How to Learn Code, Start a Web Company, $15k+ per month within 9 months

[CigarMan]

Instead of me telling you, why don't we do it this way - you answer the questions below and let's see where it goes.

---

What is the point of a beautiful website?

Do you also want a beautiful printer in your office and a beautiful wifi router?

What is the actual value of the website itself looking nice?

Why not just have it say your business name in big writing, then a few sentences about what you do, and finally a phone number or email to contact you?

Ok. I will answer yours before you answer mine.

As a business owner I can guarantee you that there are tremendous benefits to having a beautiful designed professional website.

Your website is an extention of your branding and a reflection of your company.

The look and feel of your company website effects how customers view you, treat you and feel about you.

Not only does it increase sales it let's you increase prices. Isn't the whole point in branding?

I spoke with customer daily and can tell you 50% don't mind paying 30% extra for the peace of mind knowing a reputable established company is doing their job.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that a significant portion of people would have never hired me when I started if they knew I only had 1 truck. This is why the look and feel of your website is critical.

In many cases, my website was the first and only interaction my customers have with my company until I show up at their door. Why wouldn't I want a beautiful professional site?

The other day I was looking for a link shortening service. Back in the day tinyURL was king but most people have apparently switched to bitly. I was curious what happened? The number 1 complaint was their website was old, ugly and outdated.

Customers want to feel good about the products or services they are buying and using. A beautiful designed website is a powerful marketing tool.

 

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[Fox]

Ok. I will answer yours before you answer mine.

As a business owner I can guarantee you that there are tremendous benefits to having a beautiful designed professional website.

Your website is an extention of your branding and a reflection of your company.

The look and feel of your company website effects how customers view you, treat you and feel about you.

Not only does it increase sales it let's you increase prices. Isn't the whole point in branding?

I spoke with customer daily and can tell you 50% don't mind paying 30% extra for the peace of mind knowing a reputable established company is doing their job.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that a significant portion of people would have never hired me when I started if they knew I only had 1 truck. This is why the look and feel of your website is critical.

In many cases, my website was the first and only interaction my customers have with my company until I show up at their door. Why wouldn't I want a beautiful professional site?

The other day I was looking for a link shortening service. Back in the day tinyURL was king but most people have apparently switched to bitly. I was curious what happened? The number 1 complaint was their website was old, ugly and outdated.

Customers want to feel good about the products or services they are buying and using. A beautiful designed website is a powerful marketing tool.

Okay… so why do you then only value a website at a few hundred dollars?

You literally just spelled out why it’s so important in a ton of different key areas.

I don’t even get your point any more tbh.

To me you just answered your own question.

 

[CigarMan]

Okay… so why do you then only value a website at a few hundred dollars?

You literally just spelled out why it’s so important in a ton of different key areas.

I don’t even get your point any more tbh.

To me you just answered your own question.

I don't know how this became about me but fine lets run with it.
If I can get a beautiful designed website for 1k why should I spend 10k with you? What value do you create that makes your website design 10x better than other professional web designers?

In my experience the all web designers say their designs will save time and make money. So how do you convince the customer your service is 10x more valuable? What are you doing to be 10x more valuable?

This is core of what you are promoting, that you are able to charge more than "experienced" programers because you create more value.

Anyway it seems you won't or can't articulate how or why you are creating more value.

I am tired of asking the same question. So let's stop going around in circles. You win. I am just not smart enough to see what you are doing.

 

[Fox]

If I can get a beautiful designed website for 1k why should I spend 10k with you? What value do you create that makes your website design 10x better than other professional web designers?

Most business owners don't care all that much about the site being above normally good-looking.
Of course it should look professional - but that is easy to do using any good theme or template.

What they care about most is results - and a web designer understanding what they need most and why.
A business owners problems are more complicated than just some surface level design.

Who do they sell to? Why do those people buy? What will help users take action? How can they build trust? What systems or set up will help the business owner do more business, with better results, and less effort?

These are all strategy questions, not design. The well paid web design is thinking about the business they are helping, not just how a website looks. They get the big picture.

