Transcription
Look, it's kind of crazy, but people are getting rich by creating simple, boring websites. And I think that it's a pretty interesting side hustle. And so, in this video, I'm going to show you how I, as someone who knows zero code, managed to vibe code, host, and release my own simple, boring website that can rank in Google and get free search engine traffic in less than 30 minutes using beginner-friendly AI tools.
But first, you might be thinking, "Okay, Sarah, but what even is a simple, boring website?" It's a good question. So, it's basically just a website that performs one simple, boring task that solves a problem, but it does it well, like this one here does. This is a website that lets you set up a spin the wheel game. You just enter in the names or labels that you want the wheel to have, and then you click to spin it, and it will randomly choose and assign a winner. It's often used by groups of people as part of game nights or as part of parties. It solves the problem of having a fun way to randomly choose people.
And here's the cool thing, right? This website doesn't even need to market itself to get traffic. If you go to Google and do a search for a free spin the wheel tool, it'll show up as the first result. And if you pop it into a traffic estimator tool, you'll see that it estimates that it's getting over 7.1 million views a month. Wow. And it makes sense since this was one of, if not the first actually good spin the wheel website, meaning it had a strong first mover advantage. Basically, the creator saw a need for a specific tool, made it, and started very quickly getting free traffic since due to a lack of competition, it started ranking quickly within Google.
But of course, all of this begs the question, how can a free website like this be monetized? And that's a very good question. Basically, if you take a look at this website, you can see it has ads on it. And these ads come from Google's own advertising program, Google AdSense. It's free and anyone can sign up for this. When you do, Google will let you place their ads on your website and they will split the profits with you. And well, using an AdSense calculator, we can figure out the estimated earnings a website like this would earn on average. So on average, a utility website like this generally has a 0.5% click-through rate for ads and around a 50 cent CPC, which basically means earnings per click. And by using this, we can figure out the estimated yearly, monthly, or daily earnings. Wow. As I said, it's kind of crazy, right?
But of course, the next question is this. Okay, Sarah, that's great and all. Let's say I had come up with this idea myself to make a spin the wheel website to solve a problem for parties and game nights. I have my idea. That's one thing. But how would I actually make a website like this myself as a complete beginner who doesn't know any code? And that's another good question. And frankly, back before AI got so smart, you probably couldn't. I mean, I know that I couldn't if I'm just being honest and realistic here about my own skills. But now, all-in-one vibe coding platforms exist. These combine AI LLMs like Claude Code with AI image generators into a single website wrapper to not only vibe code apps and websites, but design them, too. Plus, they also offer web hosting. There are several to pick from, but the two most popular are Lovable and Bass 44. They are both extremely similar to each other. So, it really just comes down to personal preference in my opinion, which is why I recommend that you sign up to both of their free accounts because these let you vibe code a website or tool for free. And then you can use that to help you choose. My personal preference is Bass 44. So, I'll be using it and I will include my affiliate link to the free version if you'd like to use it to support the channel.
But either way, just come to your vibe coding platform and tell it what you want your website to do. Then click to make a plan. Now, your Vibe coding platform will take your idea and turn it into a written plan. And if you're happy with this, you can then click to start building. And then, well, that's it. It will now generate your website for you. Each time you build something, it uses some of your free credits. So that's why I recommend making a plan first to ensure that it understands what you want before it goes ahead and builds it. But yes, in less than 2 minutes, it built it for me. And if we turn it into full screen mode, here's how it looks. And it's interactive, too. So I went ahead and deleted the filler names that the website started with, and I added in a bunch of names to it just as an example. And then I did a test spin to see if the wheel spin animation would work, which it did perfectly. It spun and randomly selected a winner. Pretty cool, right?
And so, yeah, that's pretty much it. You can now come in and tweak your new website by adding things to it. So, for example, you take the original spin the wheel website here, right? They have a super cool little simulation tool that lets you simulate 10,000 spins using their randomization method to prove to the skeptics that yes, it is extremely random. Well, if I'd come up with this idea myself, I could have easily created this, too. All I need to do is just come back to the base 44 chat and explain to it in general natural language terms what I want to add to it. And then that's it. It came in and it added it for me. No problem. And so if we check it out by making the website full screen again, we can test it. You can see it added in a bunch of different simulation options for us. And if we click this one to spin it 1,000 times, it'll do just that and turn the results into a graph along with a percentage breakdown table of how many times each name won. So this is one way to modify and add to your new website.
Or another way is you can use the edit feature, which again pretty much all of the vibe coding platforms have, not just base 44. Using these, you can just select what thing you want to modify on the page and explain how you want it to be changed or type in whatever text you want it to be switched out with. And then that's it. The AI will go in and change and modify it for you. So, I went in and made some tweaks to it to finalize my layout. I made the wheel much bigger and I moved the buttons to the right of the screen to improve the layout and I also added in a dark mode button toggle which when you press will switch the website into dark mode. Plus, I also got it to then switch the toggle to light mode, which means then that you can just click that to turn it back. Although, something important to note is that when I first added this feature, it didn't initially work. You can see in my chat log that I initially asked to add the button, which it did, but when I tested it, the button was broken. So, I told it that it was broken, and then it went back, analyzed the code, and it fixed it for me. So, yeah, that's how you can fix bugs while vibe coding.
