After a Quarter of a Century, I'm Developing My Old Domain Names Again
July 28, 2026I was a late adopter when it came to computers. As a child, my computer experience was limited to playing a few games at friends' houses, and as a teenager I had little to no interest in computers. In 1997, I started working at Ericsson, and the following year I was offered a Compaq Presario with a 17-inch monitor, large speakers, and – of course – Windows 98, which had an unfortunate habit of crashing about four times a day. It was reasonably priced for the time, so I couldn't resist.
I had just moved into a small apartment in Nynäshamn, and for the first few days I used the computer's cardboard box as a desk. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly great for my back, so buying a proper desk quickly became a priority. My plan was already clear – I was going to build my own website.
Back then, most personal websites followed a fairly predictable formula. They often started with something like, "Hi! My name is John," followed by a low-resolution photo of John and his cat. Brightly colored backgrounds and Comic Sans were common, and a couple of animated GIFs completed the experience. More often than not, there was also a large link to the guestbook, where a handful of loyal visitors had left a few encouraging words.
I wanted to do something different, so I decided to build a website about my own little paradise – Koh Samui. At the time, my HTML skills were practically non-existent, so I turned to the search engine AltaVista and discovered two free website services: GeoCities and Angelfire. They made it possible to build and upload websites without spending a penny.
From Hobby Project to Business
Silver jewelry was extremely popular in Sweden at the time. I bought a large selection of rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other silver jewelry in Bangkok. Shortly afterward, I registered a sole proprietorship and started selling the jewelry online. In 1999, I registered the domain silvershine.com and named the business Silvershine.
The business never became a great success. I probably sold just as much jewelry to friends and coworkers as I did online, and after about a year I decided to close it down. I kept the domain silvershine.com for many years before selling it around 2015.
My GeoCities website about Koh Samui, however, attracted far more visitors than I had ever imagined. After just over a year, it had surpassed 100,000 visitors, and I started thinking about taking it to the next level.
Fortunately, the domain name kohsamui.org was still available, so I registered it. As a matter of fact, I was also offered the chance to buy kohsamui.com for a very reasonable price, but foolishly turned it down. Looking back, that wasn't one of my better decisions. Many years later I actually found a buyer for the domain myself and earned a commission from the sale, but that's another story.
In 2001, I decided to leave the free hosting services behind and build the website in a more professional way. Back then, the obvious choice was Macromedia's Dreamweaver, combined with a fair amount of hand coding.
The following year, I began selling advertising on the website and offering hotel bookings. The income gradually increased, and by 2003 the website had grown into a business that made it possible for me to fulfill a long-held dream – moving to Thailand.
Image: Screenshots of the kohsamui.org website from 2006 and 2012. Design: Jens.
A Domain That Had to Wait 24 Years
In 2002, I registered the domain name weegar.com, since Weegar is my last name. My plan was to create a website focused on humor and satire, but my full-time job as a physical education teacher, together with my work on kohsamui.org, left me with very little spare time. As a result, the project was put on hold. For 24 years!
A lot has changed since then. The internet is a completely different place, the tools are far better, and these days I write all the code myself. But the joy of building websites remains the same. In 2026, I finally started developing weegar.com and kohsamui.org again – more than a quarter of a century after I first registered them.
✪ Related reading: How I ended up on Koh Samui
✪ Read more: All my articles and posts
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