Look you already said you watched all my Youtube channel content - so I don't see what else to tell you at this stage.
It seems you are fairly dug in on thinking a website can only be worth $1k when there are people all around selling them for all kinds of high prices.

 

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[KiwiEC]

Okay so I have read the full thread and thank you so much @Fox for this.

I was still brainstorming about potential businesses I want to start, trying to make them fit the CENTS rules without success. Every time 1-2 rules were not fulfilled.

If I understood well, what you are showcasing may not be a real Fastlane business initially but it has the potential to BECOME one. If I take my situation :

- NEED: there are a lot of small/medium companies with 1-100+ employees around me which do not have any website or a bad one, and there will always be.

- ENTRY: building websites is already something to reach, but nothing impossible. However solving customers problems through a website is something more complex as you said. I'm thinking of building a brand more than a freelance activity only.

- CONTROL: that's where I always failed to fullfil during my brainstorming, to me you control your whole process here (finding prospects, pricing, long term relationship, etc.).

- SCALE: probably the weakest link as you could be limited at some point (you can't build more than X website in a dedicated amount of time). I'm thinking about long-term recurrent paiements through subscriptions to keep those websites with good security, SEO, etc. Good idea? Other strategy would be to hire peoples at some point or at least to transfer some part of the work (eg. copywriting) to freelances. Also thinking in terms of magnitude where you only need a couple of 5+ digits deals to make it, get good reputation and start over as a snowball effect.

- TIME: I still have my slowlane job and this project could allow me to work in parallel on it before eventually leaving it. On the long term I can imagine reccurrent paiements are a good way to fit this rule.

I hope my analysis is not too far from reality. My current job is to sell devices costing around 80k€ and it requires a lot of expertise in science. I'm used to prospect, finding problems and providing a solution. I may have a nice advantage there.

I'm currently learning website building (mainly on WordPress with a bit of raw coding). I consider WordPress as an interesting strategy as you move quickly to websites themselves instead of spending months in coding theory.

In the coming weeks I would like to take my dad's business as a practical exercise. He runs an alternative medicine business and his website is not attractive at all. I plan to train myself on it.

Any thoughts or comments are more than welcome. This thread is faved in all cases.

 

[Two Dog]

My question here is should I continue with page builder or switch to html template like @Fox because it require way less maintenance ? It seem that this fact is a sell argument for clients who don't want to bother or pay with maintenance. Moreover I assume larger clients will pay willingly to get this problem out of their minds.

Selling website maintenance packages is a killer recurring revenue stream. WP Curve had some amazing growth charging $99 / month to keep WP sites updated and working properly. Once you get beyond a handful of plug-ins, everything is constantly auto-updating, causing conflicts and breaking the site. The USP was "Pay us a little bit of money every month and your WP website will never go down."

GoDaddy buys WordPress services startup WP Curve | TechCrunch

Web-hosting firm GoDaddy is beefing up its services after it acquired WP Curve, a startup offering services and support for WordPress websites. The deal is undisclosed, but it will see NYSE-listed GoDaddy pick up WP Curve's customer base, assets and "a few dozen" of its 39-person team, the firm...

techcrunch.com

p.s. I'd estimate the buyout at $10M - $30M based on the headcount.

 

[Two Dog]

I did some reading and watched some videos and I am skeptical.

With minimal coding and design skills how do you sell a website for 10k?

How do you code a website to solve problems of a real businesses? This is a major coding task.

Do you hire freelancer to do all the work?

A pretty website is worth a few hundred bucks. What let's you sell that site for 10 or 20k?

You wrote all those words for free. I'm writing all these words for free.

Good copywriters earn money - and some earn millions - doing exactly the same thing, right?

 

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[Two Dog]

I was still brainstorming about potential businesses I want to start, trying to make them fit the CENTS rules without success. Every time 1-2 rules were not fulfilled.

I've written this elsewhere, but worth repeating. Building a CENTS business requires first building one or more (probably several) non-CENTS businesses. Any business or idea can be transformed into CENTS based on the skill of the entrepreneur. It's impossible to learn that by sitting around pondering whether any given idea happens to meet the requirements of an abstract framework developed by a single person.

CENTS is a goal, not a mandate for success.

