In my martyr era: I burned out writing website copy so you don’t have to
I hate to open on a biblical, I-died-for-your-sins saviour complex (who am I kidding, I love it).
But while we’re here, let’s call a spade a spade and use it to dig my service-selling grave together.
(Don’t worry, I rise from the dead at the end of this blog post, too.)
Because, friend, I did burn out writing website copy, and your girl loves a parable.
Just call me MC Aesop, and let’s throw down a story at this Tiny Desk, cos it’s time to talk about how I turned into a website-writing husk of a human.
But this isn’t just a melodramatic tale of my professional collapse.
👁️ If you’re a fellow copywriter, you might see your own late-night, over-caffeinated existential crisis staring back at you, and use me as the cautionary tale that sparks your redemption arc.
👁️ And if you’re a small business owner trying to write your own website copy? Stick around, because by the end of this post, you’ll get why your homepage is so much more than “just a page, “ and why investing in proper strategic copy (and not just throwing up a lead capture form) is 1 of the smartest moves you can make for your business.
Let’s get into it…
Almost 7 years ago, I took on my very first website client as a small business owner.
They messaged me on LinkedIn via a referral, and like a true business mogul, I hunched up like a gargoyle on a gothic church facade and squatted on the floor of my mum’s room (I was on holiday visiting back home) to take my very first business-y Zoom call.
It was a 14-page website.
I’d never done anything so big on my own, and I was terrified.
I also had no idea how much to charge.
So I charged my panic price...
And your panic price (for those who don’t know the exact formula) is the number you know you should be charging, minus the 43-minute Gollum-to-Sméagol brawl you have with yourself, where you shred yourself a new asshole while internally screaming, ‘YOU HAVE NO TALENT, NOBODY LIKES YOU!’
Then shave off another £1000.
Carry the 12.
Subtract 3.
Anyway.
I charged them £1,200 for a 14-page website.
LOL.
Actual picture of me having a menty-b after my client call.
And sure, I regret the panic sometimes because what 👏the 👏helly👏.
But back then, I couldn’t believe I had 4 figures in my bank account a mere 10 months after having my first baby and quitting my full-time job.
And a win is a win is a win, and I took it.
And I’m so thankful to my client for hiring me.
They were kind and understanding, and had long timelines, and they were exactly what I needed at the start of my small business life because that experience gave me the confidence to do it again.
And again.
And again.
And every time I did it, I got more confident, and the panic-pricing fight got shorter, and Gollum’s voice got quieter.
Until, eventually, it vanished, and the next time someone asked me to quote them for a website, I just told them the actual price.
The 1 you share when you believe in yourself.
And thankfully, that price was £4,000 more.
🍟 Sliding over a greasy brown paper bag of takeaways:
For copywriters, this is your reminder to charge like your work matters. Cos it does. You’re liiiiterallllly the plug 🔌
Your copy connects your client with cash.
Without your research, strategy, structure and words, there’s no business, okay? Squarespace is constantly reminding us “a website makes it real”, and that’s what you’re doing.
You’re realising your client’s business in a public space accessed by almost 70% of the world’s population.
And for small business owners? This post is your backstage pass to the stuff I usually only share with my husband after a busy day crushing 132,000 words at my desk.
Because after 7 years and 40+ website projects, even ✨I✨ started to wonder if there was an easier, smarter way to get your website copy done…
⏩ Fast forward to September 2025, and I’m closing the coffin lid on my Homepage Revamp and Website Revamp services for the foreseeable future.
Like I said, I’ve written over 40 Homepage Revamp and Website Revamp projects. Each project takes between 1 month and 5 months to complete. Some were one-pagers. Others were 5 to 7 pages long, with the occasional beast of a sales page thrown in.
And on 1 particularly memorable occasion, a client came to me with a whole (IBS-inducing) network of landing pages for a rabbit’s burrow of funnels, that constantly pushed you to buy! Buy! BUY!
Spoiler alert: that didn’t work as a long-term business model.
