How I went from being a struggling web developer
to helping thousands of online entrepreneurs
build a beautiful converting website?
Before becoming a successful web developer, before helping thousands of online entrepreneurs, there was a struggling web developer. Heck, I wasn’t even a web developer.
Like many entrepreneurs, my entry into web development was completely accidental.
I started off by working as a marketing executive for a manufacturing company, where I learnt the basics of web development, purely by accident!
You see, our existing web developer made a mess of our website and even abandoned the project halfway – which left me with no option but to begin damage control.
Unlike today, there weren’t a lot of online courses and tutorials available of-hand in 2012. Reading half-cooked, poorly written tutorials filled with affiliate links was the only choice I had.
Now, this particular website I’m talking about was built in HTML and CSS. No CMS like WordPress was used.
My first task
My first task was to change some of the content on the website and add some new images. Believe it or not but it took me two days just to figure out how to edit the content.
Forget adding new images, that was a way complicated task for me.
Somehow, I managed. I crawled, I scratched but I got it done.
But you know what? I liked the whole web development thing.
I went further; I started making more changes to the website; each subsequent change complex than the last one.
The more I learned, I began realizing that the entire process of web development really fascinated me. It’s a form of spontaneous creation, of seeing something you’ve built come to life!
My fascination and curiosity made me immediately explore more and in a couple of months, I learnt how to build websites using HTML, CSS and Javascript. I also began foraying into PHP at the same time.
All of these things culminated into a side-hustle during the same year and Cresco Systems was born.
Since it was a side hustle, I had to wait before I decided to take a deep dive and establish myself as an independent web developer. But not for too long! Within the span of a single year, I left my job and in May 2013, gained complete independence.
enter wordpress
While learning web development, I came across WordPress.
Everyone was speaking so highly of it and it felt WordPress is the right way ahead.
My first forays into WordPress were all about figuring out various simple things like
How to add a menu?
How to create a professional-looking website?
From where to add the logo?
I had to learn everything by going through various books, blog posts and whatnot.
It was a hard grind.
I was really frustrated with WordPress. Everyone said it’s a system for beginners, yet nothing felt easy about it.
Everything felt convoluted and deeply complicated.
Turning a corner
This time around the problem wasn’t there were any tutorials or books on WordPress, the real problem was there were too many of them
And most of them had different methodologies. And every one of them tried to push some or other affiliate product.
Nothing wrong in that. But sometimes you need pure knowledge and not someone pushing their own affiliate links.
That’s when I decided, enough is enough. I will figure out everything myself.
I dived deep, tested each and every good plugin out there, tested hundreds of themes.
And I came up with my own process. My own set of curated plugins, my own set of curated themes.
I found my own process, which was actionable, repeatable and predictable.
This is the same process which has helped me build websites for more than 300 businesses.
So, where does teaching come in?
Incidentally, most of the businesses I catered were course creators and coaches.
Somehow, back off the mind, I had a thought, I should build a course. Help online entrepreneurs, build their website, that is beautiful and converting.
I have a habit of trying to seek and establish formulae and patterns in most things I do – even if they’re spontaneous, or creative.
This habit has led me towards developing certain tools and techniques that can be applied easily by individuals who want to grasp them and turn them into full-fledged developers.
I have, thus, come to this realisation: With WordPress and my learning methodologies, I was confident that anyone can use this process. It doesn’t matter how much hatred you have towards tech. The process was simple enough for anyone who wanted to build a website.
Now, learning by myself definitely had its advantages but it was also quite tough. Sometimes, I, too, wished that someone would make my journey smoother.
This need for a catalyst in the form of a mentor, or a teacher, was felt by me – which is what I want to fix for those who were like I was back then. Ultimately, it’s really that simple!
