The Internet was the wild wild west, unexplored territory with very little security, the land of personal websites with galaxy backgrounds, embedded midis and all the text centered down the middle.  People all over the world created informational websites -- just so you'd know, not because "Content is King."  On IRC, you could chat with a Brit in the evening and be "slapped with a large trout" by a South African before breakfast.  Coke.com was available as well as McDonalds.com.  I remember specifically checking the availability of those domains one night and wondering when everyone else would finally discover our amazing digital world.

I built my first website at Geocities.  Despite losing the password long ago, my site was still online, suspended in time, cheesy animated gifs and all until recently when Yahoo bought it and closed down our little virtual neighborhoods.  Always trying to improve my Geocities site, I would study the source code on other sites so I could duplicate the features on mine.  After spending an enormous amount of time trying to decipher code, I became fluent in HTML, and later CSS.  Knowing the design languages, I am not bound by the limits of today's editors.  I can manipulate the code if needed.

My days of building sites with animated gifs and flashy features are gone.  Being involved with online sales here and here, I've learned what works and what doesn't in terms of both website design and small businesses.  I build sites with functionality in mind.  An attractive design is a must, but ensuring visitors can find what they're looking for is the most important thing in website design.

These are the days of great opportunities on the Internet.  I remember in the early days thinking if only I had the ability to accept credit cards, I could try my hand at selling antiques online.  Today we have PayPal as well as many other business tools available to the average person and I have learned -- if you build it, they will come.