How Launching My First Website Nearly Broke Me (But Didn’t)

Spoiler: I survived. Barely. And I learned more than I ever expected.

Launching your first website sounds simple, right?

Pick a template. Click publish. Done.

At least, that’s what I thought.

What actually happened was a whirlwind of broken links, blank pages, countless Google searches, and one mini existential crisis. But hey—I made it through. And if you’re just getting started like I was, you can too.

This post is for anyone who’s ever stared at a terminal window thinking: “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Same. Let me show you what I learned.

🧠 What You’ll Learn in This Post

The real challenges of building and launching a first-time site from scratch

How AI (especially ChatGPT) helped me solve problems I didn’t even understand at first

Tips I wish I’d known before hitting “Deploy”

Why struggling through it all made me better

🧱 The Starting Point: Zero Experience

Let’s get one thing clear: I had no formal training, no tech degree, and no real experience building websites. I didn’t even know what half the terms meant. Hosting? Domains? DNS? It felt like learning a new language—with no dictionary.

But I had two things:

A stubborn curiosity

ChatGPT/AI Tools

So I jumped in, determined to figure it out, even if I had to fail my way through.

🧩 First Hurdle: Just Getting Something to Work

I decided to build my site with Next.js because it was recommended by a ton of people, and it seemed powerful (even if I didn’t fully understand what “React framework” meant at the time).

My goals were simple:

Build a clean blog layout

Connect the front-end and back-end

Deploy it so real humans could see it

That last one? Way harder than I thought.

Every step came with five new questions:

What’s an environment variable?

Why is my CSS not loading?

Why does my server say “404” even though the page is right there!?

I asked ChatGPT everything—and when I didn’t understand the answer, I’d ask again in simpler terms. (Pro tip: don’t be afraid to ask “like I’m five” follow-ups.)

🛠️ Tools That Helped Me Keep Going

Here’s what got me through it:

🔹 ChatGPT

Like having a patient mentor 24/7. I used it to:

Debug code

Explain concepts

Help me understand error messages

Suggest file structures and naming conventions

🔹 Vercel

Made deployment way easier than expected. Still confused me a bit, but after a few retries, it clicked.

🔹 GitHub

Took me a bit to understand Git and version control, but it felt like a superpower once I got it working.

🤯 Moments That Nearly Broke Me

Let’s be honest—this was the emotional rollercoaster part.

When nothing worked and I thought I broke everything

When I fixed one issue and five more popped up

When I doubted whether I was even “smart enough” to do this

But the thing is—I didn’t quit. I kept breaking it, fixing it, learning, and rebuilding.

Every mistake taught me more than any tutorial ever could.

💡 What I’d Tell Myself (or You) If I Could Start Again

You don’t need to know everything to start.
You just need to start.

It’s normal to get stuck.
Even pros Google error messages.

Use AI as your teammate, not your crutch.
Ask it to explain things. Break down answers. Use it to learn—not shortcut.

Save versions. Often.
One tiny mistake can break the whole site. Git is your friend.

Celebrate small wins.
Like when the page loads without crashing. That’s a big deal.

📢 What’s Next?

Now that my site is live, I’m excited to keep learning and building in public—sharing what works (and what totally doesn’t) so that you don’t have to struggle alone.

💬 Let’s Talk About Your Journey

Are you building your first website?
Did something break and make you question all your life choices?

Drop a comment or send me a message.
Tell me where you’re stuck, what you’re working on, or just say hi—I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading! And remember—just because something breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken. You’re learning. Keep going.