My First Freelance Project - shivakailash.com

I’m thrilled to share the journey of my first freelance project—shivakailash.com—a spiritual store and personal website for my friend and YouTuber, Shiva Kailash Shambho.

The Backstory

I discovered Shiva over a year ago when his YouTube channel had just crossed 1,000 subscribers. His spiritual insights intrigued me, and we connected through his Discord community. Over time, we meditated together and even traveled to Nepal for spiritual work.

As his audience grew, the next natural step in his journey was to create a dedicated website—a platform where he could offer spiritual products, exclusive content, consultations, and more. With my background in tech, I saw a great opportunity to partner with him and bring this vision to life.

The Objective

  • Build a fully functional e-commerce platform for spiritual products.
  • Enable seamless booking for consultations using Cal.com.
  • Allow the sale of private videos for exclusive spiritual content.
  • Provide an option for donations to support Shiva’s mission.
  • Develop an admin dashboard for managing content, products, orders, and videos.
  • Ensure robust security, scalability, and seamless user experience.
  • Incorporate the energy of Mount Kailash throughout the website by using Shiva’s high-quality 4K photograph of the mountain as a background element.
Kailash Mountain

The Process

This was a complete end-to-end project where I leveraged my three years of software engineering experience to handle every step, including:

  • Designing the UI/UX in Figma to ensure a smooth user experience.
  • Conducting architecture research tailored to Shiva’s audience and needs.
  • Procuring a domain at the best rate and handling hosting configurations.
  • Writing clear documentation to streamline development and future updates.
  • Making tech stack choices optimized for security, performance, and scalability.
  • Implementing secure payment solutions with Stripe.
  • Adding two-factor authentication (2FA) for admin security using an authenticator app.
  • Integrating AWS SES for sending automated emails (order confirmations, consultation reminders, etc.).
  • Developing, testing, and deploying the application.
  • Setting up CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments.
  • Creating dashboards to monitor server activity, errors, and user behavior.
  • Incorporating Google Analytics and event tracking for deeper insights.
  • Optimizing costs for scalability, ensuring smooth growth as the user base expands.
  • Launching the website after rigorous testing and security checks.

The Stack

  • Frontend: Next.js (for server-side rendering) + Tailwind CSS (for a clean, responsive UI).
  • Backend: AWS API Gateway + Lambda (serverless architecture) + DynamoDB for data storage.
  • Storage: AWS S3 for managing platform images.
  • Authentication: AWS Cognito with OAuth2, JWT authentication, and 2FA for admin access.
  • Payments: Stripe for secure and seamless checkout experiences.

Key Features Built

  • Shop: Displays products dynamically, sorted by price and availability.
  • Coaching: Integrated Cal.com for seamless consultation bookings and payments.
  • Wisdom: A section dedicated to selling exclusive content (private videos).
  • Donate: Allows users to contribute donations to support Shiva’s cause.
  • Admin Dashboard: Enables real-time management of products, orders, videos, and archived data.
  • Security: AWS Cognito protects admin routes and APIs with OAuth2 and JWT authentication.
  • Analytics: Google Analytics and CloudWatch dashboards monitor traffic, errors, and usage metrics.

Challenges and Solutions

  • Stripe Webhooks: Implemented secure webhook handlers to verify event signatures and process payments correctly.
  • Logout Redirection Issues: Resolved session persistence issues by explicitly clearing session storage and redirecting users to a stable endpoint.
  • Optimizing Costs & Performance: Reduced Netlify hosting costs by optimizing images, caching static resources, and minimizing API calls.

Takeaways

  • Security First: Prioritizing secure authentication and API handling saved us from potential vulnerabilities.
  • Modular Design: Structuring the codebase into reusable components made development and scaling much smoother.
  • Serverless Advantages: AWS Lambda and API Gateway allowed us to focus on building features rather than managing infrastructure.
  • Monitor Everything: Setting up dashboards for logs, errors, and analytics helped us detect and resolve issues proactively.

What’s Next?

The platform is live and stable, but there’s always room for improvement. Future enhancements could include advanced analytics, user experience optimizations, and new features to further engage and serve the audience.

Building shivakailash.com was a fulfilling experience, blending technical expertise with meaningful purpose. If you’re working on similar projects or want to discuss any of these features, let’s connect—I’d love to exchange insights and ideas!