At 2 AM, I found myself smiling at the recent transactions in my account. It wasn't because the money was substantial, but because I realized I hadn't written a single line of code behind it.
Honestly, a year ago, I thought programming was something only geniuses could tackle. Terms like variables, functions, and APIs made my head spin. Fast forward to today, I've created six websites using AI programming tools, and I have a steady income every month.
But hold on, don’t get too excited just yet. I spent five months navigating the pitfalls that most beginners face, only to discover a harsh truth: Most people don’t know how to use AI programming tools effectively. They think that just installing a cursor and typing a prompt will magically create a website. The reality? What they end up with either doesn’t work, looks terrible, or no one visits.
I was one of those “most people.” The first time I used Cursor, I asked it to help me create an “AI image generator.” It spit out 200 lines of code, and I was utterly lost looking at that jumble of colorful characters. How was this supposed to work? Where was I even supposed to run it?
Eventually, I figured out that there were three main issues.
*First, your instructions to AI are often too vague. *
If you say “build a website,” it has no clue about the style, features, or audience you have in mind. You need to be specific: “Use the Next.js framework, a blue theme, an input box on the left, and show results on the right, connecting to OpenAI’s free API.”
*Second, you might not even know what you want. *
This is critical. If you haven’t clarified what your website should look like, how can AI help you create it?
*Third, thinking AI can solve all problems is a misconception. *
AI can only tackle the problems you know about. Issues you might not even consider, like server configuration, domain resolution, and SSL certificates, won’t be pointed out by AI.
The first website I managed to get running was an “AI answer generator.” Why this choice? Because the competition was low. A quick Google search for “AI answer generator” showed that the top websites were mediocre—ugly pages, slow loading times, and limited features. Even these “subpar” sites were getting thousands of visits each month. I thought, if I could create something ten times better, surely I could attract some users, right?
Guess what? After three days of working with Cursor, I launched my site. It had a clean interface, full features, and connected to a free AI API. But on day one, I got zero visits. Day two? Still zero. Day three? Yep, still zero.
I panicked. Didn’t they say that AI programming could change the world? That you could make money with zero coding skills? Why did I build a website that nobody was even looking at?
Eventually, I realized that creating a website was just the first step. Getting people to see it is an entirely different game. This game is called SEO.
I did three key things:
First, I submitted my site to Google Search Console.
It’s free, but many people don’t know about it. Once submitted, Google is made aware of your site’s existence.
*Second, I submitted it to directory sites. *
I started with free ones and then moved on to paid options. My tool directory site saw a single-day unique visitor count exceed 200 in its first week because I submitted my link to 30 directory sites.
*Third, I learned from my competitors. *
I looked at where their backlinks were coming from and made sure to submit my links to those same places.
After half a month of this hustle, I finally welcomed my first user to the site. Then came the second, then the third. By day 15, I got my first paying user—$32.50. Not a lot, but enough to convince me that this path was viable.
Looking back now, the most ironic part is that I spent 80% of my time solving issues that AI couldn't help with at all. Questions like, how to choose a domain name? How to configure a server? How to optimize page load speed? These tedious, mundane, yet critical issues weren’t on AI’s radar. I had to search, ask, and figure things out myself.
This is the biggest pitfall of AI programming: it leads you to believe that the technical barrier has vanished. In reality, the barrier has simply shifted—from writing code to understanding business, users, and the market. If you don’t even know what you want to create, AI won’t save you.
But if you do know what you want, AI can save you 90% of the repetitive work. Now, I spend less than 10 hours a month maintaining my websites. The rest of my time is spent thinking about what to build next, how to improve, and how to attract more users.
This isn’t a tech revolution. It’s an efficiency revolution. Let’s reclaim that time for what truly matters.
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