I started building free websites in high school. It began with one project for a family friend's business, turned into a few more, and at some point I gave it a name, Webspansion, and a mission: build 100 free websites for small businesses, nonprofits, and anyone who can't afford one. I'm 19 sites into that now.
The stuff I'd put on a resume: I've gotten faster, cleaner code, better at client communication. But that's not what this post is about. This is the stuff I wouldn't put on a resume.
No two briefs are actually the same
Early on, I thought a "nonprofit website" was a category. Build a home page, an about page, a contact form, done. What I learned is that every organization has a completely different idea of what a website should do, even when their briefs sound identical.
One nonprofit wanted to raise awareness. Another wanted donations. Another wanted to recruit volunteers. Another just needed to stop looking like it shut down in 2014. Same brief on paper, four completely different websites in practice. I stopped trying to template my way through discovery and started actually asking: what does success look like six months after launch?
The question I ask now before starting any project: "If this website works, what will be different for you?"
Simple almost always beats clever
I went through a phase where I wanted every site to have something interesting, a scroll effect, an animation, a layout that felt unexpected. Some of those I'm still proud of. A lot of them I look back on and cringe.
The sites that held up best are the ones where I made the information easy to find and the call-to-action impossible to miss. Clean typography, good spacing, fast load time. The clients who got the most out of their sites weren't the ones with the flashiest designs. They were the ones with the clearest message.
The technical part is rarely the bottleneck
Coding a website from scratch takes time, but it's almost never the slow part of the process. The slow parts are: waiting for photos, waiting for copy, trying to get five minutes of feedback from someone who's running a business full-time, and getting DNS settings right.
DNS settings are always wrong on the first try. I don't have data to back that up, it's just been true for every single site I've launched.
What's next
81 more. I'm in college now, which means I'm slower than I was in high school when I had more unstructured time. But the mission is the same. If you have a small business or nonprofit and no website, applications are open.
I'll keep writing here about what I'm learning as I go.
Common questions about building free websites
Why do you build websites for free?+
It started in high school with one project for a family friend's business, and it grew from there. At some point I named it Webspansion and set a goal: build 100 free websites for small businesses, nonprofits, and anyone who can't afford one. I'm 19 sites into that. The sites are free and founder-directed, so the only cost a client might choose is an optional custom domain, which runs about $10 to $15 a year.
What was harder than you expected when building these sites?+
The technical part is rarely the bottleneck. Coding a site from scratch takes time, but the slow parts are waiting on photos, waiting on copy, and getting a few minutes of feedback from someone running a business full-time. DNS settings have also been wrong on the first try for every single site I've launched.
Aren't all nonprofit or small business websites basically the same?+
That's what I assumed early on, and it turned out to be wrong. Briefs that sound identical on paper hide completely different goals. One nonprofit wanted awareness, another wanted donations, another wanted volunteers. Now the first thing I ask is what success looks like six months after launch, instead of templating my way through discovery.
Do flashy designs and animations make a website better?+
In my experience, no. I went through a phase of adding scroll effects and unexpected layouts, and a lot of those I look back on and cringe at. The sites that held up best are the ones with information that's easy to find and a call-to-action that's impossible to miss. Clean typography, good spacing, and a clear message did more than anything clever.
How many more free websites are you planning to build?+
81 more, to reach the goal of 100. I'm in college now, so I'm slower than I was in high school when I had more unstructured time, but the mission hasn't changed. If you have a small business or nonprofit and no website, applications are open.