Website design is not a CENTS business. So what? It can certainly earn you enough money to start another business or morph it into one more CENTS-like. You could subcontract work to other web designers, develop a high converting template for niche industries, move into lead generation, etc. That's the learning part.

In the coming weeks I would like to take my dad's business as a practical exercise. He runs an alternative medicine business and his website is not attractive at all. I plan to train myself on it.

Hopefully, you've read through this thread a couple of times and are starting to understand that value add doesn't come from the way the website looks. Not to say you couldn't sell plenty of website design services to owners who don't understand that, but it's tiny piece of the actual value add you could sell for much more money.

Ask yourself: Why does Dad have a website in the first place? Ask him the same question and see what he says.

Most business websites should be designed with a single goal in mind: converting interested prospects into sales.

There are legions of "ugly" websites with "awful" copy selling "crappy" products that have minted piles of money for the owners. Without a solid understanding of who's buying the products/services, why they're buying and how they're searching for it, it's impossible to design a website that converts effectively. The only way of accomplishing that is by asking those questions to prospects and customers, learning the answers and testing different things.

 

[KiwiEC]

Thanks for your feedback, I totally got your point about the CENTS mindset. I will keep that in mind and I don't have the pretention to success with my first attempt. It was more like a long term projection about potential perspectives.

When I said my dad's website was not attractive I was not mainly thinking about its look. I try to always take the seat of customer in my current job, which always helps me to determine how to answer the needs. In this case, I think its more a question of content. Of course a bit of graphic improvement would be nice, but I will definitely focus of the content itself:
- What is the message he wants to give?
- What are the key points he needs to highlight to get leads?
- How to build and organize the website accordingly?
- Ultimately, and because this is also an opportunity to practice on that part, how to make the site visually more appealing?

 

[DCG]

But... that sounds like work

-----------------------------------

This is a fool proof plan to having real, well paying clients within a month.

I want to see some people on here put this to good use.
You got the advice already, this thread for feedback and this whole forum for extra info. No excuses.

That's all I have to do? I really gotta stop overthinking about things.

 

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[elijahingrum]

@Fox I have a couple of questions. I am reading through the thread right now and I am on page 5 so maybe these questions get answered and I haven't got to them yet.
1. Do you recommend doing all of the HTML and CSS courses on Codecademy or just a select few?
2. What are some resources I could use to learn more about designing websites, SEO, sales, and anything else I need? I am trying to learn from this forum. But it would also be easier for me if I could just read a book, take a course, or watch some videos.
3. For bigger companies, do you take a different approach to getting sales for the company? Basically, I'm wondering if companies that get $1,000,000 contracts approach sales differently then other companies.

Finally, thanks so much for the information you have given me. I am going to implement all of this. I am taking the Codecademy courses now. I plan on reading all about sales, web design, and SEO so that I can master this skill. Thanks so much!

 

[Fox]

@Fox I have a couple of questions. I am reading through the thread right now and I am on page 5 so maybe these questions get answered and I haven't got to them yet.
1. Do you recommend doing all of the HTML and CSS courses on Codecademy or just a select few?
2. What are some resources I could use to learn more about designing websites, SEO, sales, and anything else I need? I am trying to learn from this forum. But it would also be easier for me if I could just read a book, take a course, or watch some videos.
3. For bigger companies, do you take a different approach to getting sales for the company? Basically, I'm wondering if companies that get $1,000,000 contracts approach sales differently then other companies.

Finally, thanks so much for the information you have given me. I am going to implement all of this. I am taking the Codecademy courses now. I plan on reading all about sales, web design, and SEO so that I can master this skill. Thanks so much!

1) Just the basics. And you can use the Chrome "inspect" tool to give you the answers if you get stuck also.
What matters is learning how to learn code - and the HTML / CSS courses are a good way to show you the idea.

2) That is a pretty large question! I would say try to get some basic client projects going first - it is easier to learn with a real example to be applying it to. Then as you come up against things you don't know - start to study what you need. Also, a good way to learn is to backwards engineer what other successful websites are doing. Study some top websites in the same or a similar niche and breakdown their systems and content.