So they hired me to turn their burrow of ♾️ forever funnels ♾️ into a proper website (a home base for their brand) so they could build actual relationships with their community, beyond one-off transactions.
Because when you build a business on quick wins, it turns into a drive-thru.
People come in, grab what they need, and never come back.
The businesses that survive are the ones that feel like a place customers want to settle into - bookmarking pages, saving posts, opening emails, and coming back for more, more, more.
And you only get that experience with a dedicated, easy-to-navigate, beautifully written and branded business website at the heart.
The worst part about that project?
Even after we rebuilt everything from scratch (following months of strategy, messaging, copy, and UX development), the business shut down not long after its launch.
I guess this is your cautionary tale within a cautionary tale:
No matter how sick your services are, or how likeable you are, without strategy, forward planning and a brand world that nurtures beyond the buy, you end up with flash-in-the-pan success that can’t survive downturns, dips or those Big Beautiful Bills that leave your customers with less money to invest back in their own businesses…
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yeah.
Every single project was bespoke, thorough and deeply strategic.
That’s the only way I know how to work (derogatory).
I’m…
Learning your story (and by extension, your business).
Untangling your offers (and coming up with more effective positioning and messaging for each one).
Conducting user research.
Competitor benchmarking.
Mapping out sitemaps and page architecture (UI).
Planning user experience (UX) so every page has a purpose and a goal. I’m figuring out how to connect users with action-taking. I’ve got buttons, forms and error messages on my mind.
If you do website copywriting properly, it’s 60% planning and structure, and 40% actual writing, and that’s before you add in client education, feedback and endless ‘can we tweak one thing’ revisions.
And honestly?
I love this work.
But I can’t do it for everyone who needs it. It’s too much for me to do all alone.
Atlas holding up the world, but also me, when I’ve got 2 website copy projects in 1 month
Also, let’s be so for real:
Most small business owners aren’t ready to invest thousands in a bespoke website project when they’re just figuring out what domain to buy, or how to get that very first iteration of their online presence up and running.
So if I want to help more people without melding my ass to my office chair forever, or, you know, rolling a giant celestial cursor over myself and hitting copy/paste on the universal toolbar menu (still not an option, sadly), I kinda gotta find a different way.
Enter: Homepage-in-a-Hurry.
It’s a 2-week stint in Figma, I tinkered, toiled, and obsessively perfected just for you.
A starter kit for a future-proof website. A one-pager that gives you room to grow.
I’m not here to show you how to throw together a cute lead capture form or a landing page that reads like a 'purchase now or piss off' prison.
Homepage-in-a-Hurry walks you step-by-step (or block-by-block) through building a strategic, high-converting homepage that can stand alone (for now) and eventually expand into a full 5-pager - if that’s what you want.
And I did it all because of fruitless Pinterest searches, website template disillusionment, and a very real need to coddle my community close to my maternal bosom while whispering:
“There, there now, here’s exactly what to say, how to say it, and where to put it.”
This is a high-fidelity wireframe layout packed with:
Copy prompts that guide you through what to say and how to position every single content block. Yes, even your services, even if you don’t have individual sales pages yet.
Built in content hierarchy and user flow in mind. Yes, that’s right, the same principles I use for my bespoke, 4-figure projects.
Image guidance so you don’t end up with 6 identical shots of you grinning at your laptop like a deranged Stock image caricature of yourself.
Accessible, DIY-friendly stuff: Homepage-in-a-Hurry comes as a PDF template, which means you only need basic working knowledge of Squarespace (or your fave drag-and-drop website builder) to bring it to life. So, if know how to move content blocks around, upload photos, and copy and paste text? You can create this homepage.
And in the end?
A one-pager website that looks professional, reads persuasively and has a strategic backbone you can build on.
When you’re ready to hire a copywriter one day, or write more pages alone, you won’t be starting over. You’ll plug in extra pages, like adding new bricks to a Lego city you’ve already built.
All you gotta do now?
Get the thing.