So then let's now discuss the next step which is publishing and hosting your new website so that people can actually use it. And for this you have two options. One is that you can pay for your own web host and then migrate over your website yourself. And Netlify is probably the most popular AI-focused web hosting platform to do this with and there are several tutorials here on YouTube that teach how to deploy your websites over there. So this is one way or if like me you aren't that techy you can just opt to upgrade your free account to the build plan which includes web hosting. This is the simplest way to do it. If you do that you can switch your new website from private mode to public mode. And now they will give you a free domain name if you do this. And you know this domain it does work. So if you did want to, you could keep this but chances are you will want to change it. You know, in which case you can get a custom domain for just $1 right now within your dashboard. Just open up the custom domain option, search for the domain that you want, and if it's available, most domains start at just $1 when purchased through the domain provider, ionos. So, just go through the checkout process and then boom, it'll be automatically set up and connected to your website.
So, yeah, that's pretty much it. Creating this was super fast. I went from website idea to an actual live hosted website in less than 30 minutes. But of course, at this point here, you might be wondering, "Okay, Sarah, that's great and all, but once I've built my website, how do I get traffic to it?" And it's a good question. And the answer to this is actually pretty simple. You don't get traffic from what you do after you make your website. You get your traffic from what you do before you make it. Basically, the reason why this website was so successful was because it was one of, if not the first decent online spin the wheel website. And so, I reckon that this is the best strategy for getting traffic. Try to research and brainstorm an idea for a simple website that doesn't yet exist that you could make that would solve a problem that people are directly looking for. That way, you can piggyback off of free search engine traffic from Google.
So for example, right, I came to Google and I did a search for a clothing size converter and take a look. There were no dedicated converters. Instead, I was just given a bunch of websites which have clothing charts. And while these clothing charts are helpful, I suppose they aren't exactly what I want. I want an actual converter. So guess what? If I go ahead and use a vibe coding tool like Bass 44 or Lovable to make this, then I'll be the first one to do it. And if I do, there is a good chance that Google will rank me very highly, if not at the very top for search phrases related to it since I'll be the first true clothing converter. So, it's up to you, of course, how you choose to get traffic to your website. But for me, I think that this is the most effective strategy. Don't pay for traffic or pay for marketing. Instead, just let Google naturally rank your website and send it free traffic by coming up with unique and original ideas to build a website for.
And check it out. Base 44 was able to vibe code a clothing converter for me no problem. As you can see, it added in all the different clothing types and it converts them perfectly. However, in saying this, I'm sure that this all raises a new question and a lot of people watching, which is this. Okay, Sarah, cool idea you came up with and all, but what about me? How do I come up with a unique idea like this? And that is also a good question. And well, there is no magical answer. Personally, one of the ways that I get inspired and come up with my own ideas is by taking a look at case studies of other people who have been successful doing very similar things. And so with that in mind, then let's come and take a look at another case study to help us get inspiration.
This website here, Rhyme Zone. This helps people solve problems related to words. Basically, it is a rhyme matcher. You enter in a word and it will match it to a bunch of other words that rhyme while giving it a score. People use this website to help them create rhymes and write poetry. And check this out. If we come and enter this into the website traffic checker by Href, you'll see that it estimates that it's getting over 1 million views every month. So, of course, we can now take this traffic data and enter it into an AdSense earnings calculator. This website had more ads than the spin the wheel website. I noticed on average four ads per page which bumped up the average earnings per view by quite a lot.
But of course this begs the question, let's say that you had come up with an idea like this. Could you have vibe coded it together using AI? The answer is yes. Yes, you absolutely could. And let me show you how. All you need to do is come to your all-in-one vibe coding platform that you like and tell it exactly what the website should do. In this case, of course, I wanted it to be a website that let a user enter in a word, which would then get matched to other words that rhymed and ranked them, and also noted whether they were stressed or unstressed, and noted what type of word they were, such as a verb or a noun. Then, I clicked to have it create a plan, and that was it. I let it make a plan. And after reading over it to make sure that it understood exactly what I wanted, I went ahead and I let it do its magic. I obviously sped it up for this video, but in total it took just over 2 minutes. And when it was done, I of course had to test that the website actually works. And check it out. It works great. You enter in a word and it will identify rhymes and it even ranks them too. Super cool.
So once you have your base design, you can then change things or add additional features to it. For example, that original website Rhyme Zone doesn't just have a rhyme checker. It has a drop-down menu that lets you use other tools such as a synonym checker. This lets you input a word and find synonyms for it, which is helpful when writing. Well, you can add in additional tools like this to a website when you vibe code too. Just explain in the chat window the extra new feature that you would like to add and then that's it. It'll go in and add it for you. In total, this took less than a minute for it to add in and check it out. Now you can enter in a word and choose a synonym option and then do a search and instead of finding rhymes it will match it to synonyms, which is very cool. So yes, if you come up with a unique idea for a website that can solve problems related to words then it can work great.