3)Usually the larger the sale, the more "front end" the website is with the complete sales process. So you buy a pair of socks or shoes online easily, but if you were buying a house or a a $1,000,000 oil and gas contractor then website is usually just acting as a starting point.

I actually recommend to stay away from e-commerce sites when first starting (unless that is your goal), since ti requires a bit more experience to complete the full sale on the website. The easiest "big wins" with selling web design is looking for someone with a great business, who only needs more raw leads, and whose website sucks. This way you just have to connect the leads to the business and it is a a massive win.

 

[elijahingrum]

1) Just the basics. And you can use the Chrome "inspect" tool to give you the answers if you get stuck also.
What matters is learning how to learn code - and the HTML / CSS courses are a good way to show you the idea.

So, just the Learn HTML course and the Learn CSS course?

That is a pretty large question! I would say try to get some basic client projects going first - it is easier to learn with a real example to be applying it to. Then as you come up against things you don't know - start to study what you need. Also, a good way to learn is to backwards engineer what other successful websites are doing. Study some top websites in the same or a similar niche and breakdown their systems and content.

Thanks! This is very helpful advice!

 

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[Prateik Lohani]

It has taken me a long time to have time to create this thread and for that I apologize. I have been getting PMs for months and while I helped a lot of you out with detailed responses I wanted to start a thread so everyone would have access to the same information.

*** This isn't exact Fastlane, at least not in the beginning, but its a great way to earn 5 figures a month, learn the skills to create and run your own FL business while building a network of top business people***

Back at the beginning of the year I packed up everything I owned in Canada and moved to South America. I was keen to make enough income to stay down there while also building my own Fastlane business. Problem was I had no online skills, no idea what to do and have never ran a successful business before.

I just launched my business last week and I am still down here living happily so I guess I could say things have gone very well. Hopefully this information helps others achieve similar success and allows them to start pursuing their dreams.


So first things first:

- I started with zero coding knowledge in January of this year. I didn't know how to host a website, I didn't know what HTML or CSS was, I made a tonne of really basic mistakes and figured it all out by myself. I didn't take any expensive courses, had no mentors and probably only spent a few hundred dollars getting set up.

It took me a while to refine my niche but what I now focus on is building simple yet powerful websites that get huge results. No crazy interactive code, no fancy graphics, just simple, clean, professional websites that add huge value to the clients who hire me.

In the last few months I have
- built a website that landed a $1 million pus contract for the guys who hired me (they hadn't worked in over 8 months - oil company)
- built a website that helped get a pro athlete into a world tournament and increased pay from his sponsors (social media profile increase)
- Built a website that has a lawyer making over 1k a week on consultations

While I made good money on these websites its nice to know that the value I added is many times more and all my clients have been very satisfied.

I am still in the early stages of figuring this all out though so as this thread goes along I will still update with what I am learning and what has changed. Right now my problem is scaling, I need more top sales people on the ground selling websites for me. I will come back to this in another post maybe.


So how to begin:

So todays lesson is on how to get started at the very start. You know nothing and you want to get in on this action too. Some quick notes - I build "custom" HTML websites 99% of the time, I don't use wordpress except in some rare cases for add on blog/news sections to my sites. Why? Most of my clients are very busy, non tech people. They don't want or have time to update their websites. They want it built well and they want it to run itself. HTML is a lot better for this and when done right looks way more professional.

How to begin with HTML:

Take the HTML and CSS lessons on Learn to Code - for Free | Codecademy.

You can also do the JS section but I didn't and have been just fine.


Next take the following UDEMY course:

Build Responsive Websites with HTML5 and CSS3


After this you will now know how to edit and work with HTML themes. What does that mean?

Well there is no point creating a website from scratch. That takes years of coding experience and a lot of time for each new clients. Luckily enough people have gone and created HTML themes - its an already coded website where you just rearrange, switch out the pictures and text and add in a few extra bits (I will show how to do all of this at a later stage).

An example of a theme is here...

Foundry Multipurpose HTML + Variant Page Builder

It just a blank slate with a certain style that you work with. While this may seem like strange or cheating (I thought this was how to learn to build websites!??) its not. Anyone with an internet can create a website these days so that is not where we will be adding value. We add value by building a website with a purpose. We want to build websites that get results and make money, or whatever they are trying to achieve, for the owner.

So how do you build a website that gets great results?

Good question.

As @Andy Black would say you want sales not a website. I am going to meet him half way with you want to build a website that gets sales. Not a website that looks amazing, has cool videos and sections, talks about the companies recent gold tournament or how they really wanted to do X since they were 5. Now it might do one or all of these things but only IF it helps gets sales.

Every page, link, click and action on the website is to help facilitate the growth of the company and sales.

Lets take for example an immigration lawyer website...

Is the goal of the site to teach you about immigration law?
Is it to show you stats of work, trade and education within the country?
Is it to teach you about what to do when you first arrive, what to pack, what to expect?

No.

The whole purpose of that website is for the user to either book a consultation or contact them regarding their services. Which both lead to that person hiring them as their immigration lawyer.

Now it might use some of the above to help with that goal but it only has one main purpose. Everything we do for that client must help with that goal or if it doesn't help... be removed.


You are going to learn to take the value of threads of here regarding copywriting, sales and the Fastlane Mindset and apply it other peoples businesses to help them achieve massive results. This just happens to take the form of a website. You are really selling sales and results.

Once you sell results there is no limit to what you can charge and achieve.


If you have read all this and want to start follow the above links, compete them fully and then follow along with the next stages. There will be a lot to cover but I will outline everything you need to know to be making over $10,000 a month with 6 months*.

*Assumes actual work ethic, being able to do some learning by yourself and filling in the gaps. I will give advice but I won't be holding anyones hand step-by-step.

Next lesson... Client selection.

is the freecodecamp responsive web design course good ?

 

[Fox]

is the freecodecamp responsive web design course good ?

Never took it, no idea.

 

[lobuzp]

Hi, I propably miss something.
What is the real difference between a $200 site and a $2000 site? I can't catch what's going on. In both cases, we take a template and customize it. So where is the real value? In the $200 approach, people are only focused on the design? In the $2000 about solving a real problem? But what problem can we solve if we just customize the design to their needs? Is it about better knowledge of how to set up components to entice customers? Is it about a better knowledge of good copywriting and good call to action to make customers want to buy products from our customers?

But the problem is that we can't measure exact numbers for our customers. We don't know how often people buy products and services from our client when we change their website.

 

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[Fox]

Hi, I propably miss something.
What is the real difference between a $200 site and a $2000 site? I can't catch what's going on. In both cases, we take a template and customize it. So where is the real value? In the $200 approach, people are only focused on the design? In the $2000 about solving a real problem? But what problem can we solve if we just customize the design to their needs? Is it about better knowledge of how to set up components to entice customers? Is it about a better knowledge of good copywriting and good call to action to make customers want to buy products from our customers?

But the problem is that we can't measure exact numbers for our customers. We don't know how often people buy products and services from our client when we change their website.

This should help...

 

[Guest31xr384]

thanks for the links to the courses mate, much appreciated.​

 

[Ayush6543]

I have been cold calling business owners, and most of the time an assistant picks up the phone and says that the owner is not here and asks if I would like to leave a message. I just hung up the phone. Is there anyone who has faced the same problem as me?

 

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[secretfastlane]

I know how to code websites (HTML, CSS, Javascript, Node.js etc) But I'm only 16 and most of not all local resurants, stores, gyms, and cafes already have a website and it wasn't made in 1999. So how would I go about it. I did 2 sales online from an online forum but there's like no demand and 4 months between each sale so it's not really viable. What could I do to get clients in my situation.

Thanks - Nichlas

 

[TeeJay_]

I have been cold calling business owners, and most of the time an assistant picks up the phone and says that the owner is not here and asks if I would like to leave a message. I just hung up the phone. Is there anyone who has faced the same problem as me?

You just hang up the phone? Why would you be so rude?

 

[Ayush6543]

You just hang up the phone? Why would you be so rude?

I am not rude, I just get scared and go blank.

 

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[TeeJay_]

I am not rude, I just get scared and go blank.

Scared of what? I don't understand your behavior.

