How I Built a Professional Business Website From Scratch — With No Experience (And How You Can Too)
By Peter Anderson, OnlineStriver.com
If you want to build a small business website yourself but have no idea where to start — you’re in exactly the right place.
You need a website. Everyone tells you that you need a website. But when you start looking into it, you’re hit with a wall of confusing options, expensive developers, and tech jargon that makes your head spin.
That was me, not that long ago.
I’m a dog walker based in Tranent, East Lothian. I run Lothian Walkies — a professional dog walking and boarding service serving families across East Lothian. Before I could grow the business properly, I needed a website. Not a fancy one. Just something professional, trustworthy, and good enough to help me land real clients.
The problem? I had absolutely no idea how to build one.
I Wanted to Build a Small Business Website Myself – But Knew Nothing.
I’m not saying that in a self-deprecating way to make a point. I mean it literally. I’d never touched WordPress. I didn’t know what hosting meant. The word “domain” made me think of someone’s back garden.
I looked into hiring a web developer. The quotes I got back were eye-watering — and that was before ongoing maintenance costs. For a small business just starting out, spending thousands on a website felt like a massive gamble.
So I started looking for another way.
I Found Wealthy Affiliate — And I Was Sceptical
I’ll be honest with you. When I first came across Wealthy Affiliate, I assumed it was one of those “make money fast” schemes. The internet is full of them, and I wasn’t interested in any of that.
But I kept reading, and what I found was different from what I expected.
Wealthy Affiliate is a training platform. It teaches you how to build websites, understand SEO, and create content that gets found on Google. It’s got built-in hosting, a keyword research tool, and a community of nearly 3 million members. And crucially — you can start completely free, no credit card needed.
I decided to give it a go. What did I have to lose?
What Happened Next Surprised Me
Following the step-by-step training, I built lothianwalkies.com entirely by myself.
No developer. No technical background. No prior experience.
The training walked me through everything — setting up hosting, choosing a domain, building pages, writing content that Google could actually find. It wasn’t always easy, and there were moments I wanted to throw my laptop out the window. But the community support inside WA meant I was never stuck for long.
Within a few months, the site was live, professional, and doing exactly what I needed it to do — bringing in real enquiries from real local families looking for a dog walker.
And here’s the part I’m most proud of: that website helped me become an East Lothian Council approved dog walker. The council reviewed my site as part of the approval process. It passed. You can look it up at lothianwalkies.com — it’s all there.
That’s not a claim. That’s verifiable proof.
What This Means For Your Small Business
If you run a small business and you’ve been putting off getting a proper website because it feels too complicated or too expensive — I understand that feeling completely. I lived it.
But here’s what I learned: building a website yourself is genuinely achievable, even if you’re starting from zero. The skills are learnable. The tools exist. And the cost of doing it yourself is a fraction of hiring someone else.
Wealthy Affiliate gave me those skills. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme — it’s a proper training platform that teaches you real, practical skills you can apply directly to your business.
If you want to explore it, you can start for free — no credit card, no commitment. See if it’s for you before spending a penny.
If you want to know more about Wealthy Affiliate before signing up, read my full honest review here.
Why I’m Sharing This
I’m building OnlineStriver.com to document my own online journey — honestly, warts and all. I’m not a guru. I’m a dog walker from East Lothian who figured something out that a lot of small business owners don’t know yet.
If my story saves you money, helps you get online, or gives you the confidence to try something you’ve been putting off — that’s exactly why I’m writing this.
More posts coming soon. In the meantime, if you’ve got questions about building a website for your small business, feel free to get in touch.
— Peter
Ready to start? Try Wealthy Affiliate free today — no credit card needed.
About the author: Peter Anderson is a dog walker, small business owner, and online learner based in Tranent, Scotland. He runs Lothian Walkies (lothianwalkies.com) and documents his online business journey at OnlineStriver.com.
