A House As A Website Analogy

The House Analogy

Building a website can be likened to constructing a house, and here’s why:

  • You need a location or address (domain name).
  • You need land to build the house on (web hosting).
  • You need a frame for structure and to break down the house into rooms (HTML).
  • You need customizations, such as painting, light fixtures, landscaping, etc. (CSS).
  • You need a fence for privacy or security (SSL Certificate).
  • Once everything is built, you can invite friends to check it out (publish your website)!

If you were to build a physical home, you wouldn’t venture into the woods, chop down trees, run them through a mill, and then put up the frame yourself. Instead, you would likely hire a professional builder who would purchase prefabricated materials—like wooden frames, windows, and light fixtures—and construct the home for you.

Similarly, you don’t have to build a website from scratch; that’s a thing of the past. Today, you can purchase a website template or theme created by a professional web designer and simply customize it. This approach allows you to cut costs, reduce development time, and create websites quickly and affordably! Websites are truly digital assets that you can sell or rent, making you a digital landlord.

We can take this analogy a step further. Just as McDonald’s or Crew Car Wash have capitalized on real estate assets by leasing properties to generate passive income, you can do the same in the digital realm.

The purpose of our website is to guide you on how to become a digital landlord our way. While there are many tutorials available, we aim to keep it simple and as non-technical as possible, showing you how to start making money by selling your services while you learn.

My First Experience with HTML

My first experience with HTML was back in 2011, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. All I wanted to do was change the text on a website that someone had built for us. However, without any understanding of how HTML worked, I took one look at the source code and felt completely lost.

In 2012, I decided to give it another try, this time with the help of a tutor. My biggest realization was that I didn’t need to understand all the code—just the parts I needed to change. That simple insight has made a significant difference in my life to this day!

A Glimpse Into Coding

Getting started with coding is easy, and HTML is a fantastic way to begin your journey into website design and web development. By creating a simple HTML document as instructed in this page, you’ll get a hands-on experience with the building blocks of over 96% of the websites you visit.

This 6-step guide will walk you through creating your very first HTML document using Notepad++ on a Windows laptop, and viewing the results through Google Chrome Browser. Let’s get started!

1. Install Notepad++

Download Notepad++ from the official website here. Follow the installation prompts to install it on your Windows laptop.

2. Open Notepad++

After installation, launch Notepad++ by searching for it in the Start menu or double clicking on its icon.

3. Create a New HTML Document

To create a new HTML document, click on File in the top menu and select New, or simply press Ctrl + N to open a new tab.

4. Copy/Paste the HTML Code

Copy and then paste the following HTML in the new window. The example below includes the page’s title (only visible on the browser tab), a heading or h1, a paragraph or p, and a external link or a. It’s a simple exercise but an effective way to give you a quick glimpse.

Copy to Clipboard

5. Save the File as an HTML Document

Click on File > Save As. In the “Save as type” dropdown, choose All Types. Name the file myfirstpage, and make sure to include the “.html” extension (e.g. “myfirstpage.html”), then save it to a folder of your choice or your desktop.

6. Open the HTML Document in Your Browser

Locate the saved HTML document on your computer and double-click it. Your first web page will open in the browser, displaying the content you just wrote.

Resulting Page

Your page should look similar to this one below. Slide the green handle with arrows to see the source code and how the browser renders this code.

Page

Frequently Asked Questions

Absolutely not! Of the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with, not a single one has asked me this question before, or after we started working on their project. Clients care about working with someone local.
Set your expectations high, however like with everything in life, you return will be in proportion to your efforts.
By the definition, you become one the moment you sign up your first web hosting client.
Because the above is the frame or skeleton of the website to build. Imagine you go to an active construction website looking to buy a house. Do you except the house and neighborhood to look like this once delivered? Of course not! Its the same with the example above.

Build a portfolio, generate Google reviews, gain local client trust, and little by little you will establish yourself as a respectable web designer.