So then onto the next type of simple website that people are searching for to help give you inspiration. But first just a quick favor. If you are enjoying this video and it is helping you, please consider giving it a like. I create lots of tutorials on how to use AI tools on this channel and I have recently had a big influx of people who do not like AI disliking my videos and honestly it can be a tad demotivating. So if you do choose to click like on my videos if they are helping you I do genuinely appreciate that. So thank you if you choose to do so.
But yes, either way, this is the next type of website that people are searching for and that is generators. So this here is a great example. It is a filler text generator. Lorem ipsum is a dummy text language that was designed to look similar to actual words but be nonsensical. So it can be used as a generic placeholder. This website lets you easily and very quickly generate sentences and paragraphs to use. It's often used by people who are say designing a website or a template for a client and they need to add some dummy text to it. And take a look. If we pop into the website traffic checker, you can see it estimates that it's getting over 1.3 million views every month. So, of course, we can now take this traffic estimate and then pop it into the Google AdSense revenue calculator. And again, using an average click-through rate along with an average cost per click, we can estimate how much it is earning every day, week, and month. Not bad for a simple little website, right?
But of course, the next question is this. Okay, Sarah, but if I came up with an idea for a generator website, is this actually something that I can vibe code together and the answer is yes, absolutely. So, as an example, let's say that you had come up with the idea to create a Lorem Ipsum generator. Well, you could totally just come to a vibe code platform like Lovable or Bass 44 and ask it to create a generator for you explaining what exactly you want and it'll do that, no problem. So, come and check it out. If we give the website a go, you'll see that it works perfectly. It lets me choose how many sentences that I generate or it lets me switch to paragraphs and choose how many of those I want to generate. But, you know, this is actually a fairly easy thing, relatively speaking, for it to create. So, let's put it to the test because take a look at this. Right. On the original Lorem Ipsum generator, it doesn't just let you add an English Lorem Ipsum. It lets you choose from other languages too. That is much more complex. So, as a test, I went ahead and I asked the AI to do this. And I started out by giving it three relatively easy languages: French, Spanish, and German. And then I just sat back and let it work its AI magic. And in less than a minute, it added this feature in for me. And take a look. If we give it a quick test run, you will see that it has now added in toggles for each of the languages. And if you go ahead and generate dummy text in it, it'll generate it in the new language. Very cool.
But yes, I had one final test to give it. I decided to see if it could take on a much bigger challenge to create toggles for four of the most difficult languages to learn and get correct: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. And then I sat back and again let the AI do its magic. And in less than one minute, it added in these toggles for me. Now, if we come and give them a quick test, you'll see that yep, they do indeed work. When you switch to it, it changes the language. And if you generate text in it, it'll generate it using dummy text inspired by the language that you picked. Super cool.
So then onto the next type of website that people are looking for to help inspire you to come up with your own website idea, which is this calculators. So this here is a great example of a simple calculator. It's designed to help you track how many calories you burn each day. It's a simple basic website, but it does get lots of views. And I mean a lot of views. If you pop it into the traffic estimator tool, you'll see it estimates it's getting over 1.3 million views per month. Wow. And check out this calculator here. This one is designed to help you calculate what your mortgage repayments would be for a house and also calculate how much interest you would pay over time while accounting for property taxes. And this calculator is even more popular. If we check it out using the traffic estimator tool, you can see it estimates it's getting over 2.2 million views per month.
And of course, speaking of calculators, we can use another calculator that we've been utilizing throughout this video, the Google AdSense calculator to estimate how much you would expect to earn on average every day, week, and month for traffic like this. And actually, I'm pretty sure, but this website earns even more than this because it has these links on the website to where you can click to go get mortgage quotes. And these look like affiliate links to me, which are links which track who clicks on them and then who purchases or signs up for a mortgage after doing so. And if someone does do that, the website owner will get paid a commission. So yeah, it's kind of hard to say just how much money that this website is making, but my guess is that it's making a lot.
But of course, this all begs the question, if you come up with an idea for a calculator, can a vibe coding platform like Lovable or Bass 44 make it for you? And so, I decided to come and put it to the test. And admittedly, I'm not an expert in how mortgages work in the USA, but I know how mortgages work here where I live, which is New Zealand. So, I decided to see if I could vibe code together a mortgage calculator for New Zealanders. And this can actually be a smart strategy. If you see, say, a website idea working in the USA, you can often successfully clone it for a different region and monetize that way. And check it out. It took about 2 minutes, but it created it for me pretty much perfectly. You can enter in your details to the calculator and the graph and repayments will calculate and change based on what you enter. And I also figured out what should be added into the calculator to make it specific and regionalized for New Zealand as well, which was super helpful.
So then, I hope that my tutorials and my case studies have inspired you. And if you'd like to learn about even more ways that people are using AI tools to start online businesses, be sure to check out my next video here on screen. And I will see you in the next video.