 

[Fox]

and most of not all local resurants, stores, gyms, and cafes already have a website and it wasn't made in 1999.

These are okay niches, but not the best.

First, it doesn't matter when there last website was made. What matters is that it actually gets them results.

Sometimes it is obvious a website could be better - better content, easier flow, more social proof, reviews, authority, proper messaging, better sales systems etc.

Other times it isn't so obvious. Maybe the website looks good - but maybe it doesn't line up with the business any more. They might have changed customers, or direction, or want to now focus on something else.

In either case, you need to talk to business owners to see what is going on with their business. ALL good websites sales are about what the business needs, not about just making a better looking website.

To start, I would say to target small blue collar businesses. They are usually owner managed (easier to contact), and also they care about growing and getting better results. Plus they will be looking for real help.

Search for smaller industrial/commercial services in your areas, look for underperforming websites on pages 1-2 of a search, and then reach out an offer a great deal to get some starter projects.

 

[master-do]

Hi, I'm reading all thread but i have a question.

Once I have developed website in html, css (and possibly javascript), how can I connect it to a database?

Even if only to be able to allow potential customers who will enter the site to send an email, or access their user area.

Do you have to have BackEnd developer skills as well?

Thanks so much for answer and for this topic, it's fantastic

 

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[BGeorge]

@Fox
I recently found this thread and just wanted to let you know how much value I have taken from it.
Looks as though you have Fastlaned it with the Legends Program. Congrats!

For the past year or so, my thoughts have been consumed by creating business ideas, products and services to propel myself out of a mediocre existence.

The content from both yourself and @Andy Black has really given me a sense of clarity over the past week. Andy's interview many years ago that was linked in this thread made me realise that I observe, appreciate and dissect brand and digital marketing. It's something I do everyday, I cannot not do it! This is my specialty. Your step by step guide on how to learn to code and build websites kicked me into gear.

I will spend the next year refining my code and website building skills whilst continuing to intake as much marketing information as possible. I plan to tackle a few local small businesses websites, then work my way into a niche (medical, cosmetics) as I feel I have so much value to offer this market (and others) already.

Anyway, cheers for the content lads.
Much appreciated.

 

[nvq.ktcq]

I didn't do any course but have worked in a few jobs where I had front of house positions. I think of a website like this...

View attachment 13291

Lets say there are 10 possible links on any one page. 8 will being them "downstream" while only one or two go back to the home page.
Every click brings them through a little journey that ticks all the boxes needed for a sale (social proof, trust, scarcity, and so on...)

Now one one page I might have three different links that all say different stuff but go to the SAME page. For example...
"See how we can start helping you today" (link)
"Begin your journey towards better results now"(link)
"Our proven record of success" (link)

All these links bring them to the Services page. And so on until someone has gone the whole way through the site till and they end up on the COA page which asks them to do only ONE simple task - call, usually email or buy.

Now if someone really wants they can find the company history page or privacy policy but its not promoted.
Also its all done in a set order. Lots of websites just have links going everywhere with no plan or formula.

My before and after analytic stats on website designs show the results. Time on the site goes up 100-300%, amount of pages views is the same. And of course COA results go up to.

Hi @Fox, I've just purchased your course and love it so far. I have a question about structuring a multi-page website like your example. Can you explain how you structure a website like this? Or the process behind it? Thanks

 

[Fox]

Hi, I'm reading all thread but i have a question.

Once I have developed website in html, css (and possibly javascript), how can I connect it to a database?

Even if only to be able to allow potential customers who will enter the site to send an email, or access their user area.

Do you have to have BackEnd developer skills as well?

Thanks so much for answer and for this topic, it's fantastic

You'll probably just want to use a system already set up for this - like Wordpress.

HTML websites are much more suited for static content.

 

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[Fox]

Hi @Fox, I've just purchased your course and love it so far. I have a question about structuring a multi-page website like your example. Can you explain how you structure a website like this? Or the process behind it? Thanks

Hey - if you didn't already just post it up in the Fb group and I will give you a full response.

Try give as much detail as possible.

 

[Michael Ankrah]

there

It’s 2023 now and l just checked these guys website and it’s still as it was in 2016, that’s mad