TL;DR
This article introduces a case study where I document the process of building a second website from scratch. Instead of focusing on fast results, the goal is to share the real steps, decisions, and lessons involved in building a website slowly and thoughtfully.
Starting a Second Website as a Case Study
Starting a new website can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started.
There are thousands of tutorials online explaining what you should do — but far fewer that show what the process actually looks like while it’s happening.
This series is my attempt to document that process in a simple and honest way.
Instead of presenting a polished “success story”, I’m building a second website and sharing the thinking, decisions, and lessons along the way.
Not as a blueprint.
Not as a guarantee of results.
Just as a real example of what building a site can look like in practice.
If you’d like to explore the full journey, you can find all the articles in this series here:
→ Case Study: Building a Website From Scratch
Why Start Another Website?
At first glance, starting a second website might seem unnecessary.
After all, I’m already building The Gentle Earner. So why create another project?
There are two main reasons.
First, starting again allows me to experience the early stages of building a website with fresh eyes. It’s surprisingly easy to forget what those early decisions look like once your first project becomes more established.
Second, it creates an opportunity to document the process in a way that may help beginners understand what actually happens behind the scenes.
Building a website isn’t just about publishing articles. There are decisions around structure, content planning, tools, and workflow that shape how everything grows over time.
This case study will walk through those steps as they happen.
Following a Different Blueprint
Another interesting aspect of this project is that the new site is being built using a slightly different strategy.
The Gentle Earner has been developed primarily with search traffic in mind, focusing on helpful articles designed to grow through Google over time.
This new website — The Layered Traveller — is being built using a content blueprint shared inside the Wealthy Affiliate community by Jay Neill.
The framework focuses on building websites that can grow through Pinterest traffic, alongside traditional search.
By building a second site using a different approach, it creates an opportunity to explore two different growth models in practice:
• a search-focused website
• a Pinterest-focused website
Both approaches aim to build long-term online income, but they grow in slightly different ways.
I’ll be documenting how this blueprint works in practice as the site develops, including the decisions and lessons that come up along the way.
If you’re curious about the strategy that inspired this project, Jay explains the blueprint in more detail in this introduction video:
→ Watch Jay’s Niche Site Blueprint Introduction
(This is the framework I’m using to guide the project.)
What This Case Study Will (and Won’t) Be
There are plenty of “build in public” projects online where people track every metric and try to grow as quickly as possible.
That’s not really the goal here.
This series will focus more on process than performance.
You won’t see daily updates or dramatic income claims.
Instead, I’ll be sharing things like:
• how I plan the structure of a new website
• how I choose topics to write about
• the tools I use while building
• how content and traffic strategies evolve over time
Some posts will include screenshots or examples from the process where they might be useful.
Others will simply reflect on lessons learned along the way.
The goal isn’t to move fast — it’s to build thoughtfully.
What Comes Next
Before writing the first articles for the site, the next step was turning a rough idea into a clear plan.
That process involved brainstorming ideas, researching possibilities, and gradually refining the direction of the project.
In the next article, I’ll walk through the thinking process that helped shape the foundation of the new website.
Because while a finished website may look structured and organised, it usually begins with a much messier stage of ideas and exploration.
Next article:
→ From Idea to Plan: My Brainstorming Process Before Starting a Website