Like most creative projects, this one started with an idea and a budget of about twelve dollars.
When I first decided to build a home for my songs, stories, and podcasts, I didn’t want something full of ads, pop-ups, and monthly fees. I wanted something simple — a quiet corner of the internet that looked like me, not a template. So, I learned the one thing I’d always avoided: HTML.
Turns out, it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I thought.
HTML is like songwriting — once you learn a few chords, the rest is just combinations and timing.
I started with a blank page, typed <h1>Hello world</h1>, saved it as index.html, and there it was — my first “gig” in web design.
I used Netlify for hosting (because it’s free and fast), Formspree for email forms, and a domain name that cost less than a pub meal. Everything else — the layout, the buttons, the colors — came from me writing CSS by hand. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked, and it taught me more about the web than any template could.
Along the way, I learned about meta tags, responsive design, and how to make things look good without heavy scripts or plugins. More importantly, I learned that creating something from nothing — whether a song or a website — is about persistence, not perfection.
“You don’t need a thousand-dollar studio or a five-hundred-dollar website builder. You just need curiosity and a free afternoon.”
This site isn’t just my digital home — it’s a statement. It says that creativity and technology don’t have to be separate worlds. If you can write lyrics, you can learn code. If you can cook, you can learn CSS. The tools are free — the only real investment is time and curiosity.
And once you know how to build something for yourself, no one can take it away or charge you rent for it. That, to me, is freedom.
If you’d like to learn exactly how I built The Song Writer site — step by step, with examples you can follow — I’ve put together a full guide here: