1. I was stuck here too — for a long time
Last Wednesday, 11pm, I was parked in a coffee shop tweaking a landing page. Stared at the blank screen for 40 minutes without typing a thing.
Year three of the side hustle, and every time I'm about to launch something, the thing I dread most is "make a landing page."
I made this mistake before: I assumed "just a simple web page" would be simple. Spent two hours agonizing over a button color. The result? Still ugly.
If you're stuck at "can't code, can't afford a developer" — I get that feeling.
2. What is ChatGPT's "Sites"? Who's already using it
OpenAI shipped Sites in ChatGPT last week: tell ChatGPT in Chinese what web page you want (e.g., "a yoga class signup page with teacher bio and pricing"), it spits out a working page.
I watched Xiaolu, a Xiaohongshu knowledge-payment creator, use it that same night to build a new course booking page — saved her the 1,500 RMB she'd normally pay a freelancer.
Then there's Lao Zhou, who runs indie dev tutorials. He built a little pricing calculator for his students in 20 minutes — a job that would've taken two days and a frontend dev before.
Key thing: you don't need to know code, you don't need to know what a domain is (it's a web address), you don't need to know what a server is (it's where the page lives). ChatGPT handles all of it.
3. What does it cost to replicate this today
Money: ChatGPT subscription required (free tier covers some of it; for heavy use I'd suggest Plus, around USD 20/month). The pages themselves need no extra server fees or domain fees.
Time: First time, about 1–2 hours (including signup, going back and forth typing out what you want). Once you're fluent, a simple landing page is 20–30 minutes.
Technical barrier: If you can use a chat app, you're good. Zero coding experience needed.
First step: Open ChatGPT → in the chat, just say "help me build a web page," or find "Sites" (might be labeled "Create website") in the menu → describe your page in Chinese → once it generates, hit "Publish."
Total replication cost: about 140 RMB (at Plus pricing) + 2 hours + zero coding experience.
4. What I'd tell myself at each stage — give it a try
Just starting out (no clients yet): I wouldn't rush to build a page. First, write down on a piece of paper what it is you're selling, in plain language. Wait until you've got your first client to make a page.
Got 1–2 clients: I'd strongly recommend trying it once. Spend one night, make the ugliest page you can, send it to your client. Ugly beats nonexistent by 100x.
Scaling up: If every month you're making clients click buttons and check prices, this kind of tool saves your life — what used to be a 3,000 RMB frontend freelance gig is now 30 minutes of your own time.
If you're worried "won't AI-generated pages be ugly?" — I worried too. But honestly, it's 10x cleaner than what I'd build from scratch.
No pressure to try today. Bookmark this, come back next time you're stuck staring at a blank screen.