Interview with Ralph from My Codeless Website
Ralph reached out to let us know about his free tool to find out how any website was built. At Top Left Design, we are all about bespoke designed custom-built WordPress websites. A content collaboration seemed fitting.
So, I asked if I could interview him and he was super enthusiastic! Which is great! I got to satisfy my curiousity. Below are his answers – unembelished by me! And he’s interviewed me too – link here:
What prompted you to make this tool?
My Codeless Website started as a website full of web design inspiration. Initially, I just collected cool web designs and put them into articles.
However, at some point, it became somewhat annoying to discover how a website was built. For example, to create an article of Squarespace website examples I need to find out whether a website was built with Squarespace or not.
Opening the code of each website takes a lot of time, that’s why I decided to create my own tool.
Did you do it yourself or hire coders?
I built it together with a friend. I have a basic understanding of code, but my friend definitely did 95% of the actual coding.
Did you get investment from external people? Or otherwise, how did you fund your idea?
That’s what you have friends for haha! Well, I did pay my friend to help me build the tool. But the costs were probably nowhere near the commercial rate I would have paid otherwise.
Do you do lots of little tools like this? If so, which ones?
Nope. This is the first one, but I’m definitely looking into more tools for the future! It’s a lot of fun!
How do you monetise a tool like this?
With affiliate links.
So if a visitor clicks on one of the tools that My Codeless Website discovered, I’ll receive a commission if he or she ends up buying the tool. At no extra cost to the visitor!
I signed up for the affiliate programs of all major website builders. As the tool was launched only a couple of weeks ago, it’s tough to say whether it’s generating a lot of money. But I suspect it will, in the long run!
How does knowing what builder was used for a site benefit people?
If you’re an entrepreneur and you want to build your own startup, it can be quite useful to analyze of which you think are cool.
Personally, I chose Divi for many of my projects, because a friend of mine had a cool website built with it. “If he’s able to build it with that setup, I can do the same!”
Who is it you think the tool is for (first and secondary audiences)
Entrepreneurs who want to build their own website. And potentially also web designers who want to explore how website examples were built.
That being said, I am still probably the most active user of the tool myself, haha!
What do you do for a living? Aside from this?
My LinkedIn title says “SEO nerd”. It’s what I love, and what I’m good at! I do it for my own websites, but also on a freelance basis for clients. Besides that, I’m working on a new project with a friend called Procurement Tactics. I thought it was a fun attempt to replicate the SEO game in a totally different niche. I love to build up traffic to new websites starting at zero. We started 6 months ago and it’s currently at 3000 visitors per month. Makes me very happy, haha!
What tool did you use to build your own site and why did you choose it?
Divi! Because a friend of mine built a cool website with it. To be honest, I didn’t even do my own research past that point. I just purchased a license without thinking too much about it.
I noticed you have a lot of blogs on your site, that looks like a lot of work – how much time do you spend on this? Do you have help?
Oh yes, this was a LOT of work, haha! Up until one month ago I actually wrote all the articles by myself. I put in a lot of hours doing research and writing the articles.
My Codeless Website didn’t generate any revenue in the first couple of months. It took a lot of persistence to keep on going. Once the first revenue started coming in, I was super motivated to keep on going.
Actually, when I started this blog I had one end goal – being able to travel the world while generating enough “passive” income from a website. And that worked! In 3 months from now, I’ll be going on a 6-month trip around the world with my girlfriend.
Feels pretty cool that it worked out!
How long ago did this idea come about, and how long has it taken?
I started working on this website 2 years ago. Looking back, I think the website and the articles have improved quite a lot. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, I think we’re getting there.
Do you have to get API / referenced code / data from many other sources?
Nope! Every time a visitor enters a URL in the website scanner, it will just ‘visit’ that specific website and crawl it. So it’s all based on the data of the website.
Me being curious:
Who designed your logo? I can explain why I’m asking this when we talk!
Myself. And it’s horrible haha. I think I need to re-do it at some point!
How much did it cost?
Nothing 😀
What about your own website/marketing would you change if you could suddenly get it done for free?
A complete redesign of the article setup. It’s something I developed over time, but I definitely think a better design will improve the user experience.
If you were to invest what would you invest each year in your website and marketing?
I would run paid ads to My Codeless Website. So far I’ve tried it with a couple of thousand dollars, but the return has always been lower than what I invested.
Do you have partnerships with the people at all those web builders?
Yes! Most of them have an affiliate program that I signed up for.
What is the service you do to help people generate leads for their businesses?
SEO 😀
Do you use MS Word or Google Docs (I know this is random but it popped into my head as I was thinking how to send you the draft blog article)
Haha love it! Google docs!