I uploaded my first website in 1997. Well, it was actually only a page (i.e. my account page on www.indigo.ie) and it was just after Netscape had just made things easier with website browsing!
A few weeks after the launch, I knew I was onto something when I received a spectacular RFQ. I quoted my usual price of £80 but told the lady that I had to charge £3,000 to cover the airfare from Dublin to Dallas, Texas and back 
There was no Google localisation in them days.
I uploaded my own business CMS site in 2007 but my rather cleverly named domain bore no resemblance to the services that I offered. This forced me down the road of search engine optimisation. This was a success and my other business website has been in the top three spots in Google for the last 3 years.
Check out my SEO Website home page for loads for info and SEO costs!
Many thanks
Paul Furey