Brand, web & content

How much should I spend on a website before I have customers?

The short answer

Almost nothing. A no-code one-pager and a domain is enough to look real and start collecting emails or bookings. Spend the money you saved on talking to customers, the fancy site can wait until the product has earned it.

Go deeper, your way

2 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it The single best free walkthrough of what belongs on a landing page, with a real 10-step structure and copy examples for every section.

The step-by-step guide to landing pages that convert

From Marketing Examples by Harry Dry 15 min read

  • Above the fold: title, subtitle, visual, social proof, CTA
  • Below the fold: features vs objections, proof, FAQ, second CTA, founder note
  • Clarity over cleverness, a caveman should grunt back what you offer
Open marketingexamples.com →
🛠️ Tool
✓ Link checked Freemium Beginner

Why we picked it The fastest, cheapest way to ship a real, responsive one-page site or landing page today, free to start, a few dollars a year for Pro.

Carrd, simple one-page website builder

From carrd.co by AJ (Carrd) Tool

  • Launch a responsive single-page site in an afternoon with no code
  • Free tier covers up to 3 sites; Pro is a few dollars per year
  • Perfect for a pre-launch or validation landing page
Open carrd.co →

Terms in this answer

No-Code

People also ask

What should actually go on my startup's landing page? Above the fold: a clear headline saying what you do, a subheadline saying how, a visual of the product, social proof, and one call-to-action. Below... Beginner 2 resources → How do I build a landing page fast without knowing how to code? Use Carrd for a dead-simple one-pager (launch in an afternoon for a few dollars) or Framer if you want something more designed and scalable. Don't ... Beginner 2 resources → Why isn't my landing page converting visitors into signups? Usually the headline is vague, the value isn't visualisable, or there's too much friction between landing and acting. Julian Shapiro's formula: con... Intermediate 2 resources → Do I need a full multi-page website or is a single landing page enough? At the start, one focused landing page beats a sprawling multi-page site nobody reads. It forces you to say one thing clearly and gives you a singl... Beginner 2 resources → How do I make my site look trustworthy and professional on a tiny budget? Trust comes from clarity and proof, not gradients: consistent fonts, real logos of customers or press, testimonials with faces, and a fast-loading ... Beginner 2 resources → What's the fastest way to write landing page copy when I'm not a copywriter? Start by writing your headline as the single clearest sentence a customer would use to describe the problem you solve, not what your product 'is'. ... Beginner 3 resources →

Also in D2C

The same ground, over in Build your online store, our D2C track.

Which AI tool should I use to shoot clean product photos without renting a studio? Photoroom is the fastest place to start, shoot on your phone against a plain background, and its AI backdrop/virtual-model tools turn that into a m... 4 resources → Which Shopify theme should I pick for my store, and how much should I customize it? Start free: Dawn is the fastest, cleanest base for a first store and it's tuned for Core Web Vitals out of the box - don't pay for a premium theme ... 3 resources →

Also in How Founders Use AI

How founders actually use AI for this, over in Content Creation.

Why use AI for blogs, newsletters, and social posts, and how do I avoid sounding like AI? AI removes the real reason most founders stop publishing: the time cost of a blank page. Buffer's study of 1.2 million posts found AI-assisted cont... 20 resources → How do top founders build content engines with AI (repurposing one idea into ten formats)? The pattern is always the same: create one dense pillar piece (a podcast, video, or newsletter), then let AI atomize it into clips, threads, Linked... 18 resources →
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