I need to take you back to where it all started. Before the 206 articles. Before the AdSense rejections. Before I even knew what WordPress was.
I was sitting in my room in Johannesburg, scrolling through YouTube on my phone. It was probably 2am — I was always up late back then, watching videos about making money online. Affiliate marketing. Dropshipping. Blogging. Passive income. Every "guru" had the same pitch: buy a domain, build a website, and watch the money roll in.
I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a niche. I didn't even fully understand what a domain was. But I had a bank card and enough faith to spend $10.
The Name
I went to Namecheap. I'd seen it mentioned in a few videos — "best place to buy cheap domains" — and it was the first site that felt simple enough for a beginner. No upsells I couldn't understand. No jargon.
But here's the thing: I had no idea what to name it.
I typed in maybe 20 different domain names. Every single one was taken. The short ones. The clever ones. The ones that sounded like real businesses. All gone. I started feeling that thing where you're staring at a search bar and your brain just stops working.
I wanted something that sounded like a brand. Something that could mean anything — because I didn't know yet what it was going to be. I didn't have a product. I didn't have a service. I just had the idea that I needed a website.
And then I typed in vitaladge.com.
It was available. $10.81 after tax. I didn't overthink it. I didn't research it. I didn't check if it was SEO-friendly or easy to spell or memorable. I just saw "available" and clicked buy.
What Was I Thinking?
Honestly? Not much.
I'd been watching people on YouTube talk about how they built "affiliate empires" from nothing. They'd show screenshots of their ClickBank earnings — $2,000 in a day, $500 in an hour. I knew some of it was probably fake. I knew the "buy my course" people were making more from courses than from affiliate marketing. But there was enough truth in the middle to keep me believing.
The model made sense: people search for products online → they land on your website → they click your affiliate link → they buy → you get a commission. No inventory. No shipping. No customer service. Just content and links.
I just needed a domain to start. That was step one. And now I had it.
The Reality Check I Didn't Get
What I didn't know — what none of the YouTube videos mentioned — was that buying the domain was the easiest part. The $10 was the smallest investment I'd make. The real costs were coming: hosting, themes, plugins, time, sleep, mental health.
But in that moment, sitting at 2am with a confirmation email from Namecheap in my inbox, I felt like I'd done something. I was an entrepreneur now. I had a domain. I had a business name.
I didn't have a business. But I had a name.
The First 24 Hours
The next day I told myself I was going to "build the website." I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know the difference between a domain and hosting. I didn't know what WordPress was. I didn't know what a CMS was. I didn't know what DNS records were or how they worked.
I just knew that my domain existed and that I needed to "put something on it."
I spent the whole evening Googling. "How to build a website from scratch." "How to make money with a domain." "Best hosting for beginners." Every article led to another article. Every video had a different recommendation. One said use Wix. Another said use Shopify. Another said WordPress. Another said don't use any of them — learn to code.
It was overwhelming. But I kept going because I'd already spent the $10. And in my mind, that meant I was committed.
Looking Back
If I could go back to that night, I wouldn't tell myself not to buy the domain. I'd tell myself to slow down.
I rushed from "buy domain" to "build website" to "make money" in about 48 hours. I didn't research my market. I didn't validate my idea. I didn't think about who my audience was or what they needed. I just moved forward with the energy of someone who'd watched too many motivational videos and confused excitement for strategy.
But that's the thing about starting — you don't know what you don't know. And there's no shortcut to finding out except by doing it wrong first.
That $10.81 on Namecheap was the first money I spent on this journey. It was nowhere near the last.
Next, I'll tell you about setting up WordPress on Hostinger — and how I chose my hosting plan the same way I chose my domain name: by guessing.
— Justice
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