🚀 My First Side Project Failed Miserably (And It Was the Best Thing That Ever Happened)
Fun fact: I never wanted to be a developer — I just wanted to build stuff and (hopefully) make some money. Or maybe the other way around?
Either way, my teenage self got a computer with Ethernet, and suddenly, one thing became clear: I needed my own website.
The Dream (And the Reality)
Back in the day, webmaster communities were buzzing with success stories. “Run ads! Get rich!” they said.
So I dove in—armed with barely any coding skills but a whole lot of enthusiasm.
My weapon of choice? uCoz, a clunky UI builder that let me drag-and-drop my way to glory. I even bought a domain (klastera.net.ru—fancy). And guess what? It worked! Sort of.
- 100 daily users (teenage me was ecstatic)
- Actual ad revenue (reinvested every penny back into the site)
- An adaptation of DLE template (shoutout to the freelancer who put up with my chaos)
Then… disaster struck.
The Great uCoz Betrayal
One day, my site got flagged for dubious content. No warning. No appeal. Just—poof—my little empire crumbled. To make it worse, the guy who registered my domain lost the credentials, so I couldn’t even escape to another host.
Game over.
Why This Failure Was a Gift
- I shipped something real—before I even knew what “shipping” meant.
- I learned that platforms giveth, and platforms taketh away—ownership matters.
- It lit a fire in me—every project since has been a step forward.
The Lesson? Just. Start.
Your first side project won’t be perfect. It might even explode spectacularly. But you’ll learn 10x more than any tutorial can teach you.
So—what’s your “klastera.net.ru”? The thing you’re overthinking instead of building?