14d • General discussion
I Built my First Website in 1996 for my Bank
In 1996, I built a website for a bank. Not online banking. Not an app. Not a portal.
Just a simple online brochure for the Bank of Elk River, Minnesota, built with Microsoft FrontPage Version 1.0, on a dial-up connection, before most people in town had ever heard the word "website."
The bank didn't need it. I pestered Jim Simpson the Bank President for nearly 6 months telling him that they needed a website. But nobody was asking for it. There was no business case.
But I had a feeling the internet was going to change everything, and I wanted to understand it before everyone else caught up.
I was right.
Over the next 30 years, I watched the internet go from "what is that?" to something nobody can imagine living without. I built dozens of websites. Managed IT for a large Minnesota furniture corporation. Ran my own marketing company. Traveled to Israel to do internet marketing work. Built WordPress sites for businesses who five years earlier had no idea they needed one.
Every time a new wave hit, I tried to get in early.
Now I'm 76 years old. And I'm watching it happen again.
In late 2024, I sat down with Google Bard, before it became Gemini, and used it to write my first AI-assisted blog post.
That feeling came back. The same one I had in 1996 staring at a blank FrontPage template.
This changes everything.
Not because AI is complicated. Because it's the opposite. It can do in 10 minutes what used to take me all day. Write, research, explain, create, automate. And you don't need to know how to code to use it.
I thought about all the people I know, friends my age, local business owners, people who've been hearing about AI for months and still haven't touched it because it feels like it's not for them.
It is for them. It is for you.
That's why I started 𝐀𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬.
I'm not a Silicon Valley guy. I'm not a data scientist. I'm a 76-year-old from Minnesota now living in Tennessee who's been figuring out new technology his whole life, and then helping other people figure it out too.
I believe technology should serve people, not intimidate them.
This community is built on that belief.
Here's what you'll find here:
- No dumb questions (I've asked all of them myself)
- Real AI tools you can use this week, mostly free
- Two tracks: one for online business builders, one for local business owners
- Stories from real people doing real things with AI
- A free front door that never closes
The internet changed everything in 1996. Most people didn't believe it until 2005.
AI is changing everything right now. You don't have to wait nine years this time. I'm glad you're here.
P.S. Drop a comment below, tell me one thing you're hoping AI can help you with. I read every single one.
P.P.S. Needless to say I've seen many changes in the Internet and online business in 30 years. Are you ready to trust that I can help you to overcome those limiting beliefs you have regarding using AI for your business?
Here is the current website, that I did not build, 30 years later.
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I Built my First Website in 1996 for my Bank
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