boost their employability. I should have done this seriously when I started.
Hi Merlon – thanks for dropping by!
It’s amazing the benefits that can come from blogging – awesome to hear how it has boosted your friends employability!