When Necessity Became My Web Designer

Discover how building a website with AI, along with Google and YouTube, helped this retired physician rebuild For The Good Life on a modest budget—and rediscover the joy of learning something new.

There is an old saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

In my case, I would add a few words:

Necessity—and a shortage of funds—are the mothers of learning, creativity, and innovation.

And that is how a retired physician with more time than money ended up becoming his own web designer.

Let me explain.

The Website That Started It All

I started my website, For The Good Life, at drgayao.com, back in 2014. It was originally hosted by iPage, and for many years it served me well. The website became my little corner of the internet where I could share thoughts about healthy aging, lifestyle, nutrition, medicine, and lessons I had learned during a long career in medicine.

Then came the plot twist.

Earlier this year, Network Solutions took over iPage. When I checked my credit-card statement, I discovered a charge of more than $800 for website management and data transfer.

Whoa.

For a retired physician who is essentially giving away health information for free, that was a little hard to swallow.

I contacted them and made it clear that I had not authorized the charge. More importantly, I decided that I did not want to continue having them host my website.

So I began looking for alternatives.

And that opened another can of worms.

How Much Does a Website Cost?

I found another company that could build and maintain my website. Their proposal was around $1,500 for building the site, plus ongoing maintenance.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand why professional website development can cost real money.

A simple small-business website can be relatively inexpensive to maintain—perhaps around $100 or so a year for basic hosting and domain expenses. But once you start adding professional design, specialized functions, security, e-commerce, databases, custom programming, maintenance, and other bells and whistles, development costs can climb into the thousands of dollars—and sometimes much higher.

But I wasn’t trying to build Amazon.com.

I just wanted a clean, functional website where I could publish my For The Good Life articles.

And preferably, I didn’t want the website to cost more than the good life itself.

So I decided:

There has to be another way.

Enter Google and YouTube—My Unpaid Professors

I started researching how to build a website from scratch.

This is where Google and YouTube became my unlikely teachers.

One thing I’ve learned about the internet is that Google and YouTube are incredibly useful—if you know what you’re looking for and, more importantly, if you know how to ask the right question.

That’s a bigger deal than it sounds.

If you type into Google:

“How do I build a website?”

you will be buried under an avalanche of information.

But if you ask:

“How do I transfer my domain to another hosting company?”

or:

“How do I build a simple blog website using AI?”

or:

“What are the essential pages every website should have?”

the answers become much more useful.

YouTube works the same way.

If you have a specific problem, there is a surprisingly good chance that somebody has already made a 12-minute video explaining how to solve it.

Of course, there is a catch.

You have to know what you don’t know.

That’s the tricky part.

It’s a little like medicine. A patient can tell you, “Doctor, I don’t feel right,” but the real work begins when you figure out what questions to ask next.

The internet is much the same way.

The quality of the answer often depends on the quality of the question.

Then I Discovered Building a Website with AI

While doing all this research, I discovered something that changed the whole equation.

AI could help build a website.

Instead of having to know every line of code or understand all the technical jargon, I could describe what I wanted.

The AI would ask structured questions:

What is the purpose of your website?

Who is your audience?

What kind of content will you publish?

What pages do you need?

What should the navigation look like?

What kind of design do you prefer?

And so on.

I answered the questions, described what I wanted, and watched the website begin to take shape.

It was almost like having a web developer sitting beside me—except this one didn’t drink coffee, take lunch breaks, or send me a $1,500 invoice.

Eventually, I had a new website built with AI assistance, including hosting and support, for about $8 a month.

Now, that was much more in my budget.

More importantly, I had a website adapted specifically for For The Good Life, rather than a generic site filled with features I didn’t need.

After a three-month hiatus while all of this was going on, I finally started publishing again.

I’ve already posted three new blogs, and slowly but surely, readers are beginning to find their way back.

The lights are back on.

AI Didn’t Do It All for Me

Now, before I make this sound too easy, let me add an important disclaimer.

AI is not magic.

You still have to learn how to use it.

There is a learning curve, especially if you’re not technically inclined.

Fortunately, I had some previous experience building and managing websites, so I wasn’t starting completely from zero. I understood some of the terminology and had a general idea of what I wanted.

That experience helped tremendously.

And I suspect something else.

The “website specialists” I was considering hiring probably use AI themselves in building at least some of these websites.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. AI is becoming another tool in the toolbox.

But it made me wonder:

If I can learn to use the same tool, perhaps I don’t need to pay somebody else to hold the toolbox.

Technology Has Changed the Game

What fascinates me most is how quickly technology has changed.

Things that required specialized knowledge, expensive software, or professional assistance just five or ten years ago can now be accomplished by ordinary people with a computer, an internet connection, curiosity, and a willingness to learn.

That is remarkable.

And I feel fortunate to have lived long enough to see it.

I grew up in a time when information came from books, libraries, newspapers, encyclopedias, and—if you were lucky—someone who actually knew the answer.

Today, the world’s information is sitting in your pocket.

And now we have AI sitting right beside it.

For someone who loves learning, that is an exciting place to be.

But There Is a Catch

Of course, every powerful tool can be used for good or bad.

AI is no exception.

It can help someone write an educational article, design a website, analyze information, learn a new skill, or create something useful.

But the same technology can also be used by scammers, fraudsters, propagandists, and people who want to manipulate others.

And they have been quick to learn how to use it.

That means we cannot simply accept everything AI—or Google, YouTube, Facebook, or any other source—puts in front of us.

We still have to think.

We have to question.

We have to verify.

We have to ask, “Does this make sense?”

And when it comes to health information, that becomes even more important.

The Real Lesson

My little website adventure taught me something that goes beyond building a website.

Learning doesn’t have an expiration date.

You don’t have to be 25 to learn something new.

You don’t have to be a computer engineer to understand technology.

And you don’t necessarily have to have a big budget to create something worthwhile.

Sometimes you simply have to start asking questions.

Google can point you toward information.

YouTube can show you how something is done.

AI can help you put the pieces together.

But you still have to be the one doing the thinking.

That’s perhaps the most important lesson of all.

Technology can make us faster, but it doesn’t automatically make us wiser.

We still need curiosity, judgment, common sense—and occasionally, the stubbornness to say:

“There has got to be a cheaper way to do this.”

In my case, that stubbornness led me to rebuild For The Good Life.

And now I’m back to doing what I really wanted to do in the first place:

Sharing what I’ve learned, hopefully helping someone along the way, and enjoying the good life while I’m at it.

After all, retirement is supposed to mean having more free time.

Nobody said anything about spending all of it learning how to become a web developer!

Laurence T. Gayao MD, DAAFP, BCEM                          For The Good Life