Website · 2018 to 2021
The first website I ever built
In 2018 I started working on my personal website with HTML and CSS. This is the story of what it was, what went wrong and what it taught me.
How it started
I started learning HTML in 2018 on a platform called Codecademy. Once I had the basics, I came up with the idea for my own website. It was not meant to be complex. It was a simple landing page that linked to my social media accounts, mainly Twitch, with a few blog posts about Fortnite and some reviews of side hustles I had tried.
Looking back, I believe it could have grown into something bigger if I had stuck with it. But the cost of a domain and hosting felt too high at the time, and I wasn’t committed enough to create good content consistently.
Grids and layout
What I remember most, seven years later, is how much time I lost getting the layout right. Setting everything up in div containers was a struggle, especially when odd things happened, like the header randomly becoming part of the body. It was still a valuable learning experience.
Google AdSense
I wanted to make money from the site, which meant getting approved for Google AdSense. That was a challenge too, mainly because the site did not have much content. I still remember working on it on vacation in Thailand and finally getting the approval email. I never reached the $70 payout threshold. I think my account still has around $7 in it.
What I took from it
The project sharpened my HTML skills and taught me what kind of content a website needs to be eligible for monetization. The Fortnite niche was very competitive, and I probably did not stand much of a chance with little experience. It would have been fun to see where it went if I had stayed consistent.
It is not too late, though. This site, toonate, is my new attempt at sharing what I learn and building something over time.
I don’t have the original 2018 version anymore, only the updated 2021 version. I plan to add a download link for it, so you can browse the folders and files, read the code and change it however you